As yet another brutally hot summer approaches, we have less than 9 months to go before our 1 March 2011 departure from Hong Kong and things are certainly heating up.
We are now working intensely on finalising the selection of charities Wheel2Wheelwill support – with decisions still to be made on China, Malaysia, Indonesia and East Timor. Each territory is proving difficult fordifferent reasons, China because of its vast size and we are only touring through a relatively small portion of its landmass in the south-eastern corner; Malaysia because its hard to get information on charities at the grass-roots level; Indonesia because we are really keen to focus on deforestation and are yet to find the right group to work with; and East Timor because it has an unusual dichotomy of few charities and lots of donations – in the form of massive foreign government aid.
We are also deep in the ‘discovery’ process understanding the logistics of our 12 border crossings. I’m amazed in this day and age that crossing a border can still be riddled with intrigue and rife with corruption. We have learnt that several of our planned crossings haven’t be done before on large motorbikes like ours. We are engaging with experts in these countries now to work together in overcoming the red tape.
The last month has also seen a continuation of our physical conditioning for the long journey. Its been good to have Simon in Hong Kong for a few weeks enabling us to train together. He is so fit, I think I have to pull my finger out and start doing more cardio to match him. He also has this uncanny ability to back-up day after day without feeling much soreness or fatigue. I’m really excited about what we can achieve physically over the next 9 months having such an inspiring milestone set for us.
Finally, we are working away at the television production and broadcasting arrangements for the adventure. There is tremendous interest in creating a series of episodes that captures the amazing charities we’ll visit, people we’ll meet and experiences we’ll have on our journey through these 10 territories next year. We are personally excited by the leverage this will create in raising money for the 10 charities Wheel2Wheel is supporting on this adventure.
There are countless other matters we are working on, not the least of which is continually looking at ways to improve this website, our facebook page and youtube channel. Any feedback is welcome!
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