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The Ride Round The Top and the Gutjwa Appeal it helps to fund has received many messages of support from some of the hardest-riding people in the world.
Lorraine Hird, fund- and project-manager for Gutjwa School, is the female part of Two Kiwi Bikers. On their BMW K1100LTs, she and husband Wayne have been world-travelling for the past decade or so, visiting more than 50 countries and clocking up over 260,000 kms / 160,000 miles in the process.
Support has come from Ted Simon, author of the seminal round-the-world-on-a-motorcycle book, ‘Jupiter’s Travels’ and more recently “Dreaming of Jupiter”:
“Anyone who has travelled a lot can feel like the merest drop in an ocean of need, but still one has to do something. What I learned is that the best way to help is on a personal, one-to-one basis. If you really want your money to work, and you can't go out there with it yourself, give it to someone you know and trust, who will put real time and effort behind it. I've met Lorraine, I know her and trust her, and I'm sure any money she gets will hit the target. So here's £xx to go where my mouth is. And give Lorraine my love.”
And from Des Molloy, who with his old Dutch-Kiwi buddy Dick Huurdeman, traversed the Silk Road in 2005 on a 1960s Norton 19S and a 1960 Panther Sloper, reported in ‘The Last Hurrah’:
“Great cause, great ride, great bikes. Go for it Peter and Neil!”
Sam Manicom, author of ‘Into Africa’ and recently ‘Under Asian Skies’ has also written in support:
“Children are the future of South Africa. They don’t ask to have their lives affected so dramatically by AIDs and extreme poverty, but they do ask for the chance to go to school, to grow up, and to have happy useful lives. A chance to go to Gutjwa School means an education, and a future.
These bright hungry minds are full of potential and it’s not only the AIDs orphans that are struggling to survive and to build their lives. For many in South Africa, conditions are harsh and unforgiving. Schools don’t have even the most basic of equipment. On my way through Africa I encountered two types of hunger in many of the children, the hunger that comes from an empty stomach, and the hunger that stems from curiosity and a desire to learn.
Peter and Neil, still on their boyhood British bikes, aren’t just sitting in their garages polishing them - they are out there trying to do their bit to help. I’m proud to have been asked to endorse their attempt to help just some of the children who should have such bright futures.
The children I met in Africa all have the ability to be special people. They are entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses, farmers, school teachers and engineers in the making – if they get help.
Please help THEM by sponsoring Peter and Neil on their ride. Please put your hand in your pocket and pull out all you can spare. You may not be able to afford much, but whatever you can will help. You can help to make a massive difference.”
And Nick Sanders, not only famous for his long-distance riding, but long-distance riding FAST, holder of the wheeled speed-record for a Round The World trip in a mere 18 days, has also added his support:
“Good luck Neil and Peter; anything any biker can do to help people out less fortunate than ourselves deserves support. I wish you well.”
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