“The Sahara will humble you, and change your looks, and your attitudes about life” This was my experience on my six days transit, through the Sahara Desert!
The Sahara doesn’t cooperate with you, it is unfriendly, it is harsh, it is unforgiven, and the margin for error on the Sahara is so slim, you make mistakes, and you may not come back home!
The Sahara is one of the most inhospitable places on earth, it is scorching hot, the gust of wind is like hurricane force winds, and the fine sand blowing through the strong winds is like a thousand needles trying to poke through your gears into your body.
Riding on the Sahara, you are constantly fighting being blown off your motorbike, by the gust of the strong winds, while also enduring the scorching heat mildly cooking your skin alive!
It was my toughest experience riding from London to Lagos, an experience that made me to cry on two occasions, and also got me to some point where I thought I had reached my breaking point, and I thought I was going to say, this is it, and this is where it ends!
I made a commitment to myself prior to commencing the ride that “whatever it takes, I was not going to give up” I will keep pushing and keep fighting, even if I have to die fighting!
And I have come to realize that when we make such strong commitments to ourselves, and our mind believes it, then our body will fall-in, no matter the pain, suffering or hardship.
Yesterday, a friend shared the picture collage above with me to remind me of what I looked like when I came out of the Sahara, and I also saw that my eyeballs were reddened with the pain of the experience.
It is not an understatement that my experience on the Sahara was extremely painful and hard, but that was also an experience that further strengthened my willpower to continue to push on.
It is a known fact, willpower can only be built through VOLUNTARY act of suffering, … to do something hard is to grow!
You cannot expect to develop the tenacity and the resiliency of a winner without going through the fire! And it is in going through this fire, that we discover and refine our PASSION!
Passion is not something we are born with, it is something we have to discover and continue to build, through the process of gaining mastery.
Along the line there will be failures and setbacks, which is ok! What is not ok is to quit and fail to develop the passion or approach it with mediocrity.
Late Dr Myles Monroe once said, “If you live properly, history will not be able to ignore that you lived” the world will talk about you, read about you, and tell your story for a thousand years!
Yes, the story of #LONDONTOLAGOS, #LOINHEART will be told for a thousand years, but it all started with a passion …… FUEL YOUR PASSION!
Everyday in our lives we experience some acts of grace and love from people, but at some times, we witness some acts of generosity and kindness on a monumental scale, performed by ordinary people living their lives in an extraordinary way, to make a difference in their world,
By demonstrating a deep sense of humanity, towards the under privileged around them.
This was what I witnessed at NURUL RAHMAN VOLUNTARY SCHOOL SALLARE QUARTERS HAUSAWA KANO
It is a charity day school for orphaned children & those who’ve lost just their fathers, in the community. The children are not only schooled but also fed breakfast and lunch and also provided Medicare, all free.
I recalled the hard day after riding 400km from Bamako Mali to the Cote d’Ivorean border & was denied entry into Cote d’Ivorie & left with the option of returning back to Bamako riding 400km again or divert to Sikasso a border town in Mali with Burkina Faso another 420km away
I felt the cries, anger and energy of every Nigerians and other Africans and also good people around the world urging the Cote d’ivorean government to open up their border for me to ingress the country.
The cries were loud and really loud. However, there are some other voices not so loud on the social media waves but really loud at the corridors of authorities and government officials, where decisions that matters are made.
A biker friend Dan, took the odometer readings on Eagle today, and it reads 11,301km, which represents the total distance I have travelled on eagle from London to Accra Ghana.
Of this figure, the total distance I covered in Europe was about 3,200km, while the remaining 8,101km has been in Africa.
Being opportuned to have travelled this huge distance across Africa from the North to the West of Africa is a uique opportunity, a great blessing which I am fortunate to experience.
I was hosted today by the Nigerian Ambassador to Cote d’Ivorie and the embassy diplomatic staff, at the Nigerian Embassy.
I find His Excellency, Ambassador Martin Sekom Adamu a gentleman, nice, welcoming, articulate, sharp, and with sound intellectual prowess, and depth of leadership.
I was also touched by the Ambassadors level of humility, he welcomed me to his office where we had a short familiarization “chit – chat” preceding the hosting.