in the shadow of

Kilimanjaro

a “heart-core” adventure ride and Wheels 4 Villages flm project

Feb. 5th 2008 Arusha, Tanzania

Last spring I decided to combine one o my ‘Hans Rey Adventure Team’ trips with a project or my charity ‘Wheels4 Lie’. Finally I had ound, what seemed to be, the perect place to start our “Wheels 4 Villages – Film Project”to document on lm over two years the impact bicycles will have on communities and the lives o individuals o the Ugweno Valley in Tanzania; right in the shadow o Arica’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro (5896m/19,344t.).To launch this project our small team decided to rst circumnavigate Kili on our own bikes, via a 220kmroute to eventually arrive in the remote and impoverished Ugweno Valley in the Northern Pare Mountains.

My partners were my love, Carmen, whowas not only the photographer, but hasalso been undamentally involved withthe charity rom the very beginning andplays an important role in realizing thisproject. Our third team member on thistrip was cameraman Rob Summers, withwhom I had worked on several adventuresbeore and who represented our one-manlm crew.

Ater I was approached by an expatriated Arican lady, Elvidaand her husband Victor, who live in England; I prepared andresearched or this trip or almost a year.They had started the Nyota Star Community Centre on thenorthern base o the Pare Mountains to help the poor peopleand orphans rom the area, where she grew up many years agoand where lie has changed very little since.She sent W4L an email asking or some bikes or her people.A ew emails later and ater a meeting in the UK, we guredthat with the help o their inrastructure, her amily and thelocal pastors – this could be the ideal place to launch our lmproject.Bicycles are recreational tools or most o us, but in the ThirdWorld, they have a completely dierent meaning – having oneor just having access to one can make a lie changing dier-ence. For people to get to work or to the local markets, whichare oten too ar to walk to or or children to get to school, orhealthcare workers to see patients or or amilies to etch theirdaily water supply.