The Boy Who Biked the World

by Alastair Humphreys

  Tom gulped nervously as he thought that not only did he have to cycle the whole length of the river, but he also then had to keep going for thousands of miles more until he reached Cape Town! Africa was huge. Tom tried not to think too far ahead. His mind was busy enough planning the first big challenge of Africa: crossing the desert in Sudan. Tom had never been to a desert before, he had only been to a beach. He could not imagine trying to cycle along a beach, never mind crossing a whole desert on his bike! He found himself thinking nervously almost all the time about how he was going to cross the desert. The thought of all the sand which is there did little for his appetite.

  Everyone in Egypt told Tom he was mad to even think of crossing a desert on his bike.

  “It is too hot!” said the man at the fruit stall in the market, handing him an extra banana to wish him luck.

  “It is too far for you: you are too skinny to survive!” cried a large man who filled up Tom’s water bottles for him one day.

  “It is too sandy. You will have to push the bike!” warned a boy at a village mosque where Tom had been given permission to put his little green tent and camp for the night.

  Nobody thought that he could do it. But Tom remembered everyone at home telling him that even getting to Africa on a bike was impossible, and yet here he was in Africa, still going strong. The only way he would find out if he could get across the desert was by trying it. He knew that he might not succeed and might have to give up. But it was better to try his best and fail than not even have a go.

  Tom prepared himself carefully for the desert. He wrote in his journal a list of everything that he needed to do if he was to survive the dangerous desert crossing.

  Tom was as well-prepared as he could be. Now he just needed to trust himself and go for it. He believed that he could make it through the desert. He knew that it would be hot, hard, scary and lonely. But he thought of how happy he would feel if he managed to succeed at something that everyone had told him would be too difficult. It was worth having a go.

  After a few more weeks cycling down Egypt, Tom saw a barrier across the road. The weather had become hotter and hotter every day as he rode south. The tarmac road was shimmering in the heat. The land was flat and brown. There were no plants or trees. The air was hot and still. He had reached the border crossing into Sudan.

  On the Egyptian side of the barrier an Egyptian police officer asked to check Tom’s passport. He was amazed at all the stamps that were in the passport already.

  “You have been to 16 countries on this bicycle?” he asked, disbelief written across his face.

  “Yep!” smiled Tom, “But I still have many more to cross if I am going to make it round the whole world on my bicycle.”

  “You are riding round the world? You are crazy, my young friend!” answered the police officer, whose name was Sergeant Sharif. Sergeant Sharif was very short, and almost as wide as he was tall.

  His face turned serious as he said, “You must not go into Sudan. It is a desert! It is much too dangerous.” He beckoned Tom close and whispered in his ear, “And in Sudan… they are all robbers! Every single person is a robber.”

  Sergeant Sharif pointed over his shoulder to the Sudanese police officer who was standing only a few metres away but on the other side of the barrier. He was staring off into the distance and whisling, pretending not to have noticed Tom and his bicycle. Tom thought that the Sudanese police officer looked like a nice man, not a robber, but he promised Sergeant Sharif that he would be careful.

  “Good luck!” laughed Sergeant Sharif as he raised the barrier and let Tom pedal on into Sudan. “You’ll need it!”

  Standing on the other side of the barrier was the man dressed in the uniform of the Sudanese police force. His name was Sergeant Amarri. He spoke Arabic, like the Egyptian policeman, but they never spoke to each other. They both felt that they were too important to talk the other. They did not like each other. As Tom rode round the world he often found that people did not like the people in the country next to theirs, even though they didn’t know anything about them. This seemed so silly. Those two police officers had been standing almost side by side, in silence, ignoring each other, for years. If they had chatted they would probably have become friends and their boring days standing on duty would have been more fun.

  Sergeant Amarri pretended that he had not noticed Tom while he was speaking to Sergeant Sharif. Now he gave Tom a great grin of welcome. Sergeant Amarri was a tall, thin man with very dark skin. His eyes shone white in his face and, when he smiled, his teeth gleamed like a crescent moon. Sergeant Amarri seemed to be a very happy man.

