London to Auckland

Today The Ultimate Ride team has proven that should they go bust as ‘cross the world adventurers, they would have a promising future in the trailer modification business.
As Jeremy mentioned in his last blog, our friends from Becton’s Trailers refused to travel a short distance to come and fix our un-roadworthy trailer. In New Zealand and with the right amount of time we would be crying foul using words like Consumer Guarantees Act and threatening commercial ruin for the company in question. Red flags were raised when 5 minutes down the road from the trailer purchase all of the lights fell off the back of the thing. BUT…. we are here in the UK with bigger fish to fry and a countdown of just 4 days to departure.

Within 60 seconds of seeing the long and woeful trailer, Ivan had a blueprint in his mind of how he could change it so Jed and I (which makes us Jedi) were retained as his labourers and away we went unbolting this and that while our project manager attacked things with a grinder.

The remodel took us just 5 or 6 hours and was achieved using only the materials on the existing trailer. The long and short of it is that our long trailer ended up being a much shorter one and it wouldn’t have been too tricky or too unreasonable to expect the manufacturer to be responsible for this. We were sure to remove the Bectons Trailers stickers from our handiwork so that they couldn’t steal any credit that this improvement will surely generate.

Amongst friends Ivan is usually known as Oto , and will probably be referred to as such from this blog on but things might get confusing for you because he has also already collected himself two extra nicknames, “The Transformer” (see trailer pictures) and “That Crazy Croatian” (more evidence later)
With all the excitement of day one at our new trailer building careers, we missed the opportune tide to get the machines in the water for a bit of a play, but we will be setting out tomorrow bound for France on a bit of a test and shakedown (you can watch our progress with the tracker on our site).
We will let you know how it goes!

You might think its easy eating an English breakfast but I can tell you from experience that it’s not. It’s a complex task.
“Please explain” I hear you asking in a well meaning but slightly sarcastic tone.
Well it’s because of all the emotions that are involved and I tend to get emotional about food. When I like it I really like it and when I don’t like it I really don’t. I’ll ride through crocodile infested waters while giving the one fingered salute to pirates but don’t ever put me on Fear Factor because I’m going home in part 2.

But when I fly to Germany do you think I’m thinking about the steins of beer in the outdoor bars or the frauleins riding their bikes beside the river in the summer time? Oh no. I go to Germany on a culinary expedition. Chicken pepper schnitzel with fried potatoes, pig’s knuckles and sauerkraut, apple strudel. ….It’s great.

So getting back to the English breakfast, it starts with anticipation, them moves on to longing, followed by sheer delight when it is served. This is shortly followed by confusion as to where to start(The Japanese who are famous for procrastination at buffets would stare at it for at least an hour trying to figure out what to do). Then there’s concern that the man next to you got a bigger helping and greed as you wish you had more. Finally you move onto worrying that you might not be able to finish it and then when you do finish it (you would be a complete failure if you didn’t), uneasiness that you are going to be sick and severe guilt for what you have done to your body. Then you experience anxiety all day as you don’t want be caught in the wrong place when the baked beans kick in.
And on that note it is time for breakfast here at The Cherry Tree-Rochford. Talk amongst yourselves for a while and I’ll be back later…………….

Much much later……Your culinary correspondent is back and traumatized as expected, not to mention about 30,000 calories richer. But I’ll soldier on and tell you what else is happening.

Last night Ivan Otulic arrived from Croatia. Ivan is a man on a mission and even before we had managed to get a beer into him he had sussed out the operation, decided that the trailer in it’s current form is completely useless and come up with a plan.

This morning I phoned the trailer company and asked for help in fixing up the trailer, explaining that we couldn’t come to them because their 4,600 UK pound trailer was so stuffed that it wasn’t road worthy. The people at Becton’s Trailers (a free plug for them) refused to come to us even though we were stranded with their stuff up so now Ivan and the boys have ripped the trailer apart and are rebuilding it how it should have been built in the first place. (photos on face book when the job is complete).

Meanwhile out in the car park, Mark Robinson and his mates are installing AIS units in the machines. Yes it’s all happening here in Rochford and I better go and help.

Until tomorrow then. Jeremy

Update 25/7 by Travis

Well here we find ourselves out in Rochford, UK, after a few days soaking up as much of London as we could.

