The Globetrotters eNewsletter
eNewsletter Archive

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Meeting News from London

Liam D’Arcy Brown talked about his 11,000 mile journey literally the far corners of China North, South, East & West, and his talk was a riveting account of how he got there and the people he met on the way.

From the Southern most tip of Hainan Island, to the island of Zhoushan, Liam traveled on buses, trains and motorbikes wherever he went. Mixing with the locals, for better and for worse. Generally looked after by the locals, he was however robbed and spent few soul-searching days in his hotel feeling sorry for himself after being drugged on a train. Beware locals bearing free booze!

Liams book “Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior” has been described as the best autobiographical China travel book so far this year.

After the break, John Malathronas gave a digital slide show and talk about Brazil based on his book “Brazil, Life, Blood and Soul”.

John’s odyssey took us through the adrenaline-fuelled, chaotic city bars, the extravagant carnival, the lush rainforest and the destitute shanty towns of Brazil revealing the throbbing heartbeat of the country. John’s book “Brazil: Life, Blood and Soul” is published by Summersdale.

Next month, on Saturday 3^rd July is open house, an opportunity for UK
Globetrotters and visitors to show their own slides (traditional or digital images form scanned prints or digital pictures) and each make a short ten minute
presentation. Contact london@globetrotters.co.uk if you are interested in making a presentation.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court,
behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of
each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in
September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line
on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: href="http://www.globetrotters.co.uk">www.globetrotters.co.uk Admission:
Members £2.00 Non-members £4.00

JUNE 5^th, Amy Gissen talked about Cambodia and Thailand. There
will be no New York Meetings in July and August, but we are planning a new
format for the Fall, so stay tuned!

For details of forthcoming meetings email href="mailto:newyork@globetrotters.co.uk">newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or
register for email updates, href="http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/Ny-Update.html">click here
at our website.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher
Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St ), to the right of Crunch Fitness,
in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm. Admission: $8.00
for members and $10.00 for non-members.

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka Hermanek: href="mailto:shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca">shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca
or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May,
September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133,
Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

The next meeting is on July 10th, mark your calendars now!

The Texas Branch of the Globetrotters Club meet at the New Braunfels Public Library, the meeting begins at 2 P.M. As always, there will be time for sharing and networking.

For more information about the Texas Branch: please contact href="mailto:texas@globetrotters.co.uk">texas@globetrotters.co.uk or
register for email updates at our website ( href="http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/tx-update.html">click here)
or call Christina at 830-620-5482

If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina,
please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly
Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your
travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown
or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 8,000 people currently
subscribe to the Globetrotter e-news.

To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel
experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words, together with a
couple of sentences about yourself and a contact e-mail address to href="mailto:Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk">Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Following on from Randy’s last article on Thailand,
here he offers some advice on eco tourism in Thailand.

Finding real eco tourism in Thailand can be difficult. Here are a few
guidelines.

It seems everyone is doing Eco tours and treks but what is it? Do you know
the questions to ask a tour or trekking operator to find out if they are for
real or just a ploy to get you to go with them?

First of all, most operators care only about making you happy. They will say
yes to what ever you want to do. This is fine if you are doing a normal
commercial tour to the handicraft factories or city tour however if you want
to visit a hill tribe village or a nature area this is not acceptable. The
reason is because that is what the consumer wants and the operators want to
meet the needs of their clients, which might not be in the best interest for
the environment or local people. This means it is up to you to be well
informed about what is and what is not eco-tourism.

Here is a list of subjects and whys that separates the Eco-culture and nature
friendly tour and trekking operators from those that are not. It is then up
to you to decide which companies properly adhere to the true meaning of
Eco-tourism in Thailand.

Tour and Trekking operators first must meet three basic standards to be
called Eco tourism.

1. The willingness and ability to maintain or improve the environment.

Did you know that most of the plants and animals on the endangered species
list are because of destruction of habit and not poaching, hunting or
gathering? There are many examples of this in north Thailand. Not so many
years ago there were lots of rare species of birds along the Mae Kok, Ping,
Fang and Mae Teang rivers. Now because of clear cutting of bamboo for tourist
for rafting all of the large and many rare species of bamboo are now gone.
This means no more places for the birds to roost or nest, insects to eat and
the beautiful stands of bamboo that were once abundant along the river banks
are now gone forever.

