BOLDNESS + BRAVERY Page 6 of 18

Are you up for a Christmas microadventure?

Posted on 2015-12-15 at 8:55 am.

This is a guest post by adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. Find out more about Alastair here.

Over the past few summers I have been trying to rally people to tackle a summer solstice micro adventure. It has been a pleasant success, with loads of people heading for the hills. This year lots of people have been tackling a microadventure each month as part of the Year of Microadventure Challenge. Setting the idea as a challenge was a great way of galvanising people to action. People who quite liked the idea of sleeping on a hill but would not ordinarily do it were motivated to get outdoors and try something new.

So here is a challenge for you: a winter solstice microadventure…

The 21st December is the shortest day of the year. The day is short, the night is long. But if the weather is fresh and clear this can be a beautiful season. The sun lies low in the sky, backlighting or silhouetting the world beautifully. And the night is cold and long, filled with stars and the greedy knowledge that you own this night while everyone else is tucked up indoors frittering their lives in front of X-Factor Xmas Specials. You are out there, beneath the glory of the heavens (and – perhaps – freezing your arse off wishing you were back home in front of the telly).

Most people have a chunk of time off somewhere between now and early January. Why not spend one of those nights out on a local microadventure? Head out of town with a friend or two. Climb a hill. Crack open a box of 50%-reduced mince pies and a few beers. Earn your Christmas Dinner. Work off your Christmas Dinner. Do whatever you like. But why not try to squeeze one last night in the wild into these last few nights of the year? Reflect on the year just passed, scheme for the year ahead.

Have a look at this video – it might spark an idea.

A Winter Microadventure: Cycle to the Sea from Alastair Humphreys on Vimeo.

If you decide to do a winter microadventure, pop your pics and stories on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Make sure to use the #microadventure hashtag to share your story with everyone else. Have a look here to see what everyone else has been up to.

I’ve done this for the past few winters, and here’s how I spent one evening: not exactly suffering – there was even bacon!

So, please, do consider a night under the stars this Christmas time. It’s entirely compatible with nights out at the pub or friends’ houses. It’s compatible with getting home for a full day of putting up the Christmas decorations. It’s so easy to do, but so memorable, refreshing and fun! Work out where you need to be to see the sunrise (use this great link). Tell somebody where you are going and when you’ll be back. And then go!

The Challenge Rules

Go sleep outdoors somewhere – a garden, a hill, a forest, a beach
Do it solo, with friends, family, work colleagues, or an old flame
Put your photos online (#microadventure hashtag on Twitter or Instagram; Facebook Microadventure page here)
Deadline for you to complete your challenge is bedtime on Sunday, January 3

Here’s the stuff you’ll need, complete with links to help you if you need more information:

Sleeping bag: Don’t buy anything special. Just go with what you have and add as many jumpers as necessary.
Sleeping mat: If you suspect you will not do a lot of camping just buy one of these cheap ones. Really makes a difference to your warmth in winter.
Bivvy bag: There are cheap, medium and expensive options. This explains everything you need to know. If you’re worried about rain take a basha too.
Woolly hat: Santa hats get bonus points.
Waterproof clothes
Warm clothes: Christmas jumpers get bonus points.
Torch
Toothbrush: put the toothpaste on at home and wrap the brush in cling film.
Toilet paper
Food and water
Mince pie & Whisky.

How to make hard choices

Posted on 2015-11-27 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Here’s a talk that could literally change your life. Which career should I pursue? Should I break up — or get married?! Where should I live? Big decisions like these can be agonisingly difficult. But that’s because we think about them the wrong way, says philosopher Ruth Chang. Chang believes that hard choices are a godsend because they give us the power to create reasons for us to live the life we want. To become distinctive. And to become the author of our own destiny.

In this insightful TED Talk on decision-making and the human condition, Chang looks at how we exercise our freedom through the choices we make. She explores the relationship between reason and value, looks at how we navigate ourselves through the sea of pros and cons and offers a powerful new framework for defining who we truly are. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

What hard choices have you faced in the past? What did you do? What tips/techniques worked well? What hard decisions are you facing at the moment? Which choice will you make?

