Our 600-Mile Kenya Route

Our thanks to Ken Myers for assisting us in Kenya to develop a 600-mile route that is road friendly, scenic and challenging for our Bike Kenya 2012 team.


ROUTE SUMMARY. The route takes our team west and north of Nairobi (P) as far as Kisumu (F) at the edge of Lake Victoria and Eldoret (H). It features a visit to a safari at Nakuru (J) and day-long ride through Hell's Gate National Park (K), in which our team will be riding among the wildlife (yes, it is safe; this is the feature of this particular park). The route calls upon our team to bicycle every day for 12 days, though some days we will actually ride just a few hours.


POINT-TO-POINT. Briefly, here are the point-to-point locations and distances:


May 8 - Nairobi local test/adjust ride - 20 km / 12.4 mi
May 9 - Mai Mahui to Narok - 90 km / 55.9 mi
May 10 - Narok to Bomet - 82 km / 51 mi
May 11 - Bomet to Kericho - 75 km / 46.6 mi
May 12 - Kericho to Nyakach - 50 km / 31.7 mi
May 13 - After AM church: Nyakach to  Kisumu - 54 km / 33.6 mi
May 14 - Kisumu to Eldoret - 111 km / 69 mi
May 15 - Eldoret to Temboroa - 75 km / 46.6 mi
May 16 - Temboroa to Nakuru - 102 km / 63.4 mi
May 17 - After safari: Nakuru to Naivasha - 64 km / 39.7 mi
May 18 - Hell's Gate National Park - 52 km / 32.3 mi
May 19 - Naivasha to Karen - 86 km / 53.4 mi
May 20 - After AM church: Karen to Nairobi - 80 km / 49.7 mi


CLIMBS. I will focus on the diverse elevations (interpret "hills," "climbs," "pain") in a post in a few days.


SHARE. Share our plans and adventure with others...and keep coming back!


CONTRIBUTE. And, please, help us achieve our goal--to build a new school--by making a per-mile contribution for this cause (right side bar).

Six Weeks and Counting

The great Rift Valley will be a common site for a significant part of
our 600-mile trek through northwest Kenya.

FLIGHTS BOOKED. Our Bike Kenya 2012 team of eight cyclists is now officially booked for flights to Nairobi, Kenya, departing Sunday, May 6 and arriving at NBO on Monday evening, May 7. As one who's job it is to sweat some of these details, I'm relieved to get get this task behind me and airlines booked before airfares go crazy.

TRAINING WELL. All eight of us are taking advantage of incredibly warm weather in the American Midwest to train for the 600-mile ride through Kenya. While we train in America, Bishop Nixon Dingili, our Kenyan team member, is training in Kenya.  Putting time in the saddle now will pay off for the six to eight hours we'll be pedaling each day in Kenya.  Six weeks will pass quickly and we are getting more pumped for the experience every day.

A NEW TEAM MEMBER. We're happy to announce the addition of Dr. Bob Burtch as one of our team members. Bob lives in Batavia, Illinois and is a retired biologist and teacher. Bob has visited Kenya and was a member of the Bike Vietnam 2011 team with me last year.  He's a great source of knowledge and fun and we're glad he will contribute to this effort.

MATCH OUR SWEAT EQUITY. Speaking of contributions...remember that the purpose for which we ride is to raise funds to build a new ICCM school in Kenya. Our team will visit the location during our ride and talk with school students and teachers.

Your contribution of 10c, 25c or $1 per mile of our 600-mile bicycle ride helps make that possibility a reality for them.  Please take time right now to go to the Special Funds donation page at International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) and make a contribution of $60, $150, or $600 (or more or less!) toward this challenge.

FOR KENYAN KIDS EDUCATION. $40,000 is needed to purchase the property and building materials.  The school will be operated under the auspices of ICCM in Kenya (learn about ICCM at www.childcareministries.org).  Children attending the school will be sponsored through ICCM, too.

We hope you will match our sweat with a generous gift for a new ICCM school!