Jeremy arrived yesterday to bail us out and put us to pasture at base camp- The Cherry Tree Pub (and accommodation).

On arrival we quickly turned straight back around and headed out to a welcome BBQ at Mark Robinson’s house; Mark is our local man on the ground and in the know (and a bloody great host). After enjoying this a while it was time to head around to another Marks (This is an area of high Marks per sq.km.)house to be reunited with the Seadoos and to drop our jaws at the monstrosity of a trailer, because the trailer is so long and so heavy in the back at the moment it has a very definite sag at the aft end. Worried this was going to scrape the drive, the boys got stuck in and made some quick alterations to where the machines sat in order to bring them all forward and lift the back end up- we hope to get it looked at ASAP and fixed up in a more permanent manner.

This morning we were treated to our first full English breakfast and were all sat at the table for quite some time, feeling that we will be spoiled by this treatment and will be shocked when we have to leave here next Sunday.

There’s (lots of) work to do today on the finishing touches on the machines and if we are lucky we may get them wet down at South End this afternoon. Later on this afternoon we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our final team member Ivan. We suspect he may be walking all the way from Croatia so will quickly shepherd him into the Cherry Tree for rehydration!

Some new pics @ http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=103535926659&view=all

I’m typing this on a Panasonic Toughbook from my hotel in Los Angeles and thanks to Panasonic coming on board ‘just before the haka’, we will get to see over the next 4 months just how appropriately named these things are. Panasonic Toughbook from London to Auckland by PWC sounds impressive. Panasonic have also lent us a broadcast quality video camera so that, later, you can get to see what happened along the way as well, but only if you are good.

Filming will be done professionally by Stuart Kershaw of In the Dark Productions through Europe and then we will take over using our Panasonic job and our GoPro HD helmet Cam. We are hoping for enough footage for a six part documentary. This will take some discipline as all the good filming opportunities happen when you are not really in the best position to film. Usually you are just trying to survive.You are hardly going to stop and get the camera out if you are being chased by Pirates. At that point a heart rate monitor and ‘Sphincter meter’ would give more valuable information anyway.

There are only 12 days until kickoff. Next Wednesday Travis and Jed head up to London. I follow on Friday arriving on Saturday and Ivan arrives Sunday. Adrian will meet us there with George Robson who will be our chief ground crew man.

We will be staying at the Cherry Tree-Rochford pub just north Of Southend on Sea. The first two days we will be completing the mods on the machines with the assistance of Andy and Jon at Thorpe Bay Marine. Then for the next few days we will do test rides including a longish ‘baguette run’ to France and back. These rides will ensure that all our systems are working such as tracking and navigation and fuel transfer etc etc.

Leading up to departure and when underway there will be a team of people on standby or working behind the scenes to keep the show on the road. Angela from Goode PR will update the blog when we cant, Tracplus will be tracking us(that webpage should be up and running by about 27/7) VJ Clark will be correlating the tracking data for a running total on kilometers, Ian Hall-Kenny will be updating the site, Kevin from Ski MD will be available for technical advice, Bob McDavitt from the Met Service will be monitoring the weather for us and DR Andrew Murley will be our medical advice man.
As well as that we have a team of guys working hard to smooth things over for us. They are Richard Tankersley from Malaysia, Bill Holdsworth from the Netherlands, Gerry Ryan from Melbourne, Robert Vogel from Indonesia and Mark Robinson from London. We also have agents working for us in many ports and great people in all the cancer organizations that we are partnered with. Their efforts are all appreciated.

So where do we stand then? Well the sponsors we have, have been very generous and we are flush with high quality gear. But we are way short of cash and will need to find more as we go. Logistically we are well organized except for a support boat across the Bay of Bengal. With a lot of patience, a little bit of luck and some good management we will make it to Auckland. There may not be any cash spare to donate to cancer research but we will have contributed a lot towards that along the way by working with our partners. The real value will be in the lives saved through us getting our message out there and for the record here it is again: Healthy living can reduce the incidence of cancer but if you are still going to get it then early detection of cancer is the key to increasing your chances of survival. For more detail see: http://london-sydney.com/healthy-living.htm
Regards Jeremy

