Now for some photos……. October 16, 2009

He’s hiding the screaming cats!!!

Dirty Dozen from hells kitchen

Brad, Guy DD members

Pip, Mel ,Stuart DD members

some of these have little tags on them, others

Now they are coming October 16, 2009

Another brilliant elephart from bob blues and twos.. this is what elepharts are about…. keep them coming… if you can’t see it the boats name is w.anchor…..

Zoom in on the window!!!

Back to reality…. October 16, 2009

Well back to reality again.. its a bit of a come down after the months and months of build up and trip itself… What can we say about it… I could write for days and not even touch the surface. I must just say a massive thanks to all of the people who supported both ant and myself both in the run up to the trip and last year in the dark days when both of us were battling with injuries that were looking as though we couldn’t do it…. Another massive thanks to the manufacturers of co codamol, neurofen and the other general painkillers that kept us going throughout…..borrowing a comment from a famous film “there’s nothing like the smell of coffee and neurofen in the morning” I have put a couple of taster photo’s up for the moment more to follow.. There are loads of items being posted inc film on you tube ‘enduro africa 2009′ check them out..
The teams seemed to be intent on decimating the stray dog population count 5 dogs and 1 tortoise .. luckily all other wildlife intact.. Still have 2 tonnes of mud on clothes and wet boots.. keep watching for more snippets…

Heathrow 6 am tuesday October 13, 2009

Well after all that we are back and sorting through the photos etc… I have 350 and there are probably another 600 in the pipe;line i will attempt to catalogue these this week so keep looking… I did have top admit to kris today that i dislocated my knee last tuesday (and that’s the good one) so i had two leg braces) but we got through and it was unbelievably hard both mentally and physically for a pair of old pharts … well one older than the other …..two days of riding on shale tracks in the rain which were like glass kept us awake… but one thing we agree on we wouldn’t of missed it ….

At last we have some net service… October 11, 2009

Apologies to all out there who have been waiting for the updates… we have been in some pretty remote areas running up the coastline… Unbelievable scenery and riding..Plenty of offs .. no major problems though..From the first post when we were all fresh and feisty we now all look slightly more weary..a couple of days we have only travelled 77km and 44km in 8 hours so you can imagine the terrain… plenty of steep descents and near vertical ascents…We had a rest day on wednesday where we went to a vilage school and refurbed some classrooms etc.. One of our team rathers just happened to bring his bagpipes…The look on the 300+ kids faces as a bald bloke with a bag of screaming cats came marching up the hill… hilarious.. in the end he was parading round the school with all the children following him.. just like the pied piper..
We are now at the mbotyi river … after riding 144 km in the rain yesterday . the ravines and hills were like mud baths with rivers over the bikes… slipping and sliding all the way…some call it fun we just take it as another day in heaven!!!!Mbyoti is where the great sardine hunt takes place all the tuna,dolphins, sharks and whales work together to round up the sardines and have a good meal… beautiful place… We ide back up the caost agin today to end up in Port Edward and the end of the trip…
It has been impossible to upload the photos and vid fromhere but watch this space next week… There areb prob over 500pics etc and e will do a full recap with maps and scenes of carnage…. 207km today some road with some little suprises from Mike glover who runs the show…On his little suprises yesterday he fell over a dozen times himself so imagine the rest of the 80+ riders…
back into wet boots and gear now for the final push …see you all next week …

Thursday October 9, 2009

hard day 2day, in middle of transskei and 2 hours from tarmac. internet access limited but we are still alive

first day in the dust…247km in 8hours. October 4, 2009

Is that all you may say… well after nearly
20hrs travelling to get to Port Elizabeth 247 km mainly off road has been a giggle. With over 80 riders
leaving the digs from last nite in a calvacade everyone had a smile on their faces. Normally
you would expect to take it a bit easy and
build up the tempo…
Not here , after a blast along the seafront
with police
escorts we were straight into the rough stuff.
Now for many it was a baptism of fire in fact all of us.
Straight into 1 in who knows what (steep) downh
hill slope (lets get this in perspective you
couldn’t walk up or down it…… into mud,
stream crossings, bushes and the like it was superb and everybody made it through..
At lunch time we were split into different
groups of about 12 riders. The dirty dozen from Hells kitchen were now minus ant Woodcock and
myself.. We ended up in the lead group which
means we just fall off faster… Not tempting fate.
The standard of every single rider from all of the groups is a big shock.. you have guys who have only just passed their bike test riding so well.. brilliant
This whole ride is aboout teamwork and everyone supporting everyone else. it doesn’t matter
how good or bad you are … A good lesson to
be learnt here… Tomorrows ride 307 km
from Port Alfred to end up in Morgans Bay…
ps The helmet cam is doing a great job when not cake in dust…. Oh yes the first one in the
ditch was me after lunch at 2kmph ……
Cannot seem to load pics tonite from the camera as windows 7 doesnt want to know.. will try again tomorrow

well it’s here at last October 1, 2009

By this time tomorrow we should be on our way, loaded up to the eyeballs with jackets bags, mx boots and all. Of course in my case i have the added extra of the carbon fibre leg brace… When kitted out with all of my gear on i have now morphed into Terminator mixed with Robocop. Now to some that maybe an attractive sight but believe me it makes you walk like john wayne in armour! just a bit difficult to say the least, but comical from afar…. This blog will be updated from SA over the next few days….