Title: Africa Solo
Author: Beaumont, Mark
Published by: Bantam Press
Year: 2016
First published: Bantam Press, 2016
Date reviewed: 01.17
ISBN: 9780593076330

It’s 2015 and Mark Beaumont’s back on his bike. Round the World – done it. North and South America – done it. Then a break from the bike to attempt the transatlantic rowing record – not done it because the boat capsized and the team nearly died. Then marriage and a child, which would lead anyone to re-evaluate their life objectives. But if you’re committed to being a professional adventurer rather than an accountant you’ve got to have a plan. Mark doesn’t tell us what his Big Plan is (though he does say it won’t involve rowing), but breaking the record for cycling the length of Africa from Cairo to Capetown seems to be a part of it.

If you had all the time in the world you might be able just to get on a bike in Cairo and pedal off to Cape Town with very little preparation. You’d expect to run into all sorts of problems; visas, customs, border crossings, dodgy food, armed military check points, route finding, bike maintenance, gratuitous low-level hostility, robbery, maybe even being taken hostage. You wouldn’t expect to break any speed records and realistically you probably wouldn’t get very far. But the modern adventurer looking for a record time lives in a different world of meticulous planning, fixers, security guards, wifi, social media, sponsors and documentary film makers.

Mark doesn’t describe his ride as a journey, it’s a race: a race against time not other competititors. So the book is not really a travelogue of the countries he rides through, more a tunnel-vision view of Africa from north to south. To quote cycling writer Andrew Curry,

“Racers spend their time looking at the wheel in front of them, not the landscape on the side of the road.” Andrew Curry, “Isadore”; Rouleur magazine #67, 2016.

He describes his ride day by day and country by country. During the day he is focused on the road, the bike, his own physical and mental state, the weather, the road conditions, the kilometres ridden and the distance still to go. At the end of the day it’s finding somewhere to sleep, food, recovery. If this sounds repetitive, in some ways it is but it is certainly not dull for the reader who shares Mark’s highs and lows.

For me the book really came alive in the last 1000 miles or so when with the end metaphorically in sight Mark throws everything into huge daily distances as he hurtles towrads the finish.

Books like this are often described as “inspiring”. I admire Mark for his persistence, single-minded dedication, endurance, fortitude and other great qualities, and of course for his achievement. But personally I’m not inspired to copy his ride or try something similar. These days I couldn’t cope with the discomfort and pain, the lack of good food, a warm shower and a comfortable bed. In my cycle touring days I at least had the (sometimes dubious) benefits of old-style Youth Hostels. But as an example of what an extreme endurance cyclist can achieve – “Chapeau, Mark!”