Law alums hit the road for epic African bicycling adventure
After meeting on the first day of law school, Don Layh and Don Buckingham have found that a shared love of cycling has helped keep their friendship strong.
By Don Buckingham (LLB'86)What could sitting down in a campus lecture hall in Saskatoon have in common with drinking an ice-cold beer by Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia? Well, for two guys named Don from the Class of '86, quite a lot actually.
Since our time together at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in the 1980s, Don Layh and I have bonded over our simple and bizarre love of bicycling and the great outdoors. This shared passion has provided much of the adventure and camaraderie that has sustained our friendship for more than 40 years.
We met on a balmy fall day in September 1983, at our very first lecture on our very first day of law school. Don L, a school teacher from the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border town of Marchwell, happened to grab a seat beside me; at the time I was a perpetual student from the Alberta/Saskatchewan border town of Lloydminster. Over a beer at Louis’ after class we became fast friends and I soon became a regular at the Layh household for supper, which just happened to be on my way home from classes.
Fast-forward a few years when graduation pushed us off in very different directions. Don L took up the life of an honest legal practitioner, first with a big Saskatoon firm and then as a sole practitioner near his hometown. He opened offices in both Langenburg, SK and Russell, MB, becoming the guru of personal property security and general financing law in both provinces and later a Queen’s Bench, now King’s Bench, judge in Yorkton.
I, on the other hand, started my quest to see the world and almost immediately went off to do graduate studies in international law at Cambridge, England, then some years later completed my doctorate in law jointly in France and Canada. Ultimately, I pursued a career as a law professor and public servant, mostly in Ottawa, specializing in food and agriculture law and policy.
Despite our unrelated geographical and professional endeavours, we two Dons continued to find excuses to get together, including surprise visits for each other’s important events: I appeared when Don received his Queen’s Counsel appointment (as it then was) and when he was sworn in as a justice on the Court of Queen’s Bench (as it also then was); Don was there when I was bestowed my doctorate in law and later when I was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2021.
Our first cycling trip was the so-called Champagne Tour for my 50th birthday. For seven days, we toured the vineyards and World War One trenches of the Champagne region of France, sampling a different bubbly every day. Next, there was the tour of Italy’s Amalfi Coast for hill-climbing and pasta-eating challenges.
In 2024, it was a 500 km tour in the meatatarian Chilean Lake District of the Andes Mountains in South America.
But this year, Don L, 71, dreamed of something even bigger – a bike trip from the top of Africa to the bottom of the continent. And he invited me, now 66, along. Why not? We have cumulatively already visited over 100 countries, what with my work and pleasure trips bringing my tally to 70-plus while Don’s stood at 30-plus. But this next cycling adventure would take four months and cover thousands of kilometres.
Soon the next cycling deal between the two Dons was struck – together we would do 10,000 total kilometres of cycling in Africa alright but Don L would do the more ambitious part: racking up 9,000 km on the full trip from Cairo to Cape Town while I chose to do 1,000 km in the middle of the tour, which would see us cycle through Malawi and Zambia together.
It was quite an adventure – average days of cycling varied from 82 to 217 km, with temperatures from 15 to 40 degrees C as we traversed mountains and deserts, encountered torrential rains and blowing sands.
The experience was nothing short of incredible – with birds, butterflies and African animals so close by (sometimes too close). We met school children eager to practice their English (“Hooooooow aaaaaare youuuuu?”) and when we responded, the youngsters would run away laughing their heads off at these two white geysers wrapped in cycling Lycra, sporting helmets and fingerless cycling gloves. “Why would these old guys be doing this crazy ride anyway?” the Zambian kids must have wondered.
Why? Well, to see the towering Pyramids of Egypt, the majesty of Victoria Falls, Ugandan rain forests, Namibian deserts, and rolling, verdant hills of Zambia. The Southern Hemisphere stars were absolutely exhilarating and awe-inspiring. Seeing Africa’s abundant zebras, elephants, and monkeys from a bicycle was an absolute thrill. How entrancing to hear the birds and insects of the African savannah.
The smell of charcoal smoke from cooking fires everywhere along the route was intoxicating and the meals prepared over these same charcoal fires were an otherworldly culinary experience. (Even the crocodile pizza was jaw-droppingly tasty!) To touch and feel the hard-packed African soil under an air mattress and sleeping bag after a hard day of cycling made one feel truly grounded with the universe.
A chance encounter in a law school lecture more than 40 years ago connected a couple of farm boys from opposite sides of Saskatchewan, neither having travelled much outside its borders. But 100 or so countries and many thousands of cycled kilometres later, it doesn’t seem that the encounter was so accidental after all. Perhaps it is more reminiscent of the famous last line of the movie Casablanca: “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” And so it has been.
So where shall we venture next on our bicycles? I’m lobbying Don for a trip to the Orient, Japan maybe. However, after finishing his 9,000 km Tour d’Afrique ride on May 4, he wants to let his butt and legs recover before he even thinks of another cycling adventure. I’ve told him I have time to wait . . . and time to start practising some Japanese greetings. Konnichiwa!