I'd like to figure out how to generate an interest in following our adventures in Africa next year - starting in 4 months time!

I would especially like to be able to generate some money for "do-gooder" projects along the way. I'm sure we will run into any number of opportunities to buy some stuff or otherwise be helpful to orphanages or hospitals or schools or…. Even in South Africa alone there are more than 1,000,000 HIV orphans - heard it on the radio just the other day.


It would be nice to have even just a few hundred extra dollars to offer up whenever the opportunity to do something good along the way presents itself – especially if the dollars have other people’s names on them! I’m sure many such opportunities will pop up – they did on my South American trip a couple of years ago and that continent isn’t suffering from widespread HIV, warfare, or natural disasters like Africa.

So, what I have in mind is setting up something like the following which I copied from an Australian guy riding a bike from Sydney to London thru the Middle East - he made it!


His blog included something that looked like this:

"Pay your support!

Right, there’s no point just doing this for the sake of seeing a man die on a moto, we may as well make some money for some poor fly-blown orphan along the way. Following is a sponsorship link with all proceeds going to good causes along the way. So give large, give generous, because if we raise enough then just maybe I’ll get on the telly! (Which he did when he got to London!)

Click this link to sponsor me giving it all away during the trip.

And, if you have a website we would be pleased to offer you a link on this page once you have pledged your donation.”

I don't know how to set up something like this. If you or anyone you know would like to “get er done”, please go to it - and let me know. Thanks, Tom 

Just returned from a little ride around in the Rocky Mountains

My friend John from Derry, Northern Ireland came to visit three weeks ago. He had previously bought a 1993 BMW K-75 and it was waiting in my shop for his return. I took my 1997 BMW R1100RT and away we went on a ride: Custer's Waterloo, Yellowstone, Bear Tooth Pass, Deadwood, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Tetons, Dinosaur Monument, Arches, Antelope Island (in the Great Salt Lake), Bonneville Speedway (had to try a short ride on salt!), San Francisco, up Highway 1 then 101, and on back home again. Almost 5,000 miles in 12 days; then John went home again to rest up. Great ride - big country! There are still lots of antelope and deer playing out there on the range, and buffalo, elk, and a few more "wild animals". But, no elephants, giraffes, or lions -- until next year.

Step one - buy a new moto....

I bought a 2008 Suzuki DL650 V Strom from Patrick (that's him on a previous trip to Uganda) in Gauteng - near Johannesburg, South Africa. I haven't paid for it yet and not sure how to proceed remotely with registering it in my name and getting all the documents processed. Also, I'll want to modify it a bit and I'm not sure how to go about getting all that done without being in country until next March or April. But, it is a start; I now have a bike waiting for me!

Will I actually spend the time and effort it requires to share my travel stories/experiences with anyone in the wide world who might want to track my comings and goings? I want to do it. But, will I?

I took up motorcycle riding when I was 62 years old, now almost 7 years ago. I'm not very good at it; too cautious of mind and weak of muscle. But, I like taking a bit of a risk and feeling the speed and challenge of it.
I have now ridden about 70,000 miles on motorcycles. Some in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, and in a few months Africa. Haven't yet thought much about Asia, but maybe one day.

Latin America involved a lot of off road; I'm better on the road! But, it was fun and I live to tell about. But, I haven't told about it much. I've got thousands of pictures. Nt great photography, but they remind of when I was where and how it felt and what was happening. Not many people have seen even a few of them.

I'm thinking I should try to blog and post pictures next time -- Africa.

I'm planning to start in South Africa, then Namibia, Botswana (I hope I get to meet The First Lady Detective), Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, and then.... Maybe Libya and Tunisia before crossing into Europe. We'll see. And, we'll see if this blog ever amounts to anything....