So what can you do?
Try to find operators that use recycled bamboo rafts when ever possible They
pick them up at the take out point and bring them back to the starting point
by large truck. The rafts can be used again and again for a year or so.
Others just take them to the end of the rafting trip and sell them for other
uses or most are disposed of along the bank to rot and they cut fresh bamboo
for new ones. Finding these operators will be difficult, as many tour
operators will say yes they reuse the rafts when in fact you will find out at
the end of your rafting trip they do not. Better yet find an operator that
use rubber boats, kayaks or canoes with out gasoline engines if possible.

Another major problem is water pollution. With the large numbers of travellers
wanting to trek and visit hill tribe villages they are the number 1 source of
water pollution in remote areas. I know of many hill tribe villagers that
used to go to streams for small fish, frogs and insects to gather and eat.
Because of the trekkers using soap and shampoo at waterfalls and in streams
the animals that depend on clean water along with the plant life that
supports them are now gone. It is a fact that the hill tribe villagers before
the tourists arrived used to gather the water and wash their clothes and body
away from the streams or waterfalls so as not to pollute. Many villages now
also use the streams to wash in because they know there is nothing left to
gather or fish for. They don’t know why everything is gone but it was
all-fine before the tourists arrived. They also figure if the well-educated,
smart and rich tourists are using the water to bath why should we carry water
when we can just do what they do.

So what can you do?
Do not bath in streams or waterfalls using chemical soaps and shampoos. There
are biodegradable soaps and shampoos made that do not pollute so use these
products. Another thing you can do is to carry the water down hill and away
from the stream at least 20 meters. The best is not to use soap or shampoo at
all while in or near the stream or waterfalls. Bring along a face cloth and
add a little soap to clean your body and rinse off far away from the water
source.

The people who lived in the rain forest or jungle knew in the past how
important their water source was. It is a tragedy that these peoples had to
give this up because of tourism. There are still several villages in Thailand
that are pristine and still follow these good environmental practices. Their
villages are in very remote areas far away from the normal tourist crowds.

These are the two main problems with tourism and the environment in Thailand
today. For sure there are many others such as waste disposal that most of us
already know about.

2. The ability and willingness for proper control when visiting ethnic
peoples and villages in such a way that they can continue to maintain their
natural being, customs, traditions and lifestyle.

These are the worst horror stories not only in Thailand but also throughout
the world today. Almost all of the villages visited by tour operators today
have lost everything their elders have taught them going back hundreds of
years. Villagers are starving, addicted to drugs and they are selling their
children to be used as prostitutes or slaves. Believe it or not the villages
that accept tourists have the biggest chance of falling into this problem. Here
are the ways it usually (but not always) happens.

A guide goes out looking for a new area and villages to take tourists. He (or
she) meets the people in the villages and wants to bring tourists with the
promise of a more prosperous life (money) than what they have now. There are
no rules or guide lines set except that the villagers can sell trinkets and
handicrafts (most bought and not made by them) to the tourists. The family
that has guests overnight receives a small sum of money, a meal but must supply
the rice (in most cases). If the villagers can supply opium for the trekkers
to smoke, so much the better, as the guide will make lots of money from this.
Once this starts the local drug lords will make them keep purchasing the
opium.

After a year or two here is what happens to this once beautiful village. The
once shy villagers rush to meet the tourists with souvenirs for them to buy.
Most of these are made in Burma and not by the villagers themselves. They
will not stop bothering people until they buy something and then leave. The
children ask and beg for money. Now, the villagers are looking at the
tourist as a source of income not as a visitor. Most have quit working their
fields just to meet and beg and sell junk to the tourists. Most of the hill
tribe villages do not own land but are given an area to plant crops. If it is
not used then another village will take over the fields. This is usually a
nearby village that does not accept tourists. This means they no longer have
a place to plant seed for basic food to eat and sell.