  “Welcome to Sudan!” he said. “Sudan is the most beautiful country in the world. You are very welcome here.”

  The Sudanese police officer stamped page number 17 of Tom’s passport with the Sudanese visa stamp. It was big and colourful and decorated with swirls of Arabic writing. He checked that Tom was carrying enough water.

  “My friend, be careful in our desert. It is a difficult place. You must ration your water carefully.”

  Tom promised that he was carrying plenty of water, but in truth he was quite nervous. Everyone he had met recently had warned him about the desert. But Sergeant Amarri continued with words that quickly cheered Tom.

  “Our desert, called the Nubian Desert, is very beautiful. If you are brave and well prepared, then you will enjoy an experience you have never imagined before. You will see stars as bright as diamonds, sunsets that blaze across all the heavens. Nobody in your country will have seen what you will see by the time you reach the other side.”

  Then he beckoned Tom close, pointed over his shoulder to Sergeant Sharif on the other side of the barrier and whispered in Tom’s ear, “Those Egyptian people - they are all robbers! You are lucky to have escaped that country!”

  Tom explained how much he had enjoyed riding through Egypt and that the Egyptian police officer was actually very friendly.

  Sergeant Amarri looked very surprised.

  “Young Tom, is this true?” he asked.

  “Completely true,” answered Tom. Perhaps a little untruthfully, he added, “And he told me how much he loved Sudan.”

  “Well in that case I should talk to this Egyptian policeman, don’t you think?” said Sergeant Amarri.

  “Definitely!” said Tom.

  Then he waved goodbye and pedalled down the road.

  Behind him he heard Sergeant Amarri turn to Sergeant Sharif and say nervously,

  “Excuse me, Sergeant Sharif? Although we have been standing next to each other for many years without ever once speaking to each other, I thought that perhaps you might like to come over to my side of the barrier and join me for a cup of tea? I have many questions I would like to ask you about Egypt.”

  And before Tom had gone very far he heard the sound of loud laughter behind him. It seemed as though the two police officers had become friends already. Tom smiled and rode into the desert.

  Sand and Sudan

  An hour later the road suddenly stopped. It was the end of the road. Tom would not see another proper paved road for many months to come. The adventure was about to get even more difficult. He hoped that his bike would be strong enough to cope. He hoped that he would be strong enough to cope.

  Tom rode off the smooth tarmac and into the desert. The desert! Silence. Heat. Flat, hot silence in all directions. It really fired Tom’s appetite for adventure. He sipped from his water bottle, wiped sweat from his eyes, and began to ride. Instantly he was bouncing and shaking around, his bags were rattling and his speed dropped right down. Tom looked around. There were no tall sand dunes or camels like you would imagine you’d find in a desert. There was just a shimmering emptiness. So this was what a desert was really like … Wow!

  The desert was very hot and tough. Day after day Tom moved slowly over the flat, stony plains, or dragged his heavy bike through deep sand. He was hot and thirsty but he knew he had to keep going. He steered by his compass, heading south all the time. At
night he laid his sleeping bag out on the sand (after checking carefully for scorpions) and stared up at the moon as he fell asleep.

  At dawn, as the orange sun rose slowly over the horizon, Tom would pack away his sleeping bag, eat a handful of dates for breakfast (he had read a book about the Bedouin desert people, and they had always eaten dates), brush his teeth, and put on his shoes. Before he put his shoes on he had to remember to shake them out to make sure that no scorpions were sleeping inside. This was a funny habit to get into and Tom often forgot to do it. It was something he never had to do back in his normal life. But one day a big fat scorpion crawled out of his shoe while Tom was eating his breakfast. After that Tom never, ever forgot to check his shoes again!

