I rode into Arusha just as the sun was setting behind Kilimanjaro.

It had been another long day, ten hours on the bike with traffic jams for the last two hours, the first I have seen this trip. More stunning scenery along the way and more “Oh Wow” moments that made it all worth while.

I had stopped in a small roadside shack and shared a coke with George, a Kenyan guy who had also rested up. He invited me to stay with him when I pass through his town but the schedule is getting tight. Ah, the finish is only a week away! Nope, not ready to think about that yet.

It was a decent road for most of the way but there was a stretch of construction that meant a diversion for about 10 K on dirt tracks. Three weeks ago I rode my first African dirt track in total terror, as the bike wobbled all over the place, legs flying and heart pumping. Today my only thought was “Dirt road. Awesome!” and I flew over it at 50KPH because speed makes the bumps easier. Did I just say that? I think I’ve come along way in the last while. Literally.

It was also deserted. There was an hour or so where the mountains rose on one side and the plains stretched out on the other for what looked like well over 100Km. I could have sworn that for that hour I was the only person on Earth.

Coming into Arusha brought back so many memories of being here 13 months ago and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with my daughter Sarah and a wonderful team of friends. I’ll never forget that night that we summited. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. The mantra for Sarah and I if things get tough now is “it will never be as hard as the last night on Kilimanjaro”.

Last year we never saw the mountain before we climbed it other than from the air on the way in. It was raining when we got to Arusha so it was covered in cloud. Today it was out in all its glory though and it looked …HUGE! I think if I had seen the view I had today last year, I would have turned round and got back on the plane.

We didn’t see that view though, so we went ahead. It was a wonderful first few days but it got harder and harder as we climbed it. The final two days, sheer will power and determination took over. That last summit night I was sick and a little delirious from the altitude but I just kept my eyes on Sarah’s backpack [she was a rock star] and put one foot in front of the other. It was hell on earth, passing people who had dropped out and were in a seriously bad state. Until we got to the summit that is. Then it was heaven. Sarah and I summited together and we have that memory of looking out over the rooftop of Africa that will be with us forever.

Climbing Kilimanjaro taught me something about life that has been confirmed by this ride. That life can be unbelievably tough and that no one knows what we are feeling unless they are walking in our shoes, carrying our pack. We want to give up sometimes. Obstacles and roadblocks get in our way and we have to face them or turn back. We can say enough, surrender and go home. Or we can persevere, not knowing for sure whether that last rise is in fact the peak, or if there is more to come.

Life is hard sometimes. For whatever reason, it just seems impossible to scale the mountain in front of us. But we can get past the tough times. It just takes courage and sheer determination to keep going. If we just keep putting one foot in front of the other, sooner or later we get to the summit. And believe me, the view is spectacular.

I’m going to stay an extra night in Arusha to fix some bike issues, nothing major just a few things that need a day to sort out. I’m loving the backpacker hotel I am staying at. A monastic room but the coolest people and a rooftop restaurant to die for. All for $12!

I’ll wave off the guys climbing the mountain tomorrow. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

 

 

Thanks to all of you who have been reading this blog for a while and a warm welcome to the many new people who have signed up. It's great to have you along for the ride.

I hope you enjoy the updates and also reading Andrews one and only blog. He thinks he's the strong silent type. By the way i have a credible witness [ Hs father] who tells me he tried my bike out when I was at a camp reception and fell off.

For those of you new to the ride, our reason for doing this isn't just to have fun and adventure, but to raise funds for our organizations, The Youth Hub and Wellspring. We'd love you to find out more by checking the about page and make a donation at the links to our sites on the sponsor page. The direct link to the Wellspring donation page is here and I'd love you to help me raise the remaining $4,300 i need to support our work in a school for an entire year, giving around 2,000 children  a  quality Christian values based education that will change their lives.

8 more days to go for me. Just hitting the road to Arusha. See you there [ If  have internet!]

 

I left Mbeya this morning and climbed up to nearly 6,000 feet again. It was cold as I rode through the mountains and the wind was blowing so hard that the bike was leaning into it. I had on every layer of clothing I could lay my hands on and I was still shivering. But the view was spectacular so I didn't mind, even when one of the side panels blew off. An easy fix by the road and then, onward.