Replace fear with curiosity

Posted on 2015-11-20 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

As anyone who’s done it knows, discovering your life’s purpose and getting on the path to doing what you love is the most incredible feeling in the world. It’s exciting, exhilarating and energising but at the same time there’s an element of fear that comes with jumping into the unknown.

You might know what you should be doing (taking brave steps forward and embracing a whole new world and everything in it) but feel afraid to act because making such bold decisions or big life changes seems risky. What if you lose what you already have by walking this new path?

Before you know it the internal conflict between what you truly want and what you already have is spiralling out of control and you find yourself stuck. Frozen by fear.

Whenever you your mind starts ruling your heart, it can help to remind yourself why you went looking for your true passion in the first place. Why is pursuing a life with meaning important to you? How did you feel when you were lost; wandering aimlessly through life? Would you really be happy doing something that doesn’t matter to you? What do you really have to lose by taking this new path? Then ask yourself:

What is the best that can happen?
What is the worst that can happen?
What will happen if I do nothing and everything stays the same?

As Alan Watts says: “By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us.”

Sometimes the only way to overcome your fear of unknown is to take the first step and do something. Turn your fear into curiosity. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“You’re already naked, so there is no reason why you don’t follow your heart.” ~ Steve Jobs

Is something stopping you from following your dreams? Do you want to make changes but find the process daunting? Is fear holding you back? Think about it… what are you afraid of that you should be curious about instead?

Top 10 ways to say no and save time

Posted on 2015-11-17 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This is a guest post by one of the UK’s leading experts in digital distraction and digital detox and author of The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World, Frances Booth. Find out more about Frances here.

One time management technique we don’t use enough is simply saying no. We’re quick to say yes, giving away our time, then we wonder why we have no time left for what we want.

If you find your diary is full, or full of things you don’t want to do, then it’s time to start saying no – nicely.

People ask for our time every single day. And if we give our time away to everyone who asks for it, we end up feeling frazzled, tired and grumpy. Often it doesn’t occur to us that we have the option to simply say no.

It’s much rarer for someone to thank us for our time. But when they do, it reminds us that our time is valuable, and we need to learn to value it too.

Learning when and how to say no is a way of valuing and managing our time.

When we say no to one thing, in effect we’re also saying yes to something else. This might be yes to time to recharge, sleep and renew our energy. It might be yes to some thinking space. It might be yes to more time for ourselves, or yes to time for the people and things that matter to us.

Here are 10 key things to think about for when the answer needs to be no.

1. Something has to give

We can’t say yes to every invitation, request, message, question or demand we get – something has to give. So what should we say no to?

Look at what or who you’re saying yes to at the minute. What or who (including yourself) does that mean you are then you saying no to? Is your diary full of things that fill you with great anticipation? If not, how can you make it so? What do you need to start saying no to? Look at how you spend your time, including time online. Are you happy with what you are saying yes to by how you spend your time?

2. Instant answer

Often we make poor decisions when we’re distracted, overloaded and too busy. Perhaps you recognise them … those things you say yes to, and then instantly regret. What happens next? We try and backtrack, spending far too long undoing the commitment or rescheduling, using up extra time before the event has even happened. Or, the appointment sits in our diary like a black cloud, and we spend time wishing we didn’t have to go.

Next time you feel pressure to give an instant answer, stop. Log out of your email or leave the room. Shut your eyes for five minutes, walk round the block, or sleep on it. Think about whether you really want to say yes. Think about whether you’ve really got the time for it. Pausing before responding uses far less time than it takes to backtrack.

Are you always racing against time? Saying no more could be the solution (Photo: North Charleston)

3. Delayed response

“I’ll check and get back to you” is a great way to buy yourself some thinking time and avoid making an instant commitment you might regret. This gives you time to decide whether to say yes and also to decide when is a good time for you if you are committing to dates. Most people will accept this as an entirely reasonable response. It implies you are checking with your diary or another person. It doesn’t fix you to a timeframe by which you need to reply, and it buys you the thinking time you need.

