African odyssey
An artist anticipates a summerbiking adventure and sailing voyage home.
By MARY JANE PARK
Published June 11, 2006
GULFPORT - Doug Dozark has never ridden a bicycle for more than a day. He's also never been on a sailboat.
But he's not about to let a lack of experience get in the way of the ambitious plans he and a high school buddy have to ride nearly 4,000 miles through sub-Saharan Africa during the next couple of months, then get jobs as deckhands and work their way back to the United States.
"This is definitely a first,'' said Dozark, 24, "Hopefully, not a last."
Dozark and Nick Campney, 24, both graduates of Iowa City (Iowa) High School, are scheduled to leave Chicago on July 5 on a flight to Nairobi. Their goal is to bike about 100 kilometers, or roughly 62 miles, per day, accomplishing an itinerary that includes the Serengeti National Park, Zanzibar, Victoria Falls, Capetown and Mount Kilimanjaro.
They will not attempt to climb Tanzania's highest peak. The bicycles, tents, sleeping bags, cook stoves and other gear are too heavy for achieving the ascent.
"It's not something we can prepare for on a bike trip,'' Dozark said. "We decided to see it from the ground.''
Urban thieves are one concern. "Bikes with bags on them - that's a lot of stuff to move through a lot of people.''
Another worry: chafing and saddle sores, riding injuries that can take days to mend.
The men will steer clear of politically volatile areas and won't be permitted inside the continent's major parks.
"I guess we're too edible,'' Dozark said. His chief concern is for carnivorous beasts, "a pack of hyenas that is used to running down prey and eating them.''
Dozark leaves Florida today for a weeklong trip to Marina del Rey, Calif., where he will visit friends and family and enroll in basic keelboat and cruising instruction. The goal is to be able to show certification to qualify for work aboard a sailing vessel.
Initial plans for the excursion call for a trip of 70 or 71 days and a flight back to the United States out of Johannesburg. Once they reach Africa, Dozark and Campney hope to extend their journey to 85 days, including the hoped-for sail home out of Capetown.
Bryce Courtenay's 1989 novel, The Power of One, was one inspiration for the trip, Dozark said.
The book's lead character is a British boy growing up in Africa during World War II, a lonely youngster whose close friends and mentors become older men of diverse cultures who inspire him to help the oppressed.
Another incentive was learning about Global Partners for Development, an organization devoted to economic stability, health and education in Africa.
Through pottery sales, Dozark has earned nearly half the $2,000 he hopes to raise to support women's education in Tanzania through GPFD.
The trip, he says, will be a way to make a personal connection to Africa.
"It gives me a chance to do more than send a check to a group,'' he said. One stop will be in Arusha, where he will give the money to Global Partners representatives.
Dozark graduated from the State University of New York at Potsdam, where his major was studio art: ceramics and photography.
His recent work, created at the St. Petersburg Clay Co., is available at Peg's Pizza-Cantina, 5010 Gulfport Blvd. S. The restaurant, which features a unique combination of thin-crust pizza and Mexican dishes, is owned by Dozark's mother, Peggy Wesselink, and her husband Tony Dodson. Both were tenured political science professors at SUNY Potsdam. More recently, they have taught at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Dozark, who said he is in charge of food ordering and the pizza part of the menu, is training another person to fill in for him while he is away.
To prepare, he read numerous bicycle maintenance manuals and African travel guides and got the required inoculations.
His ride, a Specialized brand cyclocross, is equipped with four panniers, or saddlebags. His travel kit includes spare bicycle spokes, cables and chain and inner-tube patch kits.
He will take several cameras but has yet to acquire a satellite phone.
"I'm indifferent to having a phone,'' he said recently at the restaurant. "My family wants me to have one."
His mother nodded in the affirmative.
"I'll probably be nervous for the next month,'' Dozark acknowledged, simultaneously eager for the trip to begin.
"It's almost like traveling by train but more slowly, and without the creature comforts.''