My scariest moment was when I ran out of water in Mauritania —Adeyanju, London-to-Lagos biker

He rode a bike from London to Lagos covering 12,000km in 41 days as part of a End Polio Now awareness. Kunle Adeyanju, “The Lion Heart”, tells Mohammed Subair of his adventure

 

WHAT motivated your London to Lagos bike exploits? 

It’s all about giving back to the community, to the society and the underprivileged. It’s about helping the world to get better. That’s the essential drive of the London to Lagos ride. 

How challenging was the ride? 

It’s extremely challenging. Every day and night of the ride was challenging. But you know as with everything, life itself is challenging if you want to live. To those that only want to exist, life is not a challenge but if you want to live, life is a challenge. 

I knew this when I calculated the kilometres of the trip on my computer. I knew it was about 12,000 kilometres. And there is no how you’ll do a 12,000 kilometres ride and you won’t go through some challenges. There has to be challenges. And when you know this, you cannot but zero your mind because you’d never know where and when the challenges would come. What’s next is knowing how to cope with these challenges. That’s the key part of it. That’s where discipline, perseverance, and resilience come in. 

How did you survive the 41 days trip without? 

There was not much comfort. I practically wore the same clothes throughout the 41 days I was riding except for the days I was not riding when I was doing other meet-and-greet activities like going to the field for polio immunization and educating the women about benefit of polio vaccine. 

Apart from these, I wore the same jacket all through and that in itself is a pain. You can imagine yourself wearing the same clothes all the time. The clothes themselves were not comfortable because in the heat, its hot. 

Also, you need the body armour to prevent yourself in case of an accident. So it’s heavy. It’s hot and you are sweating. You cannot but wear it. It’s challenging. I don’t plan my ride like I ride till I am tired, no. I don’t plan my adventure that way because if you ride till you are tired, the next day, you will be more tired. The following day, you will be so much super tired and the following day, you’ll collapse. I planned this adventure so that I would still remain strong by the time I finish. So, what did I do? I specify how much kilometre I want to cover every day So, I came to the magic figure of 750 kilometres every day. The 750 kilometres is like journeying from Lagos to Kaduna State. It’s still a very long distance but that is what I ride every day. 

What’s next on your adventure list? 

I want to do the Tibetan plain. I am going to ride from London to Israel. And from Israel to the Asian countries then I will hit out to India then Nepal. I will go on the Tibetan plain. 

I will also attempt Mountain Everest. That’s the next adventure for me. This could be in the next two years or two and a half years, but that’s the plan. 

Were there times you felt like withdrawing? 

Before you go into things like this, you know what you are going into and that’s my kind of person. It took me one year to plan this London to Lagos trip. I put a year into it. 

So when I get to the field to try to do it, I don’t think about giving up because I have had enough time to plan for both the expected and the unexpected. 

Since I have planned for this deeply, I didn’t have the push to want to quit, but along the line, I took some decisions which I regretted, but I learnt from them and that helped me to make smarter decisions subsequently. 

When you were leaving London for Lagos, what was topmost on your mind? 

The topmost on my mind was doing the 12,000km ride and getting to Africa. Actually, topmost on mind was the excitement that I was going to discover the real Africa. 

When you fly, you really don’t see the real Africa. You’ll only land at the airport then you go to the big cities but I tell you, our story in Africa is not just about big cities alone. 

We have people who live in small cities in the hinterland and they make up our stories as Africans. 

The trip gave me the opportunity to see and experience the hinterland. 

I did 12,000 kilometres from London to Lagos and of this number, 9,000 kilometres cover Africa. I discovered Africa is beautiful. 

Africa is a land of opportunities and of good people. 

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Of all the people you met during the trip, which country is the most receptive and friendliest? 

I would say the Malians are the friendliest. They are very friendly people. The Burkanabes too. Actually, every one of them is friendly. Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Lome, Benin; they are all wonderful people. 

From that side down to this side, they are all wonderful people. 

Nigerians are wonderful people, too. I was blown out at the reception yesterday. (Sunday) What’s the worst travel advice you have ever received? 

The worst travel advice I received is that I shouldn’t go to Africa; that the people there are bad, and that they would kill you if you do this and that. 

You see, all those negative stories they share about Africa are not true. When I went through the hinterland, I experienced the beauty of Africa. I tell you, Africa is a land of hospitality and friendly people. And that is my true African story. 

What’s the weirdest thing you came across during your trip? 

It will be difficult to say because everything has its characteristics. Everything has its unique attributes. But if you are talking about the most shocking experience I had on this trip, I think it was when I ran out of water in Mauritania. I started hallucinating. 

I started seeing things which people refer to as seeing spirits in the Sahara desert, but It’s because I was dehydrated. 

When you are dehydrated, your thinking is not that straight. You are not coordinated like you use to be and people started saying you are seeing spirits. I think it’s not spirit. It’s dehydration because when I drank water, I regained my strength. 

Did you experience any scary moment? 

My scariest moment was when I had a tire incident in Mali. It was at night. I was stranded close to the wild forest where there are lions, hyenas and cheetahs. 

That was my scariest moment because if you were moving, you’ll have some advantage but I couldn’t move. I was stranded and it caused a lot of panic. 

Is there any attempt to document your exploits? 

Yes, efforts are ongoing on that. Adventure has been a way of life for me. I have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. I have ridden a bicycle from Lagos to Ghana and returned. I have done a lot of adventurous things which I am actually writing a book on. Some movie producers are actually talking to me on how they can make a movie out of my trips. 

Last night, you had a good night sleep after 41 days of bike adventure, what was the feeling like? 

I slept and I forgot I slept (laughs). I slept like a baby but the only thing was that the sleep wasn’t enough because I had to wake up 6am. I went to bed late around 12am and I had to wake early to attend to my friends that came from different African countries. And I didn’t just want to get a cab to drop them at the Airport. I had to show some respect by personally picking them up at their hotel and dropping them off at the Airport. And because they are going to different countries, they have different flight times. It’s been tough but I had to show some respect. 

What would you like to be remembered for? 

I would like to be remembered as a guy that set a very difficult target for himself, a target that bears the hallmark of death. Even in the trial moments when things were down, I want to be remembered as a guy that didn’t quit. I want people to remember that I never quit.