It read 10,093 kilometres to fly and an estimated 11 hours and 55 minutes time in which to cover this distance. The map on the television monitor aboard Aerolineas Argentinas 747-400 told us all the information we needed to know. The flight from Gatwick to Madrid had been uneventful and we hoped the long leg to Buenos Aires would be smooth and quick.
There is still time to sign up for the 4th annual GlobeRiders Silk Road Adventure, one of Helge Pedersen’s favorite rides.
It’s still up in the air: The last special test called "Trial" will decide which team will come home as the winner of the GS Trophy 2010. It is a neck-and-neck race between the teams from UK, Scandinavia and South Africa.
Slowly but surely it is coming to an end: We are back on Jan du Toit’s farm where we set off towards Swaziland with brand new motorbikes six days ago. Now, almost 2000 Kilometers later, the whole thing got a certain patina with a whiff of adventure.
"Breakfast for Simba." The South African guiding us through the Pinda Game Resort at sunset is kidding. A warthog is unsuspectingly strolling towards the lazy lion dozing in the morning sun. The long maned poser does not seem to be interested in the tough meat of bike riders and prefers to ignore us.
"Have a lekker day", says Celia le Roux, the only female Trophy guide, to the others before she opens the throttle. "Lekker" is an Afrikaans word for everything gorgeous: riding a motorbike, food, scenery, people.
At 5:30 am the alarm-clock goes off without mercy – no matter how late it was the night before. And it gets late into the night quite often.
Exactly at 5.30 am we are jolted out of our dreams by the blow of a loud compressor horn – half an hour before the official waking-up time! The perpetrator is still being sought.
Touratech USA will be providing daily updates for the GS Trophy in South Africa. Check out the Blog Page and Photo Gallery each day for updates from the previous day of competition.
It’s happened! The riders of the GS Trophy 2010 take off their helmets at the end of the day and have a big grin on their face. It’s always been fascinating to see how happy a man can be after playing in a little bit of sand and gravel.