A professor at the U of MN is biking riding across Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. I have always wanted to travel from Cape to Cairo (Grogan and many others have done the route since), but not walking or biking. A nice 4×4 would do for the 11,000 odd miles.
Anyways, Dr Paul Porter is biking with a group of about 50 people, is offering a class at the U at the same time and also blogging!
Checkout his blog at: http://paulporter.wordpress.com/
Here is the blurb the U released:
Paul Porter, a professor in the department of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota will be teaching a class at the U while traveling by bicycle through ten African countries — starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa from Jan. 10 through May 9.
http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/NS_details.php?release=081217_3859&page=NS
Here is also a list of the other racers:
http://www.tourdafrique.com/tourdafrique/profiles
Good luck Dr. Paul!