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RIDE JUST COMPLETED BUT YOUR HELP IS STILL NEEDED

Bike Bengal 2012 is a charity ride from Kolkata to Kalimpong, India.

SEE RIDE STORY BELOW

13 riders are giving up their personal time in February and paying for all expenses to cycle some 700km over 7 days, to raise funds and help Dr. Graham's Homes recover from the disastrous 18/9/11 earthquake which caused substantial structural damage to school buildings, the chapel, the school infirmary and children's accommodation. The riders will cycle all day and camp out at night and on the final day will encounter a climb of some 4,000 ft over 25 km! All funds raised will go directly to the Dr. Graham's Homes Earthquake Appeal Fund. So please donate generously...

I am joining a team of Scottish and Indian riders in this quest and am preparing here in the hot and humid Kimberlys, Australia. This means riding early morning or after dark and being joined by pink and grey galahs, rainbow bee eaters, kites,brolgas, finches and the glorious colours of the land.

Thanks for helping with your donation. (For Australian donors your contribution wont be tax deductable.)

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

03 MARCH 2012

Hi to you all and a huge thanks for your support and sponsorship for the Dr Grahams Homes Bikes Ride.

I’d like to especially thank those of you who don’t even know me and those with whom I have had no contact for years.

The bike trip was absolutely fantastic: 670 km Kolkata to Kalimpong at 4000+feet.

I am still a bit stunned that I made it as the longest non stop ride I had done in the last 10 years was 30 km. Our first day was 130 km and amazingly easy. The group of 13 riders were great ; ages 33 to 75 years, countries: Scotland, UK, Spain, Australia and India. I hadn’t met any of them before and when I joined them on the Saturday prior to Sunday’s departure I knew it would be great. There were lots of laughs, good story telling, not too many (and only minor) falls, one black eye (mine) and not a single puncture.

It was wonderful to be in India, to navigate the amazing and insane traffic, to bounce over innumerable potholes and from the road to see the wonders and hardships of that country of endless contrasts. Who needs reflectors, rear lights and indicators when you have the horn! I think traffic lights are just street decoration – red lights certainly don’t mean stop.

Sights of incredible hard work: rickshaw drivers pulling massive loads, women doing heavy roadworks, endless creativity, rice paddies, marigolds, colours, smells, homes disturbed by massive road works, goats, bullocks, pigs and cows. We camped 5 nights in diminishing degrees of pleasure, cycled for hours, ate many chocolate bars and were well fed by Prakash and his team. We ate lunch in a mango grove, village, schoolyard, tea plantation, roadside and a village. Immediately we were surrounded by many curious and friendly people. We stared and they stared. We tried out English, Bangla, Hindi, hand signs and smiles to bridge the gap. We took photos galore and were photographed by many mobile phones.

 

It was a great team. Three had grown up in the Dr Grahams Homes. As we peddled they shared their stories of how they came to the homes, why and what it had meant in their lives. This was a very special part of the ride… to meet these “OBGs" and to understand what the homes have done and continue to do…and why we should support their work.

The country was beautiful especially those last 2 days through the tea plantations, the forest then up and up and up again. Winding along the Teesta river, green and cold, riding by the avalanches and road repairs in single file as we left room for the stream of traffic, watched by cheeky monkeys. Then the roadside stall of yummy momos to give us energy for “the Hill”. Then the ever upward going hill. Vanda’s extraordinary persistence…she made the whole 14 km without getting off!! I walked 9 km and for a while handed over my bicycle to some young boys who disappeared off up the hill with great ease.

Finally we reached Kalimpong and were greeted by the school band to lead us through the Kalimpong town on market day. At the school gates we discovered there was yet another kilometer up…the whole way lined with yelling, clapping cheering school children: impossible to even think about walking that bit in the face of their support and joy. 

At the school we saw the damaged caused by the earthquake, saw all the places where the children just happened not to be when the walls crumbled. They have already started much of the repair work and within a month they hope that the children will be able to move back into the houses so that they will get back to their usually numbers per home rather than the “double up’ at the moment.

THANKYOU THANKYOU

 please dig deep and donate now.