The guide starts dinner at the family home and gives the host family around
50 Baht for having them. It is now evening and the guide asks who wants to
smoke opium. Some in the group will probably say yes. The guide then buys the
opium in the village for maybe 400 baht from which can supply around 20 or
more pipe loads. The guide then sells it again to the tourist for maybe
100 to 200 baht a pipe load. This is big money for the guide. Mean while the
children in the village see the foreigners smoking opium and think that they
do the same everyday. In their mind they think they can smoke opium, go to
college and make lots of money like the tourists do.

It is now a year later and the village has no culture to speak of any more.
There is no cultural interaction between the villagers and tourists as the
visitors are looked upon only as a source of income. The tour operator and
guides decide to now leave this village for new villages without tourists and
the process starts all over again. Now this village has no more tourists. They
have no place to plant crops anymore as the fields they stopped planting have
been taken over by nearby villagers. This means they now have to buy food
and basic necessities but have no money. Many are now addicted to opium or
heroin and even sell their children to keep up the habit.

This is a worst-case example but has happened and continues to happen to this
day.

So what can you do?
Please be careful with trekking operators that advertise new area or village.
Find out why they have to go to a new village or area. Most good eco-culture
friendly operators go to the same area and villages year after year. They
have an excellent relationship with them so everything is in balance and
harmony so they do not need to go to a new area.

Most hill tribe villages do not have handicrafts as they spend most of their
time working in their fields. There may however be elderly women in the
village taking care of young children that do make handicrafts. In this case
there will be one home or area where handicrafts can be viewed and bought. No
one will bother you to buy anything and you are not looked at as a major
source of income.

Make sure you are not allowed to give candy to children or money for
pictures. As a matter of fact nothing should be exchanged directly between
you and anyone in the village. A village is a very communal place and what
belongs to one belongs to all. Jealousy and hate between villagers can arise
because one family or person received something from you and they
didn’t. It is true that many villages that are visited by tourist drop
drastically in population because of jealousy. It is the lucky ones that move
away to a different village, usually that of another family member that has already
moved because of marriage to a village member.

Ask to meet your guide first. Talk alone with your guide. Find out how much
your guide knows about the village as you can. Tell your guide you want to
smoke opium and if he or she says no problem find a different operator and
guide. Many tour operators don’t know their guides are selling drugs to
tourists so you need to ask your guide. If you go on a trek and the guide
tries to sell pipe loads of opium and you see the tourists smoking turn the
guide into the tourist police as soon as you return to the city. Do not say
anything to the guide or tour operator just go to the police. This is the
only way this can be stopped.

Ask how many persons are going on the trek with you and get it in writing as
part of your receipt. Many people are told a small number later to find out
there are up to 15 persons going on the trek. If they come to pick you up and
there is more than what they wrote on your receipt when you paid for the trek
get your money back. Go to the tourist police and file a complaint. If they
do not give you a refund just make sure you have the number of persons in
your trekking party written in your receipt. 6 persons should be the maximum
and the fewer the better and a private trek is best. An eco-culture tour and
trekking operator will keep the number of persons visiting a village small. The
impact of even 50 visitors a month in a village is devastating and should not
be allowed. Some excellent operators take visitor to village only once a week
and then no more than 6 persons. They have many villages they can visit so
they can take tourists daily to different villages.

3. The ability and willingness of the tour operator to donate some profits
to the people in the villages they visit and in helping protect and improve
nature and the environment.

There are very few tour and adventure operators in Thailand that are willing
to support this belief. The ones that do started their business out of love
for nature and the people and wanting to share their experiences with travellers
not just for the money. They know the profits will rise once previous clients
talk to their friends and others about the wonderful time they had on their
holiday. This means more money for the locals and the tour operator. They
must work together without exploitation.

The relationship that develops between the operator, guides, local people and
communities when the tour or trekking company helps them is very important.
This means you as a visitor can enjoy something special and richly rewarding
instead feeling like of a source of income. You can develop true friendships
with the people you meet and enjoy a spectacular natural unspoiled
environment. You and your guide will be well respected by everyone you come
in contact with. They also know that some of the money you paid for your
holiday to visit them goes to help them and the local environment. They know
their customs will be respected and their culture and way of life will remain
intact.

