"The cast of this travelogue are: Ken (aka 'Rambling' Rustus McCrankpin), his daughter Caroline, and her husband Beau.

Ken was born within the sound of Bow Bells a long time ago, started work on 14th September 1964 and is now retired, no longer knowing how on earth he ever had the time to go to work anyway, as things are sooooo busy with this journey looming.

Caroline was born in Essex, if that still has any significance these days, has lived in London, southern Spain and Canada, and is working like fury as a teacher to pay for the trip.

Beau was born in Canada, met Caroline in Toronto, now lives in England, teaches English, music and percussion like fury to pay for this trip, and is aiming to work on his PhD in music along the way.

Here they are with special guest, grandson Oliver, the baby son of Richard (Ken's son) and his partner Sam.

A confident Beau announces his plan to be the first human to cross the Sahara riding a drum kit.

Oliver tells Grandad an off-road push chair will be much more fun.

---oooOOooo---

And the significance of 14th September? The career that Ken started with the GPO (remember them?) on that date was pretty successful, so the trip to Cape Town also starts on 14th September (2009). We all hope the date will work twice."

Here's how to join us - how to ride this website:

Click on one of these:

Lights to list all the headings, newest at the top, oldest at the bottom. Then click on a heading to go to that posting.

First Gear to go straight to the first entry.

On the right hand side you'll find a list of countries, you can click on one of those for all the stories and pictures, or

click on one of the recent snippets below.

Lets hope that all the stars line up and all the gears engage for the middle of September, so we can start reporting some real travelling.

Update - October 2011

New visitors are still arriving at this page, so here's the latest news.

In April 2010, all three travellers arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. Caroline and Beau stored their bikes there and returned home to continue work.

Ken continued on his own through Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to South Africa, arriving at Cape Agulhas in October 2010, and Cape Town a little later.

In Khartoum, Sudan, on the way to Kenya, a few chance meetings led to Caroline and Beau being offered jobs. When they arrived back home in England these job offers were confirmed and Caroline found herself re-packing for a rapid return to the Sudanese capital in June 2010. Beau followed a little later.

They now both live and work in Khartoum, Caroline teaching English, Beau teaching western music at the University.

Ken returned home with his bike, by air, in November 2010, and is now in the midst of new adventures.

June to September 2011: With the splitting off of South Sudan as a new country, Caroline found herself working in Juba, the capital, for a short while, before heading to Nairobi where she and Beau collected their bikes and rode them back to Khartoum.

Links to the latest entries are below, or click on one of the country headings to the right.