So far, they have raised more than $37,000 \u2013 enough for nearly 140 Buffalo Bikes.<\/p>\n
The 4500km journey started in Uganda and led through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, before cutting back west through Zambia, finishing at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
After 80 days on the bike, Legarth said the falls were an awesome place to finish the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a nice way to integrate back into normal life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy bottom was very pleased to not have to sit on the saddle anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole Shields, left, and Hamish Legarth crossing the equator in Mogotio township in Kenya.<\/p>\n
Being an Olympic cyclist, Shields was unable to sympathise with Legarth\u2019s bottom, but said crossing the finish line was an awesome feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in a cafe the other day and I saw a map of the world and seeing how far [our trip] was on a map was really cool, especially the further we get from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now both back in New Zealand, the pair has a clear highlight from the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, seeing the people was probably the highlight, especially all the kids,\u201d Legarth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019d be biking past, the kids would see us coming from a mile away and they\u2019d all run out to the side of the road and be like, \u2018Mzungu, Mzungu\u2019 and wish us on our way going through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mzungu in Bantu means wanderer, originally pertaining to the first European explorers to the East African region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s such a cool reception to get the whole time,\u201d Legarth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually kind of missed that in New Zealand … no one\u2019s excited to see me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shields said her highlight was also the people, but visiting a school in Tanzania to meet students receiving bikes from World Bicycle Relief stood out.<\/p>\n
Orkeeswa School in Zambia with Buffalo Bikes donated to students by World Bicycle Relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to talk to those kids who had just got bikes donated and how that had changed their lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Each bike gives the students up to an extra six hours a day that they would have previously spent walking to and from school.<\/p>\n
That spare time gives them the ability to complete studies and extracurricular activities, among other things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opens their world up so much more,\u201d Shields said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them had to wake up at 4am and then walk 15 km to get to school … and then turn around and do 15 km back home as well,\u201d Legarth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re now able to attend more regularly and do more things before and after school and help out with the family, which is such a big thing as part of the communities there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually really sick at that time, but that was a pretty special day,\u201d Shields said.<\/p>\n
Shields suffered an infection in the days before the visit, leading to her to stay at Tanzanian doctors for a couple of days.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the trip, the pair took what turned out to be a counterfeit malaria test in Kenya which both gave positive readings.<\/p>\n
After visiting a clinic in Nairobi it turned out they both had worms, stomach flu and Blastocystis.<\/p>\n
Illness wasn\u2019t the only thing hunting them, the African wildlife was also keen to have a go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got chased by a buffalo [in Kenya], and that was a pretty scary moment, one that could have gone badly very quickly,\u201d Legarth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily we saw him coming and so we got a big head start on him, but he caught up quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamish Legarth cycling behind a truck in Zambia.<\/p>\n
Both are now back in training, with the goal of competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with Legarth training on Lake Pupuke in Auckland and Shields in Cambridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t too sure what I wanted to do, but this Africa trip confirmed that I want to keep kayaking and give that a shot,\u201d Legarth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough on the bike and I\u2019d trained harder than I\u2019d ever done before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be really interesting to see how that translates in the next few months … but it\u2019ll be super interesting to see how it\u2019s impacted us,\u201d Shields said.<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charity has designed the Buffalo Bicycle, a two-speed bike with a two-chain drivetrain featuring a 100kg capacity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[98450,2840,190,12640,22285,98451,10797,4975,295,14154,305,300,111,139,69,98449,90,17145,28434,213,223,210,61,810],"class_list":["post-146988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-4500km","tag-across","tag-africa","tag-bikes","tag-citizens","tag-continents","tag-cycle","tag-free","tag-fund","tag-give","tag-have","tag-money","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-olympians","tag-on","tag-raising","tag-ridden","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-through","tag-to","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}