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Sunday, October 4, 2009
Across Africa by tandem trike
Of course these folks would have appeared incredibly rich to almost everyone they met. I'm not sure how one deals with that on a bike tour. Have you ever had such an experience? If so, how did you deal with a vast net worth gap between you and your hosts?
Addendum: The video footage has now been updated. What a gorgeous trip!
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Hi Gordon. I'm afraid I googled 'Tri Cycling Africa' out of interest and came across your blog. I shot and edited this doco (thanks for posting the trailer!).
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, I somehow got the impression that, lying on a recumbent, some people thought we my have been disabled in some way! I assume in many of the places we traveled through, not many have seen a recumbent bike, let alone a tandem recumbent tricycle.
Jeff, being the well-traveled lad he is, felt very comfortable (most of the time) leaving the trike out of our direct view and that there was very little risk of theft, particularly in the smaller villages. (I had my passport stolen, but that's another story!) There was much curiosity over the vehicle but, it seemed, little desire to steal it, thankfully.
We're now uploading this entire film episodically to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TriCyclingAfrica.
Cheers,
Marty
Welcome aboard, Marty! I wasn't thinking so much of theft as much as the huge income gap between you and your hosts.
ReplyDeleteYou must have seen a certain amount of suffering. Did people ask you for money? Were you ever tempted to sell the trike and build a school or clinic?
Ah ok... great differences in wealth unfortunately imply to me higher crime rates and risk of theft and I thought that's what you were alluding to.
ReplyDeleteJust being westerners, we felt rich beyond the dreams of any of the village locals, with or without the tricycle. We saw poverty, but a surprisingly lower than expected level of begging. Of course, how much you expect depends entirely on your own experience, but perhaps for comparison, I saw much more begging on the streets of southern India on a more recent trip. Vendors and traders were, however, very prevalent and quite relentless in parts, moreso the bigger cities (like many countries, it seems).
Were we tempted to sell the trike and build a school or clinic? A noble endeavour undoubtedly, but our personal realities were probably a stronger focus for us, besides the fact that the trike was actually on loan to us from Greenspeed and not ours to sell.
We were hoping in some tiny way to at least bring some attention to the region by filming our trip.
Cheers,
Marty.
Marty,
ReplyDeleteLet me know when your new youtube video is ready and I'll link to it here. What's next for you guys?
No idea what's next. We've both gotten married since the trip, which has affected our respective lives quite significantly - it's not as easy to just up and leave! Particularly considering the wives would insist on coming along too... and who can blame them?
ReplyDeleteJeff and I would love to do another project, but we would approach it very differently with more planning and possible broadcast / distribution deals set up before we go. We did the Africa trip with almost zero pre-production. Just a camera and a passion! Which has made things more challenging in the post-production phase. Neither of us had any film-making experience so we left with just a hope that we MAY make something interesting.
We just uploaded part 11 to the YouTube.com/TriCyclingAfrica channel where all previous eps are available to watch. We're uploading a new episode every few days, but I can endeavour to let you know when each episode is online if you like.
Thanks for showing an interest!
Cheers,
Marty.
Well, Marty, it appears that there's a lot more to Africa than you sitting on the can. This is a beautifully produced sequence. Well done! I'll link to it in a new post tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteOne quibble, if I may. If I were you, I'd lose the toilet footage, as it stinks up the beautiful sequences of Africa that follow.
Regarding the toilet sequence, are you referring to a particular episode or the trailer (which you've linked to already)?
ReplyDeleteBTW that's Jeff hosting the series and hence, the one on the squat dunny.
Well, I haven't seen anything but the trailer. Your new youtube link above isn't working here. Let me know when this is up.
ReplyDeleteOh.. works for me. Try cutting and pasting the address: http://www.youtube.com/TriCyclingAfrica
ReplyDeleteThanks again Gordon!
Cheers,
Marty.
It is very interesting for me to read that article. Thanks the author for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more on that blog soon.
ReplyDelete