About us (Life Update: 2023)

[Song playing while writing: Carolina Durante – No tan Jóvenes *1 see below]

November of 2018, late in the evening in a coworking space in Zurich. Two 26-year old guys sit in pouf-couches, drinking a beer while looking up in the ceiling.

One says to the other: “Gasp, I really want to go cycling to Africa”.

That unexpected comment triggered a 100-day, 5000km-long cycling trip from the Basque Country to the Senegal-Guinea-Bissau border. It deepened the friendship of Gaspard (Paris, 1992) and Javi (Basque Country, 1992), two fresh-out-of-college engineers looking for adventures that just had closed their start-up projects and were looking for action before getting sunk too soon in the professional world. It also created a load of memories, and left an adventurous aftertaste that would change them forever.

But now we are moving to January 2023. Also Zurich. Gaspard and Javi work a decent deal (Gaspard as a Market analyst in a utility company and Javi as a Product Manager in a mobility start-up), party a decent deal less than before, and get nervous when they realize that the adventurous aftertaste from the 1st trip slowly diffuminates in the daily routine. Don’t get us wrong – living in Zurich as a 30-year-old is not bad at all: we have interesting, well-paying jobs, a dynamic friend group, we travel, we climb mountains, we ski them down. It’s fun. But it’s also comfortable. And we all know all those stories about the comfort zone. We need (a bit of) action, and we need to feel that while we keep building our comfortable lives in Zurich, we still squeeze what the world outside has to offer us. Are both things compatible? We are trying.

How long?

We need a plan. First thing we need is time. 3 months sounds like a realistic timeline that doesn’t jeopardize our personal and professional lives (i.e. getting kicked out of work, home, or both). No, we are not leaving forever. We love our lives and our people in Zurich, and we want to come back to our current lives not-so-late.

We go to our girlfriends (when applicable) and to our bosses (definitely applicable). We are thankful for everything, but we tell them we are committed to do this thing. We get lucky – we have their support!

Where are we going?

Next question is where the heck are we going with our bikes. We always had the dream of connecting our last point of the 1st trip (south of Senegal) with the end of the continent (Cape Town). But we see two major problems:

• Distance: Dakar is 10’000 km away from Cape Town. No way we can do it in 3 months. We could leave room for a 3rd trip though, but definitely not in 2 trips.
• Unstability / Objective Dangers: Unfortunately, the west coast of Africa is not the safest for a cycling trip, for a variety of reasons:
  • Important parts of Mali and Burkina Faso, among others, are in control of Djihadist groups, which affects the stability of all neighbouring countries.
  • Every cycling blog we read highlights how difficult and strenous is to travel in Nigeria.
  • It’s almost impossible to avoid passing through mega-cities, which bring the main danger for cyclists: cars and traffic. Additionally, big cities mean less nature and more pollution. Enjoying nature and landscapes is the main objective of the trip, together with blending with locals and their cultures.

As we brainstorm about alternatives, we start paying more attention to the East of Africa. Less populated, bigger protagonism of nature. It sounds appealing. We check blogs, talk to other cycling travellers (Thanks Barbara and Franz for the tips!) and we come with the project of connecting the East Coast of Africa with the West. From Tanzania to Namibia. 4’000 km without detours. That fits our timeline. Not that we thought about this a lot, to be honest. The “where” doesn’t matter so much, as long as we are able to stay reasonably safe.

When?

The main input to define the “when” are rain seasons by country. We obviously want to avoid them. Not only because cycling wet sucks, but also because of mosquitos. As good Engineers, we check the rain seasons of the different countries in our route and set end of July as the optimal departure time.

Planning and preparing

Planning is slightly easier this time, as we have the reference of last trip. Gaspard buy a new bike, as his 1st trip bike is not fit anymore due to carrying drunk individuals in the streets of Zurich. Javi gives it a try and, together with the bike mechanic at work (thanks Arha!) and the folks of Wheelhouse, puts his bike ready ro rumble.

This time, the biggest unknowns are access to cooking gas and wildlife.

• For the 1st one, we upgrade to a liquid-fuel-based stove (MSR Whisper International), that can work with gasoline in the case that we don’t find nafta or white gas. We have close to zero hopes of finding gas canisters.
• For the 2nd one, we inform ourselves about best practices and learn to trust the reports of other travellers, which highlight that with a bit of care it can be fine:
  • wear long socks and long trousers for snakes and scorpions.
  • stay inside the tent before dusk and until sunrise. Don’t worry too much about an elephant stepping on your tent. For mammals, a tent is like one rock more.
  • avoid red and bright colors for mammals, and avoid black and blue for mosquitos.
  • no food inside the tent. hang it from a tree with a rope.
  • National Parks are not fenced in Zambia, Tanzania or Botswana. When close to them, avoid cycling at the times of the day in which animals are active
  • We have two hunting knives in case 1-on-1 fight with a lion is required. Sorry, this is a joke.

You may be freaking out after reading this, but we promise is not that bad. We humans tend to avoid reality as a subterfuge to supress fear. But in this kind of endeavour, one needs to think about the worst cases. And we have done so.

Thinking about the worst case is important. Thinking about the best that Africa has to offer us too. The departure day is close (literally tomorrow) and we are ready for the ADVENTURE. We will keep you posted.

[*1: Javi is a bit melomaniac, there is always a song playing in his mind. For every blogpost that he will write, he has had the genius or stupid idea of posting the song that conveys his mood and/or plays while writing. ]