map from riding tracks

Cairo to cape town – tick
EFI – tick
Race podium – tick

Mission accomplished – ??

Undertaking an expedition of this nature isn’t easy. it takes time: time to plan and organise yourself for the journey; time to train; time to figure how to ensure your life back home doesn’t fall over too much in your absence. So it’s not something you do lightly and me being me I wanted to get a lot back: to have an amazing Africa experience; to see animals (but not too close); to get fitter and better at cycling; to meet new people. I could go on.

But I also set on this mega cycling expedition wanting to give something back by raising as much money as I could to support cystic fibrosis research. As many of you would know, my brother John has cystic fibrosis and I have seen first hand how difficult it makes every day life. What excites me though is the potential to improve things – big advancements have been made in recent years, despite the fairly limited amount of research being undertaken. The advent of gene therapy and the identification of the CF gene means there is huge potential for developing even better treatments and perhaps eventually a cure if the research that is needed can be funded.

Before i left for Africa I wrote to hundreds of companies asking for support (with little success). Friends and I organised a raffle and drinks evening (which was a little more successful). I asked people to sponsor me, and I asked more people and got my family to ask their friends too. Many people responded and were extremely generous in their contributions. Thank you.

For those that haven’t done so yet, please please contribute if you can – the links are on the “Donate” page of the website or you can go directly to www.everydayhero.com.au/rosi_winn (Australia) or www.justgiving.com/Rosi-winn (UK).

Doing this ride was a pretty big undertaking. We covered 12,000km in the 4 months of riding, with something like 74,000m of climbing. We were sometimes riding for 10 hours a day. We were experiencing temperatures from freezing to over 50 degrees Celsius; riding through rain, mud and sandstorms; climbing steep hills at 3000m altitude; dealing with not having the right clothing, or riding without any; riding with swollen tendons, sore knees and bruised ribs; riding over corrugations for hours on end until everything hurts; falling off and getting back on, even when you probably shouldn’t; keeping going even when the bike is so stuffed that you can’t change gear.

So for the person who told me they needed PAIN before they would sponsor me – you got it, Ok? Quite a few tears too at times. For everyone else please just help if you can.