Moshi the Gateway to Mt Kilimanjaro
I’m blogging to you from Moshi, the Gateway to Mt Kilimanjaro where we are resting up before we summit the world’s highest free standing mountain.
We rode into Moshi from our penultimate night stop at the beautiful Nduruma Polo Cub below Mt Meru outside Arusha. We slept in Out of Africa safari tents complete with Thomson’s gazelles and wildebeests grazing on the polo fields out front.,Our heartfelt thanks to Simon and Lorna Travers, Hugo Titley, and the other ex Zimbos for hosting us and helping us.
Fittingly our 2nd but last day was tougher than expected with just under a 1000 m of climb over 121 km. Stupidly I’d told my Legs that we were having a half day off.
Unfittingly we haven’t seen either Mt Meru or Mt Kilimanjaro yet, both remain cloaked in cloud. It’s like riding 27 days to the cinema to watch a movie only to have some guy with a big fat head sitting right in front of you. But we’ll have 6 days of up close and personal with the mountain when we start our ascent on Sunday.
Thank you for joining us on the Old Legs 2019 Tour. Below some stand out numbers -from very big to small.
100,000,000,000,000 – lest we forget, the One Hundred Trillion Dollar note was printed by the same stupid that completely wiped out the wealth, savings, pensions and dignity of our pensioners, the generation that built Zimbabwe, leaving them dependent on your charity.
100,000 dollars – the 2019 Tour fundraising target.
93,232 – the number of calories burnt by an average rider. This is equivalent to 12 cheeseburgers per rider per day
72,900- the number of pedal strokes per rider based on an average cadence of 90.
34,966 meters – the total height climbed
5895 meters a.s.l. – Uhuru Peak, the top of Mt Kilimanjaro
3500 – the number of old age Zimbabwean pensioners in need of ongoing help.
2940 kilometers – the distance ridden.
554 years- the combined age of the 10 riders on the Old Legs Tour.
350 dollars -the cost of 1 pensioner in a nursing home for 1 month.
162 km- our longest day
135 hours -the total time spent in the saddle, excluding rest stops.
100 dollars- the cost of a cataract operation
24 – number of riding days
21.83 kph -average speed on Tour.
12.9 kph -slowest day up the Kitulo Plateau.
0 a.k.a. Zero – what Zimbabwean pensioners have been left with after 19 years of stupid.
Thank you to Dave and Lily Smith, Mike Wheedon, Penny Kostler, Jenny Bending, Susan Scott Martin, Hilary Dominy, Zoe Flood and others too numerous to mention for their generous support on Just Giving. Please also help us. Go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/oldlegstour. In Zimbabwe, transfer to Bulawayo Help Network via their CABS Platinum Account number 1124733450 or their
Ecocash merchant number 139149.
Liam Philp and all at African Preserves have challenged other companies in Zimbabwe to match or better their $ 1000 pledge.
In closing I would like to acknowledge our sponsors. Without them, the Old Legs Tour would not be possible.
Thank you, thank you, thank you -,African Preserves, Selby Enterprises, FX Logistics, ProPay, Astee “de Nachtvlinder”, Spar, Irvines, Steel Warehouse, Faithwear, Round Table 23, Alliance Insurance, The Surrey Group, Topshaft Engineering, Mukuru, KFC, Ezytrack, Ilala Lidge, The Directory, ZIMFLEX, Marginpaar, Crystal Signs, UFO Supplies, Cropserve, My Cash, PHI Commodities, Dumile Beef, Evanthia Seeds & Plant, Prime Seed, Paragon Printing, OZ Import, Greenhouse Technologies. You guys rock.
Until the last blog from on top of the mountain – survive, enjoy and pedal if you can – Adam, Mark, Hans, Jaap, Nik, Dave, Alan, Alastair, CarolJoy, Jen,Linda, Sue, Reinier, Bill, Ryan, John and Eric a.k.a. the Old Legs Team.