Aleko Konstantinov, a famous Bulgarian writer, has said that “A man becomes a human when s/he is on the road”. And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like travelling, visiting new places, experiencing new cultures and its peculiarities. Moreover, I would not exaggerate, if I say that travelling to new places (even for work reasons) makes us better people. My explanation for this is that by getting to see the world from a different perspective (and we always do so when we travel), we come to realize one simple fact – we as individuals are just a small part of something much bigger than us and we are all unique, yet so similar in our needs and aspirations.
Now, if you add some serious physical challenge to this, it will magnify the overall impact of your travelling experience in a very positive way. For me personally, combining the fun of discovering new places with the sweet pain from stretching out my physical endurance is the best travel formula. Be it hiking, climbing, biking, canoeing whatsoever… Because arriving at and exploring new places can be equally thriving as getting to these places, one way or the other…
I have recently found out how well mountain biking (or biking in general) could be combined with travelling to new places. Soon after my first ride it became contagious. But wait a second; I am not talking about simply using the bike as a means of transport for short distances. For me, the real pleasure comes from the longer rides, when I leave the asphalt road outside the city and indulge myself in the beauty of the surrounding nature. Then riding becomes a passion, inspiration, a deep breath of life! Moreover, travelling itself stops being “a final destination” but a great experience on its own.
Sorwathe – a tea plantation some 70 km north from Kigali, was the final destination of our most recent and longest biking tour so far. For me, this journey was a pure test of stamina but hopefully also the start of a new sports hobby, which I wish I could practice as long as possible in my life.
I joined a group of very experienced cycling fans, for whom riding for 6 hours up the hills is rather a weekend routine, while for me it was a big physical challenge despite my overall good fitness condition.
We started off 7am on a Saturday morning and were supposed to arrive at Sorwathe tea factory around 1pm. After a short ride through the city we reached the foot of Mount Jali, where our first and most challenging part of the route began. Riding up a very steep dirt road for 1,5 hours is a serious challenge even for a very well trained person. Not only that, but the road is also quite bumpy at places, strewn with stones or sand, which additionally slows you down and requires double efforts to overcome the obstacles. Not to mention the fact that we were actually ascending to an altitude of almost 2000m. Hill after a hill, sweat running down from every part of my body, my thighs aching…Only on this part of the route I probably got my entire calorie burn for the day.
Mount Jali is definitely not the best way to start a 6 hours ride:-) I was very thankful that I didn’t put a watch on my wrist and my phone was sitting deeply in my rucksack. So, after a while I simply lost track of time and preferred to focus on the beautiful views around me.
I don’t even remember how the next 1,5 hours have gone before we reached the middle of the journey and stopped for a short snack break in one of the many villages on the way. Oh, how much I needed this break! The small grocery shop we stayed at reminded me of the so called “bakalnitsa” from my childhood – it has no more than 30 articles to sell which ranged from boiled eggs to avocado to baby diapers. A friendly woman welcomed us to a low table in front of the counter and brought some protein-rich food like eggs and banana.
We didn’t stay for more than 10-15 min but that was enough to recharge before we hit the road up to even higher altitudes. I decided to follow the strategy from the first part which proved quite successful in keeping me focused on the “here and now” instead of thinking of the final goal.
The surrounding scenery constantly changed unveiling unforgettable views over the magnificent green hills of Rwanda, or taking us to a number of tiny villages where we had to carefully maneuver between cheerful running kids and other local bikers loaded with the most bizarre stuff like doors or window frames. I still hear the squelching sound of flip-flops all around my bike accompanied by the happy clamor of kids who never seemed to give up running alongside on the steep dirt road for kilometers.
Another unforgettable meeting was with the pupils from the local “Child Friendly Inclusive Model School” – all very happy to see the crazy “muzungo” (“white people”) bikers.
At some time we reached a point, from where we had a fantastic view over endless tea meadows. We were approaching our destination. Oh, what a burst of energy I got by the thought that more than two thirds of the road is already behind us! According to the GPS navigator, there were only 2 climbs left. I was at the edge of my physical strengths and it was the mind that was actually working at full capacity while riding up these last two hills. This was a real fight between body and mind!
Finally, I saw the gates of Sorwathe factory. That was it. I won! I won against myself! And I knew this was only the beginning of many other tests of will on my bike. I turned back to see the car with the kids just arriving at the plantation. What a timing! My next thought was about a cold bottle of beer and shower… 🙂
Sorwathe is the biggest tea factory in Rwanda, employing over 2,500 farmers and producing approximately 3 million kilograms of high quality tea of different kind (black, green, white) per year for sale around the world.
The factory site is located on a hill all surrounded by endless green meadows covered with tea plants. We were warmly welcomed by the staff to the two-story guest house with lovely hilltop views and peacefully enjoyed the cold beer by the amazing sunset that evening.
As I found out while walking around the site the next morning, the factory also has a small Library and Internet Café, most probably accessible for the factory staff.
For a moment the whole setting made me feel like in the movie “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe. Just that instead of wine, this movie was about tea and the Rwandan “Provence”.
It came out that the guest house even has a tennis court, as unkempt as the one in the movie. Of course, we couldn’t help hitting some balls on it, even though my legs definitely refused to run as fast as I wished. But running across the court was definitely not the point this time. Being able to hit tennis balls while enjoying the beautiful landscape of Sorwathe surpassed all my expectations.
The 6 hours ride was all worth it! And I am determined to do an even longer one next time…:-)
The End.