Family cycling vacation in Kenya & Tanzania

Planet

It is important to us that when we travel to different parts of our amazing planet that our exchange is always a mutual one and that we make a positive contribution to people and places that we visit along the way.

These days ‘responsible travel' and ‘sustainability' are hot topics. Responsible travel is not about donating large sums of money to charity (at least not without thoroughly researching the long-term intentions or effects of the charity). We believe responsible travel is about taking time to think about how our actions can benefit or how they impact the people, communities, economies, environments and eco-systems we visit, and then use this to make a difference (or sometimes more appropriately - how we can NOT make a difference). We are constantly considering our actions and how we and the people who travel with us can improve our impact on the places we visit.

During this trip we visit a very small Maasai Pre-School under the shade of an acacia tree in Kenya. Our main goal of the visit is a mutual social exchange where children and bikers open their minds and learn more about the other’s way of life. Our bikers can also support the school by donating basic stationery if they like.

We camp with two different local families. As well as the fantastic social and cultural exchange experienced by visitors and locals alike, our visit also brings a regular income to the two communities (by paying for camping and other services).

In Tanzania we have a relationship with a local community in the Usambara Mountains. Again there is always a fantastic social and cultural exchange experienced by both the locals and our bikers. Over the past years money donated by our bikers has been used to employ local carpenters to build much needed school desks and more recently we have assisted with materials for the schools' new toilet block.

As a company we are committed to running our tours in a responsible manner as highlighted below:

- Small group size – Our groups really are small! With a maximum of 12 in any one group we minimize our impact on the small communities that we visit.
- Support local economies – buy locally made products, use local accommodations, restaurants, markets and support small businesses. (Buying locally made products also decreases the environmental cost of importing). We also employ local drivers and guides in the countries we visit.
- Encourage positive interaction and social exchange – again by supporting locally run businesses (and by traveling by bike!) we develop relationships with local communities and families on our trips where our clients from all over the world can meet and engage one to one with local folk; Also by learning the local languages.
- Educate our bikers – about the effects of buying products that come from endangered species, or products that are destructive to wildlife or the environment. We also like to think about – “What are the short and long term effects of aid/charity on local communities?”, “Who benefits?”
- Waste/rubbish management – when we travel we should treat our surrounding as we would treat our home (or better!). We do our best to avoid ‘single use packaging’ only using reusable or recyclable packaging. We recycle what can be, and manage any rubbish in the best possible way e.g. in Africa – all of our organic waste is feed to local domestic pigs and goats, and we always leave our campsites as we find them (or better!).
- Environmentally conscious office – To avoid paper waste we aim to use as much computer technology as possible in our office. We only produce a minimum of hard copy advertising/brochures/flyers etc… and we consider the source of materials used.

People

Social integration with the local people is a central part of our trips. Simply traveling by bike is a great start – a great way for our bikers and local people to meet and start a conversation.

We buy locally grown and produced food as much as possible; we support local businesses by staying in locally owned guesthouses, eating in local restaurants and taking our bikers to local operations and parks.