Inspired by Banff film festival and after a touch of tequila, Emma and I thought she should run from the west coast of Africa to the east. This is our story of dreaming up the idea, researching it, planning, training and running the distance.
Alarmingly, we see wild fires less than a mile away. However, people, cows and dogs are going about their business without looking at even those fires that are near straw huts. So, we do what everyone else does and ignore it.
Robert explains local people start fires to flush out small animals, which are caught for food. I guess Zambians are as experienced with fire as the Swiss are with snow.
With fires around, I am not keen on camping beside the road. Luckily, we are allowed to camp here under this fantastic tree which makes Cleo look like a toy truck instead of the Landcruiser with extra suspension she really is.
Robert swiftly disappears to chat up the locals who are having a meeting about development in the area and receive some tasty meat and sadza, which I am very happy about. I still haven’t mentioned to the team the possibility we could run out of food as we don’t have any Zambian money to buy any. Why bother them?
In the night the wind gets up.
Advice Moment: When travelling in a windy place, do not take a roof tent. The wind sweeps between the layers of the tent and struggles desperately to get out, crashing the fabric up and down. At moments, shaking the whole car, I dreamily wonder if we will take off. Fortunately, Cleopatra is a big girl and all the kit inside and us on top, adds up to over a tonne so it would have to be some wind to fly us into the sky. In future, I think twice about putting a tent under a massive tree.
Nobody gets much sleep.
Emma slowing up for Robert 😉 … Truthfully, though, Emma was in so much pain it is phenomenal that she is moving, much less running more than a marathon
Number of Days: 35
Total distance run by Emma: 1537 km, 955 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 43.9 km, 27.3 miles
In constant pain, Emma with a determined gait, still covers phenomenal distances. We try running with her to provide support and variety for her day. Before, she would chat happily but now she conserves all her energy and focus on running. It’s hard to know what to do. I do come up with this make shift idea: (video of me cooling her feet).
Peaceful breaks are a challenge. Children come running, their little legs spinning as fast they can as soon as they see us. I feel a sense of obligation as guests in their country but having them watching us closely at every rest stop is not restful. Woocash and I cook as quickly as we can and then move on to meet Emma and Mike but even then, at times, we still have to swiftly pack up and drive 1 mile down the road, as the children come running after us. Emma arrives at her breaks looking stressed from the constant attention. Once a small child had run up and slapped her. I can only assume that the child thought Emma was a ghost or something. I suggest Emma calls us on the radio when children surround her but she doesn’t believe we can help and so never asks. As every metre hurts, the mismatch between the car’s measurements and Emma’s measurements become a significant irritation for her.
We pass road works: a sign says, “Apologies for the 15 minute delay” which makes me chuckle. I come from the UK. I love my country dearly but for sheer politeness Namibia and Zambia are winning. The road itself is good quality.
The main highlight of the day, however, is Robert chasing us down in a minibus taxi. If you remember, Robert is SEED’s Project Manager and is on the trip as our guide, to gain experience and consider expansion into new areas. Having travelled overnight from Harare to Victoria Falls, Robert caught sight of Cleopatra (the car) in the distance travelling in the wrong direction, which confused him (we were returning from a breakfast in hiding) and persuaded the driver to accelerate to catch us. I was thinking who is this crazy driver trying to overtake us until everyone chorused “Robert” as they saw him frantically waving out the window. His cleanliness makes him stand out. Woocash is instantly happier, the two of them have a budding bromance, and the whole team seems re-energised for seeing Robert.
Number of Days: 34 (almost 5 weeks)
Total distance run by Emma: 1,482 km, 921 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 43.6 km, 27.1 miles
Brenda’s Best Baobab is a gentle giant of a tree. Wider than several people and disappearing into the sky, surrounded by a deck for tables, the Baobab stands quietly.