4. Time out

When you turn off digital distractions such as email, your smartphone and social media, you’re saying no to people being able to contact you as and when they please. Instead, you’re deciding to show up online at a time convenient to you. This is a simple way to say no thanks to unwanted interruptions. Yet we don’t always make the most of our ability to be in control here. In my book, The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World, I give advice on how to do this and how to be more productive in a digital world.

5. Would you do it tomorrow?

This is a great test of whether you actually want to say yes or no. Would you do it tomorrow, given the chance? If the answer is yes, then great, say yes. It shows you are enthusiastic about spending your time on this. If the answer is no, beware of saying yes. Just because you put something in your diary for three weeks’ time, it won’t become any more attractive by then.

6. On hold

Sometimes, what we need to say rather than no is not now. If someone approaches you with an idea, venture or suggestion that you are interested in, but you just don’t have the headspace to consider it because it’s a particularly busy time, say so. Be specific. For example: “This is a busy fortnight, please can you contact me again after June 27th”. This means it’s back on their To Do list and you can forget about it. If, instead, you try to tackle it there and then, you risk becoming overloaded, not doing a very good job, or making a bad decision.

7. You don’t need to know what the space is for

If you’re feeling overloaded and overwhelmed, then say no to the next commitment that is asked of you. You don’t need to know what the space you are leaving is for. Maybe you are going to fill the space with what seems like nothing – things like sleeping, stopping or having a rest. But these ‘nothing’ times are vital. They mean we can restore our energy and then enjoy the other things we have put in our diary. Nothing times mean we can rest and think and then be productive and innovative when we turn back to our work. If necessary write ‘nothing’ in your diary to make sure you leave the space.

8. Swerve time-wasters

Have you ever worked with someone who wasted endless amounts of your time even on simple tasks? People like this don’t value your time, or their own. So saying no to working with them at the outset will save you an awful lot of time. How can you spot the signs of this early on and avoid getting pulled in to a project with them?

Classic early signs of a time-waster are arranging an initial call or meeting and then cancelling it at the very last minute. Here, they’ve already wasted your time – you’ve prepared, arranged your diary to fit around the call or meeting, and perhaps even shown up in person. Yet they think nothing of re-arranging. Other early signs are that they say they will send documents by a certain time and then don’t, or that they send long rambling emails. Say no politely to the project, explaining for example, that your work commitments have changed (they have – you have just made yourself some valuable time you can now use!).

9. Always saying yes equals burnout

If you work for yourself – for example, as an entrepreneur or freelancer – there can be a temptation to say yes to every project and client, due to the fear that work will dry up. But never saying no can lead to exhaustion and burnout. It can also mean that while you are busy doing the ‘drudge’ work you never get round to the work that makes your heart sing, the reason you do what you do in the first place. Saying no can be really, really difficult in these situations – particularly if you don’t know yet what will come along instead. So you shouldn’t underestimate the powerful steps you are taking when you do say no. Every now and then, let go of the kind of work you don’t want to be spending your time on by saying no. You leave space then for stepping up, getting, and doing the work that really deserves your time.

10. “I’d love to, but …”

How do you go about saying no politely, protecting your time without offending other people? Here are a few suggestions.

“I simply haven’t got time right now.”

“I simply haven’t got time this week / month” (if you want to consider it next week/month)

“I’ll be back in touch after x, y, or z to sort something out” (for delaying)

“I’d love to but I’ve got other work/family/sporting commitments right now.”

“It’s a no I’m afraid. But thanks for asking me.”

Got a good suggestion? Heard a great no? Leave them in the comments box below…

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The key to being brave…

Posted on 2015-11-13 at 12:50 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

A week in Rwanda…

Posted on 2015-11-10 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This is a guest post from Claire Le Hur who is cycling to China with her fiancé Stuart Block. The couple will start their journey in East Africa where they will follow new ‘silk roads’ charting the journey of key natural resources as part of an exciting new education project. Claire will be riding a bamboo bike, built by an African social enterprise and Stuart will ride a tandem, keeping the back seat free for those they meet en route. They will also be raising money and awareness for two great educational charities. Find out more about Claire’s big adventure here.

In my last post I talked about the genocide memorial and this atrocity is still what many people think of when they think of Rwanda. And yet Rwanda is a beautiful and fertile country where 80 per cent of the children go to school and where littering is illegal. In fact people are so conscious of keeping their community clean that they spend the last Saturday of every month cleaning up their streets.

