Almost gone (click here for photo´s)

Finally got it together today and should be leaving in the am. Spent the day with our newly allocated machine down at the sports field for testing and tweeking. Everyone apart from us were painting and decorating and waterproofing and oiling their bikes as we intended to.

However when we arrived it was hot and we had a beer and Lloyd had his Frisbee. So we played that all day and ended up with all the kids in there PE lesson joining in.

My moment today came when all the kids at my end dragged me off over the horizon and into their school through the back gates. I wasnt sure why but went along with it and found myself in the school playground with around 500 of them.

To cut a long story short they wanted to introduce me to their english teacher and upon meeting seemed pretty insistent that i kiss the poor embarresed girl on the cheek while they cheered...

Unfortunately they couldnt find her initialy so they broke into the locked classroom by one kid climbing through a missing window above the door and opening it for us. I was then pushed to the front and had a piece of chalk thrust into my hand together with an english kids learning book.

In for a penny...so started reading this book and they all went nuts in a way that suggested they had never heard an english person read before..... Lucky for me!!

Anyway, got some pictures of us all and so ended my epic Gorillas in the mist moment but wont forget it in a hurry.

Set off at dawn (4.30am) for 7 hour drive to first timy place we can stop on way to Cusco , around 3 days away..

Oh and didnt get around to buying a tent so could be interesting..

See ya

will we ever start? (click here for photos)

The delay now is down to the goverment in Lima not issueing the documents for the bikes.
the bikes are ready (although not mechanically sound), We are ready, but everyone else seems to be dragging the feet.

The organisers have tried bribing the authorities will unlimted cash, but they just dont seems to care. We are now amongst the last 20 teams not to have been allowed to leave.

its highly frustraighting and very costly just sitting around waiting go. we are living like tourists,but should be spending like migrants. we have now limited cash at our disposal and our worry now is can´t we afford to actually hang aroung. not that we have any options really. Our flights arnt untill the 13th Nov from the finish line, to Rio then 2 nights there until we fly back. we willhave yo use al our savings from here we fear, unless we get the go ahead in the 36 hours.

Fingers crossed we wil be able to leave today, but every day we are promised it will happen and it just falls through. we are littreally in limbo.

the up side is, the other ralliers are pretty cool, the beers is cheap and the locals are just fantastic. the town is somewhat lackluster though and mark is threatening suiside if we have to wait here till tuesday for our documents.

the powers that be are suing Honda for all cost incurred including ours, although that doesnt even start to really cover anyones cost. We´ll just have to see.

We have had many reports from the lucky 45 teams who have left already of many accidents, the most worrying was that of 2 young Scottish girls who drove their bike off a cliff, into a river, luckly they got thrown clear but the bike toppled 7 stories in to a revine and sank without trace in to the river below. they have lost everything, everything except their passpots which they happend to stow in their pockets.

And at our meeting last night, the organisers received a text from one of our fixers to say that his staff who are helping out with the paperwork had been in a horric helecopter accident and all onboard had died when the pilot lost control over the Andes. Is this a message from god maybe???

its 11.30 here now, we will find out at 2pm if we will be in the lucky few who may get to leave today.

Hi,

Spent today with a sore head from the local mould wine type drink signing autographs for local kids at the sportsground where all the bikes are kept until they are ready to leave. Apparently we were on TV here so the 80 kids that were there doing sport just mobbed the 10 or so of us with paper and pens...I waited 36 years for that moment, was over it after about 10 though!
Played football the rest of the day against a bunch of kids that challenged us and murdered them surprisingly although i havent seen Peru in the world cup now i come to think of it.

Showing my age but have to say the children here are much happier and more appreciative of much less than at home. They were genuinely loving the fact that they had a biro scribble on a scrap piece of paper from us even though they hadnt seen me personally before and probably hadnt seen the news either...

Didnt get the green light we wanted to set off from the authorities so spent the day playing football with the local kids and giving them lifts around the ground i the mototaxis...

Hopefully we will be on the way tomorrow

Mark

Its been 8 days since we left and finally after 5 flights, a day on the train and one on the bus; a few nights out drinking; a days white water rapiding and a day at Machu Picchu, we have arrived in Hunkayo for the start of the´race´with one day to spare (or so i thought when i wrote this on my BB).
Arrived to official welcome from major and received gifts on stage in the main square of old note pad and biro from representative of local community. Then had hilariously amateur and lethal fireworks display that maimed several of the locals.... had to be seen to be believed.

Will spend the day attempting to modify the ´brand new´bikes with bits of the local market to make then actually work.

Major probs with the bikes after inital test drive on a local football pitch were:

1.) they dont steer...i managed to crash one into a goal post on an empty pitch while traveling at walking speed.
2.)They tip over very easily.....even lloyds mass didnt keep the back wheel down on a gently slow left turn.
3.) they dont reallly start and then stall very quickly afterwards which will be fun at traffic lights amongst other drivers here.
4.) the suspension is so hard that the bolts rattled loose in 10 mins on flat grass.

5.) they are fast enough for the handling and braking capability but painfully slow...top speed 30mph.

Reason for the above is that 3 peruvian mechanics put 61 bikes together from scratch in 48 hours flat!!!


We have been advised that we are likely average 20 mph at best inc minor breakdowns. We have approx 14 days to travel 2500 miles.
Therefore if we drive 9 hours everyday then we will make it...Doable i reckon although unlikely to be in any shape to ever drive or maybe even walk again!

Honestly, i´d rather be tackling this journey with one rollerskate than this 3 wheeled bag of bolts!!

