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Dodging Elephants: Leaving the rat race for a bike race - 8000 miles across Africa
Dodging Elephants is the story of how one ordinary woman raced across Africa on her bike. Flung from the corporate hamster wheel, she set off with very little training, plenty of Christmas fat, a custom-made bike and absolutely no idea of what she was letting herself in for. The Tour D'Afrique is the longest bike race on earth.12,000 miles from Cairo to Cape Town through ten countries and with 63 competitors lined up at the start. Each chapter has a different story to tell; new places and peoples, high mountains, burning desert sands, thick mud, biting tsetse flies (known as the devil), and vibrant African dawns and dusks. During the journey, the riders are beaten with whips, stoned by local cattle raiders, held up at gun point and face malaria and typhoid in camp. They cycle through the dry season in the Sudan with temperatures reaching 51 degrees, and then hit the rainy season in Tanzania with mud up to their knees and tents permanently wet through. You really feel for them! When the only landmark for miles is the skeleton of a camel that looks smugly happier than you imagine they do and you think it impossible to push those pedals around once more, even vicariously, something will jolt everything right back into perspective. From penis envy every time nature calls along the trail, to the "night of shame" from which no one is exempt by the time the finish line beckons; from the naked mile, to the 'who stole the shitter' shambles, Dodging Elephants will put a silly grin on your face. Maybe best to read this one in private or you might get some odd looks. Oh yes, and there's a near death experience with an elephant. You'll encounter the highs as well as the lows, with Africa forming a beautiful backdrop along the way. The race begins in Egypt on the eve of the Arab Spring, goes through the Sudan as the south declares independence and becomes the newest country on earth, continues through the worst drought for thirty years in Northern Kenya before landing on the pristine highways built by ubiquitous Chinese contractors, entering Zambia where old and new Africa collide, and ending up in South Africa at election time. This is a proper old-fashioned adventure. A romp through Africa told with humour and charm. As you read "The End," you'll either be reaching for your laptop to sign up for next year, or reaching for another nice glass of red wine and thanking your lucky stars that you don't have to!
- GenresNonfictionTravelAfrica
154 pages, Paperback
Published April 28, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 18, 2017
Dodging Elephants is Alice Hunter Morrison’s personal story of participating in a bicycle race from Cairo to Cape Town. She devotes a chapter to each country she passed through. This is a great book both for ordinary people, and for people who do high-level biking tours around the world.
Alice started out as an ordinary person who’d never ridden in any long-distance tours with the very ambitious idea of seeing much of Africa while doing this. We experience her travails right along with her, of having a disastrous tent choice, of starting out being quite out of shape, and how she feels cycling with world-class racers. One thing which helps her out in the beginning is that having grown up in Uganda as a child, she speaks fluent Arabic. She had something useful to offer, and was able to help others out with this in the early weeks.
I learned a LOT about biking. Anyone interested in this aspect of the book will not be disappointed at all. I learned about how bike races were organized on a daily basis, what kind of safety issues come up daily, and how a tour deals with those issues, as well as the daily endurance issues which crop up and how Alice learns to deal with those on a daily basis.
I enjoyed Alice’s country-by-country approach. I enjoyed her descriptions of crossing borders, where just a couple of miles, but on the other side of the border, the appearance, and people’s behavior often changed completely.
I was honestly very surprised she didn’t seem to mention having any trouble with harassment in Egypt due to being a woman. Perhaps it’s because she was with a group, although certainly she would have been cycling alone for long periods. I enjoyed reading about Sudan. Never having been there, I appreciate that we can now look up photographs to see what some of these places look like, such as Khartoum, where the Blue and White Niles join together. Thieves in Kenya, Chinese contractors and red mud in Tanzania, were just some of the adventure highlights. In Malawi, in spite of normal medical precautions, a couple riders came down with malaria. They kept riding anyway. In Zambia, a couple friends flew in to join Alice for a portion of the tour. One day, Alice had a dangerous encounter with a bull elephant, but was barely able to escape injury, by turning around and pedaling as fast as she could. The moment she got out of his territory, he stopped chasing her. She also had an experience of getting lost and riding an extra 60 km one day because of it. Namibia sounds like a really nice place, and somehow, I had not expected that (probably from reading about history of the Germans in Namibia before WWII). While there, Alice became depressed and discouraged and ended up taking a relief break of about three days, then rejoining the tour, and finishing up in South Africa.
