Personal message

On the first of November 2011 I will climb aboard my bicycle and pedal out of Johannesburg on my trip of 7000 kilometres around the borders and coastlines of South Africa.

There are many reasons why I have decided to embark on this journey; the top three are listed below.

• As a journalist I have visited 19 countries in the past 8 years, but I have not explored my own country. By using the website, Twitter and Facebook during my trip I plan to encourage other South Africans to explore their own country. I am hoping that the photos, stories and videos I post over the two months that I am on the road will ignite a passion for the far reaches of our country.
• Fundraising is a major part of this adventure and I will be donating 75% of the funds raised to CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation and the other 25% to 3-year-old Caysie Jenna who is suffering from Acute Myeloid leukaemia.
• I plan to produce a coffee table book of stories and photos from the trip, once again all the money from the sales of this book will be donated to the nominated charities.

My aim is to cover about 100 kilometres per day and the first leg of my trip will take me 250 kilometres from the Choc house in Johannesburg to Zeerust in the North West province, from here I plan to turn left and head towards Mafikeng.

This is the point of the trip where my Twitter, Facebook and website followers will take over my life. They will be the ones who decide which routes I follow and what places I visit.  Every night I will post an update on my website with information on the routes that lie ahead of me the next day, the next morning I will see which of the routes have the most votes and that is the direction I will take.

I will also be encouraging other cyclists and ordinary people to join me on sections of the ride for as long or short as they would like. The only stipulation being that they make a donation towards our charities.

The plan is to complete this epic journey by the end of December or early January 2012, approximately 7000 kilometres later.

Between now and next year November I plan on entering a number of races and events to train and also to give my project as much publicity as possible. The first of these events is the 94.7 Cycle Challenge; I will be riding with the CHOC Cows in this event.

I am also planning on visiting schools and shopping centres over the next year to promote the project and encourage the people of South Africa to explore their own country.

I would be more than willing to do promotional events for any of the sponsors who join me in this wonderful project, if you feel that you are able to help, please get hold of me via the contact section of the website.