Sunday 27 April 2014

Our ride has raised over £8,900 (or more than £10,350 including UK Gift Aid) for the Chain of Hope. That's nearly two thirds of a million Dalasi for the benefit of Gambian children with heart disease and their families! Thank you!!

http://www.justgiving.com/gambia-sandtosea

Remember, £16 pays for a monthly blood clotting test for a child on anticoagulant medicine after surgery. Just £25 covers the cost of an echocardiogram in Dakar (hospital bill alone). Then £80 is enough to get one child and a relative from The Gambia to Dakar for an echocardiogram (including hospital bill, transport, subsistence, and accommodation). And £180 will obtain two visas (child and carer) for travel from The Gambia to the UK for surgery.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Envoi

Well, that’s that then, is it? We had a great time; we challenged ourselves and each other and rose (rode?) to the occasion; we raised quite a lot of money for the Chain of Hope in The Gambia, and therefore specifically for Gambian children and their families; and we feel we did a little bit to help raise awareness of heart disease in the country as a whole.
Our nearly 200 generous donors deserve huge credit for helping us raise (at the time of writing) well over half a million Gambian Dalasi, and none of this could have happened without the less obvious support and encouragement of many, many friends, colleagues and family members. Thank you, each and every one. The JustGiving page is a record of named and anonymous donations, and a growing number of off-line contributors, sponsors and helpers — in cash and in kind — are acknowledged on another page on this site.
There’s a bit more to come too, including I hope some personal accounts from those who took part — which may well be of interest if you want to join us next time in a repeat, or something different but similar. And we now have a page on Facebook as well as the photos on Flickr.
It’s also been a really great ride. Mark Twain had one of the best bicycling quotes, back in 1884. He said: ‘Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it — if you live.’ Although some of us may have regretted being on one at at some points, we did all live, and I don’t think a single one of us regrets the experience.
And finally of course — that’s not really ‘it’ at all, and perhaps in the end the riding itself may turn out to be the least important part. Cycling is a rich source of metaphor for life (it was Einstein who said ‘Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving’) and we’ve already begun to make plans for next year.

After all, if we stopped now, we’d only fall off.
Ride safely!


Thursday 30 January 2014

MORE Pictures

Another 75 or so pictures have been uploaded to Flickr, making over 230 in all. That's an increase of 50 per cent at no extra cost. So, if you haven't already done so, how about contributing at least a portion of what we clearly must have saved you and giving it to help the hundreds of Gambian children with heart disease and their families that the Chain of Hope is trying to support? Go on, get us over that significant half a million Dalasi figure and we'll let you see some videos too....

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Gambia - Sand to Sea 2014 in PICTURES!




Basse dinnerBassee Dinner 2
Gambia - Sand to Sea 2014, a set on Flickr. Click on a picture or on the link for larger pictures or a slide show.
A selection of nearly 175 230 pictures from our trip up to Basse, followed by the gruelling two-day ride including our one-night stop at Soma, and the splendid welcome we received at MRC have now been uploaded to Flickr. They are not all captioned as yet and there will be more to come, including some video. Meanwhile, enjoy this first batch!

Monday 27 January 2014

We're Back!

The Gambia — Sand to Sea Team are all safely back on the coast, with maybe a few aches and pains, but a lot of good memories (not least of the splendid reception at MRC Fajara) and a great sense of achievement.
Here are the bare statistics, which are pretty good for a mixed bunch of mostly part-time cyclists on unfamiliar roads in temperatures up to 37 degrees Celsius.

Day 1Basse to Soma
Total distance = 193 km
Total time = 10 hrs 15 mins
Active time = 8 hrs 17 mins
Moving speed = 23.3 km/hr
Daily average = 18.83 km/hr
Climb = 743 m

Day 2Soma to Fajara
Total distance = 176 km
Total time = 10 hrs 15 mins (again)
Active time = 7 hrs 26 mins
Moving speed = 23.6 km/hr
Daily average = 17.17 km/hr
Climb = 684 m

TOTAL DISTANCE = 369 km
The 12 Sand to Sea riders at the start at Basse.


Sunday 26 January 2014

Nearly There

After another delicious lunch by the side of the road and a radio interview at Brikama, with 30 km to go, we are now on the last 15 km and a final cake and banana stop before the run on to the finish.
The police motorcycle escort (Lamin) did a fantastic job in shepherding us through the traffic. 

