With families and friends
breathing a sigh of relief, all three of us are back to our day jobs.
Sitting at a desk, chasing an x-ray and processing another request from an
over-zealous healthcare professional. Walking home from the swimming
pool yesterday, for the first time since I came back, I had a pang of desire to go back. I didn’t want to go to work the next day. I wanted to
wake up before the sun rose, eager in anticipation for the unknown and keen to see
the world waking up around, cycling out of a secluded camping spot. It’s not
going to happen though and, in the meantime, I figure its best to try and
learn and take pleasure from what we have done. I hope you enjoy my final blog,
some reflections from the past few months on the road.
The World is a better place than you
think it is
Perhaps we were lucky but, after 4 months
on the road, the truth is that all we have met is incredible kindness,
generosity and trust. These acts of kindness have almost entirely come from
people that we had never met before that moment. Whether it was a bed for the
night, a cold drink on a hot day or even a dinner out on the town, they were
gift which people went out of their way to give. Gifts that we could only give
our thanks and inadequate offers of trying to returning the favour in time.
Sadly, we will probably not meet many of these kind people again, I believe
however that in these altruistic acts there was an understanding that the
binding light of humanity had been passed on. That within their act of
kindness, they have handed on the baton and it is now our duty to pass that
forward – something I will certainly try my best to do in the future.
It would be unfair to make a comment only
on the people we met along the way without also thanking the 105 people who
have so far sponsored us. When we first set out on our challenge, £3500 seemed
an inconceivable amount. It would require many of our friends and family to
come together to raise the amount needed to build a water pump for a village.
As the journey progressed our resolve to reach this goal was strengthened by
the fact that we often cycled for days relying only on these village pumps. The
value that they brought to the local community was obvious, it didn’t need a
randomized trial or cost-effectiveness analysis. It was difficult for us to
imagine life without them. In each village the pump was a constant hive of
activity, families filled water buts and tracked in and out on the radiating
paths. Who knows how far these paths went into the bush.
The response to our fundraising for
WaterAid have had has been incredible and we want thank all of our family and
friends who have donated. We appreciate that in the current economic climate
money is not easy to come by and many of you will have made a small sacrifice.
I hope that you can also feel part of the wheel of generosity that we feel the
trip has enlightened for us. The kindness you have shown in your donations is
certainly equal to that of our new-found friends on the road, and we hope to
repay that in some way in the future.
During
one of our long, hot afternoons on the bike Rick reminded me of
Alistair Humphreys concluding comments from his epic 4 years cycle
around the World: "The World is a lot better place than you think it is". In four short months of cycling, we couldn't agree more.
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| Friends we made along the way... |
There is no such thing as an easy days
cycling/Never expect anything
As we cycled for four months, it would be
remiss of me not to have learnt something about cycling. After many
conversations during idle hours on the bike I think we all felt that there
is no such thing as an easy days cycling and,
related to this, never expect anything. Whether
its rain on the penultimate day of the trip after weeks of blazing sunshine, a
stinger of a hill that comes out of nowhere, a mechanical failure or a blasting
headwind, they are all part and parcel of the physical and mental challenge of
a bicycle tour. Even as someone who enjoys a challenge there are days when you
wake up tired and sore but hopeful, as you have only planned on an “easy” day
60 km’s down the road. In that situation, I learnt never to expect what you
hope for and to be prepared for any number of eventualities. Never expect
anything, least of all an easy days riding…
On a good day however, the unpredictability
is something you look forward to (even if it is a stiff, winding hill to get
stuck into) and can be the reward that you never expected, like a stunning view
over a series of lush crater lakes, a chameleon crossing the road or a friendly
chat to a random punter over lunch. These all meld into your “Golden Moments”,
times that you never expected but will stick with you forever.
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| An easy 30 km afternoon |
Africa is Rising
My experience of the past 4 months, passing
through 7 countries in East and Southern Africa, has instilled a belief that
the African Continent is on course for economic success. Over the past decade
six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world were African. In eight of
the past ten years Africa has grown faster than East Asia, and the next half
century will likely see the rise of the African Lion economies, as the last saw
the Asian Tigers. The continent’s ancient geology and relatively sparse
population means it has what the world now desperately needs, natural resources
and land. Compared to Western Europe, 1/5 of Africa’s natural resources remain
“undiscovered”, while in Mozambique only 8% of the countries arable land is
cultivated. Sadly, the crux of whether this wealth converts into equality and a
functional state lies in the governance of the nation and the investors it
chooses.
On the whole, our cross-section of factory
owners to street hawkers expressed their hope and a belief that the country was
headed in the right direction. For some the excitement was almost
uncontainable, the business opportunities were all around you, all you needed
was some common sense and “a bit of capital”.
And to be fair, the signs of growth were there. We saw the burgeoning middle
classes queuing around the block for the bank, representing the boom in African
banking. Trucks rolled past us over the Zambezi Bridge transporting heavy
machinery to the mines and the construction boom that has followed it. Commercial
farms from Mozambique to Tanzania have started to supply Western Supermarkets
with fresh fruit and vegetables.
