UPDATED March 9, 2026 BY Guest Author IN Tour d'Afrique no comments The Wind Will Carry UsMasoud Riyazati is the Content Creator on the 2026 Tour dAfrique Cycling Expedition.For cycling in Africa you need three hands: two to hold the handlebars and one to wave at people. Kids, elders, men, women everyone waves.One of the most fascinating aspects of cycling here is the interaction with locals. It feels different from anywhere else. People want to know who you are, especially the children. The conversation almost always begins with the same question: Whats my name? their way of asking your name. The next question is usually about our destination and when I say Cape Town, their eyes widen.Sometimes I catch a small spark in them, something innocent and precious. It makes me wonder: what if that brief interaction plants a seed of possibility? Perhaps one day one of those children will remember this moment and think, I want to travel the world just like those strangers. Often the interaction is even simpler than that, just a cheerful good morning, even if its already afternoon or evening.Most of the time we ride on the same main road that everyone else uses. There are no dedicated bike trails like in Europe or North America. That luxury does not exist here. At first it might sound like a disadvantage, but in reality it becomes a privilege. You share the road with everyone: trucks, motorcycles, rusty bikes, children walking to school, women carrying large baskets of goods on their heads. Sometimes you see a man standing by the road holding a big machete while casually eating bananas. When he notices you, he lifts the same hand holding the machete and waves with a big smile. It gives you goosebumps.Then there are the three-wheel taxis one of the most common forms of transportation here. Our tour assistant Will once described them perfectly: they move like headless chickens. No coordination, no awareness of what is happening around them. Here, very quickly you learn to adapt.Out here you witness life directly not through a screen or a staged scene. Cinema has trained us to see Africa as montage: dramatic landscapes, quick cuts, sweeping music. But Africa reveals itself differently, through daily labor and endurance. On Tour dAfrique you experience this continent with your own eyes. No one is performing. No one is acting. Everything feels like a spontaneous gesture.To be honest, it reminds me of the films of Abbas Kiarostami, the great Iranian filmmaker who rarely relied on staged or scripted scenes. His films are not performances; they are quiet portrayals of life as it unfolds. In one of his movies The Wind Will Carry Us, nature is the main protagonist, and the human characters shape themselves around it. The landscape carries the meaning. The hills do not explain themselves. The wind does not symbolize anything. It simply moves, and people move within it.Out here the road feels the same. With every kilometre something shifts inside you. Slowly you begin to understand that you are not the centre of the frame. The landscape reminds you constantly that you are only passing through. Nature has been here long before you arrived, and it will remain long after you leave. In many parts of the world we believe we are the force of nature. We shape nature. Here that idea quickly fades. Nature does not negotiate. It simply decides.One day, while we were cycling from Babati to Singida, we were caught in a massive rainstorm. Within minutes the road flooded and everything turned into water and mud. A few days later, on the first day we entered Malawi, we witnessed the force of nature again. The night before we arrived, heavy rain had fallen. As far as the eye could see, the land had turned into a lake. Houses were half underwater. People were sitting along the roadside, their farms drowned beneath the water.And yet, in the middle of that flooded landscape, children were swimming in the muddy water laughing, playing, waving at us, even inviting us to join them. You need to come here with an open mind and heart and leave your judgement behind in order to understand this life.We are now in the fourth country of the Tour dAfrique, and the journey still stretches far ahead. By now the riders and the team have begun to grow closer. Personal stories and struggles are shared more openly. Small riding groups have formed. Coke stops have become our rituals along the road. Conversations last deeper into the evening. And by now, I believe everyone finally knows everyone elses name.RELATEDTOURTour d'Afrique The trans-African crossing from Cairo to Cape Town has long been one of the worlds epic journeys and an iconic goal for global adventurers. Over... Related Posts:Leave a Comment for "The Wind Will Carry Us" Cancel reply