Good Eco-aware tour operators help in many ways in Thailand. They buy books
and other supplies for local schools. They pay to build schools and pay for
teachers to live in the remote villages. They provide blankets and clothing
yearly to families and children. They pay for doctors to visit remote
villages on a regular basis and provide medicines and money for treatments if
needed. Some pay local remote villagers to keep a watch out for poachers in
the jungle and rain forest and report any potential problems to local
authorities. They also work with local police, park rangers and forest
ranges providing funds for rewards when poachers or tree cutters are caught.
They pay locals to plant trees where needed and teach the people about waste
disposal
and hygiene. Build toilet facilities and water wells or water gathering
reservoirs in small mountain canyons. They pay for pipes and plumping from
the wells and reservoirs to the village. The list goes on and on but the
important thing is the tour or trekking operator wants to help.

So what can you do?
Try to find such a tour or trekking operator. The most important thing is
being willing to pay more for you tour or trek. The fewer people on the trek
or tour the better the experience. This costs more but well worth it. Most
guides that work for these eco- culture friendly operators are very dedicated
to helping people including you. They go out and visit these villages and
natural areas regularly if they have people to take or not. They have
extensive training about the environment, animals, birds, insects and about
the local people you will see and meet. They are paid much more than the
normal commercial guide and are well worth it so be willing to pay more.

There are certain places you should not visit, the main one being to see the Paduang
Long Neck Karen. This is one of the worst forms of tourism in Thailand. Any
tour operator who does this tour has no consideration for the culture or the
Karen People. Here is the real story. The original custom is that only a
girl born on a Wednesday during a full moon could where the rings around her
neck. Now because of the large number of tourists visiting these villages all
the girls are wearing the rings as it is big money. A Photograph of 1 girl is
as much as 500 baht. Not only that but the villagers are kept in a compound
surrounded by high walls so no one can see in. They are not allowed out of
the camp so everyone just sits around waiting for the tourists. It costs at
least 250 baht to get into the village which most goes to the tour operator.
Villagers have died in these compounds.
These people deserve more than this.

Here is a short article from the English language Nation newspaper in Bangkok
on the seriousness of the problem. MAE HONG SON- A provincial court in Mae
Hong Son yesterday opened the trial of two Thai men on charges relating to
the detention and death of a long necked ethnic Padaung women, who, along
with over 30 others of the same ethnicity, was trafficked into Thailand from
Burma two years ago.

Paduang – commonly known here as the long-necked hill
people because the women normally wear brass necklaces, the number of which
increases over the years-has been a strong tourist attraction in Mae Hong
Son. The group of detained Padaung had been lured and trafficked from their
home village in northeastern Burma into Thailand by a Thai Karen agent, who
had pledged to take them to visit their relatives in Mae Hong Son. According
to the rescued Padaung, the woman, a mother of two, died in mid-1997 of
exhaustion and heartbreak as she had been long separated from her children
who remained in Burma.

Please boycott any agency that wants to take you to
see the Paduang Long Neck Karen.

Eco-tourism is not cheap so before you go out to find the best price for a
trek or tour, first think about who wins and who looses on a cheap tour or
trek. No one wins. Think about it.

Randy who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1948 has lived in Texas for more
than 20 years and in Thailand since 1989 can be contacted by e-mail and is
happy to answer any questions you may have one Thailand: href="mailto:allthai@all-thailand-exp.com">allthai@all-thailand-exp.com.
For more information on trips to Thailand, see: href="http://www.all-thailand-exp.com">http://www.all-thailand-exp.com

Porto, also known as Oporto is a seaside town in the north
of Portugal. It is proud to be known as “the city of work”. The
city dates back to the eighth Century B.C. as a Hellenic village on the left
bank of Douro River or the River of Gold as it is translated.

Today, Porto is a working town of half a million people,
industrial and modern which has undergone a regeneration programme in the
last 25 years and achieved World Heritage status from UNESCO in 1996. It was
also selected as European Capital of Culture for 2001.

