Ramesh Ferris, the polio survivor who's hand-cycling across Canada, reached Winnipeg last week and spent a few days here. My family and I were among a small group of people who welcomed him at The Forks, a downtown attraction, after he received a police escort through the city. Those are my two daughters -- 6-year-old Lekha and 4-year-old Divya -- in the picture with Ramesh.
It was a good educational experience for them -- and will continue to be one. Whenever they see the photo, they will ask me about Ramesh and I will tell them his story, how polio paralyzed his legs, but didn't keep him from making a difference in the world, from being a hero.
It was truly a pleasure to meet Ramesh, who is raising money to fight polio and help other survivors, many of whom are not as lucky as him (see my earlier post on Ramesh here).
In his latest blog entry on the Cycle to Walk website, Ramesh writes about a greeting he received from a family he would have preferred not to meet:
The temperature reached +27 making today the hottest I’ve ever hand-cycled in my life. It’s nice to hear the CB radios are working and truckers are talking to each other about Cycle to Walk. Mid-morning, the team reached the longitudinal centre of Canada - what a great accomplishment that was. I was greeted by my first black fly this morning, and then later in the day I met the entire black fly family, Those blacks flies showed so much excitement at the teams arrival that they swarmed me for the remainder of the day as I hand-cycled. My excitement at meeting the first black fly of the journey has since dissipated. It’s amazing how quickly the scenery has changed from the flat prairies to trees, and rock cuts.
Today I consumed about 10 litres of fluids and felt physically great, which allowed me to comfortably hand-crank132 kms to Falcon Lake. This is the most I’ve ever hand-cycled at one time. I’m so thankful for the enroute team who worked very hard today ensuring that I was eating frequently and replenished my hydration pack often. [Link]
Let's see: he consumed 10 liters and did 132 km. That means his hand-cycle is giving him 13.2 km per liter. Not bad at all.
If you'd like to contribute to Ramesh's effort, you can do so here.
Comments