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We may not be able to visit Malawi in person but, with your help, we can still get there - Strava style - and raise funds for reforestation in Zomba.
Help us travel from Watson's to Blantyre by joining our WMP Strava-club. And then get running, walking, cycling for all you're worth!
All we ask is that you donate a one-off £10 (or however much you wish) to Zomba TREEZ. This is the reforestation project organised by WMP partners, Tom and Petal, on the Zomba Plateau (below).
Week six: Bulawayo(+5,233km)
Week six: Bulawayo(+5,233km)
What a week of luxury: cold beers overlooking Table Bay, wine-tasting at Stellenbosch, the iconic delights of the Garden Route, highlands and low-lands of two kingdoms and The Big Five of Kruger. Our route >>
Week five: Gabarone (+4,842km)
Week five: Gabarone (+4,842km)
This week, 98 of us had our nails painted in Brazzaville, dined out in Luanda, navigated our way through the minefields of Angola, rowed through the Okavango swamplands and checked out the no 1. ladies' detective in Gabarone. Our route >>
Week four: Gabon (+4,427km)
Week four: Gabon (+4,427km)
This week, 88 of us decided to ditch the Central African Republic to experience the artistic side to Africa's Giant; uncover the footballing credentials of Africa in Miniature and admire the surfing hippos of The Last Eden on Earth. A few extra days in torrential rain, mired in mud, but worth it! Our route >>
Week three: Nigeria (+3,799km)
Week three: Nigeria (+3,799km)
It only took us a week, but what a week it was, for our party of 73 to cross the Sahara Desert into the Niger and onto Nigeria. Deadly scorpions, toxic cacti, grumpy camels and creeping sand-dunes, we negotiated them all. Niger was a walk in a rather desolate scrubland after that. Our route >>
Week two: Alicante (+2,696km)
Week two: Alicante (+2,696km)
By close of week two, our intrepid party had expanded to 46, crossed the Channel, rerouted to Paris to take in the sights, were treated to coffee in Aubeterre, nipped over the Pyrenees to Barcelona and hugged the coast around to Alicante to secure private passage to Algeria. Our route >>
Week one: GWC to Peebles (+21km)
Week one: GWC to Peebles (+21km)
On Thursday, 11 March, 11 brave souls set off from outside the school gates for Blantyre. At the end of our first week, we made it all the way to Peebles and were looking forward to some R&R in the Lake District. More than 11,400km to go!
Follow our progress as we work our way down to the South Coast, through Europe and across the Balearic into Algeria.
Then we negotiate our way through the Sahara and into Niger and Nigeria. A last minute change of plan redirected us through the West Coast and over to Gabarone via the Kalahari Desert before heading back over to Malawi via Zambia.
Weekly updates above and on the Just Giving donations page.
And live reporting for tour party members on the RunWalkCycle Strava Club!
We're days away
Just one country - Zambia - separates us from Malawi.
To date, we've covered 21,018km but we're not there yet.
Join us for the final days of our Edinburgh to Blantyre adventure.
Zomba TREEZ
Zomba TREEZ
Zomba TREEZ aims to mitigate the damage caused by the loss of the biomass and help reduce the effects of climate change in the Zomba area. By raising awareness, planting trees, promoting natural regeneration and preventing fires, Zomba TREEZ hopes to increase water retention, reduce soil erosion, provide clean air and water and protect and preserve Malawi’s biodiversity.
In the last twenty years alone, Malawi has lost 85% of its trees to people desperate for wood-fuel to cook and keep themselves warm. If this continues unchecked, the country will run out of biomass to sustain its population by 2025.
For the past four years Zomba TREEZ has sponsored two local football teams: The Happy Hammers and the Berries football club and two years ago began sponsoring the Happy Hammers Queen and Berries Queens netball teams. In exchange for the sponsorship, the teams help with the tree planting and maintenance of the seedlings and also help with the any firefighting if fires occur.
They also work with local community groups to help with the maintenance and upkeep of the seedlings as well as the creation of firebreaks for the seedlings’ protection through a “money for survival rate” payment scheme.
The water catchment conservation corridors that TREEZ has been planting have a significant representation of fruit trees. This is to provide local communities with a source of nutrition and income from the forest.
How do I get involved?
How do I get involved?
Step 1: If you haven't already, register with Strava. It's free to join. And you can control your privacy settings (under profile/settings) to share as much or as little information as you wish.
Step 2: Find our club by clicking here or on the map above. In Strava, select the explore option the top of the page and enter RunWalkCycle to Malawi (click the 'all' option, then search). Then click the join button.
Step 4: Then click 'record' and get running/walking/cycling and more! Remember - only submit routes that you are happy for others to see. In your profile settings, if you hide your activities, your mileage is still registered by our little widget in the red box below.
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