Two boys on TWO bikes for sight

If you’ve been following the exploits of Merlin and Alex as they attempt to cycle from Cairo to Capetown while training and equipping medical staff and students in the countries they pass through with Arclight devices, you’ll know that they had a spot of bother with their tandem bike. Saddle sore was threatening to bring their trip to an abrupt end in Arusha, Tanzania. These adventurers had other ideas – lots of them.

After commissioning a local fabricator to make them a cart they could push, Alex and Merlin gathered a fortnight’s worth of food, three chickens and two Masai warriors to guide them on foot across the Masai steppe. 

200km later, they arrived in northern Malawi, acutely aware that they couldn’t walk all the way to Capetown, they called in air support. Dr Andrew Blakie and Ian Gordon arrived at the beginning of March with 2 new Elliptigo bikes and Burley trailers to meet the boys in Mzuzu. After a morning training students how to use the Arclight at the University of Malawi Vision Centre in Mzuzu, Alex and Merlin were back on the road. 

Having narrowly escaped Cyclone Idai, Alex and Merlin are now in Zambia with a fresh stock of Arclights and other goodies to keep them on the road.