An African Motorcycle Diary

October is one of my favourite times of year. As the sun begins to disappear in the UK and the leaves start turning orange I pack my bags and head to South Africa. This year, however I boarded the flight to Jo’burg leaving behind an unusually hot sunny day in London and after a long journey arrived in a small town called Alicedale in South Africa. 

Enduro Africa is an amazing off-road motorbike rally run by adventure company Global Enduro. Thirty-four bikers have just completed eight days of tough riding along the Wild Coast. They have tackled river crossings, the mighty gorge and too many obstacles to mention.

As always they were a fantastic group of people. From a range of backgrounds and interests they all came together to raise funds for UNICEF, Sentebale, The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Touch Africa by completing this adventure of a lifetime.

This is the fourth year UNICEF has benefited from Enduro Africa. To date they've donated a fantastic £280,000 for our work with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. With 17 per cent of the adult population living with HIV this support is absolutely vital.

Some of the riders knew what to expect, having taken part in Enduro or other Global Enduro events in the past. Others have had a steep learning curve. They were introduced to their Honda CRF 230s and after a short warm up in the quarry they were put into their groups according to their riding ability.

The orange, green and blue  team shirts quickly lost their pristine look after a week of mud, dust, sweat and tears.

Every day brought new experiences, none of the ‘paths’ taken is suitable for 4-wheel drive vehicles so riders got to see and experience parts of the Eastern Cape that no other tourists, or very few people for that matter, ever see. 

They crossed through ancient mountain passes only accessible by bike and cattle herders. They picked their lines carefully, watching for obstacles like rocks, washaways, free roaming animals, sudden drop offs, not to mention the other bikes. 

The multitude of river crossings gave them the opportunity to cool down as they attempted to ride through in waste-deep water, navigating the rocks beneath. Some managed to get through but many bikes drowned, were quickly pulled out again, drained and moved onto the next obstacle...

One of the many  things I have come to love about these trips is the camaraderie of the teams and the spirit in which everyone looks after each other (as well as a odd practical joke!) The team leaders and sweeps work tirelessly to ensure that everyone gets through the day safely. The medics and mechanics are always close by, should they be needed to fix a bike - or a biker. 

Everyone has returned home a little battered and bruised but with new friends, all thoroughly proud of what they have achieved, how much they have learnt and the legacy they have left for the children in South Africa and Lesotho.

The adventure begins all over again as the second group arrive in Durban today and set off south down the coast. Lots of luck to them; if they have just half as much fun as the first group they too will have the adventure of a lifetime with memories to last forever.

If you would like to get involved with Enduro Africa next year visit www.enduroafrica.com 

Trek for the children of Namibia: one month to go

This time next month I'll be in the Namib desert with 16 UNICEF fundraisers. We're trekking 115 kilometres through the oldest desert in the world to the Skeleton Coast, hiking over sand dunes and dodging hyenas and other wildlife. All in 35-40 degrees heat.

The challenge began months ago for the trekkers who've been training and fundraising to support the rights of children in Namibia.

One of our trekkers, Amy, has been fundraising in everyway she can think of. She's organised a regular vintage cake stall in her office,  put up a display at her gym with sponsor forms and a collection tin, given swimming lessons for 40 children at her local pool, and she's also busy with car boot sales and gigs. Phew!

Amy's not the only one to have organised gigs: another trekker, Phil, was sponsored to stay on stage for 24 hours solid and raised £2,600!

Other trekkers have been out with collecting buckets: Adrian raised £177 in just one day like this at Oxford train station.

There are BBQs, garden parties, quiz nights and many raffles going on to help the trekkers reach their target of £3,250 to take part in the trek.

As I write this I'm surrounded by cakes for a cake bake I’m holding in the UNICEF UK office to raise some extra funds.

Our trekkers are also raising money via our very own online fundraising site, My Fundraising.

These donations will be used to realise children’s rights in Namibia and the trekkers will have the opportunity to visit UNICEF projects.