  Tom checked his compass, even though by now he knew that the sun rose in the east so that as long as he kept the sunrise on his left side then he was heading south, and off he went again. Another day had begun and he was making good progress across the Nubian Desert.

  Tom’s bike was heavier than ever. His bags were rammed with food and bottles of water to last him through the desert. He knew that he had to be very careful to make sure his supplies lasted. He had to save his water. He did not waste any water washing himself or his clothes. He wore the same clothes day and night. His clothes were crusty with salty sweat. His hair was knotted and tangled and his face was covered in dirt and dust. He was dirty and stinking and disgusting. And he loved it! This was adventure! This was the desert everybody had told him was impossible, but he was having the time of his life!

  After three weeks of desert riding, Tom reached a small town. He rode across the hot sand and back onto a road once more. The road was only made from gravel, but after rattling through the desert it seemed very luxurious. It felt strange to be back in civilisation again: there were flies in the air and old cans and piles of rubbish lying in the streets. The air smelled of petrol fumes and the silence was over. He heard engines and music and conversation. But what Tom was most fascinated by was to see people again. Sudanese men wear long, flowing white robes and the women wear beautiful, multi-coloured robes. As Tom walked through the village, looking for the central water pump where he could refill his bottles and wash his face, he could not stop staring at people. He saw fat people and thin people, tall people and short people, young people and old. He was fascinated how every human looks slightly different even though they all have two eyes, a nose, a mouth…. Being on his own in the wilderness for a long time made Tom much more observant about normal, everyday things. Tom had loved the beauty of the desert and the successful challenge of trying to survive out there on his own. But he was glad to be back amongst people once again as well.

  Into Ethiopia

  Arriving in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, Tom pedalled to a junction in the river where two mighty rivers, the Blue Nile and the White Nile, come together and become, simply, ‘The Nile.’ Tom now followed the Blue Nile towards its source in Ethiopia. The next stage of the journey had begun. He pedalled into the mountainous country of Ethiopia.

  The children in Ethiopia had never seen anything like Tom and his heavily laden bike. When he rode through Europe, people had looked at Tom carrying all his things in just four small bags and thought that he must be a poor person. But in Africa people looked at Tom carrying so many things in four bags and thought that he must be a very rich person. In every Ethiopian village Tom would be surrounded by curious children who gathered to stare at his blond hair and marvel at his beautiful bicycle. As he rode along groups of ten, 20, even 50 young children would chase alongside Tom for miles. They were so excited to see him. Ethiopians are good long-distance runners, and so the children ran alongside him for a long way, even though Tom was on a bike. Tom thought of all his classmates back in England: none of them would be able to run as far or as fast as these children in Africa (and most of them did not even have any shoes).

  Even though Tom was surrounded by many other children he was feeling lonely. He could not speak Amharic, the Ethiopian language, and the Ethiopian children could not speak English. Tom was missing his family and his friends. He stopped riding, laid his bike down on the dusty earth, and sat down on the ground. A big fat tear fell into the dust. For the first time on his journey Tom wished he was back home.

  The crowd of Ethiopian children stopped running. They stood in a silent circle around Tom. They could see that he was upset. But because they could not speak English they could not say anything to cheer him up.

  Just then another boy came running across the fields from his home to see why the crowd had gathered. He was about the same age as Tom. His name was Abai. Abai thought that life in his village was really boring. Nothing exciting ever happened. As he ran, Abai tried to guess what all the people were looking at. He never imagined that he would find an English boy in the middle of the crowd! He had never seen an English boy before.

  Tom looked up as Abai pushed his way through the crowd.

  “Hello,” said Tom. He couldn’t really be bothered to say hello because nobody could understand him, but his Mum always made him say hello to people. It was polite, she said.

  “Hello,” answered Abai.

  Tom’s head sprang up as though it was fixed to a spring. His eyes opened wide in surprise.

  “Can you speak English?” Tom asked.

  “Yes, I can speak English,” replied Abai, shyly.