It is amazing how far Rwanda come in the last 20 years, but despite its progress there are still many big issues simmering beneath the surface that lead you to question if, and when, things might start to unravel again. For example:

80 per cent of the population live on less than $2 per day, and 65 per cent on less than $1
freedom of speech is non-existent
disabled people are often exiled and there are stories of a ‘prison’ on Lake Kivu
despite the brilliant work by the Gacaca court to reconcile Tutsi and Hutu, many feel that there are still underlying tensions because most government and high paid jobs are now being taken by Tutsis and because many Tutsis still feel that revenge would be just.
Allegedly Rwanda is supporting the rebels over the border in DRC and there are some dubious dealings going on concerning the export of minerals and weapons.
President Kagame has worked wonders since the genocide, and while there is something to be said for a ‘benign dictatorship’, in 2017 he will stand for a third term – which is constitutionally illegal – and there is no opposition. Who knows what will happen at election time but hopefully the current climate in Burundi is not a hint of things to come.

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Be brave, rise strong, come alive

Posted on 2015-11-09 at 11:56 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Our job is not to deny the story, but to defy the ending – to rise strong, recognize our story, and rumble with the truth until we get to a place where we think, Yes. This is what happened. This is my truth. And I will choose how the story ends.” ~ Brené Brown, Rising Strong

This post is written by our Senior Editor, Rachel Kempton.

We know, from our own unique experiences and from the inspiring stories that are shared within our community, how much courage it takes to make your dreams come true – and how incredible it feels when they do.

Taking bold steps towards doing what you love is exciting, exhilarating and rewarding, but the journey there isn’t always easy. At times we can find ourselves feeling lost, confused and vulnerable – especially when we’re figuring out who we are, what we want and how we’re going to get there. We can find ourselves feeling stuck and afraid – paralysed by fear, past experiences or painful emotions. Or trapped – by people, circumstances, or by the stories we tell ourselves about our personal and professional struggles.

Yet when we are brave enough to look at our lives with clarity, understanding and compassion and challenge ourselves to rise through the pain of hurt, loss, falls and failure, we come alive. We move into a place of honesty and freedom: a place where we can live more truthfully and wholeheartedly and be the master of our own destiny.

One lady who knows all about the role bravery plays in living life with wisdom and meaning is social scientist, thought leader and best selling author, Dr. Brené Brown.

Brené is one of our biggest role models and someone who has built her career on exploring the deep dark places that many of us fear to tread: the issues of vulnerability, courage, worthiness and shame. They are issues that she has spent years researching and which have led her to a profound truth: Vulnerability – the willingness to show up and be seen with no guarantee of outcome – is the only path to more love, belonging, creativity, and joy.

Brené’s yearning to live a full and wholehearted life has inspired her three most recent books, which she sums up as:

The Gifts of Imperfection – Be you.
Daring Greatly – Be all in.
Rising Strong – Fall. Get up. Try again.

We aren’t affiliated to this book; we are sharing it because we feel it is of value.

Overcoming the fear of failure

We can highly recommend all three books but if you have issues with failure (and who hasn’t?), Rising Strong is a must-read. In it Brené is open and honest about her own struggles, and how she worked through those to gain a better understanding of herself. She shares the idea that if, inevitably, we’re all going to stumble and fall, we shouldn’t be afraid to feel pain, hurt and discomfort. And that it’s the process of rising up again, regaining our footing in the midst of struggle, and dealing with our emotions that’s most important, as this is where our courage is tested and our values are forged. In her opinion: “Rather than gold-plating grit and trying to make failure look fashionable, we’d be better off learning how to recognize the beauty in truth and tenacity.”

According to Brené, regardless of situation or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same:

(1) The reckoning – walking into our story: recognise emotion and get curious about what we are feeling as this connects with how we think and behave.

(2) The rumble – owning our story: get honest about the stories we’re making up about our struggle/s and challenge them to determine the truth.

(3) The revolution – write a new ending to our story based on the key learnings from our rumble. Use this braver story to change how we engage with the world and transform the way we live, love, parent and lead.

In chapter one, The Physics of Vulnerability, Brené talks about the ten Rules of Engagement for Rising Strong, and I especially love number 9: Courage is contagious. By sharing her own stories Brené reminded me that every single one of us is vulnerable – regardless of who we are and what we’ve achieved. She goes on to say: “In my work I’ve found that moving out of powerlessness, and even despair, requires hope. Hope is not an emotion: It’s a cognitive process… hope is learned.”

“We can’t rise strong when we’re on the run” ~ Brené Brown, Rising Strong

This week we challenge you to think about how you can be braver in your own life: What are you most afraid of? What’s the story you’re carrying behind those emotions and experiences? Are you willing to question that story?

We hope that this book empowers you to rise strong, recognize your story, and rumble with the truth until you get to a place where you think, Yes. This is what happened. This is my truth. And I will choose how the story ends. You can pick up your copy of Rising Strong here.

Almost fearless

Posted on 2015-11-03 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This is a guest post by adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. Find out more about Alastair here.

“O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in’t!” ~ William Shakespeare

It’s good to be almost fearless.

Many of the things that used to really frighten me don’t bother me at all anymore.

Most of us have been brought up, very sensibly, to worry a lot. Here are some of the issues that we like to have a good worry about:

Career progression
Earning as much money as our friends
Getting a decent Christmas bonus (a mixture of the two points above)
What people think about us
Wearing stylish clothes

In recent years I have not worried about any of these. (Those who know me will say I never paid much heed to the last one!). And the funny thing is that the less I care, the more I just concentrate on following my own path, doing what I care about and am passionate about, the more money I earn and the curve of my “career” progression steepens.

I’m aware that my “career” is an odd one, hence the quote marks. But the point is that by consciously choosing not to worry about all the things I was supposed to be worrying about, a lot of them simply slipped away. They didn’t really matter to me.

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Are you facing a big decision?

Posted on 2015-10-16 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

If you are facing a big decision these articles might help:

How to Make a Difficult Decision: 30 Ideas to Help You Choose by Tiny Buddah
Four Tricks to Help You Make Any Difficult Decision by lifehacker
7 Questions You Should Ask Yourself When Faced With A Tough Decision In Life by Lifehack
How do you make big decisions? by Huffington Post UK

And if you’re wondering how you can do more of what you love, or if you fancy a new adventure, why not join us for the Do What You Love e-course? Shake things up, expand your comfort zone, nurture your playful spirit and feed your creative soul. Identify your passion and make it a greater part of your every day life! Find out more and register here.

The next leg of our big adventure: cycling 552km from Uganda to Rwanda

Posted on 2015-10-13 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

On Sunday, September 13, we left Kampala accompanied by the Kampala Group of Bikers (KGB), a talented bamboo bike maker called Kasoma, and his apprentice, Khalid. It was a pleasure to finally meet Kasoma, and for him to see me ride the beautiful bike he made me through Kampala. It wasn’t the nicest ride out of the city, mainly due to the huge number of heavy trucks passing by but we were soon back out on the open country road. Every hill we went up had a similar length descent which meant my legs got chance to rest. My kind of hills!

Me meeting Kasoma

We ended up as a core group of five cycling to Namagumo, a village near Masaka just South of the equator and 130km from Kampala.

At the Equator

As we ate our lunch we heard shouts of ‘Mzungu, Mzungu’ and ‘How are you?’ and people slowed down to take our photograph. When we started cycling again children would chase us along the roads.

Children running alongside us

We stayed two nights with John-Paul Rutagarama, or JP as we’ve come to know him. JP is an agriculture student in Kampala and he’s also the keeper of his grandfathers’ beautiful house in the hills above Masaka. This stop came about following a serendipitous encounter that Stu had last term at his school. One day he was having lunch with Michael, a supply teacher, and they were discussing our trip when Michael said he has a grandson in Kampala who would be happy to host us – it was JP!

JP took the back seat of Stu’s tandem (Thandie!) and we rode around local villages like Villa Maria, which is houses the oldest church in Uganda and a school that Michael is funding. Heading off the beaten track caused quite a stir; the children we met looked terrified. JP explained that we are possibly the first white people they’ve ever seen which was amazing given we we were just 10km from the main road.

