Ride

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36 hours to go and we're working late. Just fitted a GPS, an auxiliary electric socket and a new windshield to my bike. Andrew's fitting his GPS, the screen and some extra crash bars to his.

Still lots to do tomorrow but hey, half the fun is getting ready!

 

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Well, there are just over 48 hours to go and still lots to do. On the initial shake down run we found some problems with the fuel system on Andy's bike but we should have that fixed by tomorrow. We’ve still got to fit some auxiliary electrical connections for running GPS’s and chargers, adapt the windscreens, rig some tubing to fit the panniers to Andy’s bike, make sure we can strap all the gear on and a few other things. Other than that we are good to go!

For those of you in Cape Town, on Sunday we’ll be based at our trip HQ (11 Cumnor Road, Kenilworth - aka the Hewitson's house) getting ourselves and the bikes ready. We'd love to say goodbye, let you check out the bikes, get some travel advice, share some coffee etc. with you then. Drop by anytime between 5 and 9pm. Feel free to just arrive, or if you know you can be there and can let us know that would be great.

In the meantime, if you've been wondering, here is our basic itinerary. We’ve included a number of days where we’ll be visiting projects. Others where we'll either stay for a rest day or possibly use them to get back on schedule if we get caught at borders, break down or are running slowly. Some of the biking days are pretty long! This itinerary is slightly different from the one on the map as we are now visiting the Okavambo Delta region in Botswana. It's also pretty likely we'll be adjusting as we go so the best way to see where we are is to look at the tracking page as we travel.

Borders
14-Jul 1 Cape Town South Africa
15-Jul 2  Orange River Namibia
16-Jul 3 Noordoewer
17-Jul 4 Mariental
18-Jul 5 Gobabis
19-Jul 6 Ghanzi Botswana
20-Jul 7 Guma
21-Jul 8 Guma
22-Jul 9 Shakawe
23-Jul 10 Shakawe
24-Jul 11 Kasane
25-Jul 12 Kasane/Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
26-Jul 13 Bulawayo
27-Jul 14 Bulawayo
28-Jul 15 Harare
29-Jul 16 Harare
30-Jul 17 Lilongwe MozambiqueMalawi
31-Jul 18 Monkey Bay
1-Aug 19 Lake Malawi 2
2-Aug 20 Lake Malawi 3 (Karonga)
3-Aug 21 Mikumi Tanzania
4-Aug 22 Mikumi
5-Aug 23 Kilimanjaro
6-Aug 24 Kilimanjaro
7-Aug 25 Nairobi Kenya
8-Aug 26 Naivasha
9-Aug 27 Naivasha
10-Aug 28 Kisumu Uganda
11-Aug 29 Masaka
12-Aug 30 Kigali Rwanda

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It’s hard to believe the day is finally here but yes, it actually is. Here I am at Vancouver airport, getting ready to fly for two days via Frankfurt and Johannesburg to meet up with Andrew in Cape Town. It’s still a bit surreal that a dream idea kicked around over an email back a year or two ago is actually going to happen. I guess that’s the way of dreams. If you lean into them, they sort of sneak up on you when you're not looking.

By the way, apologies if you got a ton of emails a few days back. We had a website glitch, but our tech guru Jayson tells me it’s fixed now.

This is what all the kit I have to carry on the bike looks like in bags. Plus we’ll have food, water and cooking gear. Can’t wait to see how we manage it. Also can’t wait to see how much of it is left after 8,500 Km, 10 African countries and a month on the road.

We start the ride a week from today on July 14th so don't forget to subscribe for updates. You can track us live on the tracking page as well. We'll also be raising funds for Wellspring and the Youth Hub all the way through, so please drop by the sponsor page and join with us as we ride to change the future for tens of thousands of children in Africa.

Later

Andy

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It’s just two weeks to go until I take off to meet up with Andrew in Cape Town, where we’ll have a few days to make final preparations and for me to get used to riding the bike, which by the way, is a KLR 650 for those of you who’ve been asking. Then in three weeks time we’re off on the adventure!

There’s tons to do, from organizing finance, border crossings and spare parts, to buying the last bits of gear and performing the miracle of fitting everything I’ll need for a month into these two bags!

We’re also organizing the stops along the way. We’re planning to visit a number of projects as we ride that share the values of the Youth Hub and Wellspring and prefer dignity and justice on the people they work with. Some of our stops will include outposts of the Youth Hub, Zimbabwe YFC, schools in Tanzania, the Duncan Africa Guitar workshop in Uganda and many more we are still working on.

We’ll be updating you as we go, so make sure to sign up for updates. Also we‘d love you to sponsor the ride and help us to change the lives of the many young people in Africa we are riding for. We believe they deserve the same opportunities as every young person in the world, to receive a good education, to have the chance to grow mentally, physically and spiritually, that they should be treated with justice and dignity and have the opportunity to see transformation in their lives. It’s time to make a difference and we ask you to join us as together, we seek to do that.

You can sponsor either Andrew and the Youth Hub or myself and Wellspring on the sponsorship page or you can sponsor a fuel stop along the way. You’ll be keeping us riding and be part of something amazing.

 

Thanks for being part of the journey!

 

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One month to go until we hit the road. I just worked out it's the distance from Vancouver BC to Halifax Nova Scotia...and back again!

Here's the trusty steed I'm spinning around on to get my training wheels removed.

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It's just a month to go until I board a plane to fly to Cape Town and get off two days later, jet lagged but raring to ride the 8,400 Km to Kigali Rwanda.

The aim for both Andrew and I is to raise $15,000 for our organizations through sponsorship of the ride. So you can see what I’m raising for, here’s a taste of the work of Wellspring. If you like what you see, please click here to sponsor us.