Sept - Expediation Diary

Well after 2 days travelling from Athens to uganda the next leg of our cycle started today with a vengeance. We arrived in Jinga yesterday, re assembled our bikes and did a quick 20 miles to make sure everything was in working order.

We camped overlooking Bugagali falls on the Nile setting off this morning at 7:30 to try to miss the heat aiming to do 97 miles.

What a day we were swept along in heat of 40 degrees and a mega thunderstorm, by there cheers and smiling faces of thousands of Ugandan kids. Not one of us got through the day without shedding a tear and reflecting on the reason for this big effort.

We are getting close to our financial target and need your support to spread the word and keep donations coming in.

We can't wait to get to Gulu and see all the work done to date and make plans for the next face of the development of the farm and school at Koch Goma.

Only 400 miles to go!!

Nick Bevan with happy children in Uganda.

I'm here in my tent at 06.15 on the last cycling day in Europe. Both the riders and the support teams exhausted after 4 weeks of hard graft.

We are getting a lin in today till 07.00 as we only need to do 40 miles till we hit Athens. Yesterday was another 12 hoirs of cycling with lots of hills in cluding one hill of 7.7miles with 2000 feet of ascent, all in 34 degrees of heat.

We got in to camp late ate and went straight to bed which has been the regime for all but 3 rest days of the trip so far. This afternoon, after we have completed our ride into Athens we will have a celebratory BBQ and spend tomorrow cleaning kit, sorting gear and gettin everything ready for the African leg

Well here we are, 87 miles done and 1700 miles into our adventure. Natalie Victoria and Simon joined us yesterday and we had a great day on good roads and in nice sunshine.

Dave Williams, Dave Jones and Simon Firkins (the Beverley Sisters) returned home after a hard weeks riding and some very big hills and very dodgy Croatian, Serbian and Macadonian roads / tracks and footpaths.

Tomorrow sees us cycling around Mount Olympus and some big hills so hopefully we will keep smiling and when it gets tough remember the reason why we are doing this and that we can go home when we are done to a warm dry bed and food on tap, unlike the kids at Koch Goma who we are doing this for.

The intrepid trio, arrived in Budapest this morning to join leg 3.

All very excited found camp in excellent spirits helped by fine weather today. The three pairs of fresh legs (David Jones, David Williams and Simon firkins). Affectionately now renamed the Beverly sisters! Are all eager to get going. The bikes thankfully survived the air transit well all now re-assembled and in fine working order.

For those going all the way it is day 16 of the adventure tomorrow. For the newcomers day 1. forecast for tomorrow heavy rain which at current temperatures could be helpful cooling things down.

Will provide further update latter in the week.

Dave Williams, deep in thought before a long ride...

Hello all. We have just completed day 10 cycling and day 12 of our trip (we have had 2 rest days) we are on schedule and are holding up very well.

We are sorry the blogs aren't as frequent as we had hoped but the days are jammed full and neither the riders nor the support teams get more than a couple of minutes of down time.

The support team are up at 05.30 to start prepping food withe the riders up at 06.00. We are on the road by 07.30 having eaten 2 breakfasts packed our kits finalised our plans and made our lunches . We are riding up to 12 hours a day and occasionally more and as we get further east camp sites and supplies become much less available, this puts pressure on everyone. We are eating at 19.30 and are in bed by 20.30 - rock n roll. We cycled through Vienna today and will continue on this route until Friday evening when we hope to finish in Budapest.

Time for tea and sleep now ..... Ahh sleep!

To all of our riders and support team, Well done for surviving your first week! Now that you're in your second week of riding we expect that you're all very tired and in need of a bit of encouragement. We are following your tweets on Twitter and feel your pain (especially Nick's bee sting in the mouth!). Keep the tweets coming - they're giving us a good laugh!

On a more serious note, we really can't explain to you how grateful everyone at African Revival and Koch Goma Secondary is to you all for your hard work and determination during the organising of the Cycle and now during the ride itself. We all know exactly why you are doing the 'Cycle to Uganda' and we would like you to see who will be benefitting from your fundraising. During the Cycle, we will be sending you stories and accounts from some of the 60,000 or so children that African Revival works with in schools in Gulu and Amuru Districts. We hope that this will give you a real sense of the kind of children that you are helping.

Here is the first story of Opiyo Joseph (attached). He is an amazingly strong and courageous boy that I have got to know through working at African Revival. His story is very inspiring to me and we were very grateful to him for sharing his story as so many people in his position remain silent.

Telling students at Koch Goma about the Cycle to Uganda 2009 and what lengths 'strangers' are going to help them has been amazing. You're all a great inspiration to them.

