Training

Wild Will got a new motocross bike and has been practicing up in Joburg ...

The diagnosis on my 'sprained' ankle is that it is definitely broken - two small cracks in two bones in the heel and ankle. Ouch. It's not really sore but I do have a cast on it for the next two weeks, no weight bearing and no bumping if possible. Obviously this affects my training, riding, general every day activities quite a lot and I am not used to that!

Here's a clip of the adventure ride using my GoPro. It's a bit long but gives you an idea of what I was up to on the weekend!

Us Kiwis went to Kokstad this week for last minute Roof training. We had an awesome time, even though by the last day most of us had ridden 6 out of 7 days so we were pretty knackered and started doing silly things ...

it was ridiculously hot, so hence the jumping in the river pics! I have no idea how my bike got up that bank ... Darryl wasn't around so it wasn't him ...

Thanks to everyone who came to the 'Spot the Dog' ride yesterday. It was a good day out, thanks to Will for his time as well. Spot has had her operation and we raised enough money to cover it. Now Dom owes us big time ... bike washing at the Roof, thanks mate!

After an epic day's training on Thursday, Skinner, Cheater and I went up to Iain's for more tinkering on bikes and to get a few hours more training in. The guys were impressed with our tracks and we got Iain's trials bikes out as well to practice some of the technical stuff. Backyard cricket and homemade pizzas that night finished off a good 'working' week!

Today we're running our 'Save Spot the Dog' training ride in Hilton, Spot has had her surgery and we think we have raised just about enough to cover it - so thanks!

Spent a couple of days in Kruger Park, was pretty cool, we saw a leopard which was very special as we hadn't seen one before and lots of people have said it's really hard to see them!

We also were lucky enough to see, in one waterhole, two elephants playing around, a hippo, and a crocodile. We thought we might see a battle of the beasts, but it wasn't to be!

We spent a night there and the next day we saw so many elephants, including quite a few baby ones, and a baby rhino.

Us guys had a great time riding in LEsotho before the cut off for the Roof arrives this weekend. Amazing riding as always, not a cloud in the sky,  friendly locals...

We stayed in Roma Trading Post, thanks so much to the Thorns for their hospitality and great food! We managed to get one of their workers to take gas out to Ramabanta for us one day to get a full days riding in.

Boys are all now feeling good about the Roof, I personally think I have my KTM pretty sorted with a few changes here and there made ... can't give away all my secrets though!

A cruisy day with Mon in Lesotho on Monday, still getting over a stomach bug, so needed a bit of rest. Mon was keen to ride her 'Dr Suze' in Lesotho so I took her on a half day trail ride - she tells me her favourite part of it was riding along singing 'Monica Birch does the Roof of Africa'! She was very impressed with herself getting up a rocky hill with no help.

Few more pics from Namibia trip. Definitely want to go again. In the meantime I will race Dakar ... see the big white spaces on the bikes? Needs filling up with sponsors logos, any takers!?