Lamin changes the spark plugs for the final leg.

Saturday 25 January 2014

We've Made It - to Soma

All well. Arrived 17:45 — earlier than expected — after 193 km with all 12 riders in the saddle for the final stage.
Total distance = 193 km
Total time = 10 hrs 15 mins
Active time = 8 hrs 17 mins
Moving speed = 23.3 km/hr
Amazingly, my Garmin computer says we climbed 743 m. And we thought The Gambia was flat!?

Greeted by masses of kids. Football, anyone?


Half Way on the First Half

We're doing well. Off on time, more or less, and lunch at a little over 100 km. all in good order, but Julie is taking a break in the bus, followed by Suzanne after another leg. 
We are averaging about 20 km/h including stops, which is pretty good. The catering is fantastic and the only mechanical casualty so far is Musa's front wheel bearings, rapidly replaced by a spare wheel. 
The Police escort is terrific, and we're enjoying speeding through the towns and villages, applauded occasionally by the puzzled populace. 

Here We Go...

It's 05:30 and pretty dark in Basse. Time to get up and sort out a few things on the trailer, and check the food and other supplies are all to hand.
The final stretch of 'road' through Basse to the MRC Unit is pretty bad (we are on the banks of the great Gambia River, and it floods in the rainy seasons), so the plan after breakfast (porridge is promised) is to drive back to the outskirts of the town with the bikes still on the truck and start from there.
The GPS tracking seems to be working in spite of patchy cellphone coverage, and it confirms the distance as 370 km. We'll be stopping every 90 minutes to pick up more drinks and snacks, as well as for other more pressing reasons, so maybe time for a few updates en route – and certainly at our longer lunchtime stop, if the iPhone works. All being well we will be in Soma before nightfall, after about 195 km, but timing will depend very much on how we get on.
Wish us luck!
The Police bike goes on Pete's trailer.

The Truck leaves Fajara with 13 bikes on board.

Fixing Orangina.


Friday 24 January 2014

We've Made It... to Basse!

Everybody is safe and well — and well fed by the MRC Basse unit.
Quite a few adventures en route, including a burst cooling water hose on the bus, nearly losing the Police motorcycle off its trailer, and somebody who shall remain nameless running out of fuel. 
But we made it, and most will be in bed by 10:00, hoping for a good night's sleep before breakfast at 06:00.
The bus — Orangina — sets off from MRC Fajara

Thursday 23 January 2014

The Gang's all Here

And it's really a proper chain gang — all 12 of us. Peter Noble was the last to arrive, fresh (?) off the plane with his Bianchi in a bike bag, just in time for this evening's final briefing meeting.
Sadly, Beate won't be riding: she damaged a knee skiing and can't take an active part, though she will be coming with us in the medical support vehicle, manned (personned?) by Kirsty Le Doare and Mamina Bojang, a nurse from the Basse MRC unit.
We have got a Police motorcycle escort (at a reasonable price too) though we'll have to ferry him and his bike up to Basse. Amazingly, Pete bought a suitable trailer a couple of weeks ago, and I've got some straps, if I can find them. It'll be good to have someone ahead to clear the road.
And speaking of roads, it sounds as though the whole 370+ km are now tarmac, and there's just one km or so that isn't yet open to motor traffic. Should be OK for bikes though. And we've got out Set Settal pass for the vehicles.
This evening's briefing went well, though all of us are — quite reasonably — a little apprehensive about what Saturday and Sunday hold in store. The weather forecast is reasonable, though it's considerably hotter away from the coast (and could be up to 35 or 36 degrees C) humidity is lower. And the wind is predicted to be light and might even be slightly behind us. Tomorrow morning the bikes will be loaded, provisions, tools and spares packed away, and we'll be off!