Forty per cent of children in Namibia are not registered at birth. This means that schools, health clinics and other children's services are not provided. Not having a birth certificate makes children more vulnerable to trafficking or exploitation. We'll be visiting one of the 22 birth registration facilities that UNICEF has set up in partnership with the government. 

UNICEF uses sport as a way to educate children, promote a healthy life style and develop children’s skills. In Namibia we'll be visiting the Kwata Cricket Initiative at a local school and might even get to play in a mini cricket match with the girls taking part in the programme.

On our last day we'll visit an HIV prevention programme for high school children. UNICEF runs this with the Ministry of Education in 72 per cent of secondary schools in Namibia. It's a way to educate young people about HIV prevention and life skills, and with around 16 new infections a day in Namibia, it's a vital part of helping prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. 
  
I’m really looking forward to showing the trekkers what UNICEF is doing, and letting them see first hand just how vital their support is. I must say I'm not looking forward quite so much to the prospect of not showering for eight days!

If you're feeling inspired, you can read about our next trek, which will take us up the highest free-standing mountain in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro. 

Kampala vs. London

With just over a week to go until the end of my VSO placement I have been reflecting upon my time here and all the things I’ll miss when I leave Uganda and all the things I’m looking forward to at home.

I am so excited to meet my new baby niece, Ella. Emily & Ian have sent me lots of photos and she is gorgeous; I can’t wait to give her a big cuddle from her Aunty Al. Seeing my family and lovely friends is also at the top of my ‘things I’m looking forward to’ list.

Mama FM colleagues


However at the top of my ‘things I’m going to miss’ list is all my lovely friends, colleagues and neighbours here. It’s going to be really hard to say goodbye to so many inspiring people. I will miss everyone a lot!

Food and drinks. Ah how I miss Walkers Salt & Vinegar crisps (although I write this having just devoured a pack – thanks for the parcel Fran!!) As for eating out I’m spoilt for choice of restaurants in Kampala but unfortunately no Vietnamese, my favourite. I think I’ll be having lots of lunches in Pho when I get back! I’m also looking forward to turning on the tap and getting a glass of water. Here I boil and filter my water and even though I’m getting used to the chalky taste it is getting a bit tedious

Milk. Fresh, cold milk. I buy the longlife milk here but it expires pretty quickly once it’s opened. I do have a fridge but given all the power cuts it’s not very reliable! I can only have white coffee in the mornings at work because by the afternoon the milk has gone off. In fact to have coffee at all Anna and I have to bring in our own coffee, milk, sugar, mugs and even our own kettle! I’m so looking forward to rocking up to the office and finding a pot of coffee simmering away, milk in the fridge, sugar in the jar and even lots of herbal teas for detox days.



Anna & I at work



Talking about the office this is a sad fact to admit but I am looking forward to getting back to the world of Microsoft Outlook. Looking in someone’s calendar, arranging a meeting and knowing they will turn up and on time seems like such a luxury. And emails  – how I miss emails! To communicate in the office here a memo is written, stamped (this is a very important step) and then physically passed round the office. It is then pinned to the notice board with ‘NEW’ scrawled across it in big red letters. There are scores of ‘NEW’ memos on that board!  UMWA only has one email address for the whole organisation. For those of us who have to/want to communicate via email we use our personal account which doesn’t seem very professional- especially when communicating with donors... Other luxuries such as a phone and printer are missing here. It will actually feel like a treat to pick up my phone, with my direct line and make a call from my desk without having to borrow the one organisation phone and worry about running out of air time half way through the call.

I am looking forward to not being as reliant upon my laptop. I use it all day for work as there are not enough computers. Having said that it is great in meetings to take notes and quickly look something up or just to carry on working while waiting for people to turn up. My laptop is my main method of communication with everyone at home (what did we do before the days of Face Book and Skype....?) It is also my means of watching TV. Most of us Muzungus have brought external hard drives full of films and TV series (Thanks Kevin!) that we swap. It’s great to be able to watch a film or an episode of Mad Men on a night in but I am looking forward to turning on the TV. I miss watching the news in the morning as I’m getting ready for work.

"Welcome Home Alyrene-a"

I will very much miss my journey to/from work. Every morning to be greeted with big smiles from Betty and the children is a great start to the day. And there’s nothing better than after a bad day (or a good day for that matter) to be greeted by the gorgeous children running up the road, fighting over who will be the first to get a cuddle from Alyrene-a. There is a lovely culture to welcome everyone back at the end of the day so passing the small houses on the way home and hearing ‘welcome back’ is a far cry from rushing through the crowds anonymously in London. Another great saying they use all the time here is ‘well done’. ‘well done’ for getting up ‘well done’ for getting to work, ‘well done’ for everything!

My working hours here are very relaxed. Anna and I aim to leave the house at about 9am (I am usually late....!) But regardless of how early or late we are we are still always the first in our little office. It’s such a luxury to be able to come home, shower, change, chill out and still meet friends later in town for dinner or drinks. I think it will take me a while to get used to rushing out straight from work, trekking across London and still always arriving at the pub and greeting my mates with “I’m sorry I’m late... again.” So even though ‘African Time’ can get frustrating, I’m a big fan of it!

Walter's Boda

My next point is a bit contradictory. I am really looking forward to getting back to a decent public transport system. Being able to hop on a tube or bus or just walk across town without any pre-planning. Here my schedule is often determined by Walter and on the rare occasions he’s not working we are stuck in Kisaasi. But I will miss being on a bike every day. I love it! And although I do sometimes have a snooze on the way home the journey back from a night out is always as much fun as the night it’s self. One of the first things I was taught in Luganda was ‘mpola mpola’ which means 'slowly slowly' and we were told to say this to all boda drivers but I much prefer ‘speedy speedy.’

En route to Queen Elizabeth National Park



Because of the lack of reliable public transport I have had some great road trips at weekends. It’s easier to hire a minibus than attempt to get around on the matatus. Hiring your own transport has the added bonus of being able to stop en-route. One of the most beautiful viewpoints was heading from Queen Elizabeth National Park to Lake Bunyonyi at Easter, looking out over the vast African savannah with the sun beating down – just gorgeous.



Cassia Lodge



I’ll miss weekends in Kampala too. So long as the sun is shining we spend our weekends chilling at the pool. Most of the hotels charge a small fee for use of the pool/gym (some of them charge a large fee but we avoid those!) One of the very best is Cassia Lodge. It’s about a 40min boda ride away but the views across Lake Victoria are always worth it. Not sure sunbathing on Clapham Common will quite match it, but hey I’m looking forward to that too...

One thing Clapham does have that Kampala lacks is street lights. I miss light! It will be so nice to go back to long summer evenings rather than it getting dark by 7pm every day.



Another thing London has over Kampala is hundreds of shops to choose from but I’m really going to miss shopping sprees here. Two great girls have set up a fab initiative called Fashion Corps. They trawl through the markets for all the hidden gems and host parties once a month selling the goodies. I love leaving Nina and Brooke to do my shopping for me, I just hope I’ve got enough luggage space to bring it all back....

So just six months away. So many amazing memories and so much I’ll miss but also so much to look forward to.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I realise I’ve been pretty bad at posting any notes or blogs about my time in Uganda – I think the last one I wrote was about my Christmas celebrations. Hopefully the hundreds of photos and status updates have created a bit of a picture of my life in Uganda... but here are some reflections on the good, the bad and the ugly experiences of the past few months:

The Good:

The people are top of this list. I’m so lucky to have made some lovely friends. Everyone here is really interesting and so much fun.  It’s actually pretty easy to make friends as everyone’s in the same boat; away from home, not knowing many people and out here to have an amazing experience and hopefully make a bit of a difference.

It is so nice to go for weekends away with these great friends; I’ve been lucky enough to spend a couple of weekends in Jinja, take a trip to Murchison Falls and had another awesome weekend in Sipi Falls. 

As well as going away with people here I’ve had some visitors too, Alex, Lizz and Kat came to stay last month and we headed off with our ‘trusty’(!) guide to Queen Elizabeth National Park in the West. The amount of animals we saw was incredible; elephants, hippos & crocs on the banks of the Kazinga Channel. Then as we drove through the National Park more elephants, cape buffalo, warthogs, cobs, baboons, and even monkeys with blue balls! We were a bit scared walking back to our bandas one evening in our camp bordering The DRC. (The camp had been shut down until recently because of DRC rebels crossing the border at the river there!) As we walked back with nothing but a head torch and drunken ranger to ‘protect’ us we could hear the hippos and other animals a little too close for comfort. We were lucky enough not to come across any lions that evening but during our morning game drive; from the safety of our vehicle, we saw a male and a female just 15 feet from us. In fact we couldn’t go anywhere even if we had wanted to as they decided to have a drink and a rest right in the middle of the road. Ishasha, is famous for the tree climbing lions and even though we didn’t see them up a tree it was incredible to see them so close up.

Our journey took us further South, climbing up the mountains to Bwindi and then ended in possibly the most beautiful place in Uganda; Lake Bunyonyi. This is the second deepest lake in Africa but with no bilharzia or crocodiles we couldn’t resist going for a swim, even though it was raining and pretty cold!

As well as wonderful people and great holidays there have also been some successes at work. The main one being Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA)’s International Women’s Day celebrations.  The 8th March is a day for the world to recognise and celebrate women’s achievements and highlight important issues facing women today.  This year the Ugandan theme was maternal health and with 16 women dying every day during pregnancy or child birth it is an issue that needs a lot of attention. The run up to the event was a little tense as even though I had secured a few corporate sponsors we didn’t get confirmation that our fundraising proposal to UNFPA had been successful until 5 days before the event. But with lots of last minute decisions and publicity we managed to pull off a great event with around 400 attendees. There was drama from the UMWA drama group and local school children, community dialogue and a health camp with doctors & midwives giving advice to women and men who had questions about maternal health. Mama FM also ran programs for the week leading up to after the event concentrating on maternal health. So hopefully have done, and are continuing to, play our part in supporting women’s health.

The Bad:

It wouldn’t be fair to only concentrate on all of the good things so here’s some of the bad too...

Linked directly with meeting so many lovely people is the negative side of that; saying goodbye to so many lovely people. Like me, most people are only here for short periods while they research for their studies, complete internships or take part in exchanges. So unfortunately saying goodbye is becoming all too regular. But I’m sure we’ll keep in touch and the most important thing is getting to share these experiences with the people around you, even if you do have to say goodbye to them the following week.

I’m not looking forward to having to say goodbye to everyone when I leave in less than two months time. Obviously I can’t wait to see my family and friends (and eat Walkers Salt & Vinegar crisps!) but I’m going to be so sad to say goodbye. But let’s not think about that just yet...

“Muzungu.”  It’s not a bad word but sometimes it gets a bit much constantly being referred to as Muzungu.  The kids down my street have now mastered ‘Alyrene-a’ but to everyone else I am just ‘Muzungu’. Most days it is absolutely wonderful to have a chat to everyone on the way to and from work and play with the kids but I must admit some mornings I miss the anonymity of London. I’m sure after a few journeys on the tube I will not feel like that and will miss the friendly smiles of everyone here!

The Ugly:

Me after sitting in the sun too long!  I got such bad sunburn a couple of months ago. Factor 40 and moving into the shade just wasn’t enough to ward off the African sun.  I was so burnt I spent the evening lying face down on Anna’s couch (the most comfortable position..!) with her putting cold towels over me – although they didn’t stay cold for long, within just a couple of minutes my skin had managed to burn them through too. A week of steroid cream and aloe vera sorted me out though.

