Renowned South African adventurer Riaan Manser is midway through a two-month journey across South Africa on behalf of KFC’s programme Add Hope. But this is no ordinary journey, as Riaan has been consuming limited calories while cycling the word “hope” across the face of the South African map to highlight the plight of hunger.
By day 28 in the Eastern Cape the weather took a turn for the worst as the mist and rain became unrelenting. This, combined with careless drivers and road works made for a much tougher journey. “It makes you really consider your life, which made me angry,” said Riaan, “because I’m weak. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself.”
Eventually he decided to call it a day outside of Flagstaff, as he could no longer see the handle bars on his bike due to the thick fog.
On day 30, Manser had cycled a total of 115km despite his exhaustion. While, Manser usually rests on the weekend, day 31 saw him push through to make up lost kilometres from Day 28. “I’m a goal-oriented person and I don’t like to feel like I’m falling behind. Fact is, there are people depending on me and so I’m going to push through on one of my rest days. I am not just doing this journey for myself and that is a big responsibility.”
Along the route, Riaan is visiting some of the 80 charities that KFC supports through it’s Add Hope programme. “As KFC is in the business of feeding people, it makes sense that the company focus it’s corporate social responsibility in this area,” says Lauren Turnbull from KFC. “KFC customers raised R9.6 million for the Add Hope campaign in 2011, with another R17.5 million donated by franchisees.”
On 18 October, Riaan spent time at 1000 Hills Community Helpers, the centre established and run by Dawn Leppan.
“Spending time with the children is just incredible, but then I move on and get all this attention from the media,” said Riaan. “It’s difficult not to criticise yourself when you’re taking such a ‘hit and run’ approach, but at the end of the day, I know that this is all for a good cause.”
Riaan has completed 2664 of the 4100km route, at an average speed of 18.1km/h, losing over 11kg in the process.
To date, Add Hope has raised R10 133 177, including online and in-store R2 customer donations.
On Saturday, 20 October Riaan tweeted: @riaanmanser “Off to Kingspark DBN to watch currie cup semi.Go sharks! Sheezlike. The best way to spend off day on Journey of Hope. #addhope” And the Sharks lived up to the billing – a great win!
For more about Riaan’s Journey of Hope, visit www.addhope.co.za