Upon crossing into Zambia we soon come across small shops catching attention with their delicious smells and fresh shiny fruit and vegetables. As predicted there are several banks in … but not one of them is working. “Maybe tomorrow” the locals tell me helpfully but tomorrow we’ll be miles away. I silently mourn the unattainable healthy fruit and vegetables available and decide, for the sake of team morale, not to mention that having cleared our stocks of food before crossing the border, we may be a little short for the next 5 days.
Unexpectedly, the Sesheke town rolls on and it is clear that we will not find a camping spot by nightfall, which is how we have found ourselves at Brenda’s Best Baobab, an immaculate looking campsite. But, with only 5 kwacha, we are hoping for Brenda’s generosity. Her encouraging staff usher me to her rich green lawn outside her house, where I stand scruffy, dirty and awkward.
Looking for hippos in the Zambezi at Brenda’s Best Baobab
Brenda herself is very friendly and happy to offer us free accommodation as a donation to the success of our journey. Her belief in us is yet another reason I hope we raise more money. I would show you a photo of this lady who is both the kind of person you don’t mess with and successfully puts you at your ease. However, when she got up in the early morning to say goodbye she said she was underdressed and did not want any photos going up. A friend of hers had had a photo taken when she was nursing a baby and it ended up on the internet, with the mother, someone who is normally well dressed, feeling extremely embarrassed.
Shower cubicle
Brenda kindly lets us use her kitchen and unimpressed by our dirty pots allows us to scrub the soot off the bottom of them. I also get to cook over a gas stove, I love cooking over a wood fire but a little variety and the easy cleanliness of gas makes for a nice change.
Emma is keen to get to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and have her very well earned 2 day break. She wants to start early whilst it is still dark but Brenda tells a story of a friend walking home at night from work, who was killed by an elephant. Emma agrees to wait until dawn.
with love and thanks to Brenda and the two staff members in this photo
What others have to say about Brenda’s and contact details:
In case the video won’t play for you. Here’s the story:
Most nights we camp on the side of the road, we cook over a campfire, wash with a little water or wet wipes and go to the toilet behind a bush, avoiding snakes and scorpions.
Emma went off to pee in the dark. As there is no comfy toilet to sit on, she has to crouch putting weight on her blisters and painful knee. I heard a sorrowful wail,
“Oh! No!” from Emma.
“What is it?”
In attempting to avoid bending her painful knee too much, she has peed on her flip flop but didn’t notice until she put her heel back down. Then she tried to wash her foot with fairy liquid but lost her balance and stepped in the sand. By the time we start videoing, Emma is sat down safely, laughing but very tired, and I am helping her to rinse her foot and shoe, whilst she explains what happened.
Emma ends with the question, “Why is everything so hard?”
And I reply, “That’s what happens when you run 40k a day.”
It’s a long tough journey.
*****
No of days: 31
Total distance run by Emma: 1,346 km, 837 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 43.45 km, 27 miles
This is a tense time. Local knowledge is invaluable and we have been warned that the area Emma is about to run through has lions in it. Mike is no longer on the bike beside Emma but inside the car.
The car is beside Emma so that if a lion is spotted she can get in as swiftly as possible.
Woocash is driving and I am on top with binoculars. I know from experience how incredibly difficult it is to spot a lion.
Do you think you could spot a lion amongst this grass?
Staring at a strange looking burnt tree, I realise after a moment that it is an ostrich, stationery in the forest. It moves away as we get closer. Ostrich can be vicious when they want to be, lions aren’t the only animals to be wary of. Although of course in the excitement of seeing an ostrich, I forgot all of that and simply yelled “Ostrich, ostrich!” Everyone looked right and for a moment failed to keep look out left, which was the side Emma was on.
The strangest thing about this forest is how silent it is. There may have been lions in the grass watching us for all we know but we don’t spot them. We are wary when we stop to eat and rest but never see anything and we all make it safely through.
It is an adventure but right at this moment Emma has run, on average, a marathon a day for 30 days. She is in a lot of pain and she is in danger from the wildlife. What kind of strength is required to achieve that distance, face that pain and danger and keep going?
However, the stress is too much for everyone and although Emma ran through dangerous game parks in her previous run along the Freedom Trail in South Africa with only her brother on a bicycle as support, we make a very good decision to turn left and run through Zambia instead of Botswana and the Chobe National Park, which is full of animals.
The only thing is that I have not prepared for us to cross into Zambia. I don’t know requirements for the border crossing at all. Lets hope its an easy one. This will be my first land crossing in Africa and my first with Cleopatra, the car.
*****
No of days: 30
Total distance run by Emma: 1,305 km, 811 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 43.5 km, 27 miles
Before we enter the “risk of lions” area, we come across several villages on a Saturday. We are an unusual event and an opportunity for a new experience, food, medicine and fun.
In case you can’t download the video it is very brief and shows two lovely moments that day. One when 3 adults came over to find out what we were doing when cooking lunch and then showed their support for Emma by chanting “Go, Emma, Go!” The other was when two young people, barefoot, rushed to join Emma jogging on the road. They were there for a while.
However, there are also many people begging in this area. This group of children were polite and good-natured whilst asking if we had anything we could give them. They were pleased with tins of tomatoes and delighted with the pack of cards. What inspired the young woman to place the cards just there in the photo? There are no mirrors to check out her styling or magazines in shops to stimulate her imagination? More importantly, what are her opportunities for her creativity?
I would have liked to have got to know these children better, understood the roots of their poverty and most importantly to have found real solutions. On the return journey, I looked for them but travelling ten times faster we missed them in the blur of African landscape. Travelling more slowly gave greater rewards.
A lady comes over to ask for medicine for a friend, the nearest clinic is a day’s walk away. We have a friendly chat and I give her a few paracetemol and rehydration sachets. This isn’t the answer. I am no doctor. I hope it did no harm.
Resourcefulness
Other moments are not so positive. A blind adult approaches with his hand on the head of a 4 yr old. It’s an uncomfortable sight and I consider whether the child is being exploited, as a passerby it is impossible to know. In some communities, disabled people find it particularly difficult to make a living. Money isn’t the answer. Not in terms of a fulfilling life, only for survival. But who am I to judge in this moment?
In the afternoon, a crowd has collected around a bar beside the road and a drunk teenager moves towards Emma with his arms out. He doesn’t touch her, he’s simply being playful, pretending to grab the back of the car as we pass, until he gets yelled at by an adult. Frequently, dogs start barking, heading towards Emma. As long as there are adults present they keep control but these are two of the reasons Mike keeps close to Emma at all times.
” … giving money does not change anything. Instead, people most often use it to buy temporary things, which too often is alcohol or drugs. Better than giving money, she said, is identifying goals. When a villager sets a goal, he or she can assess what is needed to achieve it. One goal at a time, the village discovers that they are not excluded from financial opportunity. Then, in knowing that financial opportunity is something accessible, they find something to strive for. This changes a destructive cycle of dropping out into a productive one of self-reliance. In this way, they can find independence. Instead of depending on federal or foreign aid, they can depend on themselves while maintaining the traditional foods, products, and practices that they identify with. With this financial independence comes sustainability and peace of mind.”
*****
If you want to help make sustainable improvements in people’s lives please consider donating to the SEED Project or our fundraising page, which was the reason for doing this run and writing this blog (I hope you are enjoying it).
*****
No of days: 28
Total distance run by Emma: 1193 km, 741 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.6 km, 26.5 miles
No, I am not talking about Mike and Emma. I am not sure how they would take that. Hippos are wonderful animals. I know they’re the biggest killers in Africa. But really? Above Puff Adders, Mosquitos and Humans? They get a bad press because they are easily scared and then bad things happen as they are trying to flee to safety or defend their territory. Also, if you are in a green canoe they might mistake you for a crocodile and break the boat in half. Crocodiles are their evil neighbours, sharing the same river and occasionally attacking adults or killing baby hippos. It’s no surprise then, if you look anything like a crocodile, they are going to freak out. Admittedly, some of the males are inclined to show off and can be aggressive. But, as long as the hippo is not scared of you or one of those alpha male types hippopotami are adorable. They lie around in mud and harumph. Check out the story of a family and their friendly hippo.
Lunch stop
Andy from Samsitu Camp has set us up with places to stay all along the river. At each stop I am hoping to see a hippo.
A whole bed each!! I could have stayed there well into the morning. That and Camp Ndurukoro is right on the river.
Frustratingly, we arrive after dark at Camp Ndurukoro and leave before dawn, so we don’t get to see any animals as Emma runs relentlessly onwards as she has to reach the Botswana border before her visa runs out.
Dawn
At the last town on the way to the border, Divundu, the only fuel station is officially out of diesel and expect a delivery tomorrow. It is the first time a fuel station is empty and it would be when we really need to fill up. Woocash and I estimate, with careful driving, we could just get to the border and back. But we might be wrong. Luckily, the manager upon hearing our story, allows us to have what little they can spare. Which is really nice of him. And we sort it all out before Emma gets there.
Emma finishes early and we head south to Botswana. Finishing early always makes for a happy vibe. On the way, we camp at Ndhovu Safari Lodge and get to catch up with Ken, who is a bit of a hero. He defuses mines. Demining is incredibly dangerous as you probably know. But after a bomb exploded whilst Ken was working on it, the pain he had to go through made him even more determined to continue with this job and protect innocent people and animals from harm. A truly amazing person. Ken also got bitten by a poisonous snake that was sleeping under his desk, which he accidentally nudged with his foot. He still lives in that house.
At Ndhovu lives the lonely hippo. To my absolute joy, he makes an appearance tonight. He steadily munches grass through the camp, careless of the excited people and dogs around him. He’s an elderly hippo and gets attacked by other hippos. As a result, he took refuge where other hippos don’t go, in the human campsite. One time after a particularly bad fight, he headed into the campsite and put his head down on an old tyre round the back of the owner’s house. The owner’s dog took care of him, licking his wounds. And now they are good friends.
You can meet Chomp, the hippo, in this video. Ken tells Emma and I about Chomp. I particularly like the moments where Emma identifies with the hippo and Chomp considers a lifesize statue of a hippo.
Chomp continues eating grass on his way to his peaceful night’s rest. And we head back to bed.
Total distance run by Emma: 1099 kilometres, 683 miles
No of days: 26
Average daily distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.3 kms, 26.3 miles
Okay, agreed, this photo technically has nothing to do with the game park (although it was just outside it.) But I really liked the photo and it shows a lot of things about our life on the road. Emma running in the heat and sand. Us finding the only good tree for shade near the distance Emma wanted. Also, during lunch break, a tiny dung beetle tried to push my toe out the way as I dozed. Little feisty one.
Then we drove round the corner and discovered we are about to enter a game park in the Erongo Mountains. Its not marked on any of our maps.
Rhino and elephant!
The guard assures us we don’t need to worry about the rhino and elephant as they are over the other side. Emma will be fine. He says its okay for us to camp, which surprises us.
More warthogs on the run.
Finding somewhere to camp is tricky. We’re a little concerned about elephants coming by in the night. Elephants killed 300 people in 7 years in Kenya. African elephants are serious business. Although, humans have killed 100,000 elephants in 3 years … so, I guess, we would be more at risk if we were elephants. Still, we don’t want to be near an annoyed elephant. As a result, I move our campsite a little as it looks like its on an animal path to me. (We miss having an animal expert who would really know.)
Robert and I have decided to sleep in the car to save getting the other tent out, as we need to leave quickly in the morning. Emma, Mike and Woocash are in the roof tent. Emma’s blog post, says that all sorts of exciting things happened in the night. I slept through the lot except for the snoring.
Sunrise
We set off early into town, as Emma starts her first 2 hr run of the day. The bumpy roads rattle Cleo (the car) and Woocash and I argue over whether it is better to go fast and skim over the top or drive slowly and boing up and down more. I want to travel as fast as possible as I worry about Emma and Mike.
We drop off Robert and head back as soon as we can. We return to find Emma and Mike alive and zipping along. Emma’s ability is phenomenal. When they join us Mike asks if a bolt he spotted in the road is important to Cleo. Amazing eyesight and luck. Its for the rear brake calliper! Bouncing along has serious consequences. Woocash instantly gets under the car.
lying on a handy yoga mat, never got used for yoga but great for lots of other things
Two bolts have fallen out. We are still missing one and will need to sort that out as soon as possible (several hundred kilometers later).
At the end of the game park, the very friendly game park guard dances with us and joins us for a photo. Special moments that make the journey.
We encounter more friendliness that evening when we find a lay-by to park in. A man and his digger/road flattener are already there. He only speaks portuguese so we send Woocash (Polish speaker), as Emma suggests they might speak international english. Sure enough, Woocash comes back to tell us Frantz has no problem with us staying and even offered to flatten an area for us. Later, Frantz generously sends over some wood for our fire.
Past Omaruru, we enter the lands of game and cattle farmers. To keep the animals in, there are wire fences either side of the road. There are warthog everywhere. I worry they will attack Emma but they run off as soon as they see us.
He hasn’t seen us yet.Now he has … there’s a 3rd photo in this series but its of an empty space.
When we first arrived in this area and set up for lunch, a car appeared out of the dusty road. The man who got out, warned us that we might, accidentally (on purpose?), be shot if we camped. He suggests the next game farm as a place to stay. Emma runs her final 16 km of the day (like its a normal thing to do). I’m a bit concerned for her and Mike’s safety, since we are on hunting territory, but am thinking that no-one aims towards the road and that mistakenly harming someone dressed in bright pink is going to be tricky to explain. Woocash and I go in search of a place to camp. We haven’t found the next guest farm but we turn down a track signposted to a B & B. A mile down and we are in a forest: trees looming close to the path and vines hanging down. It feels like a scene from “Big Fish“. The track forks and we turn left. We are unexpectedly in a farm. There’s no-one around and its a little spooky. We turn round to take the right fork which arrives at a wide sandy river bed. There’s a car track across and we follow it to an island thick with trees and vegetation. There we are met with padlocked gates and a sign that reads:
“Warning Dangerous Dogs”
and below,
“There is life after death:
Enter and find out.”
Naturally, we’re curious to take up the challenge. However, getting to a hospital would take a long time and delay the run. Hoping the dogs can’t get over the fence, I get out the car to help Woocash turn the car round. We head back to the main road to look for somewhere better, where we won’t be mistaken for fair game and shot. Not a thing and its getting late. On the Tracks4Africa map we can see that 25 km in front is a camping lodge. Emma has gone as far as she is going for the day. We load everyone and everything onto Cleo, make sure Emma has something to eat as she needs to eat within 20 minutes, and head towards the lodge. We travel slowly. The sun is setting.
Photographic evidence of the sun having set.
We arrive at Omaha Guest Farm in the dark. The gates are padlocked. I toot the horn but no response. We’ve got nowhere else to go. Being slightly off the road, we decide we’ll camp to one side of the gate. In the hope that no-one is going to shoot us right outside their front door. I’m trying to figure out what will be quick to cook as Emma needs a healthy meal each day and lots of rest, when, the owner and his wife appear. Arif is from Manchester! Our home city, that we all love. They invite us in. Using a bathroom for the first time in a week is fantastic. Emma comes out of the toilet with her eyes sparkling, “I washed my hands and my face!” she grins. Its a joy to be clean, well some bits anyway. This is a luxury we haven’t had for days. They also have delicious prawn curry to share. Cold water to drink. Cold water to drink is a wonderful thing, especially in a hot country, after running 40km. And an adorable 2 year old girl who plays with me. After a happy dinner, its an early night as always. The next day, the whole family came out to cheer Emma on as she runs past:
Their little daughter went running up to Emma whilst the dog kept a watchful eye.The lovely Omaha family who took us in for the nightEmma and Mike are off into the distance, not much time for stopping and chatting.
The last two months have been full of highs and lows. I’ve had times where I’ve felt like I was ready tostart the Africa run right there and then, and there have been times where I have doubted that I’ll be able to start at all.
April began on a massive high with the completion of our beautiful logo. One of my best friends in the world designed it for us. She isn’t a graphic designer but obviously she has massive talent in that department and really should be doing this type of work. I gave her a very complicated spec and she made a logo which completely matched what I had asked for. Fortunately for us she has more of an eye for these things than I do as what I had asked for didn’t really look as good as I had envisioned. She then put her own twist on what I had requested and made what has turned out to be a vibrant, creative representation of what our trip is about. Big thank you Alison Mouncey, you are absolutely incredible!
The next big high came from completing a 107 mile run along the Cotswold Way. I won’t go into too much detail about this again as you can read accounts by each member of the team in our previous blogs. This was a massive success for the team and we learnt a lot about how we need to work together and what kit we need to get sorted before we leave.
The completion of the Cotswold Way came with a massive low for me. The first part of it being the emptiness that I always seem to feel when something I have been planning for a while comes to an end. But the more worrying thing was that in the last mile and a half of the run my left knee started to hurt. I had been worried about this knee as I suffered with some tendon problems throughout my Freedom Run. Since this happened I have been seeing my physio, Michelle Pennell, and she has been treating me for cartilage damage. Hopefully, with treatment and the exercises I have been working on I should still be able to complete my Africa run. So for most of April, my training became mostly based on short slow runs and lots of time spent stretching, icing, exercising, sitting with a hot water bottle on my butt etc, and not the longer distances I was hoping for.
Motivation was improved when I got invited to the Berghaus Trail Running Team weekend in the Lake District. Again, the there is a separate blog you can read about this event. It was great to meet a group of people who also love to run in the outdoors, and hear about their stories, adventures and goals.
April total mileage: 217.5 miles
April longest run: 40 miles
At the beginning of May I had just started to try to increase my mileage after learning to deal with my knee problems. When along comes another injury, I pulled my right calf quite badly. I don’t know how I managed to do this, whether I had done something in my clumsiness, or if it might be due to overcompensating on one leg due to the knee injury. Anyway, however it happened, it wasn’t pleasant and I ended up having most of a week off of training. And again spending a lot of time resting, icing, stretching etc.
Thankfully, my calf repaired itself just in time for the Mow Cop Killer mile. Which lead to the next ‘high’. Me and Mike were first male and first female in our race that we entered. If anyone fancies a gruelling hard slog up a steep hill, I would definitely recommend this race!
May has been a weird month for weather as well. I don’t know if everyone else is the same but my motivation completely disappears when its cold and rainy. There have been a few days where the weather has been fantastic but typically those are the days where I have been working long hours or had other jobs that I need to get done so can’t run. The days where I am able to get long runs in have been dismal. I suppose I need to get used to this and man-up as the summer doesn’t look very positive this year. Its going to be a shock when I get to Africa!
As I write this I am feeling in control of the injuries that I have and they aren’t causing me too much grief. As long as I keep up with all the instructions I have been given by Michelle I am feeling pretty positive about things. Me and Mike have entered our first marathon at the end of June so fingers crossed I don’t injure myself again and my fitness improves before then. Bring on the summer!
Head over Heels 2014 