Wednesday 22 January 2014

A Day in the Life

Woken by Suzanne getting up in the near-dark. Doze, tea, digestive biscuit…. Then it's 8 AM already. Julie’s back tyre blew out yesterday evening when I put her bike together after her flight. Looked faulty, as well as being an odd size; better ask Musa if he can buy something similar.
Coffee. Aaaah! Amazing that you can buy Lavazza in The Gambia, but then you can get many surprising things, like Asda smoked salmon and even yesterday’s supermarket sandwiches sometimes. And London papers, a day late; they’re recycled from incoming flights and delivered to your door….
Right. Check our web site and the JustGiving page — quite a few new donations. Good. Update the ‘Five Days to Go’ post to ‘Four… etc’ with new figures. Lots of emails. Nothing too serious. Time to produce a good copy of the briefing document we’ll discuss when everybody gets together on Thursday evening. About 20 points, three or four still unresolved, including whether the Gambian Police will give us a motorcycle escort or not (if they do, it probably won’t be free and poor Nana will have to go and meet with them, I fear). And then there’s the fact that Saturday will be ‘Set Settal’, or ‘clean the country' morning, so no cars are allowed on the road without a special permit…
Document is done, and sent off for approval. Must remember to circulate its predecessor, which sets out transport arrangements for the trip up to Basse, including who’s travelling with whom, then and on the ride itself. Oh, and what the sleeping arrangements will be, both at Basse and Soma.
Enough typing! Get back to the bikes. I think I’ve worked on everyone’s now except for Nana’s and Peter Noble's, and he doesn’t arrive until Thursday afternoon. Today (apart from Julie’s back tyre) there’s the nice old steel Bianchi I bought on Monday as a spare for use on the trip. Neither Musa nor I spotted its dodgy back wheel rim, but that can be solved by putting in my own spare, though it has more cogs on the cassette. Otherwise it’s not bad at all — really pretty good for forty quid. I give it some second-hand handlebar tape (white — not a good choice for dusty Gambia) and notice that the steering head bearings are really loose. And in fact it turns out they’re shot, so when they're tightened up, the bike will only go straight ahead. But I’ve got a spare for that too — a nice Campagnolo one — though fitting it without the proper tools is a bit of a struggle, involving the deep freeze, a large hammer and a tree stump.
And suddenly it’s 2 PM. Musa arrives with two tyres, but they’re far too narrow. He goes off to look again, but not before he’s confirmed that Lamin’s seat-post has broken where it holds (what used to be my) saddle. He thinks he can get one of those as well. We’ll see.
Now it’s 3,30 PM. Did I have breakfast? Can’t remember, but I think not. Too late now; sardines and mayo on brown and a nice cup of tea for lunch. And some orange juice. And an apple. Better.
The boys are back. A wider tyre, but with knobbly tread, so slow on the road. OK as a last resort, but Ed has some on a bike he doesn’t use which sound better. I’ll drop in on him when I go and see if the big ‘Slow – Cyclists Ahead’ signs to go on the back of the following medical support vehicle are ready. Oh, and Nana has some handlebar tape that’ll come in handy, so I'll drop in on him too.
I’m getting good at the handlebar wrapping, I think. New tape for the two Gambians, to their obvious delight. And on Suzanne’s, as she’s already damaged her ulnar nerve. A bit of extra padding may stop it getting any worse.
Lamin’s seatpost is not fixable, even with the bits Musa’s bought, so he gets my old one and he’s off for a 15 km run (not cycle) followed by some training on the beach, after which he’ll come back to check bike sizes. Will it be the Bianchi or the Merckx? He should stick with the latter really, for now, though the Bianchi is a better fit. We’ll do some juggling after the ride, perhaps.
Nip out. Signs are ready and look great! Get key from Ed and steal his front wheel from his flat (with permission). Back home, slightly delayed by Gambian Army contingents (mixed male and female) doing a full-pack fun run along the road outside. A few are carrying logs like telegraph poles and others what might be sandbags. Some of the women look pretty tired. The guys grab their packs off them and carry/drag their colleagues along. Esprit de corps looks high. Thinks: that could be us on Saturday, or Sunday, or both.
Home, cuppa, biscuit. Poised to send out this morning's documents. Internet collapses.
Back to the bikes….
The forty-quid Bianchi, after its service. Teatime...
Lamin will be riding it, after all.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

More Press...

Yesterday we got some more local Press coverage, this time in The Point newspaper, relayed by the AllAfrica site, who (perhaps flatteringly) listed it in their 'Sport – West Africa' section.
It's better written than the Observer piece (they've used our handout almost word for word) but sadly I seem to have lost the position I held briefly as co-founder of Chain of Hope...

Monday 20 January 2014

Track Sand to Sea Live on MotionX!

