Our Head of Transport Darren Mingay recently headed all the way to Malawi as part of a 40 strong cycling team drawn from the transport and logistics industry to support the charity Transaid!
We would like to congratulate Darren for his efforts as part of the team, having completed a 505km cycling challenge across Malawi in soaring temperatures to raise over £200,000 towards Transaid's projects in sub-Saharan Africa! These much needed funds will be used to improve road safety and increase healthcare in rural communities.
Darren tells us below all about his trip which sounds fantastic, not to mention incredibly tiring in equal measure!
The tour group was led by Henke, a White native South African, very passionate about his country, he worked for Land & Lake Safaris and was supported, with three drivers, two coaches, a 4x4, a large flatbed lorry…
…& last but not least, was Memory, a bubbly South African woman who was always smiling, she provided us with several refreshment stops during the course of each day..
Memory’s task was to fuel the group with drinks, snacks & lunch, the most elaborate lunch, was the last day, where she’d cooked 40 ‘T’ Bone steaks! .We were really spoilt with food & she even managed to keep a large tub of ice cream cold enough for five hours in the back of her 4x4!
The bikes were made by an Indian company, called Eastman, more known, for manufacturing children’s bikes & not up to the rigours that 40 adult cyclists were going to put them through.. I managed to break Two bikes and had to finish the trip on a Third bike, which was a testament to their build quality, but even this, just added to the challenge and made it more memorable.
Accommodation was a mixture of camping, hotels & Safari lodges, the route was Lilongwe to Blantyre, just over 500km to be covered in 5 days and followed the shoreline of Lake Malawi, locally known as the calendar lake, as the lake is 365 miles long.
The other challenges were keeping hydrated enough, as the average temperature was 38*c, not getting sunburnt, due to the lack of shade and remembering to take our Anti-Malaria tablets each day!
Highlights of the trip are mainly meeting the locals, mostly the children, they don’t get to see many tourists & our cycling group ended up being the neighbourhoods entertainment every time we stopped.
Even whilst cycling, children literally come running from their homes to wave and cheer us on which was a great source of encouragement for us all!
To read more about Transaid and this charity initiative click here: https://www.transaid.org/news/cycle-challenge-double-header-raises-230000-for-transaid/
