HAVE LOVE, WILL TRAVEL
W
hen Joan “Wamuyu” Ndarathi pulled
up to a local biker event in Nairobi, her
hometown, in 2016, she had no idea she’d
ride off with her future husband in tow. She wasn’t
looking for love, just adventure, but she immedi-
ately caught the eye of fellow rider Dos Kariuki,
who approached her after the event to ask if they
could take a ride the next day. That trip became
an epic first date to remember. “We spent a whole
day riding together,” Wamuyu, 44, recalls of their
first ride for two. “We went about a hundred kilo-meters out of town and spent the day in a park.
He even made me go zip-lining for the first time.”
Wamuyu has a major fear of heights, but Dos’s
smooth words and nonstop encouragement got
her to take the leap. But he had to jump first. “He
said, ‘I’m only going first because I know you’re go-
ing to meet me on the other end, and I’m so proud
of you,’” she says. “I was going to be that strong
woman he was so proud of, so I did it for him.”
They started dating just two weeks later and
became husband and wife in April 2018. This isIt was love at first ride for married bikers Wamuyu and Dos, who quit their
day jobs to become the first Kenyan couple to bike around the worldBLACK LOVE(^) B
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BY CHARLI PENN
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ESSENCE.COM I 146 I SEPTEMBER 2019