That is until I was stopped by a rather portly and buffoonish Policeman who signalled me to pull over at a road block. Never a good sign. I didn’t park in the right place and he was talking on the cell phone so he gave me a push on the shoulder in the right direction, something I took a bit of offence to. On checking my papers he found them all in order so he did the obvious thing and offered me his sister. I explained that as nice as his sister was [she didn't look that great really and I don't think she was his sister], I had a beautiful wife already. Then he asked what I was doing and on telling him about Wellspring and how this ride is designed to help kids get a quality education in Rwanda, he said “ And now you will help me”. “Sure, need a push start, some washing done?” Is what I wanted to say, but I knew what he meant and I told him I could not help him. We had a Mexican stand off and in the end I just said “Look, you said my papers are good, I’m leaving”. He laughed and let me go but it really annoyed me. I took a long way round to get back on the road, up a hill beside the police station and on noticing he was standing by a big pile of dust and rubbish, I somehow seemed to lose throttle control as, with a very sincere shouted apology, I accelerated very close to him and covered him in dust, which I'm sure wasn't as spectacular in real life as it is in my memory, but it did  cause two truckers who had also been pulled over to collapse in heaps of laughter as I rode away. It's good to bring joy to the world.

Sadly the next check was not so buffoonish and they took 40,000 shillings off me [about 18 dollars]. Funnily enough I didn’t get a receipt as the money was tucked away.

I know this is normal here and I have experienced it countless times [though not in Rwanda, one of the many things I love about that country], but I hate corruption. It tarnishes all it touches, adds to the dysfunctional society and makes it harder for honest people to be the transformative agents here they could be, so I rode away in a bit of a huff.

Descending from 6,000 feet to 1,000 on a wonderful 15 k windy road with stunning views, I entered the Valley of the Baobabs, Africa’s famous upside down trees, a valley that stretched for miles in a gorgeous setting. As I left the valley, the scenery changed and became way more verdant, a lot like the Tanzania I remembered. Stopping to grab a quick samosa and a Coke at a road side stand “All the way from Cape Town? Aye aye aye!]. I could feel myself getting a little tired so I put on my iPod to stay alert. It never fails and I danced along to Mumford and Tom Cochrane. Life is a highway…mine actually is.

And that’s when the magic began.

I entered Mikumi National Park at 4.30, thinking I’d zoom through the 50K in 30 minutes to get to Morogoro but it didn’t work out that way. Everywhere I looked I saw beauty. Straight away I came across a massive herd of what I think were Impala [Andrew would know if he were here], then Zebras by the hundred. And then I found myself shouting GIRAFFES! I love Giraffes. I never knew there were this many in the world.

I literally couldn’t go more than a kilometer without some new wonder coming into view. And all the while my iPod was playing the most wonderful accompaniment that seemed to have been designed just for this moment. [Thanks Louise].

It all became too much when “You make beautiful things” came on just as I saw the largest herd of Antelope I’d ever seen, right up against the road I was on. I got off to take a photo and was absolutely overcome with the moment. I know it might sound stupid and soppy, but taking off my helmet I yelled along with the song at the top of my voice, partly to entertain them and partly to the God who makes it all. It was a sublime moment, a life memory, and there seemed to be a lot of dust in my eye….

I never dreamed I would see so much beauty on this trip or feel so much sheer joy and inspiration as my soul connects with this beautiful creation God has designed. He truly has made beautiful things.

Tomorrow, I head to Arusha for the second time in 13 months. It's a long ride but I can’t wait to see what amazing thing comes next.

Yep. A day of two half’s. The second half was the one I’ll remember forever.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Till now I’ve enjoyed Andy’s trip updates as much as I hope you have. I can vouch for his well-told stories. Almost all of them are true.

This post comes from Kasungu National Park in Malawi near the Zambia border. It took my dad and I two hours of bumping along some patchy dirt roads to get here but it’s already been totally worth the effort. I’m sitting next to a lake watching herds of hippo and elephant graze along the shore, two fish eagles building their nest, ground hornbills pecking at whatever ground hornbills peck at, and pied kingfishers hovering over the shallow waters giving local fish good reason to stay hidden in the reeds. Leopard have been spotted in the campsite recently so we’ll see what happens tonight. There is no one else around. It is so peaceful.

Tomorrow I start the long haul back to Johannesburg and then Cape Town via Zambia and Zimbabwe – three legs of about 750k’s each. It’s a bit disappointing to have turned back from heading towards Rwanda but I’m also feeling good about the decision not to carry on.
There were a few reasons behind the decision: first, I had some really good times reconnecting with youth and church leaders in Zimbabwe – most of whom I had met on our first Wordspace tour through Southern Africa in 2013. It brought home to me that, in terms of forging connections with local communities, the Youth Hub’s focus really is more in Southern Africa than further north. Second, we have a brand new staff team who have been working bravely on their own for the past three weeks. It’s time to get back and be part of shaping the next phase of the Youth Hub’s work with them. Third, our fundraising efforts didn’t go as well as I’d hoped which meant the costs of carrying on – and getting myself and the bike back home again – would have been harder to justify. Fail well and carry on, right?

