Author Description

Half of the proceeds of this travel memoir will go in support of the TDA Foundation. The TDA Foundation donates bicycles and supports many of the remote villages you will travel through in this memoir. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wake up in a foreign country in the midst of a revolution? To be held at gunpoint? To consider climbing into a decaying camel in order to survive? You will begin this memoir in Egypt, at the beginning of a 12,000 kilometer bicycle trek down Africa. In Sudan, mount a ferry boat loaded to the brim with unusual cargo and then cycle through camel graveyards. Ethiopian acts of theft and camaraderie will boggle your mind. Rattle your bones as you drive your bicycle over seemingly impossible lava rock roads in Kenya. Start a dance party on the streets of Tanzania with some local hipsters. Don’t forget to hold in your farts in Malawi then exhale and fall in love at Victoria Falls in Zambia. The elephants will outnumber you in Botswana as you swerve to avoid a few stampeding on the main highway. Shed your clothing in Namibia before settling into South Africa with your new life. You are closer to quiet.Below is an excerpt from Closer to Quiet. Camels invented the poker face. Camels would rather die than reveal their hand to their herders. Expert bluffers, camels will maintain their appearance of grandeur until the very last breath. When they go down, they take you with them. In Egypt, we all knew to avoid camel safaris. We would secretly giggle when our paths crossed a camel safari, watching all the tourists walking painstakingly behind the unencumbered camels. Not only are camels supremely uncomfortable, they are also dangerous. One moment, a camel is chauffeuring you around the desert with zero signs of poor health, the next moment the camel is keeling over dead and you are riding its death to the ground. Many tourists have been pinned under dead camels, some died tragically. Every time I saw a camel I was reminded of death, how