Pedal Powered Stories

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...

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...

✈️ 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...