Ride For Africa

After nearly two years of planning and prep, our journey has begun. A journey to symbolically connect Edmonton volunteers with the African communities they support. A journey to raise awareness and to bring supporters with us to Tanzania for their own great adventure and participation in a valuable cause. A journey that will eventually culminate on the top of Kilimanjaro in 3 months after nearly 18,000 kilometres of riding starts with the biggest country of our trip, Canada.

Departing the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital on a remarkably warm day for April in Edmonton, we were greeted by Catherine from Hands Across Africa and others curious observers who gave us a thoughtful send off.

While readying to depart, a man arrived in wheelchair to inspect our bikes, and advising “watch out for ducks”. Wheelchair bound for over a decade after his own motorcycle accident that resulted from impact with a flying duck in rural Alberta, our friend provided a poignant reminder of the unexpected dangers of our trip, even in more hospitable parts of the world. While offering a powerful message from his own lessons learned, he clearly encouraged one to live without regrets and accept the dangers of living life to the fullest. We both very much appreciated his insights and started our travel with a focus on what was really important; making it safely to our destination while enjoying the journey! 

With the Glenrose in our mirrors and Ottawa in our sights, we spent our first day riding in strong southern winds of up to 70km/h; but at least it wasn’t snowing!

 Smooth sailing on the highway got us to Saskatoon in good time. Unfortunately, it was here, on our first day that we had our first mechanical issue. What ending up being a resolvable electrical issue with one of the bikes, only resulted in minor delays and we were on our way again the next morning. One problem down, many more to come...

With the bikes now running in good order and Mother Nature still on our side, we ventured off the beaten path and onto the secondary highways and gravel roads of the prairies. The slower back roads gave us a nice view of the prairies not seen from the highway. Highway 44 through Whiteshell Provincial Park was a pleasant surprise, with wonderful curvy and vacant roads that transitioned us from the prairie landscape to the Canadian Shield. Already having to stop on a bike more often than one would in a car, the small towns of Alberta and Saskatchewan quickly became our preferred rest and fuel locations. A great opportunity to explain to interested parties why we were on bikes so early in the season, and where exactly Tanzania is anyway!

A seasonally closed campsite was a welcome home as dusk fell on Neepawa, Manitoba for our second night. We soon realized what seems obvious now; camp sites and many rural service stations built to host summer vacationers are largely still closed in mid April. As we entered into Northern Ontario, this became very apparent. From Dryden through to “The Soo”, we were forced to get creative with camping and plan our fuel stops well in advance. Finding a hospitable site to pitch a tent and possibly start a fire became a daily game for us, usually occurring in the dim light of a setting sun and into dusk.

With camps found just outside Dryden, in a marina of the near abandoned town of Nipigon and then on the most incredible beach on the east shores of Lake Superior, it took nearly three full days to travel around Lake Superior. What feels more like an ocean; Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world and provided some amazing coastline scenery. Although still too cold to partake in a swim, the water was shockingly clear and the beach offered some remote camping opportunities.

Being able to camp under the stars on the beach in April, we were truly fortunate. The weather turned out to be our greatest ally. A day after leaving Saskatchewan they received a spring snowfall, and a day before arriving into Northern Ontario we had reports of rain and sleet. But the sun kept on shining for us, and with the exception of a couple cold nights, the weather was perfect for our whole journey.

Sault Ste. Marie provided us a chance to catch up with “civilization”. Being offline and without cell reception for our journey around the lakes, our “SPOT” satellite transmitter was a valuable tool to represent and update our position. Our SPOT can be found on our homepage and will be helpful all the way to Kilimanjaro. For more details, just click on the link and scroll down to find the actual map, giving you an idea of the route taken so far. Neat!

As we followed the Ottawa River along the border of Quebec and Ontario, we got more and more opportunities to practice (butcher) our French language skills. It was here that we first realized the distance we had travelled thus far. Now over 3000 KM away from Edmonton, we started getting comments on our Alberta licence plates.

It wasn’t long before we started spotting road signs with distances to Ottawa and a real sense of being almost there. One last night on some remote rocks of the Canadian Shield before venturing north of the river into Quebec for our last day of riding through the French Canadian countryside. With a very European feel to the farms and old churches, it was a fitting last day of riding and a nice display of what was to come next! With the silver church steeples shining brightly in the afternoon sun, countryside turned into cityscape and we crossed back across the river to the sight of parliament hill and the beautiful city of Ottawa!

With a warm welcome from Mikes mother Nora, a home cooked meal and a warm shower; Ottawa was a wonderful destination to compliment a fantastic journey.

Mother Nature treated us so well, giving us some extra time enjoy the parks around Ottawa and to venture further east to Montreal; if for nothing more than to enjoy some authentic poutine! Overall, the Canadian stretch was a great start to our adventure and good practice for the 3 month journey still to come. We lucked out great with the weather, the bikes ran well and good practice working as a team. Canada is definitely a beautiful country with amazing scenery and friendly people; an astonishing trip that only begins to display what this country has to offer.

We are now resupplying and organizing our departure from Canada before leaving next week to Germany to start our leg there on May 13th.

Thanks for following,

Axel and Mike