There it is, London!
I am on top of Shooters Hill … I see from the top the London Eye, the Big Ben, the Tower Bridge … the City is there waiting for me … like I was already for the arrival in Cairo the euphoria for the arrival cancels all the tiredness and all the small pains accumulated in these 8000 and more km … since the suburbs of London there are signs of the Olympics and Paralympics … what strikes me immediately is the number of cyclists and cycling paths … it is not by chance that the United Kingsom has won Tour de France and many medals in cycling … Wiggins, Froome, Cavendish are the top … having champions helps to create … and vice versa … at the traffic lights there are groups of urban cyclists who remind me of the start of a Sunday race …
I am late, like usual, Francesca who with her husband will host me in London in these days waits for me at Tower Bridge for more than an hour … I pop up at Blackfriars … the bridge of Calvi … then after passing it … I go back up North to London Bridge … I pass it and go back South and I finally arrive to Tower Bridge …
In the morning other than having left with extreme calm I was slowed down from some media Rai, Radio Popolare … a German TV which after meticulous contacts and arrangements left us hanging …
After some ritual photographs on the bridge … which the children in Zambia really liked … Francesca led me to Trafalgar Square … where Rai was waiting for us for a short reportage … before Rai I took part in Confini of Radio Popolare who today was dealing with the Paralympics … there was a lot of people and some athletes of national teams … to film the entrance along the London Gallery we had to … do it in three stretches … being careful not to run over anybody …
I arrived in London …, but really we have arrived … sport2build and all the other people who contributed it has been a journey 74 days long … many absolutely … but relatively few for a journey of this kind … this could not have been possible without the key work of some people like …
Giorgia, my Guardian Angel from Zambia, one of the few people who manages to stand me 100% who in the meanwhile has become an expert of journeys across Africa, by now she knows all the routs, the elevations … the risks … procedures for visa … borders controls … she read thousands of blogs of other cyclists … she managed to give visibility to the event in many countries … to you a huge thank you and a sorry for all the times I told to go to hell … Precious a child who lives with us … told her ‘I am happy that Matteo has arrived so you will no longer work so much for him’ … and I was forgetting she is the mum to Abrahm!
Serena, founder and president of Sport2build with me, who kept brilliantly relations with the media, in the spirit of Never Give Up of Sport2build she never took anything for granted or unreachable, you must not put yourself limits and she did not herself any, at times it goes well others it does not, but the spirit and the results are the right ones … if we had coverage from Gazzetta, Rai, Topolino, La Stampa, Il Giorno, La Prealpina and others which I certainly forgot … the credit is all hers … we differ on almost everything … but we see it as a strength for Sport2build.
Senior Chieftness Nkhomeshya Mukamambo II, is a person and a authority, to meet, historical memory, equity of judgment and love for her people make her a not common person, she always trusted us with the project in Chikupi, first, and now with the new school, she helped us in the difficult moments. A Queen and a mother.
The Italian Embassy in Lusaka, the young Ambassador, he is my age … Pier Mario Daccò … he gave us his patronage and has shown enthusiasm from the beginning till the end, he came to the departure on the bicycle and the Sport2build cycling jersey, he raised funds for us … and prepared for us some official letters to use as pass in case of problems …
Stefano D’Elia, friend of mine since the times of Dell’Acqua in Legnano … he became a brilliant architect … myself accountant … when we see each other even after years it seems we do not see each other for two days … he is the one who realized the project of the school … he wrote me a fantastic email for my arrival … which I copy in italic as a quote … ‘Hi Matteo, I received (and receive) your photograph journal of the journey and I thank you for having kept up to date until today … but mainly I want to thank you for the daily occasions of thought which you offered me.
Every time I opened a photograph of your journey, the thoughts run to think the diversity the world offers and at the different dimensions of life …
… these are things we know are there, but are often suffocated by daily matters … or from the scarce ability of vision which mankind generally tends to have.
But, even more important, I embrace you lesson on the strength of the mind and the determination of intentions …
Believing intensely in something, even apparently impossible makes it easier and possible.
Every day I try to teach to Beatrice, my daughter, this fundamental value … it can be useful in every occasion.
So thank you and …
… NEVER GIVE UP !!!
P.S. I was getting used to receiving daily your images and now that the journey is ending what will I do???
I wanted to suggest you also go back on the bike … what do you think?
A hug
Ste d’Elia
Thank to you and I hope that the beautiful project will soon become reality.
Sidney Cheelo, precious logistician in Zambia, he collaborates profitably since the beginning to all the sport activities of Sport2build he grinded kilometers, queued up, contributed to the realization of the departure videos, stood for hours the wild children in the car from Zambia to Malawi … thank you for your unlimited availability.
A thank you goes also to all those I met along the way and those I forgot of whom I will speak in the next post.
Rainham N 51° 36.433 E 0° 60.514’ – London N 51° 50.548’ W 0° 07.545’
71 km