Less than a month to go now folks and its all happening. We are working furiously to tie up all the loose ends, finalize sponsorship details and complete logistical work. I have come to the conclusion that there are not enough minutes left for me to achieve all I need to. For example, I have been working on our route details and so far I have coordinates for 315 GPS waypoints and that will only get us as far as Sur in Oman. There must be at least another 400 to make Auckland.
Meanwhile other supporting players are getting ready to do their parts. Our cancer partners are preparing for our visits, sponsors are getting ready to leverage off the event, in London, Adrian and George are cleaning our new(in 1997) ‘ tow vehicle’, PWC riders along the route are cleaning their machines ready to ride with us, the pirates are cleaning their guns, Barrie is cleaning his teeth and my old mate Colin Bower is cleaning his worry beads.
Those of you who read my first book will recognize Colin’s name as he played a leading support role in the Around NZ event when he stayed at home and worried. Colin who is the man responsible for introducing me to PWC riding, has been a new and used car dealer and currently sells finance and insurance. This is important information because Col is a good man and he’s honest and it’s this fact alone that gives me faith in the future of mankind. But I have some bad news for my good mate Col. He had better get a worry hat as well as beads for this one. “Why”, I hear you ask and it’s a good question. Why? Because on some legs of this ride there are so many variables. Let’s take the leg from Aden to Al Mukalla in Yemen for example. Here’s what we have to contend with:
1. A leg distance of 510km which is only achievable in good weather*
2. *The south west monsoon which still rips through there around that time.
3. Pirates(some are reported to live in Al Mukalla)(but are known to be involved in charity work and many serve on school boards)
4. 40 degree heat night and day.
5. Very few acceptable emergency ports enroute
6. Mechanical issues, poor fuel quality and only leaded fuel, and this is only available by jerry can from the nearest service station which is a taxi ride away.
7. Burfoot’s third law states that a taxi driver will always attempt to rip you off.
8. Immigration officials, paper work, baksheesh etc etc
9. The struggle to get good reliable nutrition. You can’t perform on goat shit and dates.
10. A partridge in a bloody pear tree.
But hey, if it was easy, someone would have done it already. Right?
In other news, we welcome: Solrx as our official sunscreen supplier, Adidas Eyewear who will provide goggles and glasses and Navionics who have provided the charts for our GPS units.
Well that’s all for now. I’m off to London for a few days to pull the skis out of their container and have a few meetings. Productive I hope.!!!
Cheers
Jeremy
P.s. we are still way short of cash. Donations gratefully accepted at: http://london-sydney.com/donate-ultimateride.htm

Last weekend we all went out on a team building and training ride. Attendees were myself, Jed, Travis and Roger of ‘The exploding green machine’ fame.(You either have to have read my book or know Roger.)Notable absentees were Barrie. As a result, my team still don’t know if Barrie actually exists or not and I am starting to wonder myself. I can report, however, that in spite of the absence of ‘The PWC rider’s answer to The Stig’, a productive day was had by all.
On a more fearsome note we were talking about pirates yesterday while working on our RYA Level 2 powerboat course with Chris from 46 South. In an absolute stroke of brilliance, Jed came up with a plan that will enable us to pass through the Gulf of Aden safely and without stress. Jed’s plan is for us to fly the skull and crossbones pirate flag. That way when we pass any pirates they will just raise a finger, wave, flash their lights or honk their horns much as truckers do on a highway. Brilliant!
On the sponsorship front we are doing very well with a lot of gear being provided and some good pledges of assistance in ports along the way but we are still way short of getting together the cash required for the whole operation. We did, however, have a more positive week last week with pledges from Hiway Stabilizers and Unique Fabrics and provision of neck braces from Leatt. Last week I mentioned the Seadoos being in a container and on the way. I neglected to thank Brent at Marfret and Stephen at Oceanbridge for providing and organizing for this. Thanks to everyone mentioned above.
On the organizational front we are all running around getting essentials done like visas, legal work, banking, dental checks and vaccinations. I have had so many needles poked into me that I am scared to take a shower in case I sink. I will probably wear water wings when I do risk it. Physical training has also been ramped up with daily 1-2 hour sessions of weights, cardio, core and stretching.
So with a month to go before we leave NZ, we are busy, but the excitement level is going up and we’ll be communicating a lot more from now on, leading up to a daily blog from about 24th July. Until next week.
Cheers. Jeremy

So, I’ve decided its time that I got my own blog. It is really quite essential that I have one in the quest to represent that a) JB is not alone and that b) intelligent life does actually exist out here. As I write this Jeremy doesn’t know that I’ve upgraded myself to blog status but as he is over in London doing some real work on the ride (read more productive than blogging)…he is at my mercy.