  Abai’s Dad was the local teacher. Just for fun he had been teaching Abai little bits of English ever since he was tiny. Abai had enjoyed learning the strange sounding words, but he had not imagined that he would ever actually meet a real English person. When he saw Tom sitting on the dusty ground in the centre of all the people, Abai was excited. But he also felt embarrassed. All the other children in the crowd were not staring at Tom any more, they were staring at Abai, amazed that he seemed to be able to talk to the strange boy on the bicycle.

  “My name is Tom. What is your name?”

  “I am Abai. Where are you from? What are you doing here? Why do you have a bicycle?” Abai had so many questions to ask that he didn’t know what to ask first and he was not giving Tom any time to answer.

  Tom smiled at the rush of questions and explained that he was from England. He was trying to cycle round the world. It always sounded like a crazy thing to say. But just then it sounded really, really silly as all Tom wanted to do was go home.

  All the other boys and girls began shouting at Abai.

  “Who is he? What is he saying? Can you understand him? Where has he come from? Is he lost? Why is he on a bicycle? What is in his bags? Why is he very dirty?”

  Then they all began shouting at each other to be quiet so that they could hear Abai. At last everyone calmed down.

  Abai explained to the crowd that Tom had come from England on his bike and was going to ride all the way round the world. At that point all of the other children became really noisy again. Everyone was talking at once, wanting to know more about Tom and his adventure. They were all laughing and smiling.

  Tom didn’t feel so lonely any more. He answered Abai’s questions and then started to ask some of his own.

  “Why can you all run so far? Why are you carrying spears? What did you think I was doing here?”

  Abai explained that every day he and his friends had to travel many miles to get to the nearest school. But there was no school bus and nobody in the village owned a car, so they all had to travel on foot. Walking took too long so they would run instead. Running every day meant that everyone was fit and fast. They would also run back home again at lunchtime when school ended for the day.

  Tom wished that his school finished at lunchtime. But Abai explained that in Ethiopia many children had to work in the afternoons to help their families earn enough money to buy food. That was why some of the boys were carrying long, sharp spears. They were supposed to be looking after their sheep in the fields, protecting them from any dangerous wild animals. But the sight of Tom on his bicycle had been too much for them to resist. They had
abandoned their sheep and come running along to join in the fun and have a look at Tom.

  “Why don’t you come and meet my family?” Abai asked Tom. “You can spend the night with us. And you can try some Ethiopian food, some injera!”

  “Thanks a lot,” said Tom. “That would be great. I am always hungry these days. And I would love to see your house.”

  So Tom waved goodbye to the crowd of children. They all smiled and waved back at him. Then he pushed his heavy bike, helped by Abai, across the dry and stony fields towards Abai’s house. Tom was feeling much, much happier.

  Outside the house was a small field with some vegetables growing in it. Abai’s house was small and round with walls made from baked mud. The roof sloped steeply. It was made from bundles of long grass tied tightly together. Smoke was streaming through the roof. It looked as though the house was on fire!

  “Don’t worry,” said Abai, “my Mum must be cooking. But she is not burning the food. We cook on an open fire in our house and it gives off lots of smoke. My Mum’s a very good cook. You’re going to love her food.”

  Then Abai shouted in a loud voice something in Amharic which Tom could not understand. Abai’s parents, three brothers and two sisters all came out of the small house. They were very surprised when they saw Tom.

  Abai explained that Tom came from England and was riding his bike all the way round the world. The family gasped in shock, and laughed, then eagerly took Tom into the house. He was a very unusual visitor. Abai told Tom that he was very welcome in their home. And they had arrived at the perfect moment: dinner time. There was plenty of food for Tom as well as all the family.

  One of the things Tom was enjoying most about riding round the world was trying so many different kinds of food. It was not always delicious but it was always interesting. And it made a nice change from banana sandwiches. Ethiopian food was one of the most unusual he had tried so far.