Taking your dusty old bicycle out for a spin on a summer’s day is one thing, but cycling across two continents and 18 countries- covering approximately 24 000km- is what some people would call madness.
Taking your dusty old bicycle out for a spin on a summer’s day is one thing, but cycling across two continents and 18 countries- covering approximately 24 000km- is what some people would call madness.
For Grahamstown local Sebastian Davies and locally schooled Grant Ross, it was just a matter of pursuing their passion. ‘Let’s do something crazy’ was the seedling of a thought that brought about this huge journey, Davies said.
This touch of craziness and a need to pursue a rite of passage was the motivation necessary to mobilise themselves.
“In South African society, we as whites are a bit lost,” Davies said, adding that the Xhosa people have the umoluko (initiation) tradition as an awakening into manhood, whereas his community tends to “just get drunk” at 21st birthday parties.
Cycling through Europe was the easier part in many ways, with its better roads and more developed infrastructure and far less likelihood of running out of food.
Ross recalls how the distances between the towns in northern Mozambique were so vast and the food so scarce, that they had to pry open their rusty tins of Kenyan tuna to stave off hunger.
Despite some of the ease of Europe, the local people didn’t interact much with them. Their experiences of Africa were very different, however.
People really wanted to engage with them said Davies. From smiling greetings of Mzungu (Swahili for ‘white person’) to intrigued questions, people wanted to know about their journey.
“People seemed interested. It felt that humanity, in its rawest form, is still alive in Africa,” Davies said. But it was not all plain sailing, or cycling rather.
Struggling along roads riddled with potholes and having children throw stones at them in the burning heat sometimes left the two friends feeling jaded, wondering why exactly they had began this trip.
But Davies said in the moments where “days (and dates) fell away… cycling became a routine,” and they met interesting people in beautiful places, the trip seemed to make perfect sense.
While not the primary purpose of the trip, the two friends managed to generate some funds (£5000) for development charity Action- Aid’s projects in Uganda.
Originally Malawi was an intended recipient of the money, but Action- Aid consistently failed to reply to Ross and Davies’ emails and telephone calls.
With no success there, they passed through to Mozambique. For Davies and Ross, the trip was a rite of a passage.
It was also a tribute to their late friend, Neill Tattersall and an opportunity to generate money for a good cause.
But it was also a the life long reminder that a long journey can begin with the simple revolution of a bicycle tyre.