There are various attractions for visitors as follows:

WINES

Port Wine Cellars are open to visitors and offer guided
tours during which Port Wine is freely tasted and its story fully explained.
Excellent brands are available such as Vinho Verde of Minho and Esporão of Alentejo
Region – the Best Red Wine of Europe in 2001 according to TIME
magazine,

GASTRONOMY

Specialities of the area include “Tripas à Moda do
Porto”. This is a very tasty dish made of ox and beans. “Sarrabulho”
is a kind of thick soup made of a mixture of meats and maize flour, spices
and herbs. This dish will be presented to the European Parliament next
summer and is a favourite of Nobel Prize winner Portuguese writer José Saramago.
And of course no visit to Portugal would be complete without tasting the
famous Bacalhau. This is dried salted cod and there are 101 ways of
cooking it in olive oil, the base of Mediterranean healthy cooking

BUILDINGS

Some of the buildings worth mentioning in Oporto include
the New Infante Bridge, Football Stadiums (used in the current
UEFA Euro 2004 Football Tournament), Casa da Música Concert Hall (a Dutch masterpiece by
famed Dutch Architect Rem Kolhas and the Ultramodern Surface Metro Railway
System.

THINGS TO BUY

These include fine tapestry, of course clothing, glasswork
and pottery, ceramics and filigree silverwork, all very original, of high
workmanship, and reasonably priced

SUGGESTED THINGS TO DO

There are many famous bridges over the River Douro such as
D. Luis built in 1886 and designed by Eiffel, yes, he of the Eiffel Tower. There’s
the new Infante that was inaugurated in April 2003. There are regular river
cruises and even helicopter rides over the area and surrounds. There are
numerous churches with fabulous displays of Baroque art and unique Azulejos (tilework
). If you want to visit the beach and the sea, you can take a stroll along
the Seaside Promenade on the Atlantic coast at Foz do Douro. The Stock
Exchange Palace is a magnificent Arab Salon and a must among town centre monuments,
and the town park is also very beautiful and is by the sea.

If you would like to visit Oporto, contact Alvaro MIGUENS,
office@greypowertravels.com
or visit http://www.greypowertravels.com

My experiences on a trip to Angel Falls were different to
those reported in a Globetrotter e-newsletter a couple of months back. I
went in 9/88. The US $ versus Bolivar’s exchange was great. My wife Rosemary
and I flew into Canaima. We had a dugout trip to Orchid Island where we spent
the night. Metal roof, open sides, toilet facilities were any clear spot you
could find in the jungle. It started to rain, they were attempting to roast,
what they called chickens, over an open fire, they were on ironwood stakes.
Unlike any chickens I have ever seen. Eventually they got them halfway
cooked. Not very good. They served an orange juice looking drink. Rosemary
drank it like it was going out of style. She refused to drink the water
because it had been taken out of the river, full of tannin as you are aware,
She didn’t realize that the water in the orange drink was taken out of the
river, nor did I tell her. We slept in the hammocks, no mosquito nets. We
really weren’t bothered with mosquitoes, I don’t understand why.

The next morning they served something for breakfast, not sure what it was,
it looked like corn beef hash but it wasn’t. Rosemary said that was enough
for her. So she got in an outboard powered canoe with some Indians and went
back down river to Canaima where she stayed in the hotel, the only one at
that time. I followed instructions and dressed in shorts, BIG MISTAKE. After
going up river about an hour I was getting very sun burnt. They found a piece
of canvas to put on my legs.
They were already burnt, also my face. Best they could find was some sun
screen to put on my face. We got to an island where we got out of the canoe.
We had to walk part of the way across it as it was too dangerous for us to go
thru the falls in a canoe. The Indians walked ahead found a bulldozer and
a trailer and came back across the island where we were still walking and
picked us up and took us to where the canoes were waiting. We finally about
1430, arrived at the base camp for Angel Falls. All the people walked thru
the jungle to base of the Falls. I was unable to do so as
I was hurting and lay in a hammock in similar conditions as the night before.
When they came back it was getting dusk. They had some people there fixing
the meal it was fairly good, the only thing I ate was some sliced pineapple
and dank some of the juice. No alcohol allowed but one German had brought a
bottle of brandy along and they all enjoyed it. Oldest was about late 30’s I
was at the time, 63. One Italian couple had been married three days, another
was married eight days. The next morning they took the canoes up river to a
point where I could get a good view of the falls.