Stu, JP and Khalid cycling around the banana plantations

The school built by Michael: the children loved staring at us while sheltering from the rain!

During dinner with JP we discovered that the heir to the throne is half Rwandan so conversation turned to relationships between Rwanda and Uganda. It turned out that JP and Khalid both have Rwandan roots. JP was born there, lived through the genocide in 1994 genocide and moved to live with the Ugandan side of his family in 1996 to seek a better and safer future. Sadly his father was poisoned in 1998 – they still don’t know why. His uncle (JB Rutagarama) worked as a translator for journalists in the refugee camps and then moved to the USA and made the famous film Back Home telling the story of his return to Rwanda to find his family after the genocide.

When we entered Rwanda a few days later, I thought back to these conversations many times. At the border was a poster advertising a $5,000,000 reward for information about perpetrators still at large. Then in Kigali we visited the moving genocide memorial museum and burial ground. Here we found JP’s relatives on the wall of names – three Rutagaramas were among the 250,000 buried at this site, around one quarter of the estimated one million Tutsis killed in 100 days in 1994.

The wall of names in the memorial

Stuart and I then continued South West with Khalid as our guide. Khalid is just 16 and wants to be a professional cyclist. “My dream is to cycle and win the World Championships, but a good bike will cost at least $500 and then I need the racing components. I come south to the hills to train as much as possible. I keep chickens and sell the eggs and also work for Kasoma when I am not in school to try to save money. I am staying at school so that if I cannot get sponsorship I can become and accountant. But this would not be my dream.”

En route we visited two schools and Stuart even taught some economic lessons. At the first school, West College, Mbarara, we camped in the headmaster’s garden. The students were so excited to see us. It was as if celebrities had arrived and they all rushed to shake our hands. We’d arrived in the middle of one of their mock O-Level examinations but we were still welcomed in.

Then we headed south to Kabale. Here the hills were tough but although it was hard work, the scenery more than made up for it. At one point the heavens opened, as they do most days here, so we took shelter at the top of the mountain as descending in the rain, at dusk dark would have been too dangerous. I’ve been surprised by how quickly darkness falls here, being so close to the equator.

At the end of a long day we were lucky enough to spend two nights in Khalid’s childhood home – his Grandfather’s house. It turned out that his grandfather was buried in the garden but it is still very much his house, as he explained: “My grandfather owned all the land here but my uncles sold it off and so we are left with just this house now… my three aunts, two uncles and their families live here and although my mum lives in Kampala, they still keep her room. My uncles have sold so much but we don’t know where the money has gone.” Stuart and I slept in his mother’s room and we really appreciated the family’s generous hospitality. They even boiled water so we could shower. We stood in the corner of the house courtyard in the dark pouring water over each other hoping Khalid aunts would not come out of their rooms!

Khalid in his home

We had a well deserved rest day in Kabale and met Khalid’s cousin, Mohammed Ali, who is, of course, a boxer! His father, Khalid’s uncle was the national champion boxers his day and Mohammed is trying to follow in his footsteps.

Khalid and Mohammed: ‘Strong arms and strong legs; boxer and cyclist’.

Then it was the final leg to Kigali. Khalid and Mohammed escorted us as far as the border. It was a mission trying to get across but we made it! We waved emotional goodbyes to our young guide with promises to keep in touch. He is a young man who will surely succeed if he if given the chance. It must only be a matter of time before a black African gets worldwide recognition in cycling… who knows, maybe Khalid will be the first.

We had one lovely long climb, with some super fit children running up faster than I was cycling and then it was freewheeling (or should have been if it were not for the headwind) all the way to Kigali.

Children chasing me up the hill

Our first impressions of Rwanda: absolutely beautiful! Very green, very hilly and so clean, tidy and quiet… it was actually quite unnerving to have people just walk over and stare, without the usual cries of ‘Mzungu, Mzungu’! For now we’re planning a few days rest days before heading north again to visit Team Rwanda at their cycling compound in Musanze and hopefully pop into Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

You can read more about our big cycling adventure in my next post on Tuesday, November 10.