Team update, 27 May

With just 5 weeks to go, where are we?

We're starting to realise just how little time is left before we head off! At this point we have everything set up online (except i haven't spent any time yet getting into twitter, which i have to do this week), and word of the cause is gradually spreading.

Kit and bike-wise, we're pretty much ready to go. My travel towel, spare fuel can and [deeply appetizing] rations have been ordered this week and I'll be doing a test run at the weekend with kit fully packed to see if i can fit everything on the bike and still ride it in a straight line! I can't get a top box to fit my bike so I've invested in a big tail pack and tank bag which hopefully i can squeeze everything into.

As far as bikes are concerned, we were really worried about Paul's Suzuki as it had a bunch of things wrong with it and didn't look fit for the trip. But as it turns out he's now on a Transalp which is the perfect bike for the journey, and much as I'd miss the power I'm actually quite envious! Chris will be fine on the BMW (albeit it's an old man's bike!), which leaves Jason and I on different flavours of Triumph, neither of which was designed with this kind of endurance in mind, but should be comfortable enough (we'll let you know from the road!)

Logistics aside, at the moment our main focus is calling in favours from near and far to raise cash, which is after all the whole point of doing this. Good progress so far but still a long way to go in just 5 weeks.

Feeling really optimistic about everything at the moment and all we have to do now for the journey is make sure we get all the bikes serviced, buy a few emergency supplies and then plan some of the finer details of the route such as where we'll be camping, with various "plan b" options in case we run ahead of (or behind) schedule.

So to wrap up it's all good so far - we're working on getting some more publicity for the cause and I'll update on that later this week. If you've read this and like what we're doing, send a link to people!! The more the merrier.

Simon B.