People told them they were crazy. Family members worried for their safety. But against all odds, four adventuring motorcyclists from Dubai have completed a 4,200-kilometre, 15-day fund-raising expedition through some of the least-forgiving desert terrain on the planet.
And so far, they've revved up Dh23,000 in donations to help improve the lives of underprivileged children living in the slums and streets of Addis Ababa. Funds will be donated to not-for-profit group Forum on Street Children Ethiopia.
Off the beaten track
"We got back in one piece and it was a great sense of achievement to have completed a route that is not usually taken by travellers," said John Kelly, 46, organiser of Around Afrika, a five-country tour where riders averaged 265 kilometres a day of travel.
Kelly and three friends arrived home this week after driving their BMW 1150 GS motorcycles from the UAE through Oman and Yemen, across the Red Sea into Djibouti and safely into Ethiopia to mark the end of the first leg of the fundraising trip.
"It was quite an adventure," said Kelly, owner of Kelly Steel and a 24-year resident of Dubai. He was joined by Emirates airline's pilots Ambrose Blaine and Kimmo Pentalla and friend Jim Quirke.
Easy riders
Considering the amount of open highway travelled, Kelly said the trip was relatively free of the misadventure that often accompanies long-distance adventure expeditions.
"There was certainly an element of risk, but we found it was very low," Kelly said.
The closest the team came to any snags along the way was a visa problem at the Ethiopian border that was quickly solved with the aid of their satellite phone.
Highlight
One of the best stretches of travel, Kelly said, was the 600 kilometres of open highway through the western reaches of Yemen, an isolated area of the country where residents are scattered few and far between.
"We only saw four vehicles on the highway during that whole stretch," Kelly said. "It's hard to find that kind or remoteness anywhere in the world these days. It feels, in a sense, that we've opened up that route to travel."
Kelly said the 14-hour trip aboard a dhow across the Red Sea met with calm waters.
There was only one tense moment when a series of small boats approached the dhow but they were not the feared pirates that Kelly had read plied this area of the sea.
Climate change
When the riding team entered Ethiopia, Kelly said they tracked northward and into mountains that reached as high as 10,700 feet.
The elevation brought a marked change in the riding environment.
"It was such a contrast, we were blazing hot in the desert but when we climbed to that height it was wet and very cold. It was also very green," Kelly said.
Ethiopia will not be the end of the campaign.
In March 2007, the team will return with their bikes to travel the next stage of the cross-Africa trek to Nairobi. A third and later stage is expected to take the team from there to South Africa.
The Around Afrika tour is appealing for donations through its newly created website, www.aroundafrika.com.
On the itinerary
- On stage one, the riders travelled through the UAE, Oman, Yemen, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
- The second leg will take them from Ethiopia, where the money they raise will be donated, to Nairobi, Kenya
- The final part of the trip, the bikers will travel from Kenya to South Africa.
