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Ride Africa – A General Retrospective

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First of all, my deepest apologies to all those I promised regular updates throughout the week of Ride Africa. I had grand plans of posting each day, giving immediate impressions and descriptions of what we’d seen and done. But the reality found once getting on the ground made finding the time to do that a bit trickier. So, here’s a general overview of the event, and I’ll follow this up with further posts talking about each day in a bit more detail. BTW - child.org is still fundraising and is running a targetted campaign to support their brilliant Team Dad outreach programme (vital work in areas that are still deeply patriarchal), so if you would like to donate a few pennies please use this link which will see any donations made this week DOUBLED! Each day consisted of an early start, with timings confirmed at the previous evening’s dinner and accompanied by either groans or cheers from the collective, depending on the exact time announced! Our luggage was all labelled, and each mor...
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Ride Africa Starts Tomorrow!

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Now it begins!  After a very nice week relaxing in Mombasa and soaking up the sun (and the Tusker!) I'm back in Nairobi and will be picked up bright and early tomorrow morning by the Ride Africa team! The Madaraka Express train back to Nairobi was great - travelling through Tsavo National Park in the daylight meant I spotted some of my first wildlife, including elephant, zebra, giraffe and buffalo. I highly recommend this 'train safari'! I took the opportunity to explore a bit of Nairobi today by foot. It's a hectic city, but a lot of fun. Walking around the CBD I was greeted by many people who wanted me to visit their shop, take me on a safari tour, or discuss the Premier League. Wearing an Arsenal hat definitely made me popular - there seems to be be as many Arsenal shirts on the streets of Nairobi as you'd find on the Holloway Road! All that's left to do now is to relax by the rooftop pool, enjoy a couple more beers, have some dinner and wait for my fellow ri...
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Landed in Kenya!

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Hi all! A five am start, nine hours in the air, an overnight in an airport hotel, followed by a five hour train ride and I am finally in Mombasa for a few days of rest and relaxation. I have a very nice little room; the air-con is brisk, the shower is clean and the bed is comfy. The hotel has a very nice-looking pool and a pool-side bar to boot. PrideInn Nyali, Mombasa Everything has gone incredibly smoothly; check-ins, collecting tickets, navigating bureaucracy, even getting taxis! Thankfully Kenya has Uber so I've avoided the classic scrum of drivers outside stations and airports! Everyone I have met has been lovely. Staff in hotels and in airports, the people I've been travelling with, and the randoms I've drunk with, have all been delightful. The food I've had has been fine - so far I've just been eating hotel food and snacks. Hopefully now I am settled in one place I can investigate the food scene in a bit more detail. The beer has been cheap and cold, and I...
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One Week To Go

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✈️ One Week to Go: Nairobi Awaits! It’s finally here — the last week before Ride Africa begins. Tomorrow I’ll be boarding my flight to Nairobi, and suddenly all those months of training, fundraising, and planning have come to this. This week has been less about the training and more about the last-minute jobs, purchases and admin that come before the adventure: restocking on contact lenses, checking in for flights, arranging hotel pickups, and triple‑checking that my kit bag isn’t overweight. Packing has become a four-dimensional puzzle: cycling gear, meds, recovery essentials, and enough casual clothes for the evenings. I’ve also been in touch with a CrossFit gym in Mombasa to keep the training routine alive next week - because I haven't done enough burpees over the last 10 months 😂 It’s these small, practical tasks that make the excitement tangible. Each email confirmation, each folded jersey, each checklist tick is a reminder that tomorrow I’ll be stepping off a plane in Na...
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Two Weeks To Go

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Hi everyone! So there's only a couple of weeks to go before the ride officially starts! EEEK!! And only a week until I actually depart for Kenya and a week of R&R. I've got the bags out now and starting to prepare all the stuff I need to pack. I have a a bit of a thing for bags and packing, sorting out what goes where, and in what order. It brings back fond memories of travelling around SE Asia for a year after getting married, and living out of a single rucksack - knowing where everything is makes that so much easier. I'm even using the same rucksack this time. As this time I'm only away for two weeks I have no doubt I'll pack far too much and not use half of the things I bring. Better to have and not need etc. And even better, just after I published my last post, I had the donation that pushed me over the fundraising target! I've now raised just shy of £2000, all of which is already being put to use in Kenya supporting Child.org and their mission to suppor...
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One Month to Go

One month today! This week I had the pleasure of meeting some of my fellow Ride Africa cyclists for the first time at a virtual Q&A session with the fabulous support team at Child.org. It was brilliant to start putting faces to names, sharing training stories, and hearing a little more about what’s in store for us in Kenya. The sense of camaraderie is already building, and I can’t wait to take on the challenge alongside such a motivated group of people. Even better, we’ve now got plans for a proper get-together at the Bread and Roses pub in Clapham on Sunday 2nd November . If you’re in London and fancy joining us for a ride (nothing too taxing!), a drink, a chat, or just to hear more about the ride and the cause we’re supporting, you’d be very welcome. Drop me a line for more information. The money I’ve been raising has not been sat idle in some bank account. It’s already being put to amazing use on the ground in Kenya. This year alone, 953 pregnant women in Narok have joined...
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Six Weeks to Go - Logistics

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Six weeks to go, and the countdown is getting very real. Given the distances involved, I’ll be heading out to Kenya a week early to acclimatise before the ride begins. Plus I’ve always loved both travel and history so the opportunity to spend some time in Nairobi itself, and Mombasa, is simply too good to pass up. All the accommodation and internal transport for that first week is now confirmed, which makes the whole adventure feel closer than ever. Alongside the training, I’ve been pulling together the all-important kit lists. It’s amazing how quickly the essentials add up - medicines, electrolyte powders, energy gels… and yes, chamois cream has made it onto the shopping list too. Not the most glamorous item, and applying it is very undignified, but anyone who’s spent long hours in the saddle knows it’s worth its weight in gold! But beyond the logistics and the kit, it’s important to remember why this ride matters. In my last update I mentioned Child.org and their maternal health ...
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