Tour d’EAC 2017: The tourism circuit

Cyclists peddling up the Virgin Hills in Rwanda, in Tour d’EAC 2016. PHOTO | COURTESY 

The appeal of this year’s Tour d’EAC is tourism.

At least eight Unesco World Heritage sites, including the ancient cradle of mankind, the Olduvai Gorge, spectacular landmarks and scenery, wildlife and odd gastronomical tastes will be part of the allure when 70 participants — the majority of them cyclists — hit the road on August 1, on a circuit that starts and ends in Kampala.

This is the Tour d’EAC 2017, an initiative of Campfire Logs Guild, an adventure youth group that is using its outdoors activities to push the East African Community’s integration agenda.

Campfire has released this year’s tour itinerary, and it stretches over 4,500 kilometres, spanning the five EAC countries. The safari starts in Kampala, Uganda, and heads to Kenya through the Busia border, and onwards to Tanzania through Nairobi and Arusha, then heads to Dar es Salaam where the circuit turns around to head to Burundi through Dodoma and Tabora and then towards Rwanda and back to Kampala.

The route will take over 45 days, broken by visits to famous historical, cultural and natural attractions in all countries. It will cover 10 sections, each with its own appeal, adventure and tourist sites.

In its second edition, the East African Bicycle Tour (or Tour d’EAC) that was first held in 2016, is aptly themed “Unlocking East Africa’s trade and tourism potential through an effective and efficient integration process.”

“We thought this is easier and more exciting,” says John Bosco Balongo, the director of Campfire Logs Guild talking of the different sections of the route. “It is quite flexible. A person can choose to cycle a section of their interest, instead of the whole tour.”

The first of the sections runs from Kampala to the Malaba border post in Busia, and is aptly named the Nile Stalk. On day one, the cyclists will ride to Jinja town, which sits aloft the point where River Nile flows out of Lake Victoria en route to the Mediterranean.

“We actually want to cross the Nile Bridge on foot. We shall get off our bikes and push them across the Nile so that everyone gets a clear view of it,” says Mr Balongo.

Cyclists at the first stage in Uganda, in Tour d’EAC 2016. PHOTO | COURTESY

From Busia, the riders will proceed towards Nairobi, with stopovers in Kisumu, Kericho and Gilgil along the route. But for Ugandans raised in temperatures upwards of 23 degrees Celsius, the Busia-Nairobi route presents a tough test — the night temperatures in Gilgil for instance can be anywhere between five degrees and freezing.