Today, after 10 weeks of cycling single-speed Qhubeka Buffalo bicycles, four South African adventure cyclists, Warrick and Camilla Kernes, Gareth Pickering and Derrick Fourie, will arrive in Moshi at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. Arriving in Moshi also signifies a new record. As far as it is known, Camilla Kernes is the first woman to ride through Africa on a single-speed bicycle. This marks the end of the cycle leg of the teams’ journey and they will now have three rest days before beginning their summit attempt of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Starting in Johannesburg, the Joburg2Kili team powered by Tarsus have cycled over 4 600km through Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania to get to their final destination Mount Kilimanjaro all in an effort to raise funds for the Qhubeka charity. To date they have raised R134 000 for Qhubeka, which is a non-profit organisation that helps people move forward and progress by giving bicycles in return for work done to improve communities, the environment or academic results.
Commenting on the cycle journey, Camilla Kernes, says, “Cycling on Qhubeka Buffalo bicycles at an average pace of 18km/h has allowed us to see and experience the different cultures of the African countries we have visited in a unique way that you could never do whilst driving in a car, which has been incredible.”
However, the journey has also been tough at times, explains Warrick Kernes, owner of ActionGear, “We knew that this would be a challenging expedition. We have had truly wonderful experiences but we’ve also had super challenging times with incredibly difficult riding on dirt mountain passes, bus drivers who have zero respect for other road users, temperatures over 48 degrees Celsius and strong head winds on 70% of our riding days.”
The team plan to summit Mount Kilimanjaro on 15 October. They will be using a Spot Gen3 GPS that allows people to follow them daily by visiting their Live Tracking page on the www.joburg2kili.com website. You can also follow them @Joburg2Kili on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
To make a donation and/or find out more information about Qhubeka, please visit their GivenGain Page https://www.givengain.com/ap/joburg2kili/.
4600 clicks on a Buffalo Bike!
YOH.