As fate would have it, The Munga, a semi-supported 1,000km mountain bike race through the remote Karoo in South Africa was coming up, and a few days before the start he was riding with World Tour road racer and endurance racing legend Lachlan Morton, who had flown in for the race.

“I was with him the day all of the flights got cancelled and he actually made it out. He flew business class via Ethiopia to get home, and he gave me his entry to the race. I just had a few days to prepare, and barely made the start line,” he says.

The Munga is one of the toughest mountain bike races on earth.

“I went out pretty hard and was leading the race with another guy after about 150 to 200km. Then we ran out of water and were really dehydrated,” Wallace admits. But he soon discovered how the race lived up to its gruelling reputation.

“I had a heatstroke. They tried to pull me out of the race because I had this weird feeling in my chest.”

Quitting, however, is not in his DNA. “I slept for a night, and was basically in last place. My body bounced back and I had a decent ride and finished about 29th.”

Still working on the assumption that restrictions would soon ease he pedalled by bike from South Africa to Namibia for the Desert Dash, a mountain bike race right across the country, and then tried to make his own pre-Christmas dash for Canada.

“On December 13th I tried to go home, but Canada wouldn’t accept a PCR test from Namibia or South Africa, which was insane. Instead I could have flown to Ethiopia (where there’s a civil war) and then come back and flown to Canada and done 14 days of quarantine,” he says.

There was also another potential option to get out of Africa.

“I could go to Tanzania, which was a green country – because they don’t report Covid. I could have partied in Zanzibar for two weeks and flown home and not had to quarantine.”

When he reached the island he soon found there was indeed trouble in paradise. “When I got to Zanzibar I saw that Omicron was everywhere. I was really in danger.”

Not wanting to take the virus back to Canada, he came to a decision. “I decided to stay where I was. They don’t worry about Covid any more in Africa, they have bigger things to worry about and so just get on with it.”

Which he says gave him a sense of freedom. Determined to make the most of things he rode off in search of a higher challenge, Kilimanjaro, where he then set the fastest known time for biking to the roof of Africa.

“The locals said it needs to be 20 to 24 hours, but I was thinking it could be done in under 10, which he duly proved.

“I did it in seven hours up and 1.55 down.” His time of eight hours and 55 minutes shattered all existing fastest known times. From Kilimanjaro he biked through the famous Maasai Mara, around the Serengeti and on to what he planned to be his final destination – Iten.

Perched high in the Kenyan highlands, Iten is a place well known for producing many of the world’s fastest runners, especially marathon runners.

Iten sits high above the Rift Valley at 2,400 metres above sea level. With hopes of starting his race season in April, he spent a month adjusting to altitude differences.

“Everyone stays in these running camps and compounds. It’s not like other places where there’s a bit of a party going on, everyone is really focused on running.”

Although the area is known for running, cycling is slowly taking off.

“There are some fast Kenyan riders there. I was surprised. I think it’s going to become a hotbed for cycling. There’s a good mix of mountain biking, gravel and roads.”

Having spent many months stranded in a Buddhist monastery beneath Mount Everest during the early months of the pandemic, and then spending six months riding around Africa, he sees many similarities between the experiences.

“The African people have been so amazing. I wasn’t sure about going there because people are so poor, but they are so friendly.

“It reminded me a lot of Nepal. People are so poor but open and welcoming. I never felt in danger, and that’s what struck me – how open it was.”

He also notes how wildly different attitudes towards the pandemic can be.

“It seemed to make more sense how they dealt with things in third world countries. I’ve seen how much it’s hurt poor people around the world, and I think it’s caused more economic damage in that way. Talking to locals, they’ve lost family to Covid, but they know they can’t carry on like that.”

Despite the situations he found himself in he’s thankful for how it played out.

“If it hadn’t been for Omicron I would have missed out on this big African trip.”