TRACK OUR ADVENTURE.  Please subscribe to this blog ("Track Our Ride") to get new posts via email. Also, please follow us on Twitter @bikekenya2012. We will share photos and stories during the journey in May.

-- John Franklin Hay, Bike Kenya 2012 Team Coordinator

Countdown to a Kenyan Adventure

The reality that our Bike Kenya 2012 event is seven weeks away makes me realize how much we have to do before we board a plane for Nairobi.  We're making lists and checking them twice--both our cycling team preparing in North America and our host team preparing in Kenya.  Details sweated now will reduce the sweat of regrets when we're pedaling across Kenya in May.

So, what does one take on a two-week cycling adventure like this?  Well, since our cycling team will be supported by a driver and host in a mini-bus/van, and since we plan to spend nights in churches, schools, guest houses and hostels, our load is lightened considerably.  Still, for starters, each of us plan for cycling gear: helmets, cycling gloves, bell (yes!), biking shoes, lights, flashers, sunglasses, water bottles or Camelback-type reservoir, bike rack and rack bag, flashlight and extra batteries, sunscreen, insect repellant, lip balm, cycle computers, repair kits, tubes, hand sanitizer. Oh, and, of course, bikes and bike travel boxes.

And then there are clothing, personal items, medical supplies, electricity adapters, water filters, bedding, team support materials, etc. And official forms and documents completed. Itineraries. Checklists. Details. Small things to sweat. All are important in varying degrees to a fruitful event.

We're also asking, once again, for our friends to support our ride.  While we sweat the details and sweat the 600 miles for 11 riding days of 6-8 hours in the saddle, will you match our sweat with a donation to the school for which we ride?  Will you support with each mile we pedal--at 10c, 25c or $1 per mile?  Can you do it as a family? As a small group?  As a church?  As a civic group?

10c per mile = $60
25c per mile = $150
$1 per mile = $600

Or, give a greater or lesser amount.  Every contribution to build the ICCM secondary school in Koi Barak counts.

Click here to give on online at International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) secure site. Once you're on the ICCM "Special Funds" page, scroll to the bottom of the page to select to give at 10c, 25c or $1 per mile.

Thanks for your giving and your prayers and your attention to this project.

During the ride, we hope to post daily photos and reflections from the open road in Kenya.

Subscribe to this blog site (right sidebar) and follow on Twitter @bikekenya2012 to join in this adventure with us.

Our special thanks to Andrea Anibal for creating our Bike Kenya 2012 logo!

We Have Our Team!

John Franklin Hay of Indianapolis will lead a 9-member
cycling team through Kenya in May in a fundraising
effort to raise $40,000 for a new school near Eldoret

We're happy to announce our Bike Kenya 2012 cycling team.  Eight people--six men, two women--from the American Midwest will be joined by Bishop Nixon Dingili of Kenya to pedal 600 through Kenya in May to raise funds--our goal is $40,000--to build a new school.

Our Bike Kenya 2012 team includes:

Kevin Williams of Sorento/Greenville, Illinois
Bob Burtch of Batavia, Illinois
Jack Hughey of Alton, Illinois
Mark and Megan Booth of Mogadore/Akron, Ohio
Alex Drummond of Indianapolis, Indiana
Rebecca Lamp of Bucyrus, Ohio
John Franklin Hay of Indianapolis, Indiana

Each of our team members is paying our own way, but each of us is asking individuals, organizations, fiends and associates to support our ride with a per-mile contribution that goes directly to build a new ICCM school.

Please consider a gift of 5 cents, 10c, 25c or $1 per mile--or less or more--to help us help Kenyan children have the school they need to continue and complete their education in their community.

Click here to make a Bike Kenya 2012 contribution online right now (on the ICCM Special Projects page, scroll to the bottom of the page for Bike Kenya 2012 giving options).

5c per mile = $30
10c per mile = $60
25c per mile = $150
$10 per mile = $600
We welcome lesser and greater contributions, too!

