The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Tomás has an eye on the lions
INTREPID cyclist Tomás Mac an tSaoir is on the road again after a few days stop-over in Dar Es Salaam with the Irish ambassador to Tanzania, Paul Sherlock, and his wife.
Ambassador Sherlock got on a bike himself to guide the young Ballyferriter man out of Dar Es Salaam as he continued his journey from Cairo to Capetown.
Shortly after leaving Dar, Tomás cycled through Mikumi National Park and felt fortunate not to attract the attention of any of the lions living there.
Tomás is now half way through his 10,000kmplus cycle from Cairo to Capetown and he has demonstrated great versatility, stamina and courage in coping with the challenges he has met along the way. Aside from the lions in Mikumi, these have included the very real dangers of reckless drivers and stone-throwing children.
He makes the best of whatever circumstances he meets along the way, and this has ranged from sleeping rough on café floors to the luxury of ambassadorial residences in Egypt, Ethopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
There is no caravan of well wishers to cheer him on the long road, no support team to maintain his bicycle and no production assistants to hold his water and mop his brow while he takes a ‘selfie’ on his phone to keep family and friends up to date with his activities. On Twitter Tomás has described the ‘loneliness of the long distance runner’, where there is only himself his bicycle and his head. However, what shines through all of his commentary is a natural curiosity about the world and a love of travelling by bicycle.
The route he is taking has passed through, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and now he is heading for Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Tomas makes his travel arrangements from day to day, he has an outline of where he plans to be at a given time - for example in Lusaka, Zambia, for St. Patrick’s Day - but the rest is up to the encounters he has and the contacts he makes along the way.
Now that Tomás is south of the equator, humidity and the intense heat is presenting a huge challenge and yet to come is the rainy season.
Tomás aims to raise over €17,000 for the Donal Walsh Live Life Foundation from the cycle and has so far raised more than €10,000 of his target. To donate go to idonate.ie/cyclingafrica. Tomas uses the hashtag #ardorothar on his social media accounts.