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| Queuing around the block for the bank... |
With the global economic crisis unfolding,
the era of foreign aid is slowly passing which, many would argue, is not
necessarily a bad thing. The future for Africa will never lie in dependent,
donor-financed projects. As markets have opened Africa is now entering the
razor-edged world of commercialization and investment that will engender their
economic growth. The challenge is that this growth can be converted into
infrastructure, education and health that will benefit the half of the
population still living on less than $1.25/day. However, the pillars of good
governance stand in the way (as Wanguri Maathai calls them, the three legs of an
African stool), and many states are in need of deep reforms. Of the countries
we have cycled through, several harbour flimsy democracies controlled by the
rich and powerful elite, others are little better that benign dictatorships in
which ministers are deposed of at a whim and leaders imprison their opposition
on spurious charges. As if we needed reminding, in Tanzania last week
allegations of bribery and corruption have led to an overhaul in the cabinet.
Whether this represents a suring up of power amongst the elite or an actual
move away from corruption is unclear. Either way, in what many believe is most
stable democracy in East Africa, it’s a worrying thought.
As we cycled through the developing
countries of Sub-saharan Africa we have often tried to imagine what the
streets, markets and homes might look like in 50 years time. Looking back on
the changes in the 50 years since independence one might come out with an
infinite number of options. If 6% of rural Kenyans have power now, how will
that change? For the adventurous touring cyclists, will there be a widely
serving road network? Will there be health centres run by assistant medical
officers, or family practice surgeries? What will the unemployment rate be?
Will every family have a laptop? Or, will they just use their smart phones to
check their emails?
To return to the main point, although
economic growth is a near certainty there are singificant issues. Rampant
inflation (often between 15-25%) means that for most qualifying as
“middle-class”, little in their living standards changes. There is a still a
huge, huge gap in gross GDP; America’s GDP per capita is 137x greater than
Malawi. Even double-digit growth would take centuries to reach a level of
international equality. Not forgetting this, internal equality is perhaps the
most important. Since 1998 the number of dollar millionaires in Africa has
doubled, while the total number in poverty has risen. A recent report by the
Africa Progress Panel, led by Kofi Annan describes the “deep, persistent and
enduring inequalities in evidence across Africa”.
The challenge is set, will the governments
of the countries we have visited choose to follow the current trajectories of
disjointed but high growth, with the hope of a “trickle down effect”, or will
they choose to build a more sustainable, egalitarian model with universal
access to essential services. I can’t help but feel that, for the average
village women we met along the way, their already well-developed patience will
be a virtue. Over a seafood dinner in Maputo, Mozambique, a thoughtful local
construction merchant predicted, “10 years of stability and growth after
which things will be too unequal and people won’t stand for it any longer”. Perhaps April 2022 will herald the beginning of the Subsaharan Spring?
The Environment is more important than
we think it is
The final 200 km into Johannesburg cast a
dark and sooty cloud over otherwise untainted and natural route. We passed by
countless shafts and excoriated open-cast mines, interspersed by the smooth,
concrete cooling towers of the coal-fired power stations. The land had been
scarred. As the early morning mist clung tenaciously on to the last tendrils
night, we passed a rusty fence, a locked gate and a lonely, armed security
guard protecting a disused open-cast mine. Perhaps the abandoned slag heaps
needed the from the recolonising ochre scrubland. A few kilometres earlier
noxious fumes from the power stations belched into the atmosphere, their unseen
efforts contributing to future decades of plight for people thousands of miles
away.
Bar this final industrial scab, we had
cycled lush forests, open savannah and thorny bushlands on a route blessed by
wilderness. Where farming took place, it had been largely subsistence, the
basic methods that seemed the result of a long-lived relationship forged
between man and the environment. A definitively far cry from the anthropocene
carnage we see in the industrialized world. The comparison is laughable because
it’s so obvious, and yet you can’t help but feel that the average African’s
relationship with nature is worth something important. Important not only in
the sense that morally we in the west are plundering the lives of other
creatures we share the planet with, but environmentally and economically in the
carbon sinks we destroy and the plants and animals that may hold the secrets to
help us in healthcare or industry.
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| Mineshaft over the road |
At present Africa is a low carbon continent
as energy use and spending power are extremely low. Americans use 10,381
Watts/year while Tanzanians use just 618 Watts/year. There are also success
stories. The Cahora Bassa Dam, in Northern Mozambique produces over 2000 MW of
energy. Equivalent to almost 90% of the countries energy needs in 2008. Driven
by huge rivers tumbling from ancient plateaus, the future for hydroelectric
power in Africa is immense. Current estimates suggest that Africa only
harnesses 7% of its potential hydroelectric potential. The Congo river alone
can be felt up to 25 miles out to sea. At present however, as evidenced in Tete
and in the Johannesburg area, coal generates over half of Africa’s power. And,
with oil and gas reserves on the East and West shores, the future looks to be
sticking with fossil fuels.
It’s difficult to cover environmental
issues in Africa without referring to the Kenyan visionary and campaigner
Waangari Maathai who (in addition to offering the three legs of the African
stool) highlighted the centrality of the environment in addressing her Challenge
for Africa. Although she sadly passed away in
November 2011, her spirit will certainly live on in the aspirations for good
governance and partnership with nature which she forged. From the experiences
of the past four months, I can’t help but share her well-founded sentiments. Cycling
past the open coal seams of Mozambique and South Africa, the logging trucks in
the Congo basin of Western Uganda, the charcoal production in the Usambara’s
and the traded fishing rights in the rich waters off Mozambique, I felt a sad
realisation that I might not ever truly appreciate the value of these unique
and often indigenous environments until they are gone.
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| Usambara's, diversity equivalent to the Galapagos |
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