Our team members are training now for the 12 days of cycling 50-70 miles per day, day after day.  We are preparing and will put in lots of sweat equity in Kenya from May 8 to 21.

We hope you'll join us--with your contributions and your prayers and your attention.  We will post updates and photos on this blog page throughout our cycling experience in Kenya.

Lots to do.  Please check back frequently now for blog updates.

-- John Franklin Hay

Ride Kenya with a Bishop

The man in the bike helmet and on a new bike is Bishop Nixon Dingili.  Bishop Nixon oversees the Free Methodist Churches (FMC) in Kenya. He plans to join our Bike Kenya 2012 team as we pedal 600 through the northwest sector of his country in May.  The secondary school in Koi Barak, which our ride is raising funds to build, is under the auspices of the Kenyan FMC and International Child Care Ministries (ICCM).  We welcome Bishop Nixon to our team!

Bishop Nixon and our team members in the USA are training and making preparations for the 11-day ride in Kenya.  There are lots of arrangements in the process and we are all getting pretty pumped for the event.

Until March 1, our Bike Kenya 2012 is still open for three more participants.  The cost will be approximately $3200 per participant (includes roundtrip airfare between Chicago and Nairobi and all in-country expenses in Kenya--food, lodging, transportation support, fees, etc.).  In addition, each team member commits to try to raise funds to build the Koi Barak school.  I have a Fact Sheet I will immediately email to anyone interested in participating.

If you have signed up for / requested to participate in Bike Kenya 2012, but have not heard from me within that past two weeks, please contact me immediately. I am in contact with seven participants, but I just want to make sure I have not overlooked any early responders.

Please match our "sweat equity" with a per-mile contribution of 10c, 25c, $1 or other per-mile donation.  That's why we're pedaling: to raise awareness and funds for this educational endeavor.  That, and for the sheer joy and beauty of it!  Use this link to contribute right now (it takes you to ICCM's Special Projects page; scroll down for Bike Kenya 2012 giving options)!

Keep coming back to our site!

John Franklin Hay
Indianapolis, Indiana
johnfranklinhay@yahoo.com

Three Openings for Bike Kenya 2012

We're hoping to have a full team of 10 cyclists to travel to Kenya in May to pedal 600 miles in two weeks to raise awareness and funds to build a new school in Koibarak.  As of right now, seven hearty souls (well, actually whole persons!) are committed.

I'm looking for three more participants.  Want to join in?

Explore the blog below and on the side bar to get a sense of what the event is about and see if it's something you are interested in and "doable" for you.  You don't have to be an "expert" bicyclist for this.  It's not a race or high-speed tour.  But you will need to train to be able to ride 45-75 miles a day over 11 cycling days in some hilly terrain.  This is well within the range of most people who love cycling.

 The cost, including air travel between Chicago and Nairobi and all expenses in Kenya is about $3000 (could go slightly higher). In addition to paying our own way, each Bike Kenya 2012 team member is trying to raise funds to build a new school in the village of Koibarak.

All this information is available in a Bike Kenya 2012 Fact Sheet I will send via email to anyone inquiring. Let me know of your interest at this email: johnfranklinhay@yahoo.com.

I'm hoping to confirm the team by the end of February so all can move forward with planning, training, and fundraising.  It's going to be a fun adventure.  Give it some thought!

Contribute Online for Bike Kenya 2012's Cause

It's now possible to support the cause for which ten advocates will pedal 600 miles through Kenya in May. To contribute online, click here (then scroll to the bottom of the "Special Projects" listings) and support our team at 10 cents per mile, 25 cents per mile, or $1 per mile.

Or, give whatever you are able or willing.  We appreciate your support!

Our cyclists are ordinary folks who are taking time out of their day-to-day work and paying their own way for this fundraising adventure.  Our goal is to collectively raise the $40,000 (US) that is needed to purchase property, construction materials, and contribute toward a paid and volunteer labor team that will build a secondary school in Koibarak, a small town in northwest Kenya.

