Cycling Across the Pyrenees & What's it Like to Cycle in Tanzania? Jake Field

Today I have two stories to share - one of them actually from my own experience of cycling across the Pyrenees. I did this trip in 2023 and cycled from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea. If you want to see what that experience was like check it out now on YouTube where I have uploaded it as a 3 part series. Our YouTube channel is Seek Travel Ride and you can access the playlist here: 

The second part of our episode features listener Jake Field sharing what it was like during one day of a bike adventure cycling through Tanzania. You can keep up with Jake's adventure's via his instagram account - @jakefield_99

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hello everyone, it's Bella Malloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride, and welcome to another midweek mini episode where I have the absolute pleasure of sharing what it was like for you, one of our listeners, during one day of your trip. Today's episode features listener Jake Field, and he's going to share what it was like during a day cycling in Tanzania. So that's going to be pretty epic. Before we get into that, I wanted to share one of my adventures with you. I've lost count of how many people who tune into the show have since asked me the question of Bella, what about your own bike adventures? Where have you gone to? And look, I haven't done any journeys like many of my guests. I've I've not cycled across a continent, around the world, or taken years off and, you know, done extensive bike tours. But I do want to share something with you that I've recently put together, and that was probably my favourite bike tour that I've ever done, which was done in the summer of 2023. My goodness, in a few months that'll be two years ago. But I, along with my husband, took a journey across the entire mountain range of the Pyrenees. We left from the Atlantic Ocean in a French town called Saint Jean-de-Luze and we made our way all the way across to the Mediterranean Sea in another French town called Argeles-Semur. From our start to our finish point there across the mountain range was just over 800 kilometres. We did it in nine days. We were proper full bike touring mode, so lots of panniers. I had, you know, oh gosh, I think my bike weighed about 35 kilos or something like that. Again, not as heavy as some of our round-the-world cycle touring bike travelers that I featured here, but I can tell you what, those climbs, uh, my legs certainly felt the extra weight on the bike. And I think it was 24 mountain passes and about 17,500 metres of climbing for those that want to know all of the stats. For me, the best part about it was exploring this mountain range and seeing the change of scenery all along the way, from our start point in the Paybasque, the Basque country there, which was just really vibrant, rolling green countryside through to the high mountains, which are very famous. Many of you may have seen if you watch the Tour de France, these are the mountain passes that they're riding on nearly every year. The Cal de Tourmalie was one that we did, which was actually done in almost complete low cloud. We only popped out of the cloud with about a kilometre and a half from the summit. And then journeying further along then through to l more remote and less populated parts of the mountain range in the Ariage and Ord regions. We had our hardest day on the bike climbing the Cal de Pierre, again with really bad weather, not enough food on board, uh, low cloud, and then a thunderstorm to descend into before we made camp. And then seeing the mountain range really change dramatically at the top of a climb called the Cal de Jau, where from one side of the summit to the other, it was just like chalk and cheese, and the Mediterranean Sea was visible to us for the first time. The landscape opened up, the vegetation was different, the landscape was different, the housing was different, and that was the first time where it sort of hit me, was like, wow, I'm actually going to get there. Now, if you want to see what this adventure was like and how it unfolded, I have actually taken the time finally now to edit through all of the footage, and I have put it up as a three-part series on YouTube. Each episode's just over 30 minutes long. So it's a good one to while away the winter nights for you there in the Northern Hemisphere. And for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, something to maybe plan towards for this year. It shows me as the host of the show and how I undertake my bike travel adventures. Did this with my awesome husband, and we still both agree it's probably one of the best trips we did. Again, only nine days long, traversing the entire Pyrenees mountain range. If you want to check it out, I have a link in the show note, or even simpler, head to YouTube, search for our channel, which aptly is called Seek Travel Ride, and you will find the playlist there. If you like what you see, make sure to subscribe to our channel on YouTube and uh give us a like and a comment as well. Okay, now it's time to get into the story for today, which as I mentioned earlier features listener Jake Field, and he's going to tell us all about an amazing day cycling in Tanzania. Take it away, Jake.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Hey better. So my name's Jake. I'm the owner of Ultimate Adventure Travel, and I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about my expedition to Tanzania, where I cycled with a group 360 kilometers from Moshi all the way to the Ngorangoro Crater over five days. It was a fantastic experience. It was my first proper experience of overseas international cycling expeditions, but it was the most incredible one and really kind of got me hooked on those longer cycling trips. So I wanted to talk to you about day one because I feel like that was such a memorable day for me and the beginning of that massive journey. So we all arrived in Moshi, and on the day of the journey, everyone was a little bit nervous. We had our final bike fittings, you know, make sure that everything fitted properly. We actually rented bikes in Tanzania, much, much easier, much better than bringing them all the way over from the UK. So we rented them in Tanzania, made sure they all fitted okay, and then we set out on our big expedition. It was an amazing start, just cycling through the lowlands, being able to see Kilimanjaro in the distance. Everybody was just laughing and talking, and