Videos – the full kahuna
So we have finally finished the full video editing – we have us during the cycle itself:
and us post-cycle:
Enjoy!
H&C
Videos – the trailer…
So we have (barely months after our return) managed to assemble our footage into something that looks a little like our time in Kenya. So here, without further ado, we have video number one – the 2min 30 trailer. It’s got a bit of everything – fancy dress, animals, Bungoma and Kenya in general. There’ll be more to follow (both mid-cycle and post-cycle) but for now here it is:
Hank and Chuck
2. Update from Kenya!
This brief blog update (full pictures, video and extended report to follow) comes to you as, tandem left behind, we are preached to on the ills of sports gambling on the ricketiest of mombasa-kenya buses, suntans perfected and with only one major injury apiece (no fear – we’ll both probably walk / write again respectively). But perhaps a bit of back story is in order…
When we last left our doughty heroes, we were mid-fancy dress, dodging police and potential suitors alike (some of the fancy dress was very well received). We pressed on towards our final destination of Bungoma, hindered only by the entirety of the Rift Valley. On the upside, the discovery that the tandem’s rear gunner position is also a Discovery-Channel-worthy photography spot means that there is excellent footage of us spinning downhill on the other side of some demanding hills. Other highlights included crossing the equator not once, not twice, but three times. There’s an awful lot of equator in Kenya.
Met by ACE with a truck pumping tunes to keep our spirits high on the final stretch, we cycled to Southend Academy, a primary school in one of Bungoma’s more deprived areas. We were met with huge enthusiasm by both the ACE staff and children, with a full-on song and dance display. Alongside being delighted to see the five cyclists pull into town, our cycling companions the Dwyers have fundraised for an art teacher and materials in memory of their daughter and sister Rosie Dwyer, and the children’s enthusiasm and excitement for drawing, painting and scuplture was amazing to see. Thanks and gifts exchanged, we undertook one final hair-raising journey at night in the mud into the middle of the rainforest and sat back with the cycle done.
And then it was just Hank and Chuck in Kenya.
Major themes since then have been music, beaches and some, fairly restrained, drinking. We’ve had the good fortune to be two of the only three white muzungus at Safaricom’s Kenya Live – Bungoma’s response to Glastonbury -, tape our first viral video ‘Dog vs. Crab’, unsuccessfully gatecrash a wedding (by innocently asking the groom if we were standing in the right queue for food), go rock-diving and get driven for sundowners in a country where breathalysers were phased out for making the police too much money in fines. Big shouts out to James, Sally and Lucy for having been responsible for much of this and generously tolerating us.
So, penning this on our way back to Nairobi, with final plans involving game parks, chilling and perhaps some final sundowners, we’re looking forward to seeing you all in the UK again and uploading the photos to the blog. And anyone who asks what we did in our holidays better be ready for the three hours of video footage we have in response…
See you soon and stay tuned,
Hank and Chuck
1. Update from Kenya!
Five days in and we are halfway across Kenya, have entertained hundreds of children and adults with the tandem and perhaps scared a few with our unusual attire… Maybe more than a few.
We kicked off on sunday morning with a bang and were accompanied out of nairobi by a local cycling club. By local cycling club, we mean national champions and aspiring olympians – one of whom had missed the commonwealth games by one place. While they may have been unimpressed by our pace (or lack of) the tandem attracted much laughter, as it has ever since. Grown men whoop, children scream (and often run with us) and women swoon.
A couple of hours and only about 30km down and we hit our first obstacle… An unfinshed road. This unfortunately led to a puncture, two broken spokes and a bent back wheel. It was at this point that we realised that bluetooth (our adorable tandem) may not have been built for Kenyan “roads”. Thankfully Ben, our superhuman olympic guide, donated one of his wheels to our cause so that he could fix ours and catch us up. We cycled forth.
Few things to note about Kenya and its traffic system. Cars, buses, vans, motorbikes, tractors, animal herders and cycles traditionally travel on the left. This is more a rule of thumb than a law. Potholes, overtaking, passenger pick ups and whims all are valid excuses to use the right side of the road to travel. This makes road travel less of a science and more of an art. Hank was never very good at art. This is made somewhat harder by the fact that he is still struggling to get to grips with our gears. oh well – still time to learn.
