'I always told everyone what time they had to be up in the morning the night before. If it was going to be a long, hard slog up a mountain or through the desert, we'd try to get out of bed at 5.30am and have breakfast an hour later. Breakfast wasn't too complicated - bacon, toast, stuff the cooks could take care of. Because the areas we were in were so remote we hired a whole bunch of staff - more than 20 people - to cook, set up the washrooms and build and take down our camp each day. A big supply truck would always meet us [20 cyclists] where we camped and there were six four-wheel-drive Jeeps following us constantly, so if anyone got injured or simply didn't want to cycle any more, they could always get in one.
We also had to make sure there was one vehicle that could drive away in an emergency. Once we actually ran out of water and had to send a Jeep on a nine-hour return trip through complete desert, in the middle of the night, to get some. It was a real travelling circus and logistically one of the most difficult trips we've ever done. Thankfully I work for a logistics company, RPX, which was quite happy for me to try to deliver services in a place in Africa where no one's able to deliver anything.
This was our second time in Africa; last year we were in the kingdom of Lesotho, the least populated part of Africa. If you imagine the Grand Canyon of Africa, that's what it is - dry, barren desert, with no trees and no life. This time I wanted something different, so we chose the north part of Kilimanjaro, along the Tanzania-Kenya border. It's home to a lot of Masai tribes and you're guaranteed to see giraffes, zebras, ostriches - all sorts of animals - up close.
One night we camped in a rift valley where we were warned elephants could come out of nowhere and walk all over us. We had to hire some Masai tribesmen to encircle our camp and set fires around it to keep the elephants away. On this trip I really wanted a local support group, so all of our help was Masai. It was a great experience for all of us. We felt they learned how to run a good trip themselves; they saw the experience as a training course.
Because people cycle at different speeds, every morning we'd have one of the Jeeps go ahead to set up a lunch stop. Some people would reach it an hour before others. On our first day we did 78km and it was definitely hard, especially for those of us who weren't used to the weather. On past trips we've had broken arms and broken shoulders but I think everyone took the fact we were in a very remote place on board and was seriously cautious. We were lucky because every morning it rained, which made the desert sand fairly solid. The weather was on our side.
After lunch everyone would set off at their own pace but we always tried to end the day between 3pm and 4pm. If it's too late then it becomes too much of a chore; if the end is in sight people are driven to finish. In the evening we'd have a meal - sometimes we'd buy a sheep off some of the local guys and have lamb - tell a few jokes, play some dice games and drink wine. With the pressure, the exertion and getting up so early, most people were asleep by 9pm every night. You were a hard man if you were up any later than that.