We all got out and walked around, I didn’t walk much, I
was hurting. We went down river to Orchid Island where they were staying the
night. Two other canoes were there and leaving for Canaima. One of our
Indians, clothed in a loin cloth, went over to one of the canoes and talked
to them. The Indian had lived in New York for some years before coming back
to Venezuela. He told me to wait until one canoe departed and then for me to
go over to the remaining canoe and they would permit me to go with them. He
said the first canoe had the operator in it and he would want to charge me a
lot of money to go with the canoe. They stopped at a small falls, which was interesting
but I
didn’t get out of the canoe. We finally made it back to Canaima and walked
the mile or so back to where the hotel and other facilities were. I found
Rosemary and they took me to an Indian first aid station. The Indian woman
there with rings on all her fingers rubbed, what I later found out was Nivea
cream into my legs. Those damn rings HURT. Rosemary went to a village store
and bought some Nivea cream. That night Rosemary brought a German young
couple, back to our room, whom
we had met in Merida the week before and I went to the top of Bolivar Mountain,
the highest peak in Venezuela. We went up via a four stage cable car. After
we got up there I had to be given oxygen. Let me get back to Canaima. I had
something to eat at the open air hotel dining facility. The next noon time we
stood in line to get on the Avensa Airline 727. There was a large group of
Italian tourists there. One young man walked up to near the head of the line
when they started loading. The National Guard officer came along and took him
to the back to the end of the line. He wasn’t
satisfied and when he thought they weren’t looking he went to head of
line. Unfortunately for him they were watching. They took him out of the
line, stood along side of him and the last we saw of him he was still
standing there when the aircraft took off for Caracas.

I went to the medical facility The Dr. there told me I should read: I went to the medical facility where the doctor there told me

Upon arrival In Caracas I decided to go on to Miami, I was hurting.
Upon arrival in Miami after a night sleep we started north to Patrick Air Force Base.
You might not know where it is but it supports NASA at
Cape Canaveral where the shuttles are launched. I went to the medical facility where the doctor there told me, I had a serious burn on the legs and there was
a possibility I would need a skin graft. Well I was fortunate I didn’t need
it.

Bill wrote in to tell us about his sponsored bike ride in
aid of the Douglas Bader Foundation late January, early February this year.

How did it start? It began with a mad idea to cycle
somewhere warm in the middle of our cold winter, experience two summers in
one year and lose some weight. At first I was interested in Guide Dogs for
the Blind’s ride in New Zealand. I started training in August 2003,
but when I applied officially, I discovered that with a low demand the ride
had been scrapped. I then looked around to see where else would provide the
winter warmth and came across Vietnam, Cuba and Kenya. Mainly because my
father had an amputation and I had seen the struggles which all the folk had
in the recovery ward at Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast, I chose the Douglas
Bader Foundation cycle ride in Kenya. hspace=12>

What about training? Classic tours, which run many of
these Bike Rides, provide good guidance as to how you build up the miles (and
more importantly for this ride, the hills.) I had sputtered at training
since May but never really got into a three day a week rhythm until the
middle of August, when I was doing about fifty miles a week. My daughter Sarah’s
wedding in early September set the training back a bit, but by the end of
October I had managed Lisburn and back twice and a run up the coast road to
nearly Glenariff. God was good with regards to the weather. In a
‘normal winter’ (if there is such a thing in this country) rain,
wind and snow would have interrupted training. Most weeks I was able to get
out three and sometimes four days a week which proved to be crucial when it
came to tackling the big hills in Kenya. Motivation after Christmas in the
colder January days was a real problem, when it was so much easier to sit in
the warm than face four hours in the cold cycling round Islandmagee!