It’s been good (and – I can’t lie – hilarious at times) watching Andy progress from newby bike rider to someone who is more than capable of cruising through just about any kind of road Africa can throw at you. The KLR 650 he’s clearly grown to love has once again proved its reliability. I’m looking forward to hearing the stories of his last leg through East Africa. Let’s see if he can break my 1150 km single day record. I might have a go at that too.

Two things I’ve loved about the Cape2Kigali journey: the space to rest and reflect on the Youth Hub’s mission of helping young people figure out life with God in a challenging culture; and seeing my broader home through Andy’s eyes, realising again what an incredibly beautiful part of the world this is – the landscapes, the animals, but mostly the people. So rich in many ways – even through the more obvious poverty we’ve been riding past for so many k’s.

If you’ve been following our journey and wished you could have been on a bike with us – stay posted, Andy and I have been sketching out plans for trips with guests based on our route around SA, Namibia and Botswana.

It really is worth experiencing.
Andrew

Yesterdays ride was the most beautiful yet, full of sweeping vistas as the road to the Tanzanian border climbed up over the mountains. At one point I looked to my left to see the coastline of the lake laid out before me and was reminded of an Italian road I once drove that looks down for miles on the Mediterranean. Che Bella!

When I reached the summit I noticed the road sign saying sharp curves for the next twenty kilometres. They weren’t joking. It was hairpin after hairpin coming down, all accompanied by this incredible view….. and hundreds of monkeys that I had to ride around, thrilling and exhilarating.

On through a town for a quick stop to consult the map and up walks Peter. He’s a mechanic and he immediately asked if I had a problem. He would get his tools and help. I don't, but that's been the way of it, wonderful people who can’t do enough. Peter noticed the BC licence plates and pointed to his Canada Hockey Tuke. “Go Canada.” Fist bump!

At one point I needed to stop to tighten a cable and I was immediately surrounded by laughing, curious children and a few parents, again asking if they could help. Lots of laughs including me looking very focused on the engine until I turned around fast. “Boo!” The kids screamed and ran away, falling over themselves laughing.

Crossing the border was easy with very friendly guards welcoming me into Tanzania, accompanied by a Moto rider who bargained hard to try and exchange his 100 CC bike for my KLR. I asked for a cow as well but he would only go to a goat. We parted laughing and I rode on.

The road climbed. And climbed. And climbed. MY GPS showed me the elevation as nearly 7,000 feet. Yep, I’m in the home of Kilimanjaro. It was a beautiful ride through a mountain pass with "Oh Wow!" views everywhere.

I decided to stop in Mbeya as dusk was setting in. It's a busy city so I thought I’d find a place easily, but the first four hotels I asked were all full. I didn't realise it was a public holiday. After another unsuccessful try I found myself praying. “Jesus, you know a bit about this one, holidays, no room at the inn. I could do with a place to stay if you could help me out.”

The next hotel I asked had one and was perfect, cheap and cheerful with a very helpful staff who locked the bike away and a nice restaurant. I ordered one thing after another from the massive menu, but every five minutes the waiter would come back looking like the world had ended and tell me that that dish was unavailable, so in the end I pointed out that it would be easier if he told me what they did have. He brightened up immediately. “Chicken and fish Sir!” So chicken curry it was. Delicious.

Today I’ll make an early start and head for Morogoro, a national park about 650KM away. Tanzania is huge and though there are more direct routes, to stay on good roads I’ll need to do about 2,000KM to get to Nairobi in the next three days. All through beautiful country.

Life is rich.

After saying goodbye to Andrew and Stuart yesterday I had a great night in Nakhata Bay on Lake Malawi in a place that had Hobbit like dwellings built into the. cliffs looking out over the bay. It's a restful backpacker heaven and the bar restaurant was full of people meeting and chatting. These are travellers, not tourists and everybody is for each other. I love it.

This place is amazing and my three room split level dwelling would cost a fortune back home. Here it's just $25 a night. In fact the whole journey up was an incredible experience, the best ride yet. Windy roads through forests and along beaches and cliffs that reminded me of a mixture of Big Sur in California and one of the Hawaiian islands.....but with no traffic. This place is world class but no one knows about it. I hope It stays that way.

Today I'll head across the border to Tanzania but I'll be sad to leave Malawi. It's been a revelation, full of extravagant scenery and beautiful people, a place I hope will return to.