One of the things which most struck me about this book and this tour is HOW IMPORTANT IT IS WHO YOU CHOOSE TO ASSOCIATE WITH IN LIFE. In Alice’s discussions about the fortitude it took to stay on this tour, to put up with the discomforts and difficult conditions, and just be able to get up each day and DO THE RIDE, she talks about the personalities of the various other riders on the tour, and how relationships developed over time, and how people helped one another, particularly with moral support. Then it hit me. THERE WERE NO NEGATIVE PEOPLE ON THIS TOUR. NOT EVEN ONE. The people you surround yourself with in life can either lift you up or pull you down. This tour was a perfect example of being pulled up and held up by the emotions and attitudes of positive people, for Alice, and for everyone else on the tour.
The country which disturbed me the most was Ethiopia, filled with rock-throwing hordes of children. I just wanted to know WHY they were doing this, and continued thinking about it long after finishing this book. Due to children being in school either for the morning session only, or the afternoon session only, while their parents work in the fields, there are large groups of unsupervised children running around everywhere, at all times. Their main pastime seems to be throwing stones at any passers-by. Alice explains this, and it was a real problem for her, as she was hit frequently by stones-- and once by an animal whip, wielded by a child. Even the Ethiopian adults said this was normal in the culture. I did some research online, and indeed, this is quite normal. Stones are thrown at animals to control them, and by parents to control their children. Apparently they are even thrown at very young toddlers—not to hit them, but thrown to the ground just in front of them to keep them from going out of range, or to a dangerous place. After reading online about this a LOT, my own personal conclusion is that this is done by adults to children, by humans to animals, or by higher-status people to lower-status people. Being a teacher in Morocco, I’ve observed a similar pattern of language use in Morocco. Adults can tell off children (including using vulgar words), older children can tell off younger children, and higher-status people can tell off lower-status people. Some children are just waiting to get to adult age when they feel they can tell off those who are younger, or inferior. I believe the same thing must be happening in Ethiopia with the rock-throwing. These children have had their elders throw rocks at them, and they are already accustomed to throwing rocks at animals and younger children. Passers-by are like “outsiders” where one doesn’t have to deal with the consequences as if one threw a rock at an adult of one’s own community. So, passers-by are both a temptation and escape from boredom, as well as a way of gaining status in front of the other children—in the way that children or teenagers who try to belittle or talk back to a teacher are often doing it to gain status in front of their friends. The best advice with people who were successful at avoiding being victims of rock-throwing advised to stop and shake each person’s hand. Then you might be there talking to them for 30 minutes. But generally speaking, the people online said that once you have shaken someone’s hand and spoken with them personally, they are not going to throw rocks at you. Unfortunately, in a bicycle RACE, this is hardly practical advice for all of the places you are passing, in order to arrive at your destination by nightfall. But at least reading about this outside of this book satisfied my disturbance about this issue.
One discussion Alice brings up near the end of the book is that people in the private sector think that those working in the public sector have it easy. Alice discusses why this is not true, especially because, “Internecine strife is the norm.”
Overall, a fantastic read from many different points of view, and for many different types of people. It was hard to put down, and was the perfect length for the material covered.
Alice started out as an ordinary person who’d never ridden in any long-distance tours with the very ambitious idea of seeing much of Africa while doing this. We experience her travails right along with her, of having a disastrous tent choice, of starting out being quite out of shape, and how she feels cycling with world-class racers. One thing which helps her out in the beginning is that having grown up in Uganda as a child, she speaks fluent Arabic. She had something useful to offer, and was able to help others out with this in the early weeks.
I learned a LOT about biking. Anyone interested in this aspect of the book will not be disappointed at all. I learned about how bike races were organized on a daily basis, what kind of safety issues come up daily, and how a tour deals with those issues, as well as the daily endurance issues which crop up and how Alice learns to deal with those on a daily basis.
I enjoyed Alice’s country-by-country approach. I enjoyed her descriptions of crossing borders, where just a couple of miles, but on the other side of the border, the appearance, and people’s behavior often changed completely.