it was a really, really exciting uh moment. But then after about 20 minutes, I had a disaster, and my derailleur completely broke. Uh just totally snapped in half, and I was just thinking to myself, how am I going to continue now? We're right at the start of this journey, the derailleur's broken, what are we going to do? But fortunately, the team that we had around us were absolutely incredible. And they came out, there was a guy who was in charge of fixing all the bikes, he was straight in there, he managed to sort it out in the space of you know about 20 minutes, got everything sorted, it was amazing, and then we continued along our way. Now, for the first day, we didn't go particularly far, we only did about 50 kilometers, but cycling through the lowlands, cycling through different villages was really quite amazing. Getting to see just different parts of Tanzania. I've been to Tanzania lots of times before to climb Kilimanjaro. I'd always wondered when I looked down from Kilimanjaro what was actually in Tanzania, because I'd never really gotten the chance to explore too much of it. Most of my time I spend coming into Moshi and then going directly onto the mountain. So for me it was a real fantastic opportunity to explore more of the country. So just the cycling itself through those different villages, through those different towns was incredible. We were making our way towards Arusha. So that's the direction that we were travelling in. We were taking some back roads as well. We were trying not to cycle too much on the main roads. One, because the traffic was so heavy and it was a little bit unnerving when you got massive trucks coming past you at speed. You know, that could be a little bit daunting. So we were trying to take some of the back roads, but also it just meant that, as I've been saying, we got to see so much more of the country. I didn't really know what to expect, but that just made it ten times better because I was going into it with such an open mind and just taking everything in as it came. We stopped about halfway, we had some lunch, the local team was incredible, made sure that everything was all good. We were carrying a lot of our own supplies in a wagon that was following us, and then you know, we had our essentials on us during the day in little bags or on the bikes themselves. And that was really cool, being given the opportunity to do a multi-day expedition where it was a good balance between being self-supported and then also having you know a team there to help you out as and when you needed it. We then went completely off-road and we started cycling across a bit more of the African savannah. The terrain became quite difficult. It was really sandy, really rocky, and actually that last sort of 10 kilometres was a bit of a challenge. We were riding mountain bikes, which meant that you know they were better equipped for those environments, but the changing between cycling on the road and cycling off-road did mean that it was a little bit tricky. But when we kind of were cycling across the lowlands, that was an amazing experience. And as we were going, we were reaching our camp for the evening, which was actually going to be based inside a Maasai camp. And that was something that I was really looking forward to because I'd heard quite a lot about the Maasai people, but I didn't really know too much about the history and the culture, so to be able to experience that was really special to me. When we came into the camp, we were greeted by the Maasai. They were singing, they were dancing, they were welcoming us into the camp. And then when we arrived and we got settled in, we got shown to the huts that we were going to be staying in for that evening. We got to service the bikes, clean those up, and then sit down to have some tea. One of the elders came along and started talking to us about the history of the tribe and then led into teaching us some of the skills that they would learn from a really, really young age. So we went on a bushwalk and he was teaching us about the different flora and fauna. He was talking about the way that they would have hunted, the way that they navigated with the stars, the history of the people. I really loved that he was keeping that alive in this day and age and being able to bring that culture and bring that rich history to us in that moment. So, you know, we spent a little bit of time walking around the camp, speaking with him. Everybody had the opportunity at one point to throw some spears. They'd made a uh you know, replica target that was supposed to replicate them going on a hunt, and everybody got the chance to throw some spears, and that was just a really fun activity, you know, that was that was quite incredible. From that point, we then hiked up one of the nearby high points and actually watched the sunset, and we could see Mount Meru in the distance. So we had this perfect picture of the Maasai dancing, Mount Meru in the background, and the sun setting. Now, you know, I think a lot of these trips it's about finding the balance between having a really authentic experience where you're almost backpacking, you're carrying all your own kit, and you're cycling cross-country, self-navigated, and you know, I would really enjoy that as well. I'm not saying I wouldn't. But on a trip like this, it was incredible to have a few things in place where we had accommodation to aim for in the evenings, we had experiences like that, and for me, as my first kind of introduction into an international cycling expedition, I found it a really nice step. And now I would be a lot more confident to go and pursue those on my own a little bit because I feel like I got that introduction with a little bit of hand holding. We then sat and had dinner with everybody in the evening before starting to prepare for the next day. So that just involved everybody packing their kit, making sure the bikes were already, laying everything out, speaking to our guide who was taking us through the route and the distance and what the terrain was going to be like. So, you know, there was a lot of prep work that was going into every evening, making sure that we were ready for the following day. The next day was going to be quite a long day for us. So, you know, we did want to get lots of rest and make sure that everything was organized because we were going to be going a little bit further that day, which was you know nice that we were stepping it up incrementally. We had 360 kilometres to do over five days, so it wasn't gonna be massive