The Epic Delivery - Johannesburg to London in 39 days. 4 GS's. 4 Pizzas.

With one pizza delivery out of the way and some fantastic food we set off two days later. We had originally planned to go through the alps and around the the mont blanc area. We did however realise that the Springbok rugby team was going to be in Marseille in the south of France preparing for their qurter final game in the Rugby World Cup finals. We had spoken before the trip that we may deliver a pizza to them but we had a whole lot of red tape to overcome and almost forgot about it. We did however have a spare pizza.... with that we chanegd plans and headed down towards Marseille - thourgh the entire French riviera and followed the road closest to the sea at all times. You just need to see the road on a GPS to realise how much fun it can be. Just as well we changed to those dual purpose tyres.

A quick stop in Maranello to see the Ferrari factory.


and then the second pizza delivery of our trip... to the Springbok rugby team!! They ended up winning the world cup and we're sure it was because of the pizza!!



Here is the video of the delivery:

http://www.theepicscooterspizzadelivery.co.za/pod/pod33.htm

With the second delivery done we broke our previous record for the longest delivery! With the end in sight we headed north through the middle of France and overnighted in Beurne before spending our last night together in the rather lacklustre port town of Calais in northern France.

The 8th October saw us board a ferry for the last time. 38 nights together. 16000 shared kilometres. Just 220 kms into London and the final pizza delivery to the South African ambassodor in London. Here is the last video from our trip, including our thoughts moments after we saw our families again.

http://www.theepicscooterspizzadelivery.co.za/pod/pod34.htm

The official end point - tower bridge in London - after we started at Mandela bridge in Johannesburg.

Very happy to see my wife...


And the rest of our families


And here is Jays last ride report...

London - Final Post

Wednesday, 14th November 2007

I am writing to complete the final task given to the chronicler of the Epic Scooters Pizza Delivery. This report puts a final and well deserved cross over the city of London, on our web site map.

More than 2 weeks have passed since our tumultuous arrival in the British capital and our triumphant delivery of the final pizza to the South African High Commission in Trafalgar square.

13 countries, 16,100 km and 39 days since our departure from Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg, we wrestled our steeds through London traffic like Knights returning from the crusades and made our final entry onto Tower Bridge with the biggest grins lighting up our helmets.
The sight of our families waiting to great us at the entrance of Tower Bridge Hotel was a release from the relentless focus of the Epic Delivery that made us all feel giddy.

We had done it ! Nobody was more surprised than we were. We had clinched an official world record for the longest pizza delivery by land (sure it may be one of the silliest records around but it’s our record !) and unofficially, we had made the Trans-Africa crossing in the fastest time that we were aware of.
Four amateurs, four trusty (most of the time) motor bikes, four long suffering and tolerant families and an army of great people and willing sponsors that had supported the planning and execution of the trip in every shape and form.
The high’s, lows, hardships and pleasures of the previous 39 days were washed into a jolly glow by the first draft beer that appeared on the scene. Photographers, TV cameras and admirers confirmed that we were indeed celebrities for the next 20 minutes and that somebody appreciated just how chuffed we were with ourselves for having made it.

This trip is one of those experiences that gets better and better in the retelling. Certainly I don’t think many people, stopped halfway through an ultra-marathon, would be telling you how clever they were to have embarked on this lunacy and what a rollicking good time they were having metabolizing their own calf muscles. I suspect that this trip is a bit like that. A monumental challenge at the time but will make for a great story as the memory of the hardships fade and the pleasures come to the fore.

Thank you to everybody that made this trip possible, thank you to our families for letting us go and most of all thank you to my three mates (yes, Luigi, you have been demoted from Godfather to mate) that stuck through this adventure and pulled his weight each in his own way to make the sloppy kiss from my wife, on Tower Bridge, possible. In the words of John Smit, our fearless Springbok captain, when we delivered our pizza to the Boks in Marseilles, “We are certainly going to dominate upfront with the Pub stories for a while”. This is the chronicler of the Epic Scooters Pizza Delivery signing out for the last time, good night and good luck !

The idea to film it was really driven by Curt and was borne out of our belief that the only way our granchildren will know we are such cool grandparents is if we have irrefutable evidence that we did a once-in-a-life-time trip like this. We think the DVD is great given the limitations of the trip and if veiwed in the context of not being polished. As our editor said its view of Africa not commonly seen - from footpegs and quite raw.

In case you're wondering - this is not a commercial venture. We privately funded the majority of the trip costs as well as the production of the DVD - just to show it can be done!

Excellent report.

What a trip, an epic journey there Carl

Thanks for sharing it with us.

A trip I could only ever dream of...thanks for the brilliant write-up

excellent

yer all mad

tried to find out about the red and yellow thing on the bikes but cant click the links

help

ta

I'm am not worthy

Epic!!

Casper

A fantastic trip, you have helped me pass a frozen dark Welsh afternoon, thank you

Stewart

Great report - enjoyed that!

You may be interested in

http://durban2dublin.blogspot.com/2009_03_30_archive.html

seems the 1200 GSA shocks all fail at about the same spot!

cheers

Hairnet600 said:

excellent

yer all mad

tried to find out about the red and yellow thing on the bikes but cant click the links

help

ta

Click to expand...

Hi - what links are those you are referring to?

bladerunner said:

Great report - enjoyed that!

You may be interested in

http://durban2dublin.blogspot.com/2009_03_30_archive.html

seems the 1200 GSA shocks all fail at about the same spot!

cheers

Click to expand...

Yeah - I reckon Ohlins would work hundreds though. The gas and oil combo dissipates heat better. You can be sure that i will think plenty about the rear shock before my next trip though!

Wow good report sounds like you had good time

Thank's for taking the time and effort to share Your Adventure with us Car



Norrie

Got to reschedule now, that was a great trip report. Made me miss Top Gear !
Fantastic

just spent the last couple of hours reading this.

what a fantastic report many thanks for sharing

Great report Car

Thank you for sharing this Car. What an awesome trip - inspirational to read! My wife comes from Jo'burg - would love to do your trip in reverse and meet her in her home town..... one day!