I was honestly very surprised she didn’t seem to mention having any trouble with harassment in Egypt due to being a woman. Perhaps it’s because she was with a group, although certainly she would have been cycling alone for long periods. I enjoyed reading about Sudan. Never having been there, I appreciate that we can now look up photographs to see what some of these places look like, such as Khartoum, where the Blue and White Niles join together. Thieves in Kenya, Chinese contractors and red mud in Tanzania, were just some of the adventure highlights. In Malawi, in spite of normal medical precautions, a couple riders came down with malaria. They kept riding anyway. In Zambia, a couple friends flew in to join Alice for a portion of the tour. One day, Alice had a dangerous encounter with a bull elephant, but was barely able to escape injury, by turning around and pedaling as fast as she could. The moment she got out of his territory, he stopped chasing her. She also had an experience of getting lost and riding an extra 60 km one day because of it. Namibia sounds like a really nice place, and somehow, I had not expected that (probably from reading about history of the Germans in Namibia before WWII). While there, Alice became depressed and discouraged and ended up taking a relief break of about three days, then rejoining the tour, and finishing up in South Africa.
One of the things which most struck me about this book and this tour is HOW IMPORTANT IT IS WHO YOU CHOOSE TO ASSOCIATE WITH IN LIFE. In Alice’s discussions about the fortitude it took to stay on this tour, to put up with the discomforts and difficult conditions, and just be able to get up each day and DO THE RIDE, she talks about the personalities of the various other riders on the tour, and how relationships developed over time, and how people helped one another, particularly with moral support. Then it hit me. THERE WERE NO NEGATIVE PEOPLE ON THIS TOUR. NOT EVEN ONE. The people you surround yourself with in life can either lift you up or pull you down. This tour was a perfect example of being pulled up and held up by the emotions and attitudes of positive people, for Alice, and for everyone else on the tour.
The country which disturbed me the most was Ethiopia, filled with rock-throwing hordes of children. I just wanted to know WHY they were doing this, and continued thinking about it long after finishing this book. Due to children being in school either for the morning session only, or the afternoon session only, while their parents work in the fields, there are large groups of unsupervised children running around everywhere, at all times. Their main pastime seems to be throwing stones at any passers-by. Alice explains this, and it was a real problem for her, as she was hit frequently by stones-- and once by an animal whip, wielded by a child. Even the Ethiopian adults said this was normal in the culture. I did some research online, and indeed, this is quite normal. Stones are thrown at animals to control them, and by parents to control their children. Apparently they are even thrown at very young toddlers—not to hit them, but thrown to the ground just in front of them to keep them from going out of range, or to a dangerous place. After reading online about this a LOT, my own personal conclusion is that this is done by adults to children, by humans to animals, or by higher-status people to lower-status people. Being a teacher in Morocco, I’ve observed a similar pattern of language use in Morocco. Adults can tell off children (including using vulgar words), older children can tell off younger children, and higher-status people can tell off lower-status people. Some children are just waiting to get to adult age when they feel they can tell off those who are younger, or inferior. I believe the same thing must be happening in Ethiopia with the rock-throwing. These children have had their elders throw rocks at them, and they are already accustomed to throwing rocks at animals and younger children. Passers-by are like “outsiders” where one doesn’t have to deal with the consequences as if one threw a rock at an adult of one’s own community. So, passers-by are both a temptation and escape from boredom, as well as a way of gaining status in front of the other children—in the way that children or teenagers who try to belittle or talk back to a teacher are often doing it to gain status in front of their friends. The best advice with people who were successful at avoiding being victims of rock-throwing advised to stop and shake each person’s hand. Then you might be there talking to them for 30 minutes. But generally speaking, the people online said that once you have shaken someone’s hand and spoken with them personally, they are not going to throw rocks at you. Unfortunately, in a bicycle RACE, this is hardly practical advice for all of the places you are passing, in order to arrive at your destination by nightfall. But at least reading about this outside of this book satisfied my disturbance about this issue.
One discussion Alice brings up near the end of the book is that people in the private sector think that those working in the public sector have it easy. Alice discusses why this is not true, especially because, “Internecine strife is the norm.”
Overall, a fantastic read from many different points of view, and for many different types of people. It was hard to put down, and was the perfect length for the material covered.
