Cycle Zambia Fundraising Update

Just over a week after our return from Zambia, we have had an initial update on the fundraising target.  As of Friday, the Cycle Zambia Challenge has raised £219,000 which is just £8,000 short of the recored set last year by the South Africa Challenge.  

Given the severity of the conditions in Zambia and of course the tragic events which took place just as were nearing the end and had completed the toughest day yet, we hope to surpass that.  

Another big thank you from my donors and corporate sponsors.  I have managed to smash my initial target and received more donations over the weekend.  You can now also donate by mobile phone

Text "BSEM64 £5" to 70070 to sponsor me today.
or via the web https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bryan-semple1

The Final 70km

This morning, I headed out on my bike for the first time since returning from Zambia.

I initially tried to keep up with some of HC Velo's faster riders but fell back once we reached the hills, so went my own way. As usual I had my Garmin and Strava turned on, but I wasn't really interested in tracking PRs or segments and didn't even have a particular route in mind. I just wanted to ride again and ended up along some of my favourite roads that I had used many times during the months of training over the summer.

Although the sun was out, it was a bitterly cold morning (2C) and the temperature was just one of many things which were so different from the four days spent cycling in Zambia, where the temperature peaked on Day 4 at 46C.

There were cows in both places, but instead of goats, wild turkeys and the odd vulture there was the more familiar sight of sheep, crows and a couple of buzzards.

Instead of small groups of children and adults at the side of the road shouting "Hallo!", "How Are You?" and "Where Are You Going?", the only people I saw were other cyclists, and the only greeting a brief nod.

Instead of arid tracks of sand, gravel and the corrugations in Zambia, I had relatively smooth tarmac, with the odd pothole and a few puddles after the rain on Saturday.

Instead of old, beat-up trucks and people walking vast distances to the next village to pump water and buy or sell food and provisions for the day, there were just a few people out in their Range Rovers, BMWs and Audis, probably off for the Sunday papers or to meet friends for coffee or brunch.

And of course, instead of mud huts, I rode past some very large mansions, some owned by Premier League footballers.

The contrasts really got me thinking and many great memories of the people I met and places we went came flooding back.

Of course at the back of it were our thoughts for Jayne's family and prayers for a speedy recovery for Julia and her return to the UK.

In the end I cycled just over 70km which was the distance we should have cycled about 10 days ago before the tragic events of Wednesday 26th September cut short our challenge. I managed to get all of the Zambian sand out of my shoes and cobwebs out of my brain. As a result, hopefully the great memories will keep coming back and will remain there for a long time.

https://www.relive.cc/view/1889531778#

Tragic News

ORIGINALLY POSTED 28th SEPTEMBER 2018 from LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA

Dear friends. You are probably wondering why I have not posted an update of the last two days of my ride in Zambia. At the end of Day 4 (Wednesday), having conquered a 70km gruelling dirt and deep sand track, there was a tragic accident involving a car and two of our riders.

Unfortunately one of our team was fatally injured and another seriously hurt less than 1km from our hotel. All other team members are OK as am I.

We are all shocked and saddened as we had just about completed the hardest part of our challenge. Needless to say we cancelled the final day’s 70km road section to Livingstone and we transferred here by bus yesterday morning.

Those who wanted to, have already returned to the UK early, some are flying back today and I am coming back as planned with 8 others on Saturday/Sunday.

The Transaid, Dream Challenges and local support team members have been superbly professional and supportive throughout and those of us still in Zambia are being well looked after.

The spirit and camaraderie between all those involved, both experienced Transaiders and first timers like me, from experienced and hardened cyclists to novices and from the oldest to the youngest has been inspirational. Remarkably for a group of 48 we had already developed a close bond.

This incident has made that bond even stronger and we will need the emotional support from each other and from you, our families and friends, to come to terms with the loss of a lovely lady and serious injury to another.

This has been a terrible and shocking ending to a fantastic challenge but we have met many local people along the way, seen how they live and better understand the value of the work Transaid funds and supports in Africa. I am sure the good memories will come back and endure a lifetime. I look forward to getting back home and catching up with many of you in the next few days and weeks. 

- Bryan

Cycle Zambia Ride Videos (courtesy of Relive)

The attached links take you to a reconstructed version of our route, courtesy of Strava and its companion app Relive, with a brief description and data on distance, elevation etc.

