What could possibly make me think this is a good idea?

After all, I'm not exactly "a cyclist". In fact, I think that the last time I rode a bike was over 10 years ago, when I travelled what I thought was a really long way (if I remember right, it was more than 10 whole miles!). Having said that, the last stupid idea I had went ok, so why not?

The general idea for the trip is to attempt to cause as much damage as possible to my arse. Well, that's not actually the idea, but it'll almost certainly be the result.

Actually, there is a lovely heart-warming reason behind this trip (almost as heart-warming as a cup of tea, but I'd advise a cup of tea at the same time, just to make sure - I wouldn't want you getting cold). Last year, I rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. Among other things, I was raising money for FARM-Africa; specifically, their Dairy Goat and Capacity Building project in Kenya. After a huge amount of hard work (the actual rowing was pretty straightforward in comparison), and some fantastic generosity from people all over the world, I managed to raise over £20,000.

But it's one thing getting people to just donate some money; I want to show everyone, and find out for myself, exactly why the whole thing was worthwhile. So I'm going to visit the project, and, as any sensible person would, I'm going to get there by bike.

On 27th March 2009 (exactly one year after completing the row), I will cycle out of London and towards Dover. Sadly, I haven't yet worked out a way to cycle on water, so I will reluctantly cheat by getting a ferry over to France. From here, I will head to Strasbourg, before passing through the Black Forest and into Germany, where I'll meet up with the Danube. Using the theory that every river is fairly flat (I'm not a fan of hills - well, going up them at least), I'll follow the Danube right across Europe, through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Eventually, I'll leave the safe shores of the Danube and enter Turkey, and Asia

After crossing Turkey, I'll enter the Middle East, where I'm going to have to be just a little careful. In fact, I'm going to have to end up avoiding Israel altogether (I'd like to add that this isn't because I'm a big girl — that's almost certainly the case, but it's not the reason behind this decision), as it turns out that the Sudanese aren't big fans of Israel; they won't even let you in if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. As Sudan is a fairly big country that there's no easy way of avoiding, my decision was made for me. So I'm going to go through Syria, into Jordan and then cheat again (it's only about 10 miles!) by catching a ferry from Jordan to Egypt, where my African adventure will start.

After crossing the Suez Canal, and having a bit of a jaunt down the coast, I'll cut in towards my second big river of the journey — the Nile. Using the same hill-less logic as before, I'll follow this river all the way through Egypt. Sadly it turns out that there's quite a big desert down that way, but you can't pick and choose these things. Eventually, I'll get to my third cheating bit (I do feel bad, really), as there are no land border crossings between Egypt and Sudan. This means that I'm going to have to get a ferry across Lake Nasser, which will take me to the luxurious surroundings of Sudan.

After a bit more along the Nile, I'll reach Khartoum, where I will start to make my move east. This'll get me over to Ethiopia which, it turns out, is quite hilly. I'm not sure I planned this too well. The final section seems so easy: a bit of a cycle through Ethiopia and Kenya, to Mwingi. However, it's unlikely the roads will be quite as friendly as I will have experienced through Europe, so this could be a bit of a challenge!

Eventually, I'll reach Mwingi, where FARM-Africa's project is based. Undoubtedly the first thing I do will be to pass out (I'm thinking of making it a theme for these things), before actually finding out why I'm there.

So, there you go. Why wouldn't you do this trip?!