Here's something DIFFERENT!

In 2009 a new FOT supporter, Nina Jackson, who organises Charity Cycle Challenges in far-flung places and raises very considerable amounts thereby, asked "Why not Ghana?" 

 

And we said, indeed Why Not? 

 

So it's happening! 22+ eager cyclists (experienced and otherwise) have signed up for Go Ghana! Cycle Challenge 2011, and are energetically training and raising sponsorship for the tough week-long adventure which begins on September 30^th this year.

 

The reaction has been instant and enthusiastic and we are now able to offer a few more places. It is not therefore too late for YOU to think about this marvellous way to spend a week in the autumn. It’s the challenge of a lifetime, and it’s never been done in Ghana before.

 

And you know, it COULD be you!

You don’t have to be an already keen cyclist – but you will soon be hooked. You just need to be brave, have a great sense of adventure, and want a reason to get fit, support a good cause, and have lots of fun on the way.

How it works is this. Each participant pays a registration fee of £299, and then has to raise a minimum of £2,750 by no later than 22nd July to confirm their place. Of this, approximately £1,500 covers costs, and the rest goes to Friends of Tafo: and for this first year (yes if it works, we’ll do it again!) the primary focus is Clean Drinking Water for all in Kwahu-Tafo, a major initiative which has been started (and is already under way) by the UK charity Greencare H2O.

No question: your pedal power will change lives.

The trip is being organised by the great and good Classic Tours, who are cited (by one of our experienced participants) as the best in the business, and the completion of two recces will ensure the viability of the fantastic route suggested by Friends of Tafo.

 

The route

Five days of cycling take you from the ancient splendour of Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, whose sites achingly record the dramatic history of the Slave Trade, through lush rain forest scenery to the great expanse of the Volta lake, which when constructed was the biggest man-made lake in the world. Cycling some 40 to 50 miles a day, sometimes on tarmac and sometimes on dirt roads or tracks of varying condition, you pass through villages large and tiny, seeing everyday Ghanaian life at first hand, and enjoy huge views of rolling farmland and ancient rock formations. The provision of bikes and the everyday cycling will be managed by Ghana Bike and Hike Tours, who have been operating for 10 years out of Aburi, a picturesque town which is the first stop as the tour reaches the high ground of the Kwahu Ridge. Good tourist hotels for five nights are capped by a night in tents by the lake and the chance of an early morning excursion on its huge waters in hollowed-out-tree canoes, before the climactic arrival in Kwahu-Tafo, where the Chief and Elders will be waiting to extend a huge Ghanaian welcome to you at a great celebratory Durbar, and you will be able to see something of the work of Friends of Tafo.