Our outfits have been going down a storm, although we were almost arrested (thanks Davide and Mathilda). We started with a very successful day of Where’s Wally and a Mexican bandit – comic, lovable, and unoffensive. So we thought we’d go big on day two. What was most obvious as we headed out in the morning was that the whoops and cheers for the tandem were no longer present. In their place came bemused faces and confused stares. Union Jack thongs and bikini tops are clearly not so common here in Kenya.
And then there was the police incident. We had a slight dress change at lunch, moving from bikini and thong to large ladies bra and wig – a subtle alteration. Having completed a steep climb (Kenya is surprisingly hilly) we were midway through enjoying a nice decent, lucious golden locks flowing in the wind. Out of nowhere came the police road block. Maybe someone had grassed us up. We got through it, but that was the end of bra day.
Onto some personal experiences. Chuck is yet to wear any padded shorts (as he has none and Hank is a selfish nasty man) and his bum gets redder every day. Chuck also has no waterproofs and has gotten rather wet on occasion. It turns out that Hank is rubbish at cards and lost five games straight last night. Hank is however getting rather good at swahili, much to Chuck’s irritation.
In other news, a big shout out to our cycle crew – Doc Jezza, Big Papa J, and J-Zizzle (our surprise famous companion). All of whom have been on cracking form helping us push through these devilish “undulations”.
Lunch is drawing to a close so it looks like we had better get back on the bike. Until the next update.
H and C
Looks like we made it (to the start line)…
So [drum roll please]…
We are off tomorrow! The tandem has been packed up, we’re injected to the eyeballs with exciting inoculations, and Kenyan visas are firmly in hand. We’ll keep you updated, starting now…
Thanks to all our incredibly generous donors, we have not only hit our target but surpassed it, with a total of over £2,800 to date – 113% of our desired £2,500. So we are now aiming to beat our target by 50% of possible! You can lend a hand at http://www.justgiving.com/hankandchuckdokeyna.
Thanks all and we’ll be in touch,
Hank and Chuck
Tandem at last…
Ain’t no party like a tandem party – and that’s exactly what Chuck and I experienced when our tandem finally arrived on Sunday last. In an experience familiar to those who have a working knowledge of flat-pack furniture, all we needed to assemble our steed ‘Bluetooth’ was an Allen key, spanner, mild profanities and (after a hearty lunch) a metal file.
Once assembled, how could we not take to the streets of London to test-ride our creation and ascertain general roadworthiness? After some initial wobbliness on the back-streets of Francis Street, we went for the big time and popped up to visit the Queen:
Unfortunately, on our way there, we were overtaken by a rollerbladers’ union who had booked a prior appointment at the palace, and given that tandems, like time and tides, wait for no man, we decided to press on:
With frequentish stopping to switch riders, we circumnavigated the wilds of Hyde Park, meeting (genuinely) at one point a couple who had just completed London-Brighton-London over 36 hours on an insanely beautiful cream tandem road bike with brown tanned leather drop handlebars and saddles. A slight case of tandem lust there for a moment but we were swiftly over it – for a start, there was no potential for a telecoms-related pun there. So there we are – tandem roadworthy and in use. Kenya in two weeks here we come!
On another note, thanks to everyone’s amazingly generous donations we are over 2/3 of our way towards our target – with a staggering total of £1,725. We’ve got just under two weeks until we’re off so every little helps, and we’d love to be able to not only match our target but exceed it by as much as possible. So do get involved at http://www.justgiving.com/hankandchuckdokeyna and we’ll keep you updated!
Hank and Chuck
Suffolk to London – 120 miles (of pain)
120 miles in one day is no mean feat… I am currently in agony. With Hank otherwise engaged (and with a broken wheel spoke) I took on the Thorpeness to Barons Court challenge alone. It was really quite hard work.