July 7, 2019
An instant favourite. Do read this book. Grit and determination and courage in buckets - a solid gold adventurer. For someone who likes the books of Chichester and Fiennes right up my street.
September 21, 2016
an absolutely wonderful telling of Alice's adventures from Cairo to Cape Town!
September 3, 2018
Love/Hate Relationship
I have a love/hate relationship with this book. Of course, I love reading about the author’s adventures riding a bike for 8000 miles from Cairo to Cape Town. And it’s interesting to follow her progress from being undertrained, unfit, & inexperienced at the beginning to a fit, confident rider by the half way mark in Kenya. But I hate how she describes her bodily functions in great off-putting detail (she’s constipated, for example, or she has her period) but barely describes the countries she visits. She describes Gondar, a town in Ethiopia, like this: “Gondar is a biggish town and a regional centre, with a fortress in the middle. The views from the hotel over the town and to the plains and the mountains beyond are truly spectacular.” Not enough detail for me to visualize the scene in my mind’s eye.
I have a love/hate relationship with this book. Of course, I love reading about the author’s adventures riding a bike for 8000 miles from Cairo to Cape Town. And it’s interesting to follow her progress from being undertrained, unfit, & inexperienced at the beginning to a fit, confident rider by the half way mark in Kenya. But I hate how she describes her bodily functions in great off-putting detail (she’s constipated, for example, or she has her period) but barely describes the countries she visits. She describes Gondar, a town in Ethiopia, like this: “Gondar is a biggish town and a regional centre, with a fortress in the middle. The views from the hotel over the town and to the plains and the mountains beyond are truly spectacular.” Not enough detail for me to visualize the scene in my mind’s eye.
May 11, 2017
Loved this book. It's short, it's funny, it's adventurous and difficult to put down. Certainly happy to read about biking the Tour d'Afrique from Cairo to Cape Town rather than to ride it myself. Alice Morrison is down to earth and delightful. I borrowed the book to read, but bought my own copy to share with my biking pals.
November 21, 2019
Entertaining tale of an epic adventure
Thoroughly enjoyed Alice’s recounting if her epic cycling adventure. The author’s candour, humorous antidotes and insightful descriptions about the about people and places she encountered along her journey pulled me right along with her. Well done Alice!
Thoroughly enjoyed Alice’s recounting if her epic cycling adventure. The author’s candour, humorous antidotes and insightful descriptions about the about people and places she encountered along her journey pulled me right along with her. Well done Alice!
August 7, 2022
I really enjoyed watching the TV series of Alice's journey 'From Morocco to Timbuktu', so decided to read about her cycling journey in the 8000 mile bike race from Cairo to Capetown. What an arduous adventure she had and the book was a very interesting read. Definitely worth a read - especially if you're a cyclist.
June 23, 2020
Wow what a great adventure! A very inspiring achievement and it sounds like a fantastic way to see a lot of Africa. The long gruelling days sounded pretty grim though, and I was glad to be reading of Alice's tribulations in the heat/rain/headwinds etc. from the comforts of my warm bed!
July 29, 2021
Great adventure tale
I had already devoured Alice Morrison’s 1001 Nights, and came back for seconds. I really enjoyed her tale of cycling through Africa. It’s an extraordinary story!
I had already devoured Alice Morrison’s 1001 Nights, and came back for seconds. I really enjoyed her tale of cycling through Africa. It’s an extraordinary story!
November 22, 2017
Dry, self-deprecating British humour. Loved it!
December 13, 2020
she bares her soul
an excellent writer who is not afraid to include her own human traits among such fantastic adventures in deepest Africa.
an excellent writer who is not afraid to include her own human traits among such fantastic adventures in deepest Africa.
September 14, 2025
Really interesting story but the editing wasn’t great, which made it a bit difficult to read. Enjoyed it though
March 29, 2020
An amazing journey to read about, made perhaps slightly less exciting by the fact that it is an organised tour rather than an all out adventure. I enjoyed the rhythm of the book, moving quickly from country to country, and the musings at the end struck a chord. Sadly, the author's inability to place a comma correctly did grate a bit, and the editor missed a number of typos.
July 6, 2016
Inspiring book for those who want to leave the rat race and live ...................
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews