2012 English Channel Swim

7 - 14 September 2012



After having cycled through Africa, completed 5 Ironman Triathlons, run the Comrades Ultra Marathon, Climbed Kili ... I have decided to take on a slightly tougher option ...



... 34km of cold, open water swimming ... leaving the coast of the eternal "wanna-be" soccer nation, over to the "frogs" on the other side ...





Tuesday, 6 March 2007

Tuesday 27 February – REST DAY Yabelo

Well, by the time you read this we will have traveled on for quite a bit … I presume another two weeks or so. Northern Kenya doesn’t have too much on the information network … especially not where we are staying.

We are currently camping at a truck stop – two days cycling north of the Kenyan border. The last week has been really awesome … views, people and feeling much better. I am still not 100% - still have a scratchy throat, hugely swollen gland on my right throat/neck and still a little tired. I cycled the first two days out of Addis Ababa – and didn’t enjoy the cycling at all, basically feeling real shit, sore and tired still. I rested up in the truck on the third day and been feeling real good and enjoying the riding tremendously since then.

addis market

The route has been extremely hilly! Or rather mountainous!!! Two days ago we climbed more than 2000m through the most amazing lush countryside. Yesterday we still had lots of climbing … for those of you that still haven’t grasped … Ethiopia is not hilly – but rather mountainous in every direction!!! But yesterday we also dropped considerably … leaving the cool, lush, dense vegetation … and the highly irritating and persistent children … and drop thru savannah areas into fairly arid red soil thorn bush area.

Our rest day in Yabelo has been perfect … basically nothing much to do. Cleaned my bike thoroughly, went into the village to look around and buy essentials and off to re-pack and chill out. The riding is to get quite a bit tougher in the next week … not too hilly, just really bad roads in the north of Kenya!!