Now that’s done the next thing on the agenda is an introduction. My name is Travis and I am one of the lucky few that have been chosen to the honor of helping JB safely and successfully negotiate the challenge ahead. As we are now within two months of August 1st, preparation is at full throttle and as each day goes by I am learning more and more about the responsibility that I have signed up for. More importantly however, I am starting to succumb to the excitement of the build up.

Perhaps the most important purpose of me having a blog will be that I am creating an avenue in which I can present another angle to the adventures as they happen along the way, especially as things get fun and funny. My first recollection is of the recent afternoon where Jed, Jeremy and I all went down to the Takapuna ramp to sit our PWC licenses with instructor Chris Musgrave. We were put through our paces with challenges like parking the Seadoo’s gently against the coastguard boat and reversing figure eights between some free floating buoys. The toughest test component was a fully clothed exit off of the craft to satisfactorily prove ourselves capable of re-mounting whilst dripping wet. With Jeremy egging us on high and dry on the boat next to Chris we jumped in and got it over with. Done and done.

It wasn’t until we were back on dry land that we stopped and realized that Jeremy had managed to escape a soaking. It turned out that this part had just been Chris having a bit of a laugh as anyone in an instructing role should. Come his turn however Jeremy kept Chris entertained with tales of his high seas adventures and distracted our teacher away from dishing out the same punishment, very much to the disappointment of Jed and I.

While reading Jeremy’s book The Ride around New Zealand I noticed him to be in possession of a highly crafted level of wit in which every second sentence was a play on words, a pun or an ever vigilant crusade to ensure his comrades didn’t get too big for their boots. So it is in that same spirit that I’ve decided to open my first blog with a crack at JB, unfortunately though he proved himself as very intelligent life when he came up with the absolutely brilliant idea that is The Ultimate Ride.

Will write again soonest,

Travis

Well it’s been nearly six weeks since you last heard from me and although some may think that’s a good thing, I know there are some of you, like Barrie, who hang on every word I say and crave updates daily, if not more often. And it’s not that I didn’t want to talk to you, it’s just that I’ve been busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest,  dealing with a job that has taken over my life, that is, chasing my tail and getting ready for the ride.

We reached a bit of a milestone last week when we put the 3 modified Seadoos in a container and sent them off to London. The fact that we got that done in time was mainly attributable to the major sacrifice made by VJ Clark on the mods. What a great effort and I am confident the machines will make the distance as a result. Thanks also to Jed, Travis and Garry for their efforts with this.

I have also been flat-out with media and PR, doing many radio interviews and a couple of TV appearances and fielding the tough questions like, “Aren’t you concerned about your carbon footprint?”

Answer: Yes, I like my planets green and the sooner someone invents a way to run PWCs on bean sprouts and alfalfa the sooner we can all buy sandwiches again that don’t look like they were made on the Incredible Hulk’s bathroom floor.

And “What weapons will you carry to deal with pirates?”

Answer: A pen. Because everyone knows that a pen is mightier than both a sword and a rocket launcher and because if we are stopped by pirates it will be because they want an autograph.

On top of all this business, my employer has requested that I continue attending work from time to time so I have had to do that as well, lest they invite me to find alternative employment.

That said, we have a system in Qantas that allows us to bid to fly to certain destinations and this has allowed me to work on the ride while at work. In the past six weeks I have visited cancer organizations and prospective sponsors in London, Frankfurt, Bonn, Vienna, Sydney, Melbourne, Durban, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. So as you can guess, at the moment I am Martha but it’s possible I could be Arthur.

I had the great pleasure in Durban of meeting the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cansa team who had just completed their own epic ride around the coast of South Africa for cancer awareness. Great team and a job well done. Three cheers!!!

