Gert Duson and Elisabeth Haldermans
A few years ago, Gert and Elisabeth met through a mutual friend who had previously participated in the Touareg Trail. Since then, they have been an inseparable team and the driving force behind a handful of adventurous expeditions in Africa, including the Togo Jungle Challenge for 5 years and the Togo Jungle Challenge for 10 years. Morocco Desert Challenge. Gert is the Africa specialist of the duo. After many years of intense solo travel, mountaineering and humanitarian expeditions, he and Christophe Porteman drove among others Brussels-Cape Town with a 2CV and Brussels-Dakar with a Renault R4. With personal experience in now 37 African countries and numerous trans-Saharan expeditions to his name, Gert became a guest speaker for the Expedition Advisory Team of the Royal Geographic Society in London. Gert is also the initiator and driving force behind the 2CV rally Touareg-Trail, the Dakar Adventure Challenge and the Morocco Desert Challenge ( 400 participants) . His Brussels-Cape Town adventures appeared in book form and can be read in detail in “A strange duck in Africa”, published by Lannoo . Around this theme, Gert gave more than 190 speaking evenings in Flanders and the Netherlands.
Elisabeth, in turn, is the passionate cyclist of both. Some six years ago, while exploring the Touareg Trail, the idea arose to do something with cycling in Africa. With Gert's Africa knowledge and his good contacts in Togo and Benin, it had to be possible to work out a mountain bike challenge there. Meanwhile, this concept has grown into one of the biggest mountain bike events taking place on West African soil. Every year, more than 120 participants sign up to take part.
In order to leave as little as possible to chance, Gert and Elisabeth can count on the unconditional support of a passionate team of some 20 employees (including reconnaissance teams, cooks, doctors, nurses,mechanics, photographers, drivers, GPS specialists, sports coaches, etc.).
To keep the logistics running smoothly, Gert and Elisabeth have several trucks (including for catering, technical assistance and material transport) and several all-terrain vehicles.
