The Journey

2,285 km

18 days riding

3 days rest

The Tour d’Afrique starts on the outskirt of Cairo at the legendary Pyramids of Giza, one of the 7 Wonders of The World. After the opening ceremony with the enigmatic Sphinx looking on, your intrepid journey begins through Cairo, the largest city in Africa and heading east towards the Suez Canal.

Once you arrive at the Red Sea you turn south and ride the coastal highway to Safaga. From there you will begin your first major climb riding inland across the rugged Eastern desert into Upper Egypt, joining the Nile River at Qena. In Luxor, you will have the opportunity to explore one of the most the magnificent archeological sites in the world, Temple of Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens. From there, the route continues south along the banks of the mother Nile towards the Aswan Dam.

From Aswan the 2015 tour will have the opportunity to visit the famed monuments of Abu Simbel, which Tour d’Afrique expeditions have not visited since 2005. This opportunity has been created due to the completion of the road from Egypt to Sudan which now allows a continuous cycle from Cairo to Cape Town.

After crossing the new border post, you have entered one of the world’s most remote and least visited countries. Once there, you will discover that the Sudanese are some of the world’s friendliest people. For many riders this is where the “real” Africa begins. With the Nile River as companion, you will spin past minarets and through palm grove villages that have hardly changed in hundreds of years.

Change to the area however has come as the sandy tracks that the tour used to traverse in the Nubian Desert, have been replaced by smooth Chinese funded tarmac. This section ends with a convoy ride into the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum, which sits at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers. After the heat and dust of the desert, Khartoum seems to be part oasis and part mirage.

The “Pharaoh’s Delight” is for those who want to feel the desert wind on their face and experience the romance of biking along one of the great rivers of the world, through the lands of the Pharaohs and the Nubian Kingdom of Cush. At times you will feel like you are one of the first travelers to come upon these forgotten lands. And on a bicycle, that’s pretty much the truth.