Having spent a cracking weekend grooving to DJ pistol Pete and staying at the Maynard party house (thanks guys), I set off rather early on Sunday morning from Thorpness (or La La Land as I like to call it).
The early morning start gifted me a couple of hours of empty roads, a cool breeze and a beautiful sunrise. Unfortunately it also meant that I hit a cat. What the hell it was doing running across the road towards my bike I have no idea, but thankfully it jetted off into a garden afterwards… so hopefully it’s alright.
I smashed the first few hours pretty hard and hit Ipswich before breakfast. The rain then came down pretty hard, just in time for a nice oriental gentleman to take a quick snap when I reached Colchester.
I was then unfairly attacked by a local:
Which through me off somewhat, and I think was the reason I then got rather lost and ended up on a farm having to scale a style with the bike.
After reaching Chelmsford it all went downhill, or at least I wish it had. My last 3 hours of cycling can only be described as painful. I’ve also got a bone to pick with the M25; it’s so bloody deceptive. It gives the perception that one is near any London destination. I can assert that this is categorically not true. The east side of the M25 is a long long way from Barons Court and West London.
So now I’m back at home, having had an ice bath and a pizza with Hendo. What have I learned? There are a lot of Church Roads and Church Lanes in Suffolk, and remarkably all of them seem to have Churches on them.
I am in pain. Under 10 weeks to go. Please sponsor us!
Dipping in to the big bag of e-mails we’ve received from fans, friends and groupies, the most common question is “So where are you actually going then?” The easiest and most fatuous answer to this is Kenya, which is here:
But there is, of course, more to it than that. The journey starts in Nairobi, in South Kenya, when we arrive on Day 1. There are then 6 days of c. 100km / day cycling, travelling from Nairobi to end up at the Kakamega Forest Reserve in Western Kenya.
Our daily stops are:
Day 2: Naivasha (‘B’ below) – 100km. Cycling north-east from Nairobi we will travel to the fresh water lakes at Naivasha, home to over 400 species of bird. Camping overnight
Day 3: Nakaru (‘C’ below) – 80km. From Naivasha our route is through savanna past Lake Elementaita, the Aberbare Mountains and Malewa all the way to Nakuru. We’ll be checking out the lake nearby, famous for its enourmous flocks of flamingoes. Camping overnight again.
Day 4: Kericho (‘D’ below) – 110km. Climbing to the tea plantations at Kericho, which export primarily to the UK. Also home to some of the world’s best long-distance runners, so Chuck is already packing his running shoes. Staying overnight in a local tea hotel.
Day 5: Kericho Tea Plantation (E) – 80km. Circular ride amongst the tea plantations, with multiple lightly-caffineated beverage opportunities throughout the day. The main benefit of the circular cycle is day 2 of actual beds in the tea hotel…
Day 6: Kisumu (F) – 85km. We drop down to the port city of Kisumu, on Lake Victoria. Famous not least as the birthplace of President Obama’s father, today we will meet the program officer from one of ACE Africa’s project sites to discuss the work they are doing in Bungoma nearby
Day 7: To Kakamega via the Bungoma project. (G) Today we will cycle to Bungoma, the headquarters of ACE’s regional projects to talk to Augustine, ACE Africa’s Executive Director, about the work that ACE is doing, before cycling to the Kakamega forest reserve for our final stop of the trip at a forest lodge.
Day 8: Rest day in the Kakamega Forest Reserve, a swathe of tropical rainforest in the heart of an intensively cultivated agricultural area. The reserve is home to a variety of indigenous wildlife including the red-tailed monkey, blue monkey and over 330 species of bird. This evening we will transfer back to Nairobi before our flight back to the UK. Cushioned seats on the trip back are likely to be a luxury.
In total, then, just under 500km over 6 full days of cycling, taking in ACE Africa’s work throughout the region as well as the countryside across Kenya. Climbing to almost 3,000 ft:
Better keep the training going then…
We’ll work out a way to keep the blog updated while we are out in Kenya as well to make sure that you hear about every last km!
