Five young kiwis embark on adventure of a lifetime
16 Nov 2009
CHARITY - With limited motorbike experience, they will attempt to motorbike from Vladivostok Russia to London England across some of the world's toughest terrain.The crew of five - all in their mid-twenties - say they decided to tackle the 25,000 kilometre trip "because we were tired of only talking and dreaming about big ideas - we wanted to actually do something: we wanted to tackle the biggest project we could imagine".
Before deciding to take the trip last year, only one of the five crew members could ride a motorbike. "We had to learn the hard way," laughs Rob Gray, corporate lawyer, aged 24, "by figuring out how to ride our bikes as we drove them out of the Suzuki dealership for the first time".
That was a year ago. Since then, the crew have invested a lot of time, effort and money into gaining the skills necessary to be self-sufficient on a trip across the world. "We didn't just have to learn how to ride", Mike Jacobson, a business strategist, says, "we also had to learn how to fix our bikes - if anything goes wrong, we'll be on our own". The crew have also dedicated time to learning to speak Russian, training in first aid and practising for life on the road by taking a number of trips around back-country New Zealand.
The crew will need all the training they can get. Their route stretches for 25,000 kilometres, spanning 18 countries and a wide variety of cultures, climates and regions. "We have to be prepared to face everything", comments Misha Kravcenko, a PE teacher in South Auckland. "We will be crossing some of the world's worst roads, highest mountains, hottest deserts and most remote areas."
Completing the trip, dubbed "The 51st Traverse", as the route loosely follows the 51st parallel, will be a huge test in itself.
However, the crew are not stopping there. They've undertaken another challenge: raising $25,000 for Living Hope, a New Zealand-registered charity based in Vladivostok that works with local street children.
