A LOCAL man has embarked on an ambitious fundraising journey that will see him cycle over two thousand kilometres around Uganda.<\/p>\n
Dr Brad Hodge is a lecturer at La Trobe University\u2019s Department of Rural Health and began his five-week backpacking trip on 21 January and said it will be a proper adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done cycling trips before,\u201d he said. \u201cLast time was the Bendigo to Uluru trip which was similar k\u2019s but all on bitumen, but this one\u2019s in another country so I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going to sleep at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip is aimed at raising $25000 to fund the construction of a community-based education centre in Rural Uganda.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with a local organisation called I am Someone,\u201d Dr Hodge. \u201cThey support local, Ugandan but also other African nation organisations, to do projects looking after kids who have no support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Hodge said he will have the opportunity to visit the site of the new education centre which is located in Kasese district in Western Uganda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat education centre will mean that in that community they can actually teach people, whether it\u2019s trades or sexual health or any of those different things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The route was devised by Dr Hodge with advice from Logan Watts of bikepacking.com, in conjunction with information posted online by other cyclists who have completed similar trips in Uganda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose maps will act as a bit of a guide, and then I\u2019ll be making a point to talk to locals about situations in certain areas, whether it\u2019s good to get through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are places where you\u2019re going through game parks and you have to pay for someone to ride along with you, so it\u2019ll very much be each day chatting to someone and then making a decision based on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the course of the five-weeks Dr Hodge will be shooting video content and taking photos which he will update when he can.<\/p>\n