In terms of being on my own, I miss Zen motorbike master Andrew, but it's actually a wonderful experience. It feels right and for those of you who are wondering, it's way better than travelling in Bosnia and Croatia for nearly two years during the war there. It's actually better than riding in Vancouver. Way less traffic and less aggression! Everybody is so helpful and the bike is in wonderful condition. I have had an advanced training course that means I can do things on it now I never dreamed off a month ago and Andrew says I have graduated to a solid intermediate adventure biker. We've agreed that by the time I get to Kigali I'll be a black belt, first Dan.

I'm never really alone as there are always helpful local people who can fix anything or give directions if the GPS acts up. There is also a community on the road that meets up that is quite a joy to experience. I just chatted with Corbus, .riding a BMW, who we first met at the border, and we shared some route info. I also met a very nice German guy who has been on the road for a year on his bike and has been to every corner of the world. He's had an incredible adventure and made me feel a total lightweight! And a guy who works for the same company in London my sister just left. People just sit at tables together without worrying and enjoy meeting each other. Everybody wants to swap stories and the fact that I'm on a motorbike doing such a long trip, along with my work with Wellspring, always leads to great conversations.

This trip has taken an unexpected turn but that's really how it should be. I think in our risk averse world we go for normality too easily and we make life too predictable. We watch adventure TV on the Travel channel or go to Disneyland and experience adventure without risk, often lived second hand. We miss out on what life has to offer if we take it in hand. We settle for mediocre when we could have full bodied, sumptuous, life changing experiences. But that kind of adventure means stepping out of the comfort zone and sadly, our risk averse, litigatious, don't let the kids play outside, Nanny state culture, precludes us from doing that.

Instead I am getting the privilege of living life to the full, at least for a few weeks. I've discovered a place where faith and adventure meet, where I can wake up in the morning and say what's next Lord? Where will we go together today? Who shall we travel alongside for a short while? Who's stories will my own interweave with today? It's an exhilarating experience and I'm revelling in the chance to meet God and the people He made in some of the most beautiful parts of His creation. It's a deep privilege.

So. On we go. It's fun hearing from so many of you and I hope you are enjoying the journey as well. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be like in Tanzania but looking forward to chatting with you when I can.

A guest post from Stuart Vaughan

Here I sit in the support vehicle, having met up with the intrepid riders in Mutare, North-east Zim. After the first night at a campsite (adequate, though cold) we fuelled and victualled up in Mutare and headed for the Mozambiqe border. One or two nervous moments, and were quickly through, and on to a trip of some 950 km from Tete. Plenty of time to think (I love driving alone: don’t know if there is ever quite enough time to let the immediate past and the present percolate sufficiently, so the aloneness of the drive is filled time).
I am intrigued by what I see before me on the road: two guys who love adventure, and have linked this with their callings in the One who invites us all to adventure in living. Andrew and his Youth Hub: helping who knows how many kids (8000 and counting) find their way in life in relation to a God who really is a Father, and who really is the one who gives meaning and high purpose to it all; Andy, leading in Wellspring, bringing an enormous impact to education in on the education zones in Ruanda, and on track to bring it to the entire country (and who knows how far beyond in due time?). Big for me is that their work is driven by love: knowing and growing in the Father’s delight in them, and reflecting this in their dealings with the people they serve. I’ve seen it close-up in the places we have stopped, especially here at Monkey Bay where we have met a couple dozen young backpackers. It is, to me, a lovely living out of the conjunction of the spiritual and the bits and pieces of the ordinary business of living in the world (including some hours today servicing the bikes). This makes their work thoroughly authentic, and abundantly worth supporting.
On again today for our last day together to see more of this beautiful country, and to share in the fun, adrenalin and general delight of the Big Ride. All given by our Father in his prodigal grace. Such a privilege for me to be part of it.

 

 

Lake Malawi is stunning

We reached Cape Maclear after a crazy dirt road trip from the main Highway that was total fun. Approaching our rest stop at Malembe Camp we drove through the back roads of a Malawian village asking directions from incredibly helpful local people and arrived at this backpacker oasis, right in the middle of a thriving and throbbing Malawian settlement. And I do mean throbbing judging from the volume of the music coming from the bar next door!

It's beautiful here. My hut opens straight onto the beach and we eat under a shaded bamboo canopy in a newly formed community that has joined here for a few hours together. We also got to visit Paper For the People, a local project to reclaim waste from the village and recycle them into art and paper journals. The project is both kind to the environment and provides dignity and employment for local women.

Malembe camp is kind of a meeting point for travellers and volunteers and today I have met wonderful people from the UK, Germany, Portugal and Belgium, all of whom are here volunteering.

