Right lets start at the beginning. This summer Steph and I went to a family party where we camped over night. On the Sunday morning we were having a very nice breakfast and I was reading the Sunday papers. I spotted an advert asking for volunteers to ride across South Africa in aid of some Children's charities. As you know from our front page, I had been looking for something like this for ages, and Steph was always talking about her trip to Africa and how she wished she could do something to help the people.

I pointed out the advert to Steph, and before I knew it, she had torn the advert out and said she would look it up.

Two days later I get a phone call from her, telling me that I have to do it as she's already signed up and there aren't many places left and I have to make a decision that day!

Without any thought at all (yeah right!) I signed up as well and got very excited and then very scared. 2000km in 8 days off road? I get knock kneed at gravel.

December 5, 2007

After many meetings, and ideas thrown around and out we held a photoshoot at Jonsies. Our mate Fi helped with ideas and 'fluffing', we managed to get a photographer at short notice who has donated his time and a printer who could get it all out in time for Christmas. (thank you Leigh and Kate)(please check out our contributors page in a few days for their details.)

15 January 2008

Well we managed to sell 200 calendars and raised £700 towards our target. Thanks to everyone who helped and bought them. If I never see another calendar again it will be too soon!!!!! We are now currently working on the Band Night at the Litten Tree and trying to think up new and inventive ways of making money!!

02 February 2008

Well the Band night was a great success. Despite the issues with the management at the Litten Tree (wouldn’t work with them again if you paid me!!). We had three great bands playing – Racketears, Driver and DerBomber. They were brilliant!! Thanks guys. To help them get the crowd going we had Sharp Shooters showing us their pole dancing skills. Again, they were brilliant and the crowd went wild!!! Check out our pics in the events page.

11 February 2008

Wooohooooo!!!!! We’ve got our off-road training booked with Trail Riders North Wales, who have kindly offered us the days training for free! We are off next week (21 Feb) and will update you on our progress.

How much fun can you have on two wheels? Yeehhaaaaa!! That was amazing! We had the best time. Cora only came off once. I think I managed four or five times. It was Awesome though. We loved it and can't wait to get out to Africa now. Thank you so much to Trail Riders Wales who provided us with some excellent training in prep for the trip. Cheers Marianne!!

Cant sleep! Its now 1.46am and Ive had to get up for a brew, packet of quavers and a smoke! Brain won't switch off. It wants to keep asking me about bungee logistics, festival car parking and general facilities, oh and who the hell are we gonna get to do the face painting!! I've now started counting Bungeing Sheep. Right back to bed to try again..................

24 March 2008

So the weather forecast was for a sunny day. We got up at stupid o clock for a 5am arrival time, only to find an empty field. Luckily there was a man with a high vis jacket on who appeared out of nowhere and told us that yes there was a carboot, but most people came for about 730. We went and stocked up on Macdonalds (the only eatery around and open at 6am on a bank holiday monday, God bless cold blooded commercialism!) It was pouring with rain and freezing and we were wholy unprepared for bad weather. The ground was muddy and we had no covering, so we sacrificed a pair of purple curtains to keep the worst of the mud off. We were swamped with the usually car boot early bird vultures whilst we were still unloading, but it bouyed our spirits because we made about £30 in the first hour. The small flurries of snow didn't seem to put people off and we had a steady flow for the rest of the morning. The loading and unloading of everything at both ends was the worst of it.

We made £120 and we got our pitch free so not a bad day considering!

Enduro decided to put a night on in London for us, to fill us in on what to expect, meet people who had done the previous years and to hear from representatives from the three charities that we are raising money for. We had a great time. This is us with a group of first weekers. For those who don't know there are two trips to South Africa this year and we have already started splitting into first and second weekers!!  It was really great to start getting to know the team and it made us more excited than ever. The fact that they've told us that this year will be harder has not made me nervous at all!!IIt was good to hear as well what exactly our money will be used for, and it was very inspiring to hear how people in South Africa manage to cope unimaginable hardship. I can't wait to get out there and see first hand how people are helped.

A quiz night was held at Y Fynach in Rhos on Sea. It was fantastic. They gave all the takings of the quiz to us, plus the pub donated £50 and we managed to raise a further £110 on a tombola we did. They really got into the spirit of it and even had a question on Unicef in each round. They even made us put a pound in for every Unicef question we got wrong (two out of five!) In total we raised £240 from the night, so good effort everyone!!

24 May