On a more serious note though there are ugly things happening all around when people live in poverty. Betty, one of my neighbours is such a lovely woman and is very welcoming to everyone in our little village – all the children congregate at Betty’s house as she is just so warm and kind. I was walking home from work last Thursday and bumped into her – she looked awful and when I asked her if she was okay she just muttered; “I’m hungry.”  I immediately took her home and gave her some food and packed up all the food I had in the house (which wasn’t very much unfortunately) for her to take home. The father of her eldest children (18 and 16) died years ago and she now lives with her husband and Peace her adorable (and mischievous!) 5year old daughter. Her husband had gone to the East for a few weeks to work on a construction site and was due to be home that Monday but he hadn’t returned and thus she had no money and no food. With no way of contacting him she still has no idea when, or if, he will return. She broke down and it was just awful, I’m used to being a shoulder to cry on – but what could I say about this situation that would make it any better...? It’s just so awful and the heart-breaking thing is that Betty is not a one off, with 37% of the population living beneath the poverty line there are too many people in situations like Betty’s in this country....

Well not a cheery note to end on, but a memory that will stick with me forever. Thanks for taking the time to read about my Uganda experiences, it really is a very special country.

Christmas in Uganda

The morning of the 23rd started with two Muzungus and lots of luggage squeezed onto the back of the boda riding into town for our early pick up. Driving out of Kampala on the backpackers shuttle was the usual traffic mayhem but as we got out of town I was amazed to see a straight tarmaced road with no potholes! Yvonne and I were heading to Jinja, where the Nile flows out of Lake Victoria and begins its 6,500km journey to the Med.

The backpackers was basic but eating breakfast overlooking the Nile was fantastic. There was a massive storm soon after we arrived so what better thing to do in the rain; relax with a massage.

I began my Christmas Eve with a horse ride through beautiful villages on the edge of the river.

Then time for some Christmas Eve shopping. Jinja is the second largest town in Uganda but at a tenth of the size of Kampala the small stalls and quite streets were a welcome relief to city life.

For Christmas Eve we took a sunset cruise on the Nile which was beautiful, sailing past the source of the river and into the lake.  There was a great party atmosphere with the others on the boat and needless to say the party continued well into the night...

It’s Christmas morning and ouch my head hurts!! Unfortunately while everyone at home woke up to a white Christmas we woke up to rain and lots of it. Luckily we didn’t have to venture far for our Christmas lunch. We’d booked into the hotel next door for Christmas lunch. The rest of the day followed the usual Christmas tradition with a snooze after eating way too much and drinks into the evening.

We spent our last morning in Jinja wondering round Bujagali Falls. This was a must see because of the damn being built nearby which will flood this section of the river and thus the falls. Then for a chilled afternoon swimming and sunbathing overlooking the Nile with monkeys climbing through the trees just a few feet away.

Not quite ready to go back to dusty Kampala I joined Thea and Alison on a trip to Sipi Falls in the East.  What a beautiful drive through villages and sweeping up the roads with Mount Elgon in the background.

We spent the next few days trekking to the four waterfalls, eating gorgeous home cooked meals at the lodge and relaxing with a nice glass of wine or two in the evenings.

One of the treks left us a bit battered and bruised... We found out afterwards that the guide had taken us on the wrong route but it was a great sense of achievement scaling the rock face to get home. Those climbers amongst you would have loved it! I ended up with a big egg head after having a bamboo stick thrown on my head while we attempted to get down one of the more difficult sections (accidentally of course.)

One of the best parts of the Sipi trip was watching the sunset, the view was incredible and as we walked up we had a rainbow on one side and the sun beginning to set on the other,  beautiful.

A great end to what has been a fantastic year. Happy New Year all, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and here’s to a great 2011... xx