Travelling from London to Cape Town on motorbikes was a childhood dream agreed upon over a bottle of whiskey and the urge to do something different. Joburg high school friends, Dean, who has lived in London for three years, and Erich, for nine, have been planning this trip for two and a half years. Dean and Erich will set off in September 2010, also raising funds and awareness for the Born Free Foundation which originated in Africa.

We both knew how to ride a motorcycle, but didn’t have licenses. So the first thing we did was book ourselves on a course. Two months later we bought bikes and since then, the trip preparations have taken over our lives. My girlfriend doesn’t hear many sentences that don’t have the words Africa, tents, bikes, website, charity etc in them.

We both love animals and think that so much gets publicised for the preservation of human beings, and yet what seems only to be a small percentage of charitable causes go to wildlife and the preservation of the environments they live in. So the search for a charity began, and ended very quickly! I saw a cereal box at work with a Born Free logo on it. It turns out that Born Free aim to ‘keep wildlife in the wild’. Doesn’t get much better then that! A big aspect of our trip will be to visit some of their support centres along the way and spend some time helping out and seeing how their work has impacted the lives of many endangered species.

Things are constantly changing in Africa and we’ll only really find out about certain aspects and dangers as we are heading down the continent. But hey, if one has a dream and ambition then why not follow that. Dean is of the opinion ‘why fly home when one can ride’. I say, ‘stuff the GPS, I’ll follow Dean’’.