Mind-blowing adventure as Africa reveals its true heart to Irish cyclist

THEY say that it's only mad dogs and Englishmen that go out in the midday sun, but it doesn't stop there and the saying is wrong because it could apply to any of us, with important lessons.

- GREG HUTSON

Last week, Irishman Liam Lupton-Smith left Durban to fly back home to Delgany, a charming village 25km from Dublin, after spending 15 months on a curiosity-driven wandering through "voyage of discovery", that saw him cycle the length of Africa, chronicling his discoveries online, making some eyeopening discoveries about the goodness of Africa.

Engaging, tall and lankly with a shock of a red beard, Lupton-Smith, 25, is an engaging sort, keen to tell of his adventures that took him the length of Africa's West Coast.

With a university background in mathematics and fresh from a master's in philosophy at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Lupton-Smith's wanderlust got the better of him and he could no longer resist the urge to scratch the travel itch, having been inspired by "crazy" online tales and videos.

If they could do it, he reasoned, so could he, and money didn't have to be an issue.

He began by hitchhiking down to and through Belgium and France, learning French along the way in preparation for Africa's francophone countries, and doing odd jobs to save a little extra - picking grapes for three weeks, and helping build a cabin in the woods.

The real journey began in Valencia, Spain, where he bought a cheap bike, left it to the shop owners to fit out as they saw fit and hopped on a ferry to cross the Mediterranean from Almería, Spain, to Nador, in Morocco, where the real journey began.

From there, he more or less followed the coast down to Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, DRC, Angola, Namibia, and then South Africa via Kamiesberg and Namaqualand.

"My family (his mom is Irish, but his father was schooled at Hilton College and his aunt is married to a farmer in the Ladysmith area) flew out to meet me in Cape Town."