Zambia 🇿🇲 Day 1

Kafue to Mazabuka

Total distance: 67km, 437m

Description: After crossing the Kafue river, we had a bit of a climb and undulating ride on tarmac over some hills.  Turned off the road after about 25km and the rest of the day spent on dirt road, much of it past farms and sugar cane plantations.  Some of the road surface was black with molasses.  A relatively gentle introduction to rural Africa and a taste of things to come.

Part 1 - Strava, Relive (44km, 334m)

Part 2 - Strava, Relive (23km, 103m)

Zambia 🇿🇲 Day 2

Mazabuka to Monze

Total distance: 104 km, 576m

Description: A tough second day, initially on road, but suddenly turned off into real rural Zambia on dirt roads with our first taste of sand and a lot of corrugations.  Passed by many small settlements and villages.  A bit more sand and rough dirt roads which was draining followed by a 12km out of Monze to our campsite.

Part 1 - Strava, Relive (64km, 444m)

Part 2 - Strava, Relive (16km, 55m)

Part 3 - Strava, Relive (24km, 77m)

Zambia 🇿🇲 Day 3

Monze to Masuku Lodge

Total distance: 126 km, 558m ascent

Description: Nice gentle start followed by a mammoth 90km ride on tarmac along the main T1 road.  Passed through and stopped off in the small town of Choma.  A bit more tarmac and then a rough, sandy dirt track with a bit of nice singletrack just off the main road. Last 5km to Masuku Lodge was lovely but a shame there was no water (hot or cold) for showers. The lodge where we had dinner was lovely and sitting in a leather sofa, a very pleasant experience.

Part 1 - Strava, Relive (86km, 416m)

Part 2 - Strava, Relive (40km, 142m)

Zambia 🇿🇲 Day 4

Masuku Lodge to Kalomo

Total distance: 105 km, 664m ascent

Description: Tough 18km rough and sandy uphill track to main road, followed by 18km on tarmac. Then back on to the sand for a gruelling 70km.  Hottest day yet with temperatures reaching 46C.  Lots of interesting villages and small farms on the way.  Entered busy town of Kalomo around 5pm.  Then disaster struck just before we reached our lodge.  See subsequent posts.

Part 1 - Strava, Relive (70km, 523m)

Part 2 - Strava, Relive (31km, 141m)

Arrival in Lusaka

We arrived safely in Lusaka as dark was closing in after a long journey via Addis Ababa. We called in to see one of Transaid’s projects and spent a few hours getting to see and talk to the Emergency Transport Scheme and Community Health Volunteers who are doing so much to prevent malaria and providing access to healthcare in rural communities. 

The drive through the outskirts of Lusaka was probably what you imagine of a large African city (slow, busy, chaotic, dusty but interesting).

Sandy’s Lodge is very nice - clearly they are breaking us in gently. The next 4-5 nights will be different. 

Bikes are fitted and ready to go. Up at 5am.

One week to go

Well, that is it.  Training pretty much over and I am not going to get any fitter now, so I need to take it easy for a few days ahead of our departure for Lusaka.  I am really looking forward to meeting my fellow Cycle Zambia Challenge participants at Heathrow on Friday evening.

The summer is gone and it is starting to feel a lot more autumnal with some recent rides in almost full winter gear and temperatures down to below 5C in the early morning.  However, looking back over the past few months I don't think I could have wished for a better summer with all those lovely, hot summer days for getting out on the bike and really enjoying putting in a few miles in.  

Looking back on my Strava feed I managed 700-800km each month from May to August and have done about 400 already this month (most of it in a single week).  That doesn't sound like that much given we will be riding 500km in 5 days in Zambia, but it does include a lot of climbing - 9,000 to 10,000 meters (or more than the height of Mt Everest) per month, which I am hoping we won't be facing next week.  I have also been building up time on the MTB recently as that is what we will be riding in Zambia.  

Importantly, I have also lost about 16 lbs in weight since April which definitely helps going uphill!  Let's hope I can keep it off as one positive side effect is that I have stopped snoring (almost completely!).  That will be something both Sue and my  Zambia tentmate will be happy about.

All that is left now is to get a bit more used to the heat we are going to have in Zambia so intend to do a few gentle (non-cycling) workouts at the gym, followed by a good hot steam/sauna this week.

