Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1185: Gravel Racing in East Africa Revisited with Simon Blake

Transcript

Ep. 1185: Gravel Racing in East Africa Revisited with Simon Blake · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_04]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:09
[SPEAKER_04]: We talk with adventures from around the globe to give you the inspiration you need to get started in the outdoors or keep moving if you're already there.
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Caleb.
0:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got a secret for you.
0:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow, February 28th is my dad, Kurt Lynnville's birthday.
0:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you feel so inclined, feel free to wish I'm happy birthday in the comments.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure that'll make his day.
0:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And today's revisited episode, Mason interviews Simon Blake.
0:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Simon is an avid bike racer, a specifically gravel bike racer, and he's spent at the time of this episode airing in 2020.
0:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd spent a good portion of time organizing and racing gravel races in East Africa, specifically Kenya.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a really unique episode.
1:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you guys enjoy it.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's Mason.
1:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, first of all, welcome to the showbed, but you're up early at 6.30 a.m. and where are you coming from?
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you, Mason.
1:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, talking about cycling in East Africa.
1:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I know I'd been, I have been living in Kenya for the past nine years, but at the moment, I'm actually living in the desert in Australia.
1:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Came home due to the coronavirus, because a lot of the things.
1:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I was trying to get going in Africa, weren't really possible because I'd have mass gatherings and then tourism had stopped as well.
1:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And then a big thing that I'm still working on in Australia is a migration gravel race that we're putting on just outside the Masai Mara game reserve.
1:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is pretty early in the morning, the sun's just coming up here.
1:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Top of the 10 of my desert.
1:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, all good.
1:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for having me on the show.
2:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, man.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So you say that it was the the coronavirus that that pushed you home.
2:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So so how I look, you know, let's go back, you know, it sounds like, you know, I'm assuming here, it sounds like you're from Australia.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: What would you grow up doing and how'd you end up over in Kenya in the first place?
2:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to hear that story.
2:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for sure.
2:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I was in high school, I was like a relatively good distance runner for, you know, a boy in Sydney and really loved it.
2:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And then decided I met a coach actually in Sydney.
2:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was taking distance runners over to Kenya to train with them and also to try and figure out why we can use
2:44
[SPEAKER_02]: so much better than the rest of the world when it came to distance, shunning.
2:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I was like, yeah, great.
2:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd love to go over, I just finished school.
2:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I was a college during graphic design.
2:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I was like, yeah, cool.
2:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I went over with him.
2:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And we just sort of traveled around, trained with different people, met different people.
3:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was awesome.
3:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I, I was no interiors of age when that happened.
3:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I loved it.
3:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was just such an adventure.
3:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It was pretty wild and we didn't do the normal Thursday things.
3:14
[SPEAKER_02]: We actually went and visited a lot of athletes.
3:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We stayed at some pretty rough places, but we're always welcome and it was pretty cool.
3:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Then many, many years of actually going back to help out with distant training training camps, mainly in Kenya, but also a little bit in Zimbabwe, until Zimb.
3:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Sort of got
3:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we had to sort of stop going there.
3:40
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, kept going to Kenya.
3:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm helping you have a decent training camp.
3:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you helped brother column, not sure if anyone's ever heard of him before, but he's sort of...
3:51
[SPEAKER_02]: He's one of the guys that made Kenya what it is.
3:54
[SPEAKER_02]: When it comes to decent training, so he originally started a female, a junior female training camp, and then a lot of the boys kept bugging him, saying, oh, I want to come and want to come and he ends up
4:07
[SPEAKER_02]: having coach David Riddisha, I think it's over more than 30 world champions to his name for no one else.
4:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's just a seriously down to earth pretty cool old in Irish guy.
4:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was helping out with those cans, but then while running, I wasn't running as fast as I ever hoped I'd run one day, especially when you go to Kenya, you realise you're not very good.
4:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And
4:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So came back to Australia, like I was coming, but I was generally going for a couple weeks or a couple months at a time back then, and then came back and mainly started to work in the outdoors and that was where I think I'd been always riding a mountain bike as a child or as a BMX, but then got into mountain biking a much bigger way, so it took off from there so I started riding a lot more and then left a job in Australia in the outdoors,
5:01
[SPEAKER_02]: weren't to move on and do other things and it exactly the same time ran into my running coach and he was like, Oh, look, I've met this guy.
5:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He was the running coach is now leaving in Kenya coaching runners and told me that he'd met this guy who'd started up a cycling team up in Uten, which is the main running turn in Kenya.
5:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So the main distance runners
5:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel in some ways it's like a university or a ski town where people come from everywhere else but they all come here and they're not living there and develop what they're doing and it's pretty cool and it's not unusual to wake up in the morning and see the current world record holder for a whole number of different events running down the road and
5:51
[SPEAKER_02]: and people don't really just go for a job there, everyone's lot moving, it's quite impressive.
5:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, one of those places you can't have to keep your head low because everyone else is just more impressive.
6:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's right.
6:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And like there's a funny like you're seeing, which is a Mazungu is what they call a white man over there that's why healy.
6:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you're expected to be hopeless, like it's just
6:19
[SPEAKER_02]: and it just sort of essentially means that you're pretty slow, but I keep having to go and you'll never be that spoken.
6:26
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's a few white boys that have gone over and have done really well and have mixed it with the Kenyan, which is seriously impressive, especially on their own home turf, but it's pretty rare.
6:41
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, it's an amazing little town, stunningly,
6:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Beautiful scenery wise because it's on top of a tributary into the great refaliment, which is the Cario Valley.
6:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's lots of elevation to lose for, which is very good for mountain biking, goes from about 12 or 2300 meters down to about 1100 meters.
7:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So you lose about 1200 meters vertical from maintain essentially down two hills so it goes down flat and down a little and drops again.
7:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have developed trails down there,
7:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I think three years, the first year was super low entrance.
7:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It was essentially one of my mates from me again.
7:22
[SPEAKER_02]: They came over and a friend from America was actually in Kenya.