Thanks to the guys at Apple and some clever developers at MotionX, you will be able to follow the progress of our ride across The Gambia live on the Web with only a browser.
We'll be using the MotionX-GPS iPhone app, which will broadcast our position every five minutes all the way, and you can follow us by going to the MotionX-GPS Live Position Updates page.
http://gps.motionx.com/iphone/liveupdates/
You will need to key in our Channel Number, which is 21470, and this will display a little orange 'Sand to Sea' marker on the map.
Tracking will start when we set off for Basse on Friday morning and will continue all the way to Soma on Saturday, and then on to Fajara on Sunday – all being well, or Insha'Allah.


Friday 17 January 2014

Fame at Last!

We had a great write-up in the Daily Observer today. Headlined 'Charity set to raise £10,000 to tackle heart disease in Gambia', the first paragraph reads:

A United Kingdom based international charity, called the ‘Chain of Hope’ is poised to raise a staggering  £10,000 (ten thousand British pound sterling), approximately D 510,000, to support the treatment of Gambian children suffering from life-threatening heart disease.

This is the result of some visits I made with Mr Abdoulie Cham, the Press and Community Relations Officer at the MRC, who is quoted as describing the Sand to Sea Ride initiative as a ‘blessing’ to Gambians, saying that, every day, there are Gambians who need health attention and support.
We had a very sympathetic and supportive reception at all the newspapers and radio stations we visited, which is a good sign for the broader aim of the ride in raising awareness among Gambian parents and medical staff of the urgent need to improve medical services for children living with cardiac diseases in The Gambia.
It should also provide a little extra motivation for our final long preparatory rides at the weekend – around 130 km on Saturday, we reckon....


Friday 10 January 2014

Terrified

Julie Balen writes:
It's time to voice my fears…
Three years ago, I had never ridden more than a short commute to work and back. I didn't own any lycra and I had never fixed a bike puncture. I was living in Thailand and coming to the end of a post-doctoral contract, followed by six weeks of free time before the start of a three-year fellowship at Imperial College in London. I was desperate for a personal challenge of a sporting/adventurous nature, before starting my new life back in the UK. A bunch of things happened – it's hard to explain without simply saying that the Universe had a plan in store. Before I knew it, I owned a bike and was hatching the plan – a solo ride down the East coast of Thailand, taking me from Bangkok to Krabi province, where I planned to live on the beach for a month, rock climbing. ‘Why fly or take the train, when you can cycle there?’, I thought.
With almost no training, I invested a small fortune into my adventure and spent the evenings either reading cycle-touring websites or speaking to cycling friends (old and new), desperate to learn every piece of information I could. A good friend who was about to depart on an Asia-Europe ride showed me how to change an inner tube; I practiced twice in my living room (it was HARD!). He also went shopping with me: I bought waterproof panniers, a bike-mountable GPS, riding gloves, helmet, padded bike shorts, spare brake and gear cables, handlebars with extended ends on them, etc. I took advice from a British-Thai couple who had ridden the route previously, as well as others. And then I set off.
The first 25 km were very hard. I wondered what I was doing and why on Earth I was doing it. From nowhere, a bunch of road cyclists appeared, overtook me, raced on ahead – I tried to keep up for a few kilometres and eventually couldn't. I let them go faster but, with that, I got a sudden enthusiasm and sense of community (‘Hey look, I'm not the only mad cyclist in Thailand’). I took a left turn and came face to face with the ocean. Here, 30 km into a 650 km challenge, I thought for the first time: ‘I may, just may, be able to pull this one off…’.
That day I rode 36 km before reaching my planned stop. I felt great!
On my riding days I woke at 5.45 am, ate breakfast, packed the panniers and set off by 6.30 am, riding until about 10.30 am. Then I ate a second breakfast (delicious Thai street food) and rode until 1.00 pm or until I reached a hostel/guesthouse. On the longer days I would hide from the sun between 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm and then continue riding. One day it took 110 km before I found a guesthouse. I don't think I could have made another kilometre on the road that day, and I cannot explain in words the feeling of relief when I checked in. This was made even sweeter by the view of the ocean from the hammock as I drifted off to sleep feeling very content with myself.
My bike (named Greta) performed exceptionally – I had no injuries, remarkably no pain (!) and not even a single puncture! The ride was by far the best challenge I had ever set myself, and a remarkable growth-inducing experience.
Post-110km amazingness in Thailand.
And now, a ride of a very different sort. Matched up with some of Gambia's best athletes and MRC's most dedicated sports men and women, I’m worried that my total lack of training will show. (In fact, I know it will show). I have never yet ridden more than 110 km in a day. Yes, it's true I won't have heavy panniers and I have a newer, sleeker bike. Santa even brought me SPD pedals and cleats (though I am yet to test them out). For sure the support team/vehicle and strong team spirit will help. At my ‘comfortable’ riding speed (18 km/h) it would take far too long and the remaining riders will expect more from me. Will I burn out? Or worse, collapse?. How far can I get? What if I get trapped by the cleats, can't unclip in time and fall over? I've never ridden in a ‘peloton’ – and I even had to Google search the term (typing in: ‘bikes riding in line name’]. Will I be a ‘squirre’? (NB: squirrel: ‘a nervous or unstable rider who can't be trusted to maintain a steady line.’) Can I even ride in that strong Gambian sun now that I‘m not so used to it? Will my new bike (named Suchin, a Thai name meaning ‘beautiful thought’) be as fantastic as Greta? Will beautiful thoughts be enough to get me through it????
Training in Thailand, with Suchin.
The only thing I am sure of is that I’m getting on a plane from London to Banjul on Tuesday 21 January. I will come with a lot of work, my bike, an open mind and a team spirit. I am also happy to bring along any spares you would like from the UK, so please send me a list asap and I will buy things this/next weekend! And… lastly, I should pass along the best piece of advice I had before setting off on the Thai challenge: invest in some butt lube and apply it before each ride.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Double-Booked!

