Well, Tom and I are back from our cycle ride in Africa. We had a great time and there’s lots of memorable highlights:
- The exhaustion and triumph after achieving a difficult day’s riding
- Tom dancing with the Masai warriors – jumping up and down while holding a lethally sharp spear
- The dust that got everywhere
- The strange and wonderful bathroom and toilet arrangements
- Seeing the blue Indian Ocean at the end of the trip and diving into it in our cycling clothes
- The friendship within our group aged from 24 to 73 and from England, New Zealand, USA, Finland and South Africa.
- Being warned when we camped in Ambeseli national park that we might find a pile of elephant dung by the side of the tent in the morning, as a local elephant had taken to walking over/through the electric fence
- The look on the face of one of the Masai men when I explained that I was a vegetarian
- Having to get off the bike because a giraffe was crossing the road ahead
- Seeing a cheetah cub with a face covered in blood from the kill it was eating – this from the safety of a vehicle
- Eating a chocolate cake made in a camp fire
- Experiencing earthquake tremors while lying in a tent
Unfortunately I had a spectacular fall of my bike on the third day of the ride and badly injured my right hand, so it meant I was unable to ride for three days. Even when I got back on my bike it was very painful. Tom completed some very difficult off-road riding, even though he’d never done anything like that before. So, we both in different ways had a very challenging but satisfying time.
We have now raised over 4500 GB Pounds towards our total of GB Pounds 5000 and we have more promised, so we are in sight of achieving our goal. Thanks to all of you for the part you have played in helping us achieve this.
You can have a look at how our sponsorship is going at our fund raising page.
If you’d like to try an adventure like this, I highly recommend the company we went with – Escape Adventures based in New Zealand. They offer trips in Africa, South America, New Zealand, China and Tibet. You can view all these rides on their web site.
