Ipole, Tanzania

Félix and Martin: 
the world turns around cycling 

It is the story of 2 friends, Félix et Martin, who leaves in January 2020 to discover southern Africa, cycling, and realizing a documentary on how human beings live together with animals. But with the coronavirus …

Imagine… living your dream as a kid. Félix Dubois and Martin Blanchard, two students – and friends – at Kedge Business School, on the Bordeaux campus, decided to live a six months sports and cultural adventure. Their goal? To realize a documentary on human beings and animal cohabitation in southern Africa. They needed a few months of preparations, got partnerships, and created the association “Wanyama”, which allow them to have 20 000 euros. The two friends and their bikes “Aventon Kijote” arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on January 15th, 2020. Martin never went to Africa before, Félix knows Africa since his childhood. Their trip? Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique – where they stopped to surf for a month – and South Africa. A brand new experience for both of them.

There is a very intimate link between cycling, nature, and discovery of new places: “ When you cycle, you smell scents, you hear noises, everything is simple and accessible, it is easy to connect with people and talk to them” says the two friends. When cycling, Félix and Martin have met Masaïs people, shepherds, rangers who work on national parks reservations, and various tribes … The documentary makers know how to be discreet behind the camera to let people express themselves freely, get their point of view into the light.

Et puis, partout, la pandémie du Covid-19 fait rage, alors que Félix et Martin sont coupés d’une actualité qui se rappelle à eux, mi-mars 2020, dans un petit village Ipole, en Tanzanie. Martin porte un tee-shirt à l’effigie d’une certaine marque de bière. “Corona, corona !” s’affolent les villageois, la main sur la bouche. Martin rit, mais trouve moins drôle quand on refuse de lui vendre des produits à l’épicerie. Grâce à un poste de télé, lui et Félix comprennent alors la situation. Face à un choix cornélien, tiraillés entre raison et passion, les deux jeunes amis décident de rentrer en France. De retour, les deux potes décident de continuer leur surf-trip à vélo de Pornic jusqu’au sud de la côte Basque en longeant, cette fois-ci, les belles pistes cyclables “VélOcéan” et “VélOdyssée”. Ils continuent de partager leurs aventures sur le compte Instagram Wanyama_Report et réfléchissent déjà à leur prochain départ pour l’Afrique. Comme un défi lancé au virus, pour rouler vers la forme de soi et la rencontre d’Autrui.

Discover the video of this great adventure

July 2020

Riverside Touring

Since 2016, a team of traveling and cycling passionate people created a brand with a wide range of products for tomorrow’s trips adventures “Voyage à Vélo”. Bags and bikes are tested within hundreds of kilometers by the Touring and Bikepacking Riverside test teams to guarantee resistance and modularity to discover the green lanes of our country or to go on a world tour.