Volunteering gets a bad rap in some blogs and websites, as part of a backlash against Westernization and bad development. There is a feeling that most volunteers are in it for personal gratification and not because they are passionate about service.

Well, not Georgia, Marie, Mike, Steph, James and Katrina. These young students from Bristol University are giving two months to help a local school reorganize and develop new teaching practices. They are living in tents, eating cheap food and giving their all. They trained for a long time in cultural sensitivity and how to avoid "Voluntourism" before they came. When they go home they plan to work with the organization that they volunteer with to make its methodology and practice even better. We spent a wonderful couple of hours just talking under the shade by the beach about their lives and how this has affected them, about what makes good development and how they are learning far more than they are teaching. And I got to swap stores about The UK Greenbelt Festival and faith with Georgia and Marie, which made me yearn to visit that wonderful place again.

And not for Mathilda and Simon. Mathilda is a 20 year old student teacher from Portugal who has been volunteering at an SOS children's village school. She has a passion for special needs children and as we sat over breakfast talking, she told me of one child she had poured into. On the day she finished he was devastated and ran home to change into his best clothes to say goodbye properly. She had been pouring dignity and worth on this child while others had been passing him by. Who knows what that will mean for the future.

Good volunteers can change the world. They inspire us to be better people and to live justly in a way that impacts the places we are planted. For the right people with the right motivation, experiences like this can lead to changed lives that take a direction no one could have expected. I like volunteers.

In other news, we have a trip based development.

It has been a wonderful trip for Andrew and the Youth Hub, meeting so many new people and contacts. There are many more people they want to engage with and the Wordspace App has been well and truly launched in Southern Africa.

This combined with the new team that is just getting started in Cape Town means that there is a major need for Andrew to return earlier than expected. So, after resting at Lake Malawi and chatting things through, we have agreed together that Andrew and his father will turn around at the Tanzanian border while I carry on for the rest of the trip solo through Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and into Rwanda. The bike is running superbly and we have given its full service today so I'm confident all will be well

Tanzania marks the start of Eastern Africa which is Wellsprings area of operation so it feels like Andrew is handing off the baton to me. Lot's of adventure and wonderful people to meet so on we go!

 

 

 

 

 

Today was a bit wild. We left Mutare at 7 this morning and got across the border to Mozambique without too much hassle. We had to blast through Mozambique to get to Malawi where we now are and to be honest we hadn't expected much, but I found it truly beautiful. It's very undeveloped and you can see the extreme poverty all around you. But the people were helpful and smiling and the scenery majestic.

I managed to get an arial view of that scenery as coming out of a town we hit some unannounced traffic calming road bumps. Except these were the size of a small Mountain range. I hit the first one doing 90. Stuart, Andrews father who is with us for a few days following in his car, later asked me what I thought about as I took off. And I did take off. Serious air for a couple of seconds. Two week ago it would have been game over but now after some pretty intensive riding..."Stuart, I was just whooping In my helmet!"

And that has been my day. While it's been a bit frustrating doing 900 KM with hardly a stop I found myself grinning from ear to ear, dancing along on my bike to the tunes on my iPod. I now know I can make the bike weave to The Gorillaz, that I can stand and shake my leg to Seal-Crazy (which seems appropriate) and that old school Deacon Blue - Dignity fits this trip so well...."and I'm thinking about faith..."

You see my overwhelming feeling today has been sheer and utter joy. I don't mean just a good feeling, I mean joy, the sort of joy that makes you weep with happiness, scream the lyrics to songs and jump up and down on your bike to the beat. I feel free and unbound and it feels wonderful.

I think we forget about joy. I think our busy lives cause joy to be discarded in the pursuit of busyness and worry. It's so hard to put it all aside under normal circumstances. But here with all the cares left behind, the laughs and waves of children, being with friends and this wonderful beast of a bike, I remember who I am. I remember who I was created to be and my joy feels overwhelmingly complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a quick update today. Andrew and I got separated when we passed though a town so we spent the afternoon riding alone. He took a different route from me that went through a National Park and apparently got the best views of the trip, which I missed. I think a theme is developing.

We’ve had the great joy of being joined by Andrew's father Stuart for a few days and I’m enjoying getting to know this fine man. We are camped with him near Mutare in The Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and are debating the next few days as there are a number of route options.

It looks like we’ll plump for heading into Mozambique early tomorrow and trying to get all the way North and then East into Malawi. It's a long way though, over 700 KM on unknown roads with unsure gas supplies and through a border that has issues.

Ah the adventure! It’s going to be a fun day!