Peter Dukes writes:
Sunday: This is diary mismanagement night. Look at the month ahead first, and then week. Create time for important tasks, urgent tasks, and urgent and important tasks – and then juggle all those clashes. Get depressed when last week’s ‘didn’t get around to’s’ crowd out the coming days. Realisation: less than three weeks to go and I did no training at all last week, except for the Munich beer festival.
Monday:: Diary shock. Have double-booked interviews for Friday 24 January, the day that we travel to Basse for the start of the great ride. What to do?
Tuesday: Nana, Musa and I take a dawn spin down to Banjul and back. The potholes loom up fast and I have no front light. I ride mostly sandwiched between Nana and Musa: I am the flabby pale luncheon meat filling between two athletically wholesome slices of rye. For Nana has clearly cheated by training all through Christmas and Musa is nothing but ultra fit. As we return to the MRC gates, Nana satisfied concludes, ‘... an excellent pace!’ I think, ‘I’ll die.’
Wednesday: Recovered. So to Wiggle, the cyclists’ Internet store, for last-minute purchases, especially better lights. And, having discovered a previously unknown bodyplace called the perineum, for some exceedingly high-tech, moisture-dispersing ultra-padded lycra shorts. Am swept away by the thought of the ‘Top-level Tour Air Elastic Interface cycling pad from CyTech for serious sessions in the saddle’. With ‘Moisture management Field Sensor fabric’.... Phew, that’s what 400km in two days will need.
And to be doubly protective, a flash new saddle: the Selle Italia Max Flite Gel Flow. The name, with its sequence of must-have adjectives, evokes the image of a swift, sleek peloton, eating up the dusty miles. Am particularly taken by the promise of the ‘extra padding and specific soft-tissue-relief design that reduces the pressure where needed most. So many words without commas! But nice to know that manufacturers are so sympathetic to one’s most intimate cycling needs.
Thursday: Haven’t yet dealt with my diary malfunction. Stupid-boy thought: could I ride my bike to Basse through Friday night? Well, I do have the shorts and the saddle. Help!

Thursday 2 January 2014

While the Cat's Away...

Happy New Year!
Our little band of riders has been largely dispersed over the holiday period. Quite a few are in UK and Europe, probably struggling to get out at all in the face of gales and downpours. Nana is there as well, so several others have been happily having the odd lie-in rather than rising (much too) early for some more training.
We will almost certainly all be found out when our taskmaster returns – and even more so in just over three weeks' time. But there have been a few goody-goodies who have persevered in spite of the weather in London...
Owen 'hot-biking' under cover in London. Anna's turn next...