Hank and Chuck
The D-word…
We hope you’ve been enjoying the training blog posts that we, Hank and Chuck, have been cycling, sweating, and posing to bring you. In the spirit of quid pro quo that we like to think characterises the blog, we would be much obliged for any donations that you felt able to make at:
http://www.justgiving.com/hankandchuckdokeyna
We’re currently at 32% of our £2,500 target, so your donation could be the one that gets us to the magic 50% that means that we are half way there. As every sportsman knows, from halfway it’s all downhill…
Cheers all,
Hank and Chuck
After our glamourous photoshoot-horseriding-swimming activities, we thought it was time to get down to some proper cycling. And what better time of year could there be to experience what it might really be like to cycle across Kenya than the warmest, sunniest summer weekend in England? So here it is, sunburns and all…
We set off Saturday morning from Battersea bridge in London’s best and brightest sunshine, road-testing our Ace Africa shirts (shortly to lose some of their shop-fresh feel):
Target: Brighton. Our navigation knowledge limited to a vague sense that it was somewhere South, we set off through the difficult and dangerous streets of South London. And, only a few near-death experiences later (anyone who is willing to found the Norbury cyclist’s preservation society will have my full support) we made short work of the Purley-Whyteleaf-Caterham souther axis to end up at the M25. 20-odd miles down and we were finally officially Out Of London (TM)…
So it was time for a quick break. Lemonade? Check. Cricket pitch? Check. Roar of London’s major circular motorway in the background? Check.
By this time we were relying almost exclusively on GPS for navigational purposes, and Chuck’s pigeon-like ability to tell the direction we were travelling (with some ridiculous claim about the position of the sun providing a guide as to compass bearing, something that I’m pretty sure would get you burnt as a witch in short order but a few centuries age). Slowly but surely the distance was starting to tell – and the hitherto cool temperatures were starting to climb as we hit the midday sun. Not aided by Chuck’s realisation that not putting on suntan lotion was probably not the wisest of moves (on which more later)… Nonetheless the miles were falling rapidly and we were getting close to Brighton. And then the hill happened.
Not a steep gradient, just a lot more up than down. Mile after mile of painful gradients, accompanied by blazing sunshine. And yet somewhere in there there was lunch, in a charming family-run farm down the end of a sligthly dubious-looking farm track, where we were reminded that we were (just) over half way there. Burgers all round to celebrate:
And, after a quick left at Lewes (and another 2 hrs or so), we arrived. Brighton. 60 miles down, so the first thing to do was go for a quick swim, despite the fact that Brighton’s microclimate appeared to have decided that it was having none of this heatwave nonsense that the rest of the country was prepared to tolerate:
As unlikely as it seems, these two photos were taken only 30 miles and 2.30 hrs apart… Brighton managed to pull it together for the evening though:
Day 1 – goal achieved, a general post-ride rejoicing in non-wheeled modes of transport, and only one major(ish) case of sunburn:
Most successful, especially given that this was just a little more than we have to do per day to cross Kenya. As long as we’re able to remember the sunblock, looking good!
For Day 2 we set a perhaps less ambitious but potentially more pleasant target. Brighton to Eastbourne is one long coastal road, with all of the downhill that London to Brighton appears to have mislaid. As well, admittedly, as some fairly sharp uphill. However, with a solid full English setting us up and soaking the post-Brighton arrival celebratory pint(s), the initial pain of sitting back down on a 1 to 2 inch wide leather saddle was swiftly forgotten and we clocked a not unimpressive 35 Mph+ on the downhill straights as we sped along with the white cliffs on our right and farmland on our left:
All that remained was to nourish ourselves with a solid lunch, miss our train by a minute, and chill for an hour in the vicinity of the railway station. Standard. A good opportunity to promote our justgiving page to passersby, in any case…
So success on our first full training outing, in any case, and not too much quadricep burn to contend with. Where from here? More heat, more hills, and more shots of us in Ace Africa t-shirts. Stay tuned…
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Just to prove it all, here’s day 1 on the GPS:
and here’s day 2:
Hank and Chuck do Kenya 