Saying all of that, im looking forward to a massive serving of tragic comedy when 60 mototaxi´s are abandoned not 30 mins outside of Huancayo when it finally gets off the ground.......in which case it looks like i´l be doing the bloody marathon next year:(

Stuck in Peru

We have been held up by the poor organisation of the Adventurists. the only thing had to sort was the bikes to be ready at the start, and they arnt. we are now a week behind schedual. and the bikes them selves are not great, infact they are so poor that we are seriously worried we wont make it out of the town let alone the country.

it wasnt ment to this frustraighting, we have waised so much of our money hovering in Huancayo waiting that we probably will not have enough cash to see us through.

all the teams are tearing their hair out, no one knows exactly whats going on and when exactly we leave. all this is down to HONDA. (mofo´s) NEVER BUY A HONDA. they told us that they couldnt guarntee thet bikes would make it. so they pulled out. Now we have inferiour bike that we know won´t make it.


the future is bleak....
(as is the weather)

Almost there....

Having skipped through Rio and Sao Paula in a day, we flew another 5 hours to Lima, Peru.
Finally got a good nights sleep and starting to feel only as lethargic as home.
Will stay 2 nights here and sample some local food Ceviche before flying again to Cusco (home to Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail).

Due to our race being delayed by the organisers, we have time to do a day white water rafting and a day scaling Machu Picchu...so every cloud from above!

The natives and medical leaflets in the hostel suggest best way to Cusco is ´slowly´, so by bus or train over 10 hours and to avoid drinking inorder to avoid altitude sickness and death. The altitude is 3000M above so needs a little respect aparently.

Rather than take that advice and the mind bendingly boring bus ride, we have opted for the 1 hour flight. Hoping to cheat nature and slip through unscaved. Worst case is not being able to breath and being very sick so will see what occurs!

On Monday we will take either a 36 hour bus to the start or 2 flights back on ourselves to get to the race. Im again opting for the second option. From there we have a day to climatise to the 4000M while testing out taxi´s before the start on the 28th..

This is our Mototaxi.

It was ment to be honda 125, but Honda have pulled out causing a massive problem. So we have sourced new bikes, the bad news is that we are going to be delayed starting. the new start date is now the 28th not the 25th =(

which leaves us 3 extra days hanging around in Lima. Ho-hum..

NEVER TRUST HONDA !

day 2 & 3

ok, where to start. Rio was cool if not scary, we landed very very early in the morning and got driven to what looked like the favelas but turned out to be a pretty sweet hostel
Did Ipanima and Copacobana the next morning got burnt within hours even through the clouds.

Met some cool kids who i said i mention, Kate and Laura was great to meet you both and good luck with the rest of your travels. look us up if you get bored sunning in Copacobana.

bumped in the one and only David Dowling, who told us how he shot down a helecopter over Rio the night before, i thought he was lying until i saw the news the next day. NICE ONE DAVIE


Sau Paulo was a blurr, we arrived checked into a formula 1 hotel (cos we had to) and walked for hours around trying to find a party(exactly what the guide books say not to do. but nothing. not a sausage. Was up and at em this morning with a 5am flight to Lima where i write this from now. found a champion hostel in the best district, really cheap, very clean and oddly but satisifingly served us Coca leaves with our breakfast. not that i could taste it by this time...

A big thanks and hello to Raul an Ximon who mark a I sat next to on the plane (respectivly). Raul thanks for the advice. Call us for a beer boys.l

3 days to the off!!!

Day 1 London to Rio - by mark

Hi everyone, felt it necessary to get into this blogging business early if there was to be any chance of getting into a habit.

The flight was ok and made more exciting by the fact that it was the scariest flight 3 of us have been on; one being the steward I spoke who pointed 2ft up the wall with his hand whilst showing me where his feet were.

The oxygen masks dropped because of how violent the turbulence was and when it calmed down the passenger infront of me was kind enough to pass me my salad in a bowl back. Unfortunately he couldn't help with my wine which was dripping onto my head from the ceiling nor Lloyd chocolate pudding from either his lap or the lady in fronts hair. Lloyd and I watched In amazement as the stewardess with the alcohol trolley rose above the seats leaving only her jaw on the floor.
Luckily we had the comforting words of a Brazilian 737 pilot who happened to be sitting next to us, "if our seat belts hadn't been on then we would have crashed head first into the ceiling...

Mark

Tm Minus 1 hour

we are the airport. Our good friend HHelena has helped us massively by getting us invited the BA lounge, so we both scoffing our very last sandwiches for the 26 days washed down naturally with lashings of beer and wine!!

love you Helena

Rio here we come!!
next blog from South America.


L&M

How slow do these things go? (Click here)

This kinda sets the standard i think. slow, noisy and not very water tight!

(Click on the title for the Video)

Packing

With no fewer than 28 micro climates on route, packing is proving difficult.

"just how cold does it get at 5000 Meters above sea level?"

I'm off to M&S for thermals

5 days to go

We are now fully immunized, although we are yet to actually get our yellow fever cards stamped yet.

Our international driving licenses are stamped an correct.

Our 15 flights to get us to the start line are booked. (as well as the 15 back.)

Our Spanish learning's have fallen by the wayside but Our thinking is we'll have more of adventure if we don't learn any of the language.

Our map purchases have not yet been purchased. (mainly due to the same reason as above.(although some might blame poor planning))

We have rucksacks, weather proofs, thermals, hammock and every drug known to man to combat everything the jungle has to throw at us.

now we just need to know where we actually start from......