Just a quick update of what's going on at Koch - the work is coming on well and the solar panels are currently being fitted by engineers from Kampala and the buildings are looking great! I've heard other NGO workers talking about how impressed they are with all the work they have seen at Koch Goma so we're very proud to say that this is an African Revival project. Our education team has set up a committee to help us to plan for your arrival celebrations and everyone is keen to get involve and offer their help.

Keep cycling hard. We can't wait to see you in October to celebrate!

From Josh, on behalf of everyone at African Revival and Koch Goma Secondary.

What a great day today. Despite a few beers last night to welcome John Williams on board we got away at 7.00 from Stuttgart.

The roads are very busy in the city centre so we got a lift to Aalen and started our day there. Great rolling countryside, lovely roads and no traffic, wind or rain for a change. The weather is very autumnal and very chilly. It was a 2 layer day all day today. We reached our planned campsite in 7.5 hours covering 95 miles. We saw the Danube for the first time and rode strong and fast. John Williams has been given his nickname (Average- don't ask) and did really well today.

We have sent loads of pics home so these will be posted shortly.

Keep sponsoring

Well here we are at the end of the first week, lots of happy memories and not too many bad ones. The weather has been very mixed with wind and rain a surprising dominant feature. We were equipped for mild weather and the odd spot of sun but we have battled with wet conditions for 4 of the 6 days cycling.

The support team of Steve, David, Kirsty and Kate have been fantastic, they get up at 5.00 and sort our breakfast and kit and are the last to bed long after we have turned in.

The navigation has been a real trauma for all of us and the support team particularly, they have kept us moving under very difficult circumstances, thanks guys.

We have covered 576 miles as planned and are now having a day to rest, repair kit and swap riders over, we are cleaning clothes eating normal food and had a lie in till 7.00am lovely. We are feeling strong and healthy and although the bikes have taken a hammering we are in very good shape, if a little tired.

High points:

• Day 5 cycling through beautiful French countryside on quite smooth roads with the wind behind us.
• Mannan’s company – a true gentleman.
• Mannans punctures – we got lots of rest stops

Low points:

• Day 7 the terrible road conditions and dangerous German drivers in heavy rain – scary.
• Mannans punctures (well there is only so many rests you can have in one day!!
• Being stung by a wasp in the mouth.

It has been great receiving all the messages from home and we have had a good laughs with facebook and twitter. It has not been so easy to update our website but hopefully this blog will bring everyone up to speed.

The team are collecting John Williams form the airport as I type and we are looking forward to the next week heading through Germany, Austria, down the Danube and into Budapest.

Arty mirror pic from the Cleansheet support team.

Taking a five minute break.

German roads - cycle with care...

Nick Bevan, all smiles.

Heavy rain!!

Another shock to the system when woken at 6am by Mr Bevan’s alarm and the sound of heavy rain on canvas. Reluctantly rose with no enthusiasm for the day ahead. At breakfast Nick looked like I felt and Manan asked if we could have a rest day. Reluctantly we kitted up in waterproofs and several layers, fearing the worst.

After a 2.5 mile climb out of St Mihiel we were warmed up and feeling better about the day ahead. With a blustery wind behind us we picked up speed and soon had 20 miles under our belts, no rain and a fair wind, Things were looking up.

By 40 miles we were heading away from the rain clouds and the sun had broken through. The wind had picked up but was right behind us. We were flying.

Manan was having a great day NO PUNCTURES. The miles flew by through the rolling French countryside and apart from Nick being stung in the mouth (ouch) by a wasp, we had no dramas. Best days cycling so far. On to Germany tomorrow, let’s hope we have another great ride for Manan’s last day.

See you all soon John and the gang xxx’.

Arty mirror pic from the Cleansheet support team.

Cycling in the rain.

Today it was mostly wet with the odd bit of more wet thrown in. We did 108 miles from Amiens to Riems, did I mention it was wet!!

We (John Morrison, Mannan and Myself) kept a smile on our faces but the going was very tough for the support team of Steve and Kate in the support car and David and Kirsty in the "pamper" van. Route finding and locating suitable campsites is a real problem and it seams as though the whole of Northern France has gone on holiday.

We are about to site down for dinner and work on our regimes as these proved a bit of a challenge in the bad weather and with unreliable sat nav's. 105 miles tomorrow as we head for Germany. We are going to try a different routing system so if there is no blog tomorrow there is a chance it didn't work!

We are missing our loved ones but have worked well today in very difficult circumstance - we are nearly a team/ family away from home!

Message from Kate - her phone won't roam but she is good and will call home sometime

That's all folks.