What else? Hmmm, I’m sure there is more. Oh yes. Garry Learmonth is no longer going along as a rider and Jed martin has taken his place….and I believe that is it for now. I promise to update you more frequently from now on and donations are still being accepted (but be quick) at: http://london-sydney.com/donate-local.htm for your country specific cancer org and at: http://london-sydney.com/donate-ultimateride.htm for helping fund the ride.

Cheers

Jeremy

Barrie was having a go at me the other day about my riders for the Ultimate Ride so I asked him if he knew who they are. Of course the answer was no because we haven’t formally announced them yet. That said, they have been on the team page for some time but in order to avoid further questions on the subject, I will now give you their details.

First there’s me….and then in no particular order:

Garry Learmonth, a late 40s Kiwi policeman who has seen action in peace keeping forces and is currently in the police search and rescue team.

Travis Donoghue, a mid 20s Kiwi adventurer who is currently a guide on the Milford Track.

Ivan Otulic, a late 20s Croatian who is a Seadoo mechanic, the World record holder for the longest PWC ride in a day at over 1,600km, and has represented Croatia in boxing and kick boxing.

Adrian Erangey, a late 30s Irishman who was the manager for the successful Earth Race campaign and a long time adventurer and PWC fan.

For more details see the team page at: http://london-sydney.com/team.htm

Of course no riding team would be complete without backups…..Jed Martin from Auckland, and training partners. For training partners I will be relying on the New Zealand based riders and, of course my faithful riding buddy, Barrie. Barrie has said he is keen for some rides and is just waiting for the call. He was last seen sitting in his car in his driveway, wearing a wetsuit and helmet, with Seadoo attached and car engine running and staring expectantly at his mobile phone. Don’t move Barrie, I’ll be calling you shortly! Can someone who lives near Barrie take him some food?

Until next time and don’t forget…’It’s never too late to donate’ http://london-sydney.com/donate-ultimateride.htm or http://london-sydney.com/donate-local.htm

Cheers

Jeremy

‘Nothing is constant but change itself’.

I can’t remember who said that but they were right. As we march closer and closer to departure date we are constantly dealing with change and updating our plans as we go. But on a scale of 1-10 the latest is a 23. For the past year JP and Marie Dufour have been tireless in their attempts to get Domino ready for the ride. It has been a close run thing for some time now and with logistical problems mounting up the team and the Dufours have mutually decided that Domino is unlikely to make Istanbul in time and we have agreed to go without a support boat.

We are sad that JP and Marie will not join us on our adventure but they assure us that they will be there in spirit and also flying the flag for us in the USA where they are now headed. Safe sailing guys and we will see you sometime in the future.

Now before you all start digging into me like Barrie did when he heard it, let me explain our new plans.

Going without a support boat was actually our plan ‘A’ a couple of years ago so it’s not a major shock and we are not all running around in circles claiming that the sky is falling. In actual fact, most people in the know, see riding without a support boat as a much more pure ride and are quite excited about it. Sure it adds logistical problems but hey, it was never going to be easy or somebody would have done it already. Fortunately we heard about it in time to up the fuel capacity of the Seadoos to an impressive 270L giving an endurance of 15hours and range of 800km on a good day. Although we will cover more distance we will not be restricted by Domino’s cruising speed so the schedule should remain pretty much the same. It adds in a few extra countries though as we have to go coastal for most of the route so feel free to check out the new route at http://london-sydney.com/maps.htm

Those of you who look at the new maps will notice a portion on the map that goes directly from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. Although only about 10cm on the map this leg is around 1400km in the real World. We will need a support boat across there as it will take us about three days. We also anticipate needing one across the Tasman. Other than that we should be able to hop from place to place quite well with 800km of range.

In other news, we displayed the first modified Seadoo at the Auckland Boat Show last weekend and a huge amount of publicity has come of it giving us a much needed boost and offers of help from around the globe. In the next blog I will announce the riders. Talk amongst yourselves until then and for the one or two of you who haven’t donated yet please do it at http://london-sydney.com/donate-local.htm for your local cancer organization or http://london-sydney.com/donate-ultimateride.htm to help us out with the costs of the ride.

Cheers

Jeremy