distances every day, but we also weren't gonna be going you know super slow and steady. Um our longest day was gonna be 100 kilometres, so we were slowly starting to build up to that. One of the things that I hadn't really appreciated of how difficult it would be is cycling in the heat. I'm used to cycling in the UK, and you might have a few hot days of the year, but cycling in Tanzania, the heat, the sun baking down on you all day definitely added a different element to the challenge. And that was something that you know I hadn't quite expected. So I'll be much more prepared if I was to ever do that again. But all in all, the most incredible experience. Those nerves that I had at the beginning of the day were immediately gone once we started cycling. You know, it was something that I was very nervous at the beginning, and then once those pedals started turning, all of those nerves went away, and it just became the most fun. The animals that we got to saw along the way, because you weren't in a jeep, you weren't scaring all the animals away. We saw zebra, we saw giraffes, we saw elephants. It was just incredible. It was like being on safari on two wheels, and quite frankly, that's the only way I'd recommend it from now on.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Jake, thank you so much for taking the time to share this experience with us here on the show. I've had the privilege of interviewing a few guests who've been through Africa and Tanzania now, but it's always great to hear this type of travel unfold as well. And I think as you called out, it's sort of like what you've done here going on a tour, it's like a bridging stone, it's like that stepping stone to making it more accessible to you. Perhaps going to areas that you wouldn't necessarily feel possibly confident enough to tackle on your own, but as a group, it helps to explore places you'd otherwise not see. And it certainly sounds like it's planted the seed in your mind, perhaps, to take longer adventures yourself. Listeners, I'll be sharing images from Jake's journey here in Tanzania on our social media channels on Instagram and also Facebook on our Seek Travel Ride accounts, and it really is a case that pictures tell a thousand words. And what you were describing there, Jake, when I look at these images, it's exactly that sort of heartfelt feeling I had looking at the Maasai people, looking at the countryside, looking at the landscape you're riding through. Absolutely mega. I did have a chuckle when you were also describing the transition from this sealed road and what it was like to then go on to more sandy, rugged, and rocky roads as well. I'm sure that felt quite tiresome too. And then, of course, just the cultural encounters that you were able to have with the Maasai people there as well. Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing your story here with us on the show. And listeners, maybe it's prompted you to think about taking a similar journey. Now it's that time of the week again where I say a big heartfelt thank you to my brilliant super fans who have shown me some love and bought me a coffee. Each time I get these messages come through, it absolutely fills me with joy. Not just knowing that there's people who are tuning in and who are supporting the show, but also because it gives me a little bit of an insight into your own adventures as well. Today I'm saying a big thank you to Stills by Kerry, who said, Dear Bella, you are changing lives with this podcast. There's no doubt about it. They are the seeds that are sown into people's minds, seeds that take root and grow and grow until that person heads off on an adventure of their own. I think sometimes adventures in far-flung places or even local ones can feel so out of reach for people, especially women, due to a lack of self-belief. But when these honest conversations are had and with ordinary people, indeed they're still doing the most extraordinary of things, those conversations are going to make it so much more attainable. And these adventures are life-changing for so many reasons. I love listening to them, they make me fizz with excitement and wonderlust for two-wheeled adventures and all the possibilities. Though thank you so much, Bella. Yours always, frothing at the mouth for the next episode, Carrie. Thank you so much, Kerry. What a heartfelt message. And I have to say it sort of got me in the feels when I read it because it has made me reflect on just how many people have gotten in touch to tell me about the adventures that they've gone on with having those first seeds planted in their mind because they've listened to a guest share their story. It's the power of sharing our experiences here, and whether it's through this podcast or you listening to an episode and talking about it or taking your own adventure and sharing it with a friend, it is something that we can never truly be aware of the impact that we're having in doing so. But uh thank you so much. I I really felt that message so heartfelt there. I'd also like to give a shout out to Scott Sharik. Scott, you are a previous guest of the show. You're an absolute legend doing what you do. I think you're back in Southeast Asia at the moment and you have said thank you for giving me so much inspiration and content to listen to when I'm out there touring myself. Well, thank you so much, Scott. First, you're a dead set legend. I loved sharing your story, and it fills me with joy to know that I am in your ears, as are many of my guests, while you're making your way on this amazing round-the-world adventure of yours as well. Thank you so much for supporting me on the show. Now, listeners, if you would like to do as Carrie and Scott have done, and also buy me a coffee, you can do so by clicking the link in the show notes. Make sure to leave me a nice message and tell me what is it about Seek Travel Ride that you are enjoying so much. And lastly, don't forget if you want to have your own little hit of wonderlust and see what it's like for the host of this show to be riding up very slowly over some stunning mountains in the Pyrenees. Check out our YouTube channel, Seek Travel Ride. I've got the link in the show notes as well. And I hope that I will be able to visually also now give you a hit of wonderlust for your own bike travels, maybe across the Pyrenees. And tell you what, if you do come to the Pyrenees to Cycle this year, make sure to let me know. I might meet you out there somewhere on the road. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening.