Stories and tips from around the world.
It had been a near sleepless night once again when the lights came on at 05:00 for the breakfast service. I wasn’t quite as tired as I’d expected, after having managed to get around four hours spread out across the night. Hopefully it would be enough for the drive home later. The aircraft landed at Heathrow at 06:50 in the morning, and it took me very little time to get to the baggage collection …
I woke up at 04:00, probably after having had so much practice at it recently. I did however get back to sleep until around 06:00 when I heard noise from the neighbours, and then the sound of rain outside. Eventually I decided it was time to go for breakfast. What there was to choose from was not worth the 15 USD I paid. I would have been better off going to Simba cafe or Bourbon cafe to get more …
An 04:30 start is never nice, but after the last few days of early starts, late finishes, and plenty of activity, it wasn’t great. I was ready, checked in for tomorrow’s flight, and checked out of Grazia Apartments Hotel thirty minutes later, with the driver arriving to take me to Nyungwe shortly after. The streets of Kigali are dead at this time of the morning, so getting out of there was quick. …
When people talk of the big five, they are referring to the animals that hunters used to find challenging or dangerous to hunt on foot. They are the African lion, rhinoceros, elephant, cheetah, and buffalo. Thankfully people only seek them now for the sake of seeing them, or photographing them. For the most part. In Rwanda the place to see the Big Five is just one location: Akagera National Park. …
This was the sort of trip where it was pretty much all ‘go’, all the time. There’d been some long days over the last week, and yesterday having run a marathon was no exception. I’d been lucky I hadn’t had any further cramp in my calves, but I’d had restless legs which resulted in very little sleep. My watch told me it was 3.5 hours spread across the night, so an 05:20 breakfast was not easy. At 06 …
Race day had finally arrived, and it was exciting to get to try out a new route that nobody had done before. I think a lot of it was down to the thought of how many photos I could take on the route of places I'd not yet been to.
We had the option to run again today at 08:00, but I felt I’d done enough now and wanted to rest my legs a little before race day. The plan for today was to be ready in reception by 09:15, to be on the road fifteen minutes later. I was awake early, and without really thinking about it, I got myself ready for a run. I must have been crazy - I didn’t need to run today! I went for breakfast around 07 …
I’d not planned on running this morning, and even though I woke before 06:00, and found my phone hadn’t charged overnight, I thought my decision was definitely made. I plugged my phone into my emergency power bank, and somehow found myself getting ready to run anyway. Whilst pottering around, I’d somehow convinced myself that missing out on exploring the local area would be a missed opportunity. I …
Every project we'd visit today would be in some way related to the Rwandan Wildlife Conservation Association.
I was awake earlier than expected, long before the 07:00 breakfast. I’d got an hour to eat, and then get ready to check out. I knew my bag wasn’t packed as well as it had been, so this was a challenge. Others had been out for another run, but I'd decided I needed the sleep more after the red-eye flight. Our first stop today was the Genocide Memorial, not that far from the hotel as the crow flies. …
I finally arrived in Rwanda, and needed to get some local currency, but also attend a class on making the local hot sauce. It'd also be a good chance in to get in an acclimatisation run before being briefed on the week ahead.
Today I'd begin the journey to Rwanda, for another action-packed adventure.
Impact Marathons is a company that has been responsible for some of my most memorable trips overseas. They combine volunteering in grassroots projects with running, bringing help to communities that really need it. Their first, Nepal, was off the back of an earthquake that had devastated parts of the country, and our goal there had been to bring running water to a small mountain village outside th …
