Correction: Riding Cairo to Cape Town... whoops!

Dad, ready to bid our bikes farewell... see you guys in Cairo!

 How do I explain this... We have decided to change our journey to a north- south venture! We shall now be flying over with the bikes to Cairo and heading on down South back to Cape Town. How did this massive flip occur?

There are several reasons for our decision... Most notably Egypt is notorious for their backward and annoying bureaucracy. If anyone doing this trip of a lifetime has anything to moan about it is always the hassle they incurred in Egypt. Among much other bureaucratic red tape we will be required to snip our way through... we will need to re-roadworthy and reregister the motorbikes with an Egyptian number plate in Cairo. All of this takes time and patience, which we agreed we would much more likely have at the beginning of the trip when we are still fresh and feel alive with excitement for the road that lies ahead. Another consideration was the many complaints we have heard about people being ripped off my Egyptian shipping companies when they need to ship the bikes back home. So we rationalised that it was a better idea to bargain with a South African shipping company then be ripped off by an Egyptian company... a sour cherry that could top off an otherwise successful adventure.

It is also this northern part of the road from Cape to Cairo which is the hardest... after Northern Kenya the road and border posts just keep getting better and more hassle-free the closer you get to Cape Town. So I guess it is a psychological tactic that we are employing... get the biggest challenges over with first!

     

The time has finally come and our epic adventure lies waiting for us just around the corner (7 nights away to be exact!) We are due to fly to Cairo on the night of the 20^th July. The bikes have already been sent over and await our arrival... the excitement is electric!!!

Our two bikes in the crate... eagerly awaiting Cairo! Whoohoo!!!

My father took our bikes this last Sunday to be shipped off. He was accompanied by a mechanic who taught him how to dismantle and put back together our bikes (thank god one of us knows how!) He also received a crash course in how to fix any damage we may inflict on the bikes along the way- essential to surviving the road!

Dad's dismantled Kawasaki KLR...

I received this pic of my BMW650 with the caption "Come Put it Back Together!" Hmm... funny! Hopefully I will return more bike savvy!

So we are just about ready and just need to tie up a few loose ends in preparation for this amazing trip! Most visas have been acquired, except for Sudan which has turned out to be a serious mission... (hmm, we could potentially have an interesting border-encounter in store for us, especially with my passport so decadently decorated with Israeli stamps!) Cross fingers it all goes smoothly! We shall keep you updated and hope to have many thrilling stories for you soon!

In other news...we are moving forward with our support for the Earthchild Project and hoping to reach our fundraising goals in the next two months to come. If you would like to hear more about the Earthchild Project and our African adventure, tune into 702 Talk Radio or Cape Talk this Sunday from around 7.30 am. Janna Kretzmar, the Director of Earthchild Project, will be speaking to Udo Carelse on the Weekend Breakfast Show. Janna and I will also be speaking to Heart FM and OFM next week about the Earthchild Project and the fundraising trip... dates and times to be confirmed!

Please continue to spread our cause around the globe and help Earthchild Project in their quest to create a new generation of healthy, confident, conscious and responsible earthchildren.

Donations can be made to the Earthchild Project via the secure backabuddy site at:

http://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/riding-cape-to-cairo-for-the-earthchild-project-