There are more people dying of malaria than any specific cancer – Bill Gates Although there is malaria in Latin America, the chances of contracting this parasite are very remote and 90% of travellers do not plan any type of prophylaxis. In Africa it’s another story. There are three types of malaria in Africa and these kill far more people than I would have guessed. Once the parasite enters the human body it is difficult to eradicate it and can remain hidden for years in the liver and then awaken
“When a man’s stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor.” – Euripides When I was researching and getting ready for my journey I knew that my inexperience in travelling by bike and camping would have not made my life easy. Having decided to start from the Alaskan wilderness meant a steep learning curve right at the beginning. I therefore decided to remove one of the problematic factors that could make me lose a lot of time: food. To remove the problem of preparing breakfasts,
When I got to BrooksCamp in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay; I found waiting for a parcel from 100% FOOD with two bags of 3.33Kg of product. 100%FOOD is committed to give me their ready meals for the duration of the trip and to modify the formula according to my needs. The new formulation, after being tested in the field (by me), could make a new line of product – I hope they put my name on it! The initial idea was to use 100%FOOD for one daily meal, breakfast for example.
The two months spent in preparing this trip have been nerve wrecking, so many problems, so much bureaucracy, the obstacles many, much was the information to be processed as well. Finally, I take some time to myself, as suggested by Alastair Humphreys, I take my bike the backpack with water, something to eat, a sweatshirt and a T-shirt, tent, sleeping-mat, headlight and little else. After a few kilometres by bike I get to Daniele’s, my my friend’s place and I leave the bike there. I continue on foot hiking to
Retrospectively a trip like this requires an active organization of at least six months to one year. Doing everything in two months as I did with no previous experience of cycle-touring or camping is “a disaster waiting to happen” as I’ve been branded in a Facebook group about bike touring. These are, in broad outline, the stages of the adventure’s preparation period. August 2014 – After playing with the idea of traveling along the Pan-American Highway with a few friends with a 4×4 truck or motorbike for the longest time,
It’s official: my dream is coming true. It was hard to organize everything in such a short time: much stress, many obstacles, many people to thank for making my dream come true. I almost gave up and postponed it but now it’s the right time; postponing it felt like I would be giving up forever. August here in Alaska is autumn already and the temperatures are dropping fast. I’m already late in getting started. Now it’s time to start pedalling. I’m already in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, more precisely at