The Tour d’Afrique bicycle ride from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa covers almost 12,000 km in 120 days, passing through 10 countries. In January 2009 Paul Porter began that ride. While riding, Paul was involved in teaching a course back at the University of Minnesota entitled “Food and Agriculture from Cairo to Cape Town at 10mph”. Daily he would leave audio-blogs related to his experiences and the agroecosystems he encountered. In mid-March 2009 while in southern Tanzania (after biking 5975 km) Paul fell and broke his ulna, which required surgery to heal properly. In March 2010 he resumed the bicycle ride in Nairobi, Kenya and rode 6,660 km to Cape Town, arriving there “EFI” in mid-May.

Go to the Google Earth tab above to read and hear more about those experiences.
See watch the slide shows below of images taken while in Africa.

April 16, 2010.

Twirling upside down over the 111-meter high Zambezi River Gorge just below Victoria Falls – off the bridge linking Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Never before have I seen a 360-degree rainbow. Stunningly beautiful.

Never again, now only memories.

Here are some photos other TDA folks took of Paul during the bicycle ride across Africa in 2009 and 2010.

While never ‘taking the truck’ (except after breaking his arm in 2009), he did walk rather than ride certain certain paths and mountain assents. Plus there was the ferry ride across the Nile River after getting lost near Aswan…

The four month bicycle ride across Africa brought TDA riders in close contact with many African people. Here are some images, some of which were taken by Jason the Artist from Kansas who drew the cyclist at the beginning and end of this video.

Here are photos primarily of James McKerricher, the Chef on the Tour d’Afrique in 2009 & 2010, and the food he and his helpers prepared for us each riding day. (Also shown are Miles MacDonald and Allison Barnes, former and possibly future chefs.) Most all of what we ate was sourced locally, with little to no packaging and processing. You see we ate well!

An overview of TDA 2009-2010: People, Culture, Agriculture – a sliver of our world.
The song is Asimbonanga, sung by Johnny Clegg & Juluka Savuka.    Enjoy.