Making Tracks 2014 – by Nick Williamson, MD
Having suffered nappies, schools, the teenage years I am now being challenged by my children, to further push myself to the limits!
My 18 year old daughter, Ruby, has challenged me to ride 450kms from Kampala, Uganda to Kisumu, Kenya in 5 days with her. I blithely accepted the challenge as if it was something I'd do later that afternoon; I am now starting to worry...
The ride takes place in November and is in aid of the Kenyan Orphan Project (KOP). KOP runs projects to help and support orphans so they can support themselves as they grow up and then support their communities, in the future.
We are not the first members of our family to have attempted this as my Mum (72) and Brother (50) did it a couple of years ago. My mum ran another marathon at the weekend , in Munich. I'm telling you this so you can get a sense of the scale of the ridicule I will suffer if I don’t make it!
The route this year begins on the outskirts of Kampala through Jinga, onto Mbale, cross the border in Busia into Kenya, then to Kakamega and finally arrive in Kisumu. Were on mountain bikes, I’ve never ridden more than 20kms on a mountain bike! There will be plenty of other challenges, apparently the threat of Terrorists and Ebola are the least of our worries!
Ruby and I are training hard for this, although having had some of my vaccinations today; I'm not feeling very energetic.
Keep an eye on my blog for updates...
If you would like to support us, any donation will really help.
Thank you in anticipation
Nick Williamson