Fund-raising? Folk have been very generous. After an accident
I had, I had decided to use some of my retirement funds as a Thank you to God
to fully meet all costs, so that all sponsor money given would go to the
charity concerned. What with support from relatives, church folk, Carrick
Grammar School Charity Fund and staff, I hoped to raise over £2,000 for the
Douglas Bader Foundation. With the other nine riders we should have raised
over £12,000.

What was it like? Kenya is a really beautiful country
with a huge range of bird and wildlife. Much of what we cycled through was
cultivated and quite densely settled but there were still remote quiet places
where fewer people were found. The support team were excellent, providing
quick help for bikes and people with three course tasty cooked lunches
provided at the roadside!!

Here are my diary extracts:

Sat 31st Jan 2004 – Heathrow terminal 4, 5.37p.m. Tired
already – I’ve been on the go since 9.15am and I still have not
left London. I hate this Belfast to London slog. I’ve done it three
times in three years to meet other flights and still it never gets better. Transit
lounges surrounded by 1,000 strangers and eight million locals, yet still
quite alone. It is never daylight here. I read the Bible and prayed and
just felt the Lord with me and I wasn’t alone any more. Perhaps a
short tea and then meet the others at 7p.m. They seem like a good
crowd and are very friendly. It’s difficult to make friends
immediately, but we gel surprisingly well, for people who have never met but
who have a common purpose. I am stunned to see Mike, a double amputee (below
both knees) who is going to cycle most of the 400Km. Later in the week, when
I see him strapping on his artificial limbs and dealing with the abscesses on
his stumps, it is so humbling to see the huge efforts that he makes and it
puts any difficulties that I had in training into a true perspective.

Wed 4th Feb. The Big Hill day. I can’t believe that
we freewheeled for half an hour going down the twisty hairpin bends into the Kerio
valley from the overnight stop at Kabernet in Northern central Kenya. We
descend from 2065m to 1200m on the valley floor. Great fun to see the
kids’ faces at Chermurgui Primary School, when Mike takes off his
artificial leg. We stopped here to hand over the pens, pencils and drawing
materials (plus a UTV Frisbee that I won in a quiz !!) to the headmaster of
the school. We were all asked to bring some resources which would be better
than giving out sweets. Carrickfergus Grammar School had provided boxes of
pens and pencils, which went down really well.

Then it was off up the Elgeyo escarpment. In Classic tourspeak
it was “a very serious climb” – to you and me it meant if
you hadn’t done enough hills in your training ‘get off and
walk’. I don’t think I have ever faced a stiffer challenge
– a fifteen mile hill that went from 1200m to 1925m. Lunch at two
o’clock had never tasted quite as good. The views on the way up were
stunning in the early morning but by lunchtime it was too hazy to really
appreciate the whole landscape.

Thursday 5th Feb. Another 60 mile day phew!! This time
less long steep hills and more undulations (shorter and steeper) Through the Kakamega
rain forest with views of Vervet and Colobus monkeys. The first few days were
cloudy and it even rained on Monday (warm rain, of course, unlike Carrick).
Now it was blue skies and 35 to 37 C with little shade even through the
forest. A litre of bottled water has never tasted so good. I needed the
Factor 50 sunscreen that I had brought with me as I burn so easily. The rain
on the first day had washed the sunscreen off my right calf and the sun had burned
it even through the cloud!

Fri 6th Feb. The final run into Kisumu – only 35
miles!!! All those days of encouraging one another were over. The distracting
ploys like: “look at those lovely wee wild flowers beside the
road” - but don’t look at the huge hill that is emerging in front
of us as we round this bend or “Let’s stop and look at the
view’” which means: I’m punctured and need a breather.
Another one was: “I must take a picture of this for the folk at home”
read as : I need a good drink of water, and finally “Look, I think
that might be a bee-eater / shrike / black kite” which translates as:
I’ll be able to get my heart and lungs back to a semblance of normality
while I try to focus on this pesky bird.

Outcome: a huge rewarding effort and a great sense of
achievement while seeing a really different part of God’s beautiful
creation. New friendships made and many folk helped through the generosity
of our sponsors. Oh and over a stone lost in weight, since starting training
in August.