The new school in Koibarak will be built and managed under the auspices of International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) and the Free Methodist Church of Kenya.  ICCM currently facilitates 8 schools in Kenya and sponsors more than 600 Kenyan children for their education.  Learn about ICCM at www.childcareministries.org.

We invite you to track our journey on this blog site.  We plan to make daily posts during the ride.  You can also track our preparations and journey on Twitter at @bikekenya2012.

We're looking for two more team members.  No cycling expertise necessary.  Just a readiness to train, pay your own way (about $3000 total) and commit to help raise funds for the school.  If interested, contact me at johnfranklinhay@yahoo.com

To stay tuned to our developments, we invite you to subscribe to this blog.  We appreciate your support.

Less than five months until we bike Kenya

Wow.  How could time get by so quickly?  "Time keeps on slipping' into the future," go the rock anthem lyrics. We're less than five months from heading to Kenya to pedal 600 miles to raise funds to build a new school for children like this Kenyan girl (currently an ICCM-sponsored student). Lots to do. Stay tuned. Updates and posts will follow shortly.

Bike Kenya 2012 Plans Continue to Develop

Plans for a 600-mile bicycle tour through Kenya in May 2012 continue to develop.  Recently, International Child Care Ministries Director Linda Adams visited the school at Nyakach and toured areas where our Bike Kenya 2012 team will be riding.  She brought back photos of the people and places which our cycling effort will support. This girl is a student in the primary school at Nyakach.

Vickie Reynen and Bishop Nixon, our primary hosts and guides in Kenya, are continuing to communicate with me about possibilities for routes and arrangements.  Until recently, Vickie was Africa Regional Coordinator for ICCM.  She lives in Nairobi and will be in a vehicle that will accompany our team throughout its 11 days of cycling and several says of sightseeing.

I have received from several friends a YouTube link of a cyclist being butted by an African antelope during a ride in South Africa. I've had lots of fun with that. Along with this are stories of baboons grabbing lunch right out of tourist's hands.  I don't doubt that these possibilities exist.  I doubt their probability of occurring with us.  Vickie assures me that the areas and roads our team will travel are quite safe from such.  If this ride is like my rides in India and Vietnam, here will be enough humor and wonder along the route to fill one's mind and heart without any added "encounters of a close kind."

We have eleven brave souls currently committed or considering the ride.  If you are at all considering this experience--including the effort to together raise $40,000 to build a new ICCM Kenyan school--and you have not yet contacted me, please do so soon.  For planning, training, and fundraising purposes, I'd like to lock-in on our team by the end of October.  Contact me at johnfranklinhay@yahoo.com if you'd like more information about the ride.

Personally, I have been cycling more this autumn than any I can remember. The weather in Indianapolis has been ideal.  Some days I commute to and from work.  Some days, I ride circuits in Eagle Creek Park and northwest of the city.  Some days, I join longer group rides with the Central Indiana Bicycle Association (CIBA).  This weekend is the 44th annual Hilly Hundred, a two-day rolling fun-filled ride through southern Indiana with about 3,000 fellow cycling enthusiasts.  I plan to participate on the Sunday leg of the Hilly.  Whether or not you plan to ride with us in Kenya, I hope EVERYONE will get outside and get on a bicycle and enjoy this season's beauty and wonder.

John Franklin Hay

8 hearty souls on board...

Who will round out our team of ten to bicycle across Kenya in May 2012?

This is not Kenya. But it is what weather in Kenya will be
like in May 2012, when Bike Kenya 2012 rides. This is
Indianapolis, Indiana's Eagle Creek Park--the nation's
4th largest city park and my favorite place to ride after
a day of work. Get out on your bike and ride!

 Over the past month or so, several more people have responded to our invitation to this adventure.  We're building a team!

Thus far, eight hearty souls have raised their hands to begin training and planning for Bike Kenya 2012.  Three women (thus far) have signaled their willingness to bicycle across Kenya.  I wonder who will round out our team of ten to pedal eleven days during a May 7-21 excursion and help raise funds to build a school in Nyakach?

If this sounds at least interesting to you, at your request, I can send you a Bike Kenya 2012 Fact Sheet.  It may help you decide whether or not this is for you.

I've recently been in contact with our guides and coordinators in Kenya.  We're looking at bicycle shipping and purchase options.  We may be able to offer options to Bike Kenya 2012 participants to either (1) box your own bike and take it as luggage back and forth to Kenya, or (2) purchase a bicycle in Nairobi and leave it there as a donation at the end of the ride.  This is but one of many logistics to consider and work out for the excursion.  We plan for the team members who commit to this ride to make as many decisions together as a team as possible.

By the way, whether or not you are planning to ride or considering the ride in Kenya next May, isn't this a great time to get out on a bicycle?  Autumn is, to me, the best season for cycling.  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  Incredible beauty in the changing colors (at least in an Indiana fall).  Hope you're inspired to put in some miles and enjoy what God has offered us these precious days.

-- John Franklin Hay

Can You Handle This Ride?

It's not easy to ride 550 miles in 2 weeks, but it's not that hard, either...

For Bike Kenya 2012, I'm looking for all kinds of participants--cyclists as well as supporters, those who can pedal and help raise funds as well as friends who will support behind the scene with critical logistics.

Wondering if you can handle the biking?  Can you pedal 550 miles through Kenya within 2 weeks?

 

This is an important consideration.  We plan to ride at least 45 miles and possibly up to 75 miles per day.  That can mean up to 6 hours in the saddle day upon day.  That's really not hard to do IF you train for it.  This is not a race or a high-speed event.  You don't have to consider yourself an athlete, but you DO need to be healthy and prepared for the rigors of the road.  Those who decide to join the cycling team will have a spring 2012 training discipline that will be required to prepare all for the ride in Kenya.

 

 My experience of cycling 2000 miles through India in 2007 and 650 miles in Vietnam earlier this year tells me that an average pace of 14-16 miles per hour can be expected.  Faster going downhill; slower uphill.  We'll likely take a brief rest and check-in break every 12-15 miles.

A few logistics...

We will have a support vehicle traveling with us.  It will carry luggage and supplies and our host team.  We'll eat at roadside and local eateries.  We'll carry our own bottled water, Gatorade and lots of fruit and energy snacks.

 

We'll likely spend overnights in low-cost lodging, some in churches or schools, some possibly in hospitality houses or retreat centers.  Nothing fancy.  I took a lightweight sleeping bag for the biking excursions in India and Vietnam.

So, we're just beginning. There's lots to learn, lots to figure out, lots to share.  

 

Join in the journey--one way or another.  This time next year, may the adventure have changed us and may a fully paid-for secondary school facility be under construction because of Bike Kenya 2012.

Welcome to Bike Kenya 2012

Looking for 10 pedaling participants...and lots of supporting participants!

Just getting started.  Start following now.  It's going to be a fun adventure!  Bookmark or follow this page (see sidebar) and start following our tweets - @bikekenya2012.

Bike Kenya 2012 is all about a 2-week bicycle ride through Kenya in May 2012 to raise awareness and funds to build a secondary school in Nyakach.

I'm John Franklin Hay of Indianapolis, Indiana.  I'm the project coordinator/team leader.  I've pedaled through India (2000 miles) and Vietnam (650 miles) with small teams to raise awareness and funds to build a hospital and get children sponsored for their education and wellness.  I look forward to this special ride!

We're looking for 10 people who are willing and able (1) to raise at least $40,000 together for property and construction of a new secondary school in Nyakach, a village in Kenya, and (2) ride a bicycle 550 miles within two weeks through hilly terrain to raise awareness of the project and gain understanding of Kenyan culture and opportunities.  Each team member will pay their own event costs (about $3000) and commit to try to help the team raise at least $40,000 for the project.

Think about it.  Pray about it.  Consider it.  Contemplate it.  More info here soon.  Bookmark this blog; save it as a "favorite."  Check back frequently.