NEWS: TDA 2017 Route Update

Due to an unstable security situation in Ethiopia the last few months, and with a state of emergency still in place, the TDA realised the need to make plans for a new adventure in Africa.

TDA has confirmed that the tour will not cycle through Ethiopia. 

The participants will instead make their way to Nairobi from Khartoum where the tour will re-commence on an exciting new route that includes two new countries they have never offered before. 

The Lakes in Kenya, West of Nairobi

You can see the breakdown of the new sections on the TDA website via their latest post  titled "5 Reasons We Are Excited about the New African Route". 

My Gap Year | 2016

At the end of 2015, after 39 years in the Mining Industry, I decided to take my well-earned Retirement.

My last Employer was Randgold Resources, for whom I had worked as an expatriate Geotechnical Engineer for approximately 4 ½ years, at their Kibali Gold Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). There Randgold took a Project still in the Exploration Phase, to a fully fledged Gold Mine, producing 640 000 ounces of gold in its first full year of Production.

My last flight out of Doko International Airport in the DRC
en route to Entebbe in Uganda on my way back to South Africa

Kibali Gold Project

Although I must admit, at the moment I consider my status more one of “Regrouping” than that one of Retirement, as a consequence of which, my wife Judith and I decided to take a “Gap Year” while residing at our new house in Prince Albert, which is situated in the Groot Karoo, for the whole of 2016.

This Blog is a reflection of Judith’s and my Retirement/Regrouping escapades, so that family, friends and anyone else interested can keep up to date with what we have done, are currently doing, or what we are planning to do.

Remember, this humble blog should be taken tongue-in-cheek and not too seriously at all.
After all, “life is too short to worry about the little things”.

Cheers, Mike T

Tour d’Afrique 2017 - Carpe Diem!

Judith and I have entered the 2017 Tour d’Afrique Cycle Tour which starts on the 13th of January in Cairo and finishes on the 13th of May in Cape Town, South Africa.

The trip length is approximately 11 500 km, which will be done over a total of 121 days, 90 Cycling Days, 2 days Bus Transfer (In Ethiopia) and 29 Rest Days.

Need I say more? Training has been on the go for a while now. So has the planning, logistics, and general state of anxiousness that is to be expected when undertaking something of this kind of magnitude.

...Carpe Diem.

And so we shall.

Participating in the Tour d’Afrique has been on my wish list since the day of its inception, I am extremely excited to be at last, planning to take part in such an amazing journey down the length of Africa. I see it as a major personal challenge, while a trip of this nature, is definitely going to be a life changing experience for me.

When it comes to traveling in Africa, it’s not the destination which matters, but how you get there. As well as all the different types of beer you try out, while reaching your goal!

[ Read more ]