I will be posting updates from the road when we start cycling on Sunday morning so look out on the Powerfully Semple Blog, Facebook page, Instagram, @innovate360 Twitter feed (and if you work with me, the Slack and Flock channels).

In the meantime, thank you once again to all my corporate and individual sponsors.  Without your support, Transaid would not be able to continue to provide its superb services to the rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and many more adults and children would die due to lack of access to healthcare services.

If you would still like to donate, please visit my Fundriasing page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bryan-semple1

About Transaid

I am very pleased to be supporting Transaid through participating in the year's Cycle Zambia Challenge.  I have posted a lot about the challenge, my training and fundraising so far, but thought it would be worth sharing a bit more information about the charity itself and some of the amazing work in Africa which it supports.  See an overview of Transaid's programmes below, including a couple of great videos and infographics.

Transaid transforms lives through safe, available, and sustainable transport

Founded by Save the Children, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and its Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, the international development organisation shares 25 years’ worth of expertise in 23 countries with partners and governments – empowering people to build the skills they need to transform their own lives.

Transaid supports many programs and works with many partners in two main areas:

• Access to Healthcare
• Road Safety

Access to Healthcare Programmes

People living in rural areas of Africa often struggle to access vital services. Around 75% of maternal deaths can be avoided through timely access to vital childbirth-related care (Source: The World Bank).

What we do:

• We empower people to transform their own lives through access to vital services, such as healthcare
• We transform rural access to vital services – We enable women, children, and men in rural communities to reach health services when they are in need.
• We strengthen transport systems and this can provide access to appropriate forms of transport.
• Our work includes the use of Emergency Transport Schemes to transport pregnant mothers with complications. We also help community health workers reach the families who need them.

Click here to see a video highlighting the importance of the ETS to reducing childhood mortality from malaria in Zambia https://youtu.be/P7kpjv3UtuE

Click here to view an infographic on our impact in access to healthcare in sub-Saharan from 2014-2017.

Road Safety Programmes

In sub-Saharan Africa, road deaths are the third biggest killer following HIV/AIDS and Malaria (Source: The World Bank) and the problem will only rise with the growing population. Drivers are at risk every time they sit behind the wheel due to a lack of legal enforcement and training, and badly maintained and overloaded vehicles.

What we do:

• We support drivers, governments, and training institutions to improve road safety
• We transform driver training
• We work with partners and governments to train driver trainers. Our driver training programmes make drivers more competent, vehicles safer, and reduce death and injury on the road.
• We work with governments and other organisations to create and promote far-reaching improvements in driving standards, including curricula development. We also work on transport management systems, joining with partners to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the management and maintenance of fleets of vehicles.

Click here to see a video of the Driver Training Program in Tanzania https://youtu.be/oCHzhOlpp1w

Click here to view an infographic which shows our impact on road safety in sub-Saharan Africa between 2016-2017.

You can read more about Transaid's current and past programmes here http://www.transaid.org/programmes/

Thank you to my Corporate Sponsors

Over the last few weeks I have been focusing my fundraising efforts on getting companies signed up to sponsor their logo on my cycling jersey for the challenge.  People normally do this by approaching their suppliers who are usually happy to get their logo and help out a good customer.

I have to say the response has been great.  The nature of the charity and of the challenge appeals to my sponsors as much as it does to me and the opportunity to be associated with this has got people on board.  I suspect some people perhaps also are hoping I might not come back...

The final shirt design can be seen below.  Many thanks to all those companies and individuals who are keen to contribute to this great charity.  The jerseys should arrive around the end of August so you should soon see me in person or on photographs on social media parading round the Cheshire and Derbyshire roads.

Specific thanks go to the following individuals and their businesses:

Martin Woodward, CEO at ToolsGroup Brookes in London:  I have worked with Martin and his team for nearly 8 years, supporting their healthcare customers and more lately a number of major accounts in the logistics space.  Martin very generously contributed to last year's C2C challenge and again this year to Cycle Zambia.  

Joe Shamir, CEO, and Caroline Proctor, Chief Marketing Officer at ToolsGroup in Boston, have also generously added to the ToolsGroup Brookes UK sponsorship.  I have worked with and implemented ToolsGroup's SO99+ product at many customers over the past few years.  Their "Powerfully Simple" tools and approach delivers great results to complex supply chains and they are true leaders in advanced analytics and supply chain optimisation.  You may have spotted I have adapted their tagline for this blog (with permission!).

Adrian Veale and Paul Darley at Mitten Clarke in Stoke:  Adrian has been my accountant for nearly 10 years since I left the corporate world and set up Innovate 360 nearly 10 years ago.  Paul has been looking after my pension and providing professional advice and guidance on planning for what I hope will be a long and healthy retirement!  Adrian has also helped out businesses in Africa and spent time a couple of years ago in Rwanda on his own charity challenge.

David Howarth at defibshop.co.uk / Imperative Training in Irlam:  I met David a few years ago when I did some mentoring of high growth business CEOs and entrepreneurs.  David had already grown a successful business doing First Aid and Food Safety Training for large and small businesses.  He had also started to sell defibrillators as an online business and was looking at major growth plans.  I was very impressed by his ambition, vision and capabilities and both businesses have gone from strength to strength.

Mike Rozenfeld and the team at Attainia in Scottsdale, AZ:  I have worked with Attainia for over 10 years, initially as a client when I worked at NHS Supply Chain and for the past 8 years supporting the growth of their business across Europe, Middle East and Africa.  Speaking at a number of conferences has given me the opportunity to meet ministers of health and their teams in many countries, including recently from the Ministries of Health in Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda - all countries where Transaid has active programmes.

Guy Salmon Land Rover Knutsford: I have been a fan of the Landrover for many years and the owner of a Discovery Sport for the past two.  I am very grateful to Julie Ripley and the team at Guy Salmon Landrover Knutsford for their generous sponsorship and for their excellent sales and post sales service.

Sarah Lafferty at Round Earth Consulting:  I have worked with Sarah on a number of articles, customer case studies and campaigns with ToolsGroup over a number of years and her creative abilities combined with a solid grasp of technology are beyond compare.

Alasdair Kenney of ClickChemist for his long term friendship, great humour and camaraderie.  You are much more likely to see Alasdair playing golf or hockey than on a bicycle.

Matt Townsend at Ultimate Creative Communications in Knutsford, for his financial and design support as well as his encouragement to cycle further and harder in some wonderful places around the North of England.  Perhaps next year I will make the Holmes Chapel Velo Majorca trip if I survive Zambia!

Thank you also to the owners of a number of local businesses in Holmes Chapel

 

In the Beginning

This is my first ever blog entry in my first ever blog.  I haven't seen the reason before now and still not sure.  However the next three months have the potential to an exciting time for me as I undertake the most difficult physical challenge I have attempted to date.

This is not climbing Everest, swimming the Channel, yomping to the North Pole or running the Marathon des Sables.  However, it is for me pretty exciting, especially as I have now hit my mid-50s.  Last autumn, a couple of weeks after I completed the Coast2Coast cycle route with my good friend Alan Mayo, I signed up to take part in the Transaid Cycle Zambia Challenge - travelling 500km (300 miles) from the capital, Lusaka, to the Victoria Falls, right on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border.

I had heard about Transaid at the Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) and had thought about a couple of their UK events but not managed to get a place.  One of my old friends, Neil Ashworth, then did the Transaid London to Paris ride which perked my interest further.  I then saw a video of the 2017 South Africa challenge which raised over £250,000 for Transaid's programmes and I got really interested.

At the same time, my work had started taking me to Africa and I was invited to speak at a couple of African Healthcare conferences, one in London and the other in Johannesburg.  Having heard a lot more about healthcare in Africa from people who work in it, and understanding a bit more about the issues with access to healthcare, particularly in remote areas, I started to wonder how I could contribute.

I then learned that the 2018 Transaid Challenge was to Zambia and there was still a place left.  I discussed it briefly with my wife, Sue, who thought I was mad, but went ahead and took the plunge, paying the deposit which secured me a place.  I wasn't really too sure what I had let myself into (and still not really sure), but it was something I thought would be a great challenge and would really motivate me to get fit and most importantly would contribute to healthcare for people who really need it.

So here we are in early June 2018. Three and a bit months to go to departure and training now well underway.  In my next blog posts, I will say a bit more about the Transaid charity, the Cycle Zambia 2018 Challenge, my recent return to Johannesburg to speak again at Africa Health, my training and of course my very generous personal and corporate sponsors.

In the meantime, if you would like to find out more about the work that Transaid do in Africa, please click here

If you like to find out about the Cycle Zambia Challenge 2018, click here

To keep up to date with my fundraising progress and to make a donation, please click here