Beyond the Bike
Spending time with Beyond Ourselves really brought home to me why we are doing this crazy cyling adventure, it is not just for fun and is something I will think about next time I get fed up when we have to cycle up another hill in 35 degree heat!
Burgundy to Blighty. June 25th – July 14th, 975 km.
Coincidentally, I’ve started writing this blog whilst watching the Tour de France’s 16th stage: a ball busting 197km in the Pyrenees with a couple of hors-categorie (beyond categorization) climbs. Whilst my final week in France included a 221km day & involved a British team showing the locals a thing or two about cycling, the similarities end there…
Stage 6: Nkhata Bay to Mbeya, 430km. October 13th - 19th
"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. You have no such accurate remembrance of a country you have driven through" If Hemingway was describing how best to understand the physical geography of a land, what better way to understand its people than by offering them a lift on your very own bicycle taxi...
Beyond Cranleigh Zambia Trip II, October 22nd - 30th
OK, so the Tazara railway is not quite as high tech as Marty's Mcfly's souped up 'flux capacitor' but it was at least able to take me back to Zambia, where the main project that the ride & Cranleigh school are supporting this year and into the future. After nearly 4500 kms on the bike, it was a pleasure to be in same place for a week, back with familiar faces, from both Cranleigh & Kawama School...