I Bike Tuscany

Dear Marco

Hard to believe it is 1 year since we had our ride with you (which remains a highlight of our trip!). I have been thinking of you and Jodie recently, particularly in light of the Covid 19 pandemic and the difficulties it must place on you. I hope you and your families are all safe and well.

I was able to do my ride in Tanzania and got home a week before we had mandatory 14 day isolation for overseas arrivals! The trip was fabulous – 1600km in 14 days and we climbed about 14000m as well. Mostly really good paved roads but a couple of days on gravel or potholed roads. We were lucky with weather – very little rain and only wind one day and temps usually around 31-32 so not too hot. Really poor country but really beautiful people. A couple of nights were in windowless rooms in towns with no electricity. Most places had holes in the floor for toilets and a bucket of cleanish water to ‘flush’ with. Food was mostly chapati, rice, beans, an egg (poured into a pan so like an omelette but with nothing with it) and sweet tea. Perhaps most importantly we raised nearly $30,000 for the School of St Jude in Arusha, Tanzania.

Still love the idea of a ride in Italy when we are allowed to travel again.

Best wishes

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Hello Marco. This is a belated thank you on behalf of our small group for our bike ride in Tuscany at the end of May. It was phenomenal and far exceeded all of our expectations. I want to especially thank you for your encouragement to Debbie that got her through the tough part of the climb when she was ready to call it quits, and ending up making it one of her most memorable days of our entire trip to Italy. On behalf of Debbie, Malcolm, Chip, and Jenifer, we want to thank you again for creating such a wonderful experience in biking Tuscany.

Good luck and God bless.

Mark

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Hi Marco,

Hope you've recovered from the Lubben summer camp. Thank you for designing an awesome trip for our gang. Everything worked out incredibly smoothly and it was an amazing time for all of us. You did an excellent job taking care of the varied biking levels of our crowd. The combination of the rides and activities was just right too. And the hotels and restaurants were perfect. The rest of our trip worked out great also.

If you and Marco ever catch a rainbow photo I'll hope you'll remember to send it me!

Regards, Babette Lubben

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