I was sent a lovely animation bringing my attention to Kayden Kleinhans and The Global Wheeling Foundation.

The Global Wheeling Foundation is a South African based Non Profit Organisation and has some amazing initiatives up and running, including Bums On Bikes and Recycle A Bike. Set up by South African Kayden Kleinhans, his latest challenge is a 2 year global bike ride which amongst other things, hopes to bring awareness to climate change and reducing carbon emissions.

“Around The World Eco Charity Bike Ride, 40 countries, 2 years, 1 man, an environmental pilgrimage to highlight the bike as a positive tool for change”.

I think what Kayden’s doing and the causes the Global Wheeling Foundation supports are brilliant. There’s more than one way of contributing so check out the site where you can support his ride and follow his progress as well as donate or contribute to the foundation and it’s different initiatives.

An extract from Kayden’s latest blog update:

Week 5, Lyon to Montpellier, mixed emotions, detours and couch surfing. Total 2081 km’s

A mixed bag of emotions bringing highs and lows in many forms. I woke early on Monday morning, a public holiday in France and the streets of Lyon were eerily quiet, excited by the fact that the Global Wheeling Foundation was planting 100 trees in an RDP development outside Hermanus in the Western Cape that day. One last scan over the emails before I would be unplugged again for a while, I opened my inbox to be confronted by the worst kind of email, a friend had passed away before his time. His family was based in Grenoble, 140 km’s east of Lyon so I decided to head in that direction instead of my original and planned route south to Valence. A fairly late arrival in Grenoble after a long 140 km day in windy conditions to try track down his parents whom I’d never met before to pay my respects, I was greeted by snowcapped Alps and chilly conditions.

Leaving Grenoble on the Tuesday took some time but I was blessed with a gorgeous cycle path hugging the Isere river snaking back towards Valence where I had arranged accommodation with a young family for the evening through an online platform that puts hosts and long distance cyclists in touch, a bit like couch surfing but for cyclists. I arrived in Valence after dark that evening, 110 km in the saddle through some rather serious climbs on the edge of the Alps to be met by a bubbling young household of enthusiastic cyclists. We rambled about bike travel and all it’s in and outs, they had clocked up a few km’s through Europe themselves and we discussed different routes and options heading south.

Check out the rest of his blog and follow his progress here.

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