UPDATED April 10, 2026 BY Guest Author IN Tour d'Afrique 1 comment The Sheltering DesertMasoud Riyazati is the Content Creator on the 2026 Tour dAfrique Cycling Expedition.How does it feel to wake up and have about an inch of sand in your tent, on your skin, and even some in your teeth? Dont get me wrong. This is not a complaint. You sleep under millions of stars. You wake up to the most glorious sunrise. And then you have to shake the sand off your body and your tent. This is the Namib Desert..We have had an unbelievable experience since entering Namibia. Unpredictable weather with extreme rainfall and strong winds. Flooded roads that are usually supposed to be dry. This kind of weather is very unusual here. For example, the day we wanted to see Deadvlei, a place known for its ancient dead trees surrounded by bright orange sand dunes, the road was flooded in a way that made it impossible to reach. Our rest day in Sesriem was its own adventure. The whole night, sleeping in our tents, it felt like they might fly into the sky at any moment because of the extreme wind. When we woke up, the sand had covered everything.And when you think, well, Im going to clean this and go ahead with my day, the rain starts. But not just any kind of rain. The wild African rain, where the sand turns into mud, getting into everything. You see everyone running in a frenzy, trying to save their equipment. When its all over, you stand there, look around, and ask yourself: Why am I here?I think whatever we had experienced so far on this Tour dAfrique was a kind of training, preparing us for this, for Namibia and its otherworldly desert.Riding through the Namib Desert, I couldnt help but think of The Sheltering Desert, a 1957 memoir by the German geologist Henno Martin, who hid in the desert to avoid internment during World War II. There is a connection between his story and ours. Survival, adaptation, endurance. But there is also a contrast. He was here to escape something.But why are we here?I look around and see people in sweat-soaked jerseys, sunburned skin, and red marks from mosquito bites. People who most likely had comfortable lives back home, far from this kind of discomfort. That curiosity led me to ask riders a simple question: Why are you here?Usually, they pause. They look into the distance before answering. For many, it is about experiencing this continent firsthand. Learning something about Africa. Discovering new places, new perspectives. But for some, the answer goes deeper.Gijs and LoesGijs gave me an answer I did not expect. I share it with his permission. He told me that he and his wife always wanted children, but that it would not happen for them. So they asked themselves a different question: What else can life be?They came here to fill that emptiness. Not by escaping it, but by transforming it.Through cycling.Through people.Through challenge.His answer made it clear that some of us are here to confront our limits, and what better place than a desert for that?The desert is an unforgiving landscape. It strips you down to your bare essentials and teaches you the meaning of resilience. The temperature fluctuates drastically. The terrain is harsh, and each surface has its own character. Endless gravel roads burn your eyes after hours of riding. Corrugations test your patience, and each mile leaves a visible trace on your body. Some days the road resists you, forcing your legs to push harder and your body to endure more. Other days, with a tailwind, it feels as if the desert itself is guiding you forward. Here, adaptation becomes your language. By now, we have learned to camp wild, ration water, shower cold with a small bucket, and accept mosquitoes as part of daily life.But at the same time, the desert offers something rare:space, silence, and clarity.Out here, you do not just ride through the desert. You become part of it. Cycling allows you to feel the history of the land beneath you.The Namib Desert is one step before we reach our final point. The end of Tour dAfrique in Cape Town, where we can look at each other and say: we did it. But not yet. For now, we stay focused on the road.There are still a couple of weeks ahead, and the final stretch of any TDA tour is always the most emotional. Every morning and every night, you feel it. We are getting closer to the end. And that is a strange feeling.You think about home. Your family, your garden, your coffee, your food, your favorite places, the simple things you miss. But at the same time, you know that going back means this will end. To understand what that truly feels like, we have to wait a little longer.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 Sheltering Desert" Cancel reply