7:27
[SPEAKER_02]: We would come over just for a break.
7:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I put the Enduro on then.
7:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that was essentially us three.
7:34
[SPEAKER_02]: But then last year, around the Enduro at this time of year, actually.
7:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And we had seven, eight in entrance.
7:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was fantastic.
7:44
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a really cool event.
7:48
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a lot of the boys and the cycling team helped out.
7:51
[SPEAKER_02]: They made it a lot easier on me.
7:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And the county got involved a little bit, which is really cool.
7:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, yeah, we came to a night down by the Kerea River, and then just rode a lot of rough sort of really natural trails, which is I think is how I prefer to ride anyway.
8:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it was great.
8:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of the trails, pretty long like one of the stages,
8:12
[SPEAKER_02]: five and a half kilometers long that I split it in half, just so that there's an amazing look out in half way, so I thought all mates would have stopped the stage there.
8:21
[SPEAKER_02]: If I've come relax at some food, that's in the middle of the bush, down this hill and then keep going for the second stage.
8:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So one day I'd like to go back and kick off the carryover in Juro again, but we'll see what the world does over the next few years.
8:37
[SPEAKER_01]: No, absolutely, I mean, wow, you just shared so much.
8:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So originally, it was running that brought you over there.
8:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
8:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And that transition into cycling, obviously, there's so much talent.
8:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Africa is such a huge content.
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: There's always just these incredible athletes out there.
8:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And all sorts of sports.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you feel that's,
9:03
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of similar to running what happened with running and just seeing how canyons have done specifically in some other surrounding countries.
9:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think that's kind of similar with the cycling world as well?
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's in a lot of ways on tap the first of all the landscape for the ability to mountain by just some incredible routes but also athletes.
9:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah 100% and then yeah so the next bit to why I ended up in Kenya with a cycling chain.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: was there had had met my old running coach again, actually back in Australia, we just caught up one day, this is after years of him being in Kenya.
9:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I was working in the outdoors in Australia, and then we just caught up, and he's like, I've met this guy who started a bike team up in 2010.
9:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, yeah, wow, that's actually initially I thought it was pretty mad.
9:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, what's that guy starting a bike team in Kenya?
9:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, road cycling?
9:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you've got to be crazy, but he's explained to me more
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: pretty amazing going uphill, you know, really high-powered weight ratio, but they don't descend to well, they crash quite often, their skills aren't too good, and I'd actually written up some really, really basic stuff for the outdoor, I was working for an outdoor aid company, and like, you know, the three points of cornering, the three points again down here, or three points for going up a small drop, and so I shared that with
10:28
[SPEAKER_02]: the old running coach and he took that back to the guy that started the bite team in Kenya a couple weeks later and then a couple of phone calls, couple of Skype meetings, a couple of emails and then I was at the time actually doing freelance outdoor work so I wasn't held down to anything and the light, why didn't you come help out?
10:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, yeah, why not?
10:50
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it doesn't work.
10:51
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'm lucky I come from a country where I can essentially
10:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's flexible if I don't like it, I can fly back home.
11:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's what I did and then enjoyed it enough to stay and then I knew later, until I leave reluctantly because of coronavirus, but yeah, still got a lot of links and still talking to a lot of people back in Africa about organising events.
11:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'd started, that was one of the things I was moving into more was event organisation.
11:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, the migration level race would be one of the biggest, but the carrier value in Juro and then I was sort of running a whole East African Juro series with mates.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So everyone was essentially putting on their own race in different parts of Kenya.
11:41
[SPEAKER_02]: But I essentially was probably the glue that was holding it all together.
11:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Did a lot of the artwork and promoted it and if anyone needed a hand and I could at least
11:51
[SPEAKER_02]: tell them my experiences of organizing in Juroven's in East Africa, which is a little different to other in Juroven's I've done around the world, just yeah and for a year like for safety for we try and keep our events together.
12:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So like I know I did a really great event, I'll be white horse in Canada years ago and you're turning up, you get a little chip, you go with your mate, you ride the whole course, come hand your chip back in the Prince out the results for you,
12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was amazing date.
12:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I absolutely loved it.
12:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was a really cool event.
12:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been, it was actually up in car cross, just down the white horse.
12:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But we feel in Kenya because they could be animals out there.
12:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Not so much in some parts of Kenya.
12:36
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of, but the Safari animals aren't around.
12:39
[SPEAKER_02]: It's more domesticated animals, cows, sheets, and goats.
12:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But just the fact that if you were to come off your bike
12:50
[SPEAKER_02]: and hurt yourself.
12:51
[SPEAKER_02]: You'd be in quite a lot of trouble, like there's not a great way to get out.
12:55
[SPEAKER_02]: There's not a great email in the system.
12:57
[SPEAKER_02]: There's many school systems.
12:58
[SPEAKER_02]: There's not as good as Canada or Australia or Europe.
13:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So we were sort of looking after each other.
13:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was a really cool way that you'd finish event.
13:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, you had to wait, but that's why I put the stages that are in a beautiful location.
13:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So you had some to look at.
13:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And then just hang out and with the
13:19
[SPEAKER_02]: like cheering each other on and then laughing in everyone else's reactions.
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like cross the line and speak about that one bit of a trail of that nasty climb or whatever it was.
13:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we'd move on as like a, you know, a weekend group ride to the beginning of the next stage and then off we go again.
13:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And I felt it's a really, really social way to essentially race your bike, you know, you know, flugging yourself like a cross country race.
13:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'd started organizing a criterion series.
13:49
[SPEAKER_02]: in Kenya as well, which was pretty amazing right from the first race, which you organized through, probably the biggest shopping mall in Nairobi, which is the capital city of Kenya.
14:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So the shopping mall is called True Rivers Mall, there's two rivers, sorry, meet at one location where the mall is.
14:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And they've got some grand plans for sort of a big,
14:15
[SPEAKER_02]: obviously a really big shopping mall but a whole lot of real estate as well so a lot of roads have been built but they've got nothing around the roads yet so we're allowed to use these roads essentially 100% closed traffic which is also an issue in Kenya that the traffic safety or driving safety is a little bit different especially to where I grew up in Australia.
14:39
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really unfortunate that every now and then guys around the world get hit by cars, but it's a little bit too common I'd say in Kenya.
14:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought if I can open, I was a race that's off main roads and we essentially have control of the road ourselves through the mall security and it went really well.
14:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I got some music going and I was commentating with two other local guys and it was an absolute hit like it went really, really well.
15:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That kicked off to another criterion that some other mates were organizing and actually the first, the first negative effect for me for the coronavirus is the second addition of this criterion.
15:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember I was at the mall setting up the course, barricading off section, getting everything ready, getting gates opened and then I got a call from one of the guys I was working with he runs a company called swim Africa.
15:38
[SPEAKER_02]: doing a lot of summing coaching, James Miruri, it's his name, and then he rang me and said, look, I'm just at this meeting with some quite official people of the area, and we've been told that no mass gatherings are allowed to happen starting today.
15:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And as I do, it's Friday and the races on Saturday can't they just wait for Monday?
15:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I come on.
15:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's get this event done and never
16:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the cycling community was quite disappointed.
16:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know racing is just kicking off again in Kenya.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've seen a few things like social media.
16:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like your passion is for planning, planning the events themselves, putting the events on themselves.
16:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I suppose so, yeah, it was something like I never thought, like, I want to be a race organiser.
16:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I thought that actually horrible.
16:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds really tough, especially in another country, you know?
16:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, print all this stuff out and you know, if you organize, you're going to have spreadsheets and then, and do it with the county deal with the police, which is in Kenya, unfortunately, not easy to do.
16:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But in the end, yeah, it's great.
16:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Like when it works, it's phenomenal.
16:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was mainly like that first in Gioro, I held it was just main two nights just letting loose on some trails.
16:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'd pushed it to get people involved.
16:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I think everyone was
17:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not like I come back to Australia and I ride with mates and I get seriously scored on in duro mountain biking.
17:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Like some of my mates, it's just phenomenal, but that's the scene they've got really nice bikes in a long travel, not that I didn't have nice bikes, but I'd say Australia is a little bit ahead of the curve and then there's just so many more guys riding.
17:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think all of that just pushes everyone and you just get a lot better.
17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I was actually listening to a podcast to your last night on the guys that have got those
17:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's exactly what they were saying.
17:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just ride with people that are better than you, and you get better, I think.
17:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So in Africa as well, like it is that starting to happen, like I wouldn't say I'm fantastic right but last year I won the East African Jero series.
17:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's a lot of guys that like two years ago were coming alone, awesome guys, but they were pretty slow.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: But this year, like I'm seeing them putting up some results
18:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really starting to move like damn if I don't get back to Africa soon.
18:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm never going to beat him ever again.
18:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It's pretty cool.
18:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't.
18:08
[SPEAKER_02]: There was an event on just before I left up in the in-gong hills.
18:13
[SPEAKER_02]: No, incajabi, sorry, is a couldjabi is a small town and how I had it in our O.B.
18:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a young guy that I've known for a couple years.
18:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I've never, he's never ever troubled me.
18:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I was like, yeah, shabazzies.
18:28
[SPEAKER_02]: They're cool, whatever.
18:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And then at the Kajabin Jury thrashed me.
18:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, that is so awesome.
18:34
[SPEAKER_02]: These young guys, they're really getting into it.
18:37
[SPEAKER_02]: They're getting quite jazder about that mountain biking and they're starting to fly, you know, like, so it's like, oh, that's cool, you know, one of I created.
18:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, there's a lot of other guys now doing it, organising events, putting stuff on, organising weekend rides, and that's,
18:53
[SPEAKER_02]: The cool thing, yeah, like they've got, you know, easy dirt road rides.
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Now they've got gentle, single track rides.
19:00
[SPEAKER_02]: They've got guys that like do more endurance, you know, riding their bike for most of the day, putting in huge kilometers.
19:07
[SPEAKER_02]: There's guys that are now looking for more of the NGO scene type riding.
19:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's quite varied as to the types of riding people are doing and different groups popping up all the time.
19:21
[SPEAKER_02]: embracing cycling and so it's probably economically the I think the middle class of Africa or East Africa is growing and so people do have especially in the big cities have a little bit disposable money now they might have sort of like what we would term as a proper job so they're often inside or you know at meetings or at a computer or on the phone
19:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think on the weekend, they want to get out and blast on that steam and just ride their bike and see part of their own country.
19:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Especially for East Africa, I think the bike is one of the best ways to see the country itself.
20:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And even bike packing trips I've done there, definitely better than any sport.
20:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I've done a few bike packing trips that involve seeing some animals as well, which is just mind blowing.
20:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Do feel like you're a little bit of the food chain again.
20:14
[SPEAKER_02]: but it's just, it's amazing.
20:17
[SPEAKER_02]: But then get riding in other areas.
20:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So north of Etienne where I live, the beginning of the Charingani hills, and they go much further north up into what is known as Bacot land.
20:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So the different tribes starts in Marriquette and while Gomerraquette land moves up the cut and it's getting sort of getting Peter remote once he hit the area of the Bacot and for the riding up there is just stunning.
20:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, like I remember when I first got there, I was like, oh, I'm not sure that like touring on a bike, it'd be good here and there, but once you get used to it, and you know that all the bad news at Africa receives is just because bad news does better on the TV.
20:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not that dangerous.
20:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, there's, you know, places you've got to be careful and don't do this, don't do that.
21:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But especially on the rural areas, I think I've only really had one bad moment out in the rural areas and it was a bad moment,
21:12
[SPEAKER_02]: once in nine years.
21:13
[SPEAKER_02]: But other than that, I felt very safe.
21:16
[SPEAKER_02]: The people are very inquisitive.
21:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You get yelled at a million times how are you, Ms and Ruth, especially from the young kids, which is quite hilarious at times.
21:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember a bike picking trip, actually this has happened many times, just riding down the road, mean a mate and especially on the up hills you go and pretty slowly.
21:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And then some small child at a school in the playground that recess on lunch will see you.
21:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And they don't see many white guys and bikes out there.
21:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So you are quite a novelty, and he'll just scream, there's a little girl, how are you?
21:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he will run down through the school field over to where you are.
21:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And then obviously all these mates here, and then they all look up and scream out the same thing, and they'll run over.
21:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And all of a sudden you have the entire school running over to the fence, we are just screaming at you.
22:10
[SPEAKER_02]: They just go absolutely wild.
22:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Those start clapping and cheering and not doing.
22:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm pretty slow actually, but you can mix.
22:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like you're going to want to.
22:22
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
22:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll sign all the rest just here and it's hilarious.
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So then sometimes we'll stop and interact with the kids and sometimes just keep riding on.
22:31
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, it's a really cool spot to ride your bike.
22:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was,
22:38
[SPEAKER_02]: something I was going to move into more was more bike tourism, bike packing trips and then you know moving from point to point and then other sort of more cross-country or in duro mountain bike trips as well or you might stay one place and ride then shuttle out to a different area then ride so it was more about the descending and less about the the traveling in the sense
23:06
[SPEAKER_02]: a trip from Raffa Travel, sort of three part of Kenya, not all of it, but it was an eight-day ride ended up at the Masai Mara.
23:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was great when we climbed to a good time.
23:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we were able to, you know, we were able to set up the trip for a clientele that rides Raffa.
23:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So I know initially the route was sort of plain about where can we find nice hotels.
23:34
[SPEAKER_02]: and so we spoke a long time, which part of Kenya should we write in and then we tried to choose a good hotel or another good hotel that was somewhere between 100 to 200 K a day and a mixture of tarmac or dirt roads.
23:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there was only one day we had to shuttle in the vehicles a little bit because we'd had some horrendous rain overnight.
24:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And just clients are slipping over everywhere and that the mud sort of cakes up on your tyres and just gets stuck in the frame and you literally can't even push your bike You have to shoulder the bike and start walking and so we thought well this is not very enjoyable And so through everyone in the car and the forward drives and got to a bit that hadn't been raining and then progressed on and that was yeah that was a day before we got to the mass i mar
24:30
[SPEAKER_02]: and then ended up in the marited as a fiery drive that night, which is pretty amazing, what to sun-go down, lots of animals and the safari company, you know, brought out drinks and it's all quite lardy-dye.
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it was part of that and a whole number of other reasons that got us excited about organizing a gravel race in Kenya and suchly through the mate
24:58
[SPEAKER_02]: and a lawyer is an American guy, but a lawyer in the Netherlands runs a bike shop called Lola Bikes and Coffee, and has now started up sort of like a high quality amateur cycling team in the Netherlands, in the Hague called Team Atmarni, and they have links through the coffee shop
25:23
[SPEAKER_02]: coffee beans coming from Africa, but he'd also seen on his travels to Africa that, again, he'd seen the talent that was available or that was present in Africa.
25:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So, wow, what if is a possibility given these guides opportunities, then it was on the, we just spoke, I just spoke about cycling in East Africa and told him,
25:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Pretty much everything that I'd experienced over by then must have been about eight years, and this, my, my, my, and what, what I felt East African needed, like, why do you turn on the, the television to watch the Olympics and every middle distance race, is owned by a black East African athlete or the Ethiopian.
26:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, even again, in which it's fantastic to see, sometimes an error train, but mainly a canyon you turn on the marathon, London, Rotterdam, Oslo, all the big ones, even the Dubai marathon, and it's owned again by a canyon or an Ethiopian.
26:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the talent is just alarmingly obvious that endurance, talent athletes, out of East Africa are just very cut above the rest, and it's the odd, was on goo, white man that comes long,
26:31
[SPEAKER_02]: even there's two twins, Zach, I mean, Zayne and Jake that are living in a tent at the moment, Robinson Brothers, that are running like sub 60 half marathons as another young guy, Julian, who's also running some seriously fast times.
26:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I think he's Austrian, but you know, I've just named him, and I can remember all of them, but the Kenya is just less and less and less of seriously fast men coming out of
26:58
[SPEAKER_02]: that region, which is sort of Elgarmaquette, the 90, it's generally one tribe, generally the Kalenjin.
27:06
[SPEAKER_02]: But, um,
27:07
[SPEAKER_02]: since other tribes in Kenya have seen the challenging being so successful, they've, in some ways taught themselves to run as well.
27:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So they pick who you, the Masai, some Kamba, but it's generally your challenging that when most of the big races, speaking to Michael from Tema, Marnian, Nala, Bikes, it was like, well, you know, what can we do?
27:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it was like, what can we do to get a spotlight on Kenya for cycling and what can we do to excite people and what does Kenya have that the rest of the world doesn't have, you know, there's beautiful mountains and the Alps in France, there's amazing mountains in the Rockies in Canada and the sort of mountains in the USA and the Idaho.
27:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like, yes, there's mountains in Kenya and they are beautiful but why would you travel all over the world where most people
28:00
[SPEAKER_02]: We're like, well, they don't have this scenery with animals in it, and so we thought if we're going to have a race next to one of the world's biggest gamersers, the most popular game parks, but keeping it essentially at a safe enough distance, which has been right from the beginning.
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So yes, we want people to see the animals, but we don't want them to essentially beat the animals.
28:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So we've we've put on this this event and it's probably going to be a four day.
28:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, four day race.
28:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a 650 kilometers.
28:35
[SPEAKER_02]: We want it to be brutally hard and it seems to be the the big gravel races now are
28:41
[SPEAKER_02]: very very hard races, quite a test.
28:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So, we've been looking at it as like the average mountain race and obviously dirty cans or level 100 and you know, they're not easy events and I think average cyclists just to finish the race is the prize.
