The fourth annual Tour d'Afrique will begin on Jan. 14, 2006. It's an 11,900-kilometer bicycle race and expedition across Africa, and the event - which has both professional and amateur participants - will include 99 days of racing.
That's 120 kilometers traveled per day, on average - and recent Tufts graduate Danny Gold (LA '05), a native of White Plains, N.Y., will be one of the amateur cyclists making the journey.
Gold, who majored in English and minored in political science while at Tufts, is currently working three days a week at a real estate office to make enough money to pay for his trip. Since graduating, he has been living in New York.
"One of my brothers, who is in his third year at Fordham Law, lives in the East Village," Gold said. "I've spent most of my weekends since graduating at his apartment."
When asked about his years at Tufts, Gold described himself as having been a "slacker" whose best memories are of his nights - and early mornings - hanging out with close friends. Gold said that during his four years in college he "was involved in a few things, however, off and on."
The two major commitments that he stuck with were Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity (he was a brother) and Fun Fridays, a six-week after-school program for disadvantaged children.
During his senior year, Gold was also able to bring his grandmother, who is a Holocaust survivor, to speak at Tufts during the Holocaust Memorial Week.
So what inspired Gold - an average young man who loves reading, listening to music and watching movies - to put his life on hold to bike around Africa? "I think part of the allure of me going on this trip is that I can relate pretty well to the many apathetic members of the student body, because I was and still am one of those kids," Gold said.
"If I was a really serious-minded, dedicated student and athlete, the idea of me going on this trip would not seem as interesting," Gold said. "But as a slacker representative of my friends and the people like me, I think that I'm going to bring a really unique perspective to this experience."
Gold, who has been riding 30 to 40 miles three to four days a week, admitted that he has not been training nearly as hard as he should. He added, however, that there are many reasons why he wants to do this tour.
"I am really into traveling and seeing the world, and my abroad experience junior year in Madrid definitely helped with that," Gold said. "It gave me the travel bug."
Gold said that he is now ready for something more than just weekend visits to European cities. "I have always had a very romantic image of Africa in my mind, ever since I was a young kid listening to my uncle tell stories about it," he said. (His uncle, Henry Gold, co-founded the Tour d'Afrique.)
Gold believes that people are able to gain a whole new perspective once away from their comfort zone for so long. "It's like looking at your life from someone else's shoes," he said. "I need that, especially now at this transition period of my life. That may sound kind of corny and clich?©¤¬ but I mean it."
Gold also said that a trip like this can make one a better person - and can help one develop a stronger appreciation of what he or she has.
"[A trip like this] can only help you become a more complete and relaxed person," he said. "I really admire the way my uncle is completely calm and assertive under pressure. I feel like this trip will help me become like that, because panicking in the middle of Africa will get you nowhere."
As for his life after Africa, Gold says that he hopes to write about his journey and his experience. Concerning his future career plans, though, he remains undecided.
"I just know that I'm not ready to accept the fact that I'll be working in an office cubicle for the next 40 years," he said. "Some people say it's immature, but I like to think it's youthful idealism."