28:57
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you get happy about, but the guys that are winning it are still seriously flying.
29:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Is this the migration that I was reading about?
29:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, so that'll be the migration gravel race, and it's all of us as myself, Michael and other dry in the Netherlands, and then I made a mine James in Kenya who runs an outdoor adventure company called Savage Wilderness.
29:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's doing most logistics on the ground at the moment, because he's still in Kenya.
29:26
[SPEAKER_02]: and he's worked in the outdoors, running outdoor company for many, many years.
29:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I like the he's all the logistics, the vehicles, the contacts, the knowledge, he's been to the Marra many, many times.
29:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, we feel we've pretty much plotted the route now, 650k, must have taken a lot of wreckies to get, get a done, but we feel for a lot of races, guys ride through the night.
29:56
[SPEAKER_02]: gravel events, you know, it's like right start here and you can finish there and it's sort of you've got these checkpoints you have to check into on the way but you're doing sleep as matter as little as you want but we feel that it won't be safe if we tried to go with that tactic in Kenya.
30:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes, you know, you meet the wrong people at night time in Africa and
30:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So we thought if we can get people off, off their bikes and off the road, but essentially, during the night, and then we keep it safe.
30:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll start and finish at a quite a nice, probably, yeah, quite like a game lodge, whatever.
30:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Just it's got the super fancy part.
30:42
[SPEAKER_02]: He's also got a just a very come-to-all basic section called Barners in the wild, the edge of the mess I'm wearing, one of the conservancies.
30:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll start and finish the race there.
30:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's pretty spectacular riding.
30:58
[SPEAKER_02]: We ride through Conservancies where you do see animals.
31:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of those roads are pretty rough.
31:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of them are super smooth.
31:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we go in between sort of game reserve, safari park, sort of area or Conservancies.
31:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we hook up into some more rural, like current African rule life through villages and so it's sort of in and out of that some pretty wild places as well.
31:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll feel it's a really you get sort of a good mix of the animals and then current African life and most of the roads there had red dirt.
31:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And some of those red dirt roads are so smooth like you just your flying going so fast especially with the riding with a mate or working together and up through the African bush and then other parts you wish you had almost a dual suspension mountain bike like it's pretty rough roads is lots of ruts and really rocky sometimes the road to built there with a nice red soil but because in the wet season.
31:58
[SPEAKER_02]: They get so muddy, then the council goes around and purposely throws rock into the road, which is what they call the morm.
32:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And some of those morm roads can be rough, not really, really rough.
32:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I was riding, they're the last regular, I actually did a regular just a fried came home.
32:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I was riding a 40 mil tire on the rear, and actually a 2.1 tire on the front.
32:22
[SPEAKER_02]: kind of rigid gravel bike, I just felt having that 2.1 tire up front was a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more traction on some of the corners, but having the 40 mil out the back was, it wasn't slowing me down too much.
32:35
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a safari trip, it is a real race, but we're happy for people to come and just survive as well and just finish.
32:41
[SPEAKER_02]: but yeah, so tie choices actually quite key, I think.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: That is fascinating.
32:46
[SPEAKER_01]: How many people are you expecting a sign up for the migration?
32:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And when is it taking place?
32:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You might have mentioned, but I added and catch it.
32:54
[SPEAKER_02]: No, that's go, yes, I haven't mentioned that yet.
32:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So the date that we're aiming for in a corona world is the 20th to the 23rd of January in 2021.
33:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're sort of aiming for a round 50.
33:10
[SPEAKER_02]: want to go too big on the first one.
33:13
[SPEAKER_02]: We really want to do quite a good job.
33:15
[SPEAKER_02]: We want to all the bells and whistles and make sure all the logistics is right and we want to make sure that it is a good event and then each year slowly grow it and you know organically whatever it is try and let the event just grow itself.
33:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if we feel in some ways if we try and be
33:41
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we might miss things.
33:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though we've been doing this for a long time, with James's outdoors, I've been organizing events in Kenya.
33:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And so as James and then Michael's been heavily involved.
33:53
[SPEAKER_02]: In the cycling scene in Europe for a long, long time, we're all coming together and it's a new thing in Africa.
33:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just Africa time and just things just happen in Africa at times.
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It's loaded out.
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably not probably actually we will have
34:07
[SPEAKER_02]: a bunch of local mass eye guys so this part of Kenya is mass eye land, the mass eye mark and national park so the tribe that leave it in that area is the mass eye and we'll work with we're already working with a number of the mass eye guys down there as sort of fixes and they know this guy knows that guy and this land and whatever it is but we'll also work with some of the young mass eye guys get them on what they call boda boda comes from the term boda
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're at some of the big border posts in Africa, especially back in the day, you would get to one border get your passport sign, you'd have to walk quite a distance across an Oman's land, get to the next one stamp your passport and then you'll offer go into the new country.
34:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So often it used to be bicycles and you would get to the first checkpoint stamp your passport and then there'd be all these young guys on bikes and that's where it came bowed a border
35:06
[SPEAKER_02]: get a little bike ride across, make it faster, get your next passport stamp and off you go.
35:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And so now everything that's sort of a bicycle taxi or a motorbike taxi has become known as motorboda.
35:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we'll use these motorboda guys to some of the corridors that we feel have probably a few too many animals, or there could be an opportunity that we will be escorted by mass eye guys or motorbikes through these areas.
35:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So even if you come through alone,
35:36
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll have enough of them there that they'll just keep shuttling people through, you know, might be like a one-column section or a two-case section.
35:42
[SPEAKER_02]: We know there's animals around, we've got really good links through the guys that conservancy and sort of the mass eye fixes that we know where the animals are at certain times.
35:52
[SPEAKER_02]: There's elephant in this region and they're moving in that direction for this reason.
35:57
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got a prior line that's been spotted over here the last couple of days
36:01
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a whole lot of wheel to beast or zebra or giraffe, whatever it is.
36:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it might just be that they can let people know.
36:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you're not seriously racing hard, you can stop play at your camera and have some photos or just enjoy seeing African wildlife in the African wild.
36:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to stop for a little bit because an elephant's crossing the road.
36:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you have to stop that's part of the race.
36:24
[SPEAKER_02]: But these guys, they, that's where they live.
36:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's where they, that's how they travel each day on these boat about a motorbikes.
36:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, they know what they're doing.
36:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So just a different way of, again, trying to hook into the community and work with local community, which is, yeah, a lot of those guys are struggling quite a bit at the moment with coronavirus.
36:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not really for a lot of East African guys, you can't really work from home.
36:49
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't have an office with a computer and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
36:55
[SPEAKER_02]: They sell fruit inside the road and they have their cows or whatever it is and they've got to travel into town to sell whatever it is so I know Initially when coronavirus hit and a lot of the lockdown rules have been implemented into East Africa There was actually a lot of talk That should lock down restrictions happen in East Africa because so many people are going to be unemployed essentially overnight
37:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when they go home, they're often from large families or community where there's a lot of people in a small area, so there's not going to be a lot of social distancing anyway, and then well that huge spike in unemployment, then create other issues like, you know, people not eating and then turned to crime and blah, blah, so I think it's been
37:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You have very different for a lot of those nations, different to how a straight or a America or a New Zealand or whatever it is.
37:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I know every country is putting their own twist on it, but I think it had to be done differently in Africa because of the environment and the way people live and the current economic situation, but it seems from what I'm hearing that the virus is slowing down in East Africa, which is fantastic, but from what I'm hearing that starting to try and open
38:08
[SPEAKER_02]: because that's such a big business and it's Africa and a lot of people survive off tourism.
38:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So I hope you can open it up and people can start working again.
38:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's, you know, chapping into that with the migration global race, but also we think that the rest of the world is just loving that type of cycling obviously and race format at the moment.
38:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And we thought why not show off Kenya and introduce it into Africa, but then also having worked for a bike team
38:38
[SPEAKER_02]: nine years and, you know, getting to know the guys and living with them and traveling with them around the world to races.
38:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, within the team ourselves, the coaching management staff, I might take a bunch of
38:54
[SPEAKER_02]: four to six guys to Europe to race, and it's a different culture, it's a different many, many things.
39:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And so a few of them, especially initially, will not do well at all, just everything's different.
39:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And then a few of them will sort of get a good idea, then they'll start to race OK, and then some of them do well and some of them don't.
39:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And then some of them never really get it.
39:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And unfortunately, we have to take them to Europe to figure that out.
39:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't just figure it out in Kenya.
39:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, it's a lot of
39:23
[SPEAKER_02]: and so a lot of the funding for the team was essentially just that damn.
39:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't work with that I've eaten.
39:30
[SPEAKER_02]: What are we doing?
39:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just cost a lot of money and that's just part of it.
39:33
[SPEAKER_02]: But it was always something that can we reverse.
39:38
[SPEAKER_02]: That situation in a way is bring top quality athletes into Kenya and then are more Kenyans able to experience how fast a guy from Belgium is
39:52
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, how fast can these guys ride on gravel for multiple countries, every single day for a four day race.
40:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So part of it is, is yeah, showing off Kenya, but then also can we expose the Kenning guys by bringing talent into Kenya and we're working out ways of getting especially some of the Kenning riders would definitely be involved in the race of our best
40:19
[SPEAKER_02]: We've currently got three of them signed to a continental team in Germany, so they're pretty good psychosite.
40:25
[SPEAKER_02]: They're very fast and they're strong and they understand racing, and they haven't really raised gravel before, they do a lot of training on gravel roads, but they've never wrote other all.
40:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I know speaking to them even the last couple weeks, they're pretty excited about the opportunity of racing gravel against some other really, really good amateurs or maybe hopefully some
40:46
[SPEAKER_02]: and then slowly growing that, that we can get more and more East Africans into that race.
40:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, it just, there was, you know, I think there was a story that the guy that started Nicholas Leong, he was the guy that started the Kenyan rider cycling team.
41:03
[SPEAKER_02]: We used to talk often that Kenyan's weren't always the best distance runners, you know,
41:14
[SPEAKER_02]: the holo guys from New Zealand like there was even the Americans and another Aussie guy wrong clerk you know all white guys are running seriously fast 10k marathons 5,500 and then slowly Kenya started to come in but still they weren't really any good and there's a story of this guy called Neftali Tamu who was in I think the 10,000 meters and he got lap
41:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And off he go and he was just an unknown guy that got lapt in the race.
41:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm hope I was right up.
41:47
[SPEAKER_02]: The next Olympics he came back and he won the gold medal.
41:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Like how many people go and fix kettle happed.
41:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the next time like, oh, I've got a win gold.
41:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like that doesn't happen.
41:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Off my own opinion, I don't think that guy got, you know, much more talented.
42:04
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just that in that Olympics he was exposed to how fast fast is.
42:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He's like, ah, okay.
42:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you are okay, yes, okay, they do run.
42:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, they're very fast, my friend.
42:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, okay.
42:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And so he went home and while the step-up is training or whatever it was, and then he comes back and wins gold, like, that's a massive step.
42:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So we do we feel competitively, is that where Ken and cycling is at the moment?
42:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I think he's won the race across America a few times.
42:42
[SPEAKER_02]: He was in Rwanda for 10 years with Chamber Wander and the Africa Rising Center.
42:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was saying even more than me that they just need exposure to proper racing.
42:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And Jock was a very, very big part of the Tour de Rwanda, which I actually say he's probably the best road race in the entire world, but it's probably definitely
43:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a phenomenal eight day race around Rwanda itself.
43:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Really good for the country and the people just go wild.
43:19
[SPEAKER_02]: They love the race.
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Rwanda as a country is very, very healing.
43:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's definitely a climb as race.
43:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's been awesome that a lot of European teams are traveling to the tour of the one of the year, especially for the one that itself has a lot of little year-winding kids standing on the side of the road who want balance to win, then want busco to win wherever it is that there are one in champions, but they're seeing all these pro-European guys and just they go wild.
43:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It's similar to that story at all about the kids at school.
43:53
[SPEAKER_02]: They just run to the road and they're just screaming at the psychosis like come past
43:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'd imagine that all those little kids are like, I want to be that guy.
44:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to have that fancy locker.
44:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, I want that beautiful bike.
44:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And like, there goes a talent identification in development program.
44:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you can get that many thousands of kids, just like, I want to be that guy.
44:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like, you're at least half the way there on the shore.
44:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And like, then you've got a source bikes in a training program, but they had to keep them training and blah, blah, blah, blah.
44:27
[SPEAKER_02]: if that will is there.
44:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, if Rwanda can keep its act together for the next 10 to 15 years, and those five to 13-year-old boys start growing up and want to be that guy then, you know, cycling world look out as kind of very fast people.
44:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So, in Kenya, it's very, very different,
44:54
[SPEAKER_02]: We're essentially neighbors, it's only you again, they in between Kenya and the Wanda.
44:58
[SPEAKER_02]: But I feel the way cycling is growing in Kenya is quite different to a Wanda.
45:05
[SPEAKER_02]: The Wanda is a little bit more control, a little bit more involvement from the government, which I think is doing a pretty good job at least with the cycling there.
45:14
[SPEAKER_02]: They did have some issues.
45:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Just over a year ago, the president had to leave from doing some silly things, but at the same time,
45:23
[SPEAKER_02]: in sort of there.
45:23
[SPEAKER_02]: They've got a proper team there, sponsored by a B company, but it's just a bit different.
45:30
[SPEAKER_02]: It's sort of probably a little bit more controlled and relearned up, but whereas in Kenya, I feel that it's, yes, people like the Canyon Riders, obviously, where I must have been a big part of the push for cycling and getting guys overseas was getting
45:46
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, your average canning quite excited that there was a canning going overseas and racing and occasionally doing well and got a bit of name for himself, but right now especially that this growth is happening, it's like the people are running canning cycling and sort of it's taking off all by itself and they're coming up with their own versions of.
46:06
[SPEAKER_02]: races or how to run a TT or a criteria or even the NGOs like I was saying we do a little bit differently for a number of reasons because of the environment and but I feel that the people are running cycling in Kenya and all the best races in Kenya all run by private the try and get some type of corporate support but now luckily slowly some canyon companies are getting on board
46:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's guys actually open the bike shop.
46:36
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the distributor for Giant for East Africa now, which is, that's a massive step forward as well now that real bikes brand new are in Kenya and they're being serviced properly.
46:48
[SPEAKER_02]: They've got warranties.
46:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, you can go and get any giant bike you want now, brand new in Nairobi and it's being done
46:59
[SPEAKER_02]: The bike shops doing it, that it is relatively competitive, especially if you're living in Kenya and you want to ship something in, you've always got to go through the shipping and then this company in that.
47:11
[SPEAKER_02]: It ends up costing a bit of money on top of the original purchase.
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So the bike shop in Nairobi is being quite competitive and a lot of guys are doing their research online, you know, chain reactions, cycles, get it sent to a friend in the UK, that friend comes out,
47:29
[SPEAKER_02]: get a courier company to bring it in.
47:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a hole that a hassle's there or the bike shop's already got the bike in Kenya and it's the same or even a little bit less once you add everything up.
47:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's fantastic to see that shop doing well and people supporting it because he's been supporting all pretty much not all but most of the bike races, which has been
47:56
[SPEAKER_02]: there is a bike shop now supporting cycling events in Kenya and I'm sure I really hope that is doing well for his business.
48:06
[SPEAKER_02]: But like I was chatting to him just the other day and he said the cycling business in East Africa at the moment is very, very good even with coronavirus and I think I've heard a lot of people are buying bikes around the world because of the virus but
48:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Apparently the East African market is just booming and I think it's partly the coronavirus, partly people are realizing that it's a great way to exercise.
48:34
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a bit better for the knees for an older person than running is.
48:40
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a great way to see Kenya.
48:42
[SPEAKER_02]: You can get out into the rural areas quite easy, but you can still interact.
48:47
[SPEAKER_02]: with the local people, because like they're seeing on the box, they're not in the car, you're not going too fast, they can stop, have a chat.
48:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of the WhatsApp groups in Kenya it's quite funny, there's little everyone takes photos of the China parties or Mondazia or some potato and beans.
49:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just, the thing that happens, like everyone's got their favorite little duck-up, which is like a shopping Kenya.
49:11
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a ha ha, the Chapo and Chai here, this is one is the best, oh no, my friend,
49:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is a paper pair, the chopper like this.
49:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Ah, and this, and so off on the WhatsApp groups and the weekend have a variety of photos of chapaties and chai.
49:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And, but yeah, it's pretty awesome that you can go out for a ride, often, and even these bike packing trips I've done, we'd be riding and riding, riding, and like pretty remote areas, and get to a little spot and it's like, are you having a bottle of water?
49:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, oh, my friend, I'm on a, no, no, we do not have
49:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, oh, do you have chai?
49:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Ah, and y'all, we have, we have, you come.
49:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, the water's been boiled to make the chai and the milk's been boiled to you know, that it's healthy.
49:56
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a little bit too much sugar in the drink's office with it's like, oh, well, that's right.
50:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, I'm writing my bike.
50:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been writing hard.
50:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to keep writing hard so that should it's going to be doubled up pretty soon.
50:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, uh, and then some triparties and maybe some bananas.
50:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's all there.
50:15
[SPEAKER_02]: 50 cents is terrific.
50:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Often just carry a jar of peanut butter with you and then spice up your your chapati's every now and then.
50:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That makes it just easy.
50:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Once you figure out the one called the system, but your way, you figure out how the environment works and it's like, wow, I can just go for a ride and there's always soda.
50:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Like every shopping can, it's also
50:43
[SPEAKER_02]: the same time of your bonking and you're out in the middle of nowhere and just pop up a little ducca in the car and have soda please and if you enter coke there's a whole variation of different sodas in Kenya.
50:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah so there's all these little shops out in the middle of nowhere or even just buying fruit avocado's really nice bananas, mangoes, purple.
51:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So stopping and eating them
51:13
[SPEAKER_01]: and you got me excited to want to come back in East Africa, honestly, all this experience and all this, you know, all the dreaming of what's to come, of what's ahead and the potential it's so exciting.
51:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I love talking to folks who are
51:28
[SPEAKER_01]: seeing that and working towards putting their knowledge and experience to use in a place that maybe hasn't seen it is is really exciting and so Yeah, gosh, I'd love to I'd love to join it some point.
51:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to hear how it goes.
51:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I know the the migrations coming up in the next honestly soon for four or so months now it is so new
51:49
[SPEAKER_01]: you know what where can folks find more about what you're doing and about cycling in an East Africa and just uh you know maybe get involved somehow work and they work and they get attached.
52:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah for sure so Instagram is the most current at the moment so that's at
52:07
[SPEAKER_02]: migration gravel race essentially all one word.
52:11
[SPEAKER_02]: The website will be up very soon and that will be www.myigrationgoerace.com but that won't be out for a week or two but hopefully by the time people listen to this and and get around to searching for it it will be there.
52:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Facebook is the same at migration gravel race and I suppose yeah and then on
52:37
[SPEAKER_02]: email addresses on phone numbers for the organizers and then other links would be at Kenyan underscore writers is the cycling team in scram page and then my own one is at Cycle
53:03
[SPEAKER_02]: sort of a bike tourism, bike tour company during gravel, bike trip, bike packing and sort of enduring cost country events.
53:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of different parts of Kenya and we've got, yeah, like endless GPX files that we've slowly put together and myself and then savage wilderness, again, that's at savage wilderness on Instagram.
53:27
[SPEAKER_02]: myself and James are working on a lot of different tours.
53:31
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a seriously beautiful conservancy, not too far actually from Kenya called Barana, and that's, I've never seen so many animals in one place in my life, but I just think Barana is, they just plays me away and the animals I saw, because there was no, it was
53:53
[SPEAKER_02]: There was no security put out on those days.
53:55
[SPEAKER_02]: There was no chopper in the sky.
53:56
[SPEAKER_02]: There was no wardens or rangers in the bush.
54:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it was just me in a friend or two, just riding around sometimes.
54:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We had a four drive.
54:05
[SPEAKER_02]: They would meet at different locations to make sure OK in a bit of extra water.
54:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And but man, you had to have your eyes open.
54:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That was like all these smoke, those real animals that are like those big ones.
54:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Those dangerous ones, they're like just there.
54:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, as I've come pretty close to Elephant, Buffalo, the two that are in the most concerned about the cats.
54:29
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of the guys that run these kinds of servants who don't seem to be too bothered about cats.
54:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm still not convinced yet.
54:36
[SPEAKER_02]: They haven't after many years, but I don't know what I'm saying.
54:38
[SPEAKER_02]: If I came flying down the hill, I'm out and by it rounds in a single track, around a bush and there are the line or a private line sitting there, I would not be happy.
54:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But these guys are just like, no, no, no, it's the elephant,
54:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Or if you get a bunch of buffalo and especially the, you know, the alpha males that are in that group and in serious trouble.
54:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So, but um, be it just got to be really just be sensible, keep your eyes open.
55:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's just, yeah, there's so many different areas to riding.
55:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, guys have been riding off Mount Kenya a little bit.
55:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's, it's good, but it's not the best.
55:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, um, like I try until friends, you know, if you would go to Nepal on a mountain bike trip,
55:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it'll be a good fun to ride off Mount Everest, but it's not the best mountain biking in Nepal.
55:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
55:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think Mount Kenya is the same.
55:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, yeah, you're cool.
55:29
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds great when you're sticking on Instagram and by a bar, I wrote Mount Kenya.
55:33
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think there's other parts of Kenya that are just, they're way more stunning.
55:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Even close to Nairobi, like Kajabi is phenomenal.
55:41
[SPEAKER_02]: There's some really good riding, so you don't have to go too far, but then there's the whole rest of the country.
55:47
[SPEAKER_02]: If there's mountains, then
55:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's some some good writing.
55:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So great.
55:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Well Simon, man, I'm out of time, but I really appreciate you joining us on the event.
55:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much.
56:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll stay in touch as the show as it's coming out.
56:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I appreciate you just jumping on and telling us about cycling in East Africa.
56:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Sounds awesome.
56:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, fantastic.
56:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And thanks so much, Mason, just for the opportunity to
56:15
[SPEAKER_02]: to let me, yeah, since we told the story and that the world know that there is some amazing stuff happening in East Africa right now, and it is a beautiful place to ride your bike, and so if you've ever wanted to go into holiday, visit Africa, see the animals, and do it on a bike, it's way better than sitting in the car.
56:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, you have to agree.
56:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think, yeah, hopefully a lot of people are getting itchy feet, and they just want to get out once the world is allowed to travel again.
56:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
56:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so I'm gonna have a great day.
56:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's still early for you, but I hope you got some time to exercise or stretch or whatever you're doing And it will be we'll be in touch soon, man.
56:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
56:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, come on.
56:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks, Jason.
56:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day.
56:56
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
56:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye bye
57:01
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, thank you so much for listening.
57:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It means the world to us that you choose a lesson of this show.
57:06
[SPEAKER_01]: If you'd like to help us further, you can leave a review on iTunes, share us with your friends, your family, goes a long way to grow in the show.
57:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also support us financially through patreon.com slash adventurousports podcast, link is in the show notes.
57:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And also, if you have an idea of who could be a good guest for this show, we're always looking for people to tell their story about the outdoors,
57:29
[SPEAKER_01]: or adventure.
57:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you know someone, please reach out, email us at infoedadventuresportspodcast.com and until then, get out there and have some fun.