Africa | GlobeRiders Africa Adventure 1

Globe Riders Africa Adventure, we will start going through South Africa, to Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana into Zambia and then we head over to the west coast through the deserts of Namibia and then back to Cape Town after 37 days with 16 bikes, 18 people and we have a chase vehicle to go with us. I'm Helge Pedersen, I'm owner of Globe Riders and we are based out of Seattle, Washington. I'm Sterling Norreid and I'm the filmmaker on the Globe Riders Africa Adventure. I'm Dan Townsley, I'm a partner and guide for Globe Riders and I'm from north central Washington state. I'm Greg Blakey, I'm from Bainbridge Island, Washington. My name is Lynn, I am from the central Oregon coast. I'm Vince Cummings, I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I'm John Hall, I'm from Newton, Massachusetts. I'm Debbie Hauer from Altamont, Missouri. And I'm Jeff Hauer from Altamont, Missouri. I'm Ben Jack from Seattle, Washington. My name is Rich Lamp and I'm from McAllen, Texas. My name is Dan Marks, I'm from Seattle, Washington. I'm David Marsing and I come from Bainbridge Island, Washington. My name is Diana Mayer and I'm here from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Hi, I'm Randy McClanahan, I'm from Santa Fe, New Mexico and Houston, Texas. I'm Emily McGay and I'm Roger Waterman, we're from Los Alamos, New Mexico. Hi, my name is Tom Petrillo and I come from Michigan. Welcome to South Africa! We're here in Cape Town, just arrived the other day. When I was 27 years old, I headed out from Norway and I was heading for Cape Town. I didn't know it at the time because I just wanted to see Africa. But after almost a year of riding, 28,000 kilometers, I actually came here to this very city. It was during apartheid, it was totally different from what it is today. Today we visited Robben Island, saw Nelson Mandela's prison quarter, just met a wonderful guy that had actually been a political prisoner himself. To get this country, we fought for it through our sweat and blood. I didn't really know a lot about Nelson Mandela and the process that he went through and being in prison gives you a lot of things to think about. South Africa is prosperous. It's a country that has a bright future, I think. There'll be some bumps in the road, but hey, we are here to discover it again and it's a wonderful place to travel by motorcycle. One of the things that makes Globetrotters Tour so unique is that each customer is riding their own bike. They set it up custom-made for themselves and we ship the bikes to and from the destination. Either out of Seattle or in Heidelberg in Germany, if you come from that part of the world. We will take care of all the shipping logistics, all the paperwork. A lot of challenges, a lot of customs issues. Then this will be the seal that'll be on there when it gets to Cape Town. So it's security sealed, because what they're worried about is stolen bikes being exported. We get special permits for the different countries. They all seem to have their own little idiosyncrasies. Here in South Africa, on this particular tour, usually you need something called Carnier de Passage Etouan. You go by yourself, it's quite a lot of research involved. Absolutely it can be done, but just be prepared for a battle with customs and immigration and stuff. It's like an assembly line. What's inside those panniers? Smuggled goods. What do you think of this Globetrotters container loading for Africa? I think it's exciting. I wish I could sneak in, load myself on the container. But I have to run the service department, so not this time. Maybe we'll bring lots of work back for you. I'm sure of that. What kind of damages would you expect to see on a trip like this? I would expect seeing deformed panniers. I would expect crash bars deformed. And all the customers will pack a lighter the next time. Disconnecting the battery. This year we have 16 bikes. And as normal, we have mostly BMWs. It's only one Suzuki DR650. We actually, I think we have five 800 GSs, which is going to be fantastic. It's the first time I'm going to be traveling with that many of the 800. It's a great bike, I think, for Africa. And then we have 1200 GS Adventures, one 1150, an old museum piece, R100 GS PD, great bike too. And one 650 Twin. It's great to get them on and know that they're on the water and heading in the right direction. We've arrived and the bikes are here. The shipper took the bikes out of containers, got them through customs for us, delivered them here to their warehouse. Everything's come out of the box here perfect. The people that are going on this trip are people that can take off for 37 days plus, have the money for it, and also have the knowledge of riding in dirt and severe conditions. You have to be an adventurous spirit to do this kind of a trip. But on this particular journey in 2010, we had most Americans, two Canadians, age range from 31 to 73. And for a change, first time for Globe Riders, we had two girls riding their own bikes, which was pretty cool. Great day to be a Globe Rider. This is just a final little touch that I thought I'd throw on before I went. Bring a little bit of Africa. Zebra on my tank. Sun just came up. It's totally blue sky, very little wind. It's going to be a good ride today. First day out, it's very important to have a good day. My friends, my family, all the people I work with, they always say the same thing. Who are you going with? Who's going to be on the trip that you know? And the reality is it's really nobody. But you come to these trips after one or two of them with the understanding that there's going to be 10 or 15 people you're going to meet. You're going to build a relationship with them for a couple weeks or six weeks in this case, and you're going to all leave friends. It's a great experience, and it's probably my favorite part of the trip. At Globe Riders, our objective is to provide our clients with a very high-end, if you will, adventure tour. They have to carry their own gear. We don't carry gear in a chase vehicle for them. We've already done these routes. We've canned in the tracks so we know where we're going. They'll always know the hotel waypoint each day. We write them in what we call our roadbook, which gives them all the navigation information in writing, as well as the contact information for the hotels. And if they want to go explore, that's wonderful. All we ask them to do is pay attention to the clock because we want them to be into the hotel before dark. Clients have problems along the way, we'll try and help. We'd like them to be self-sufficient. Of course, we always help. We want our clients to be able to be independent each day, if they so choose. The daily routine of the Globe Riders is usually up by 5 or 5.30, you're at breakfast by 6.30, and you're on your bike at 7. Figuring out how to get all my stuff into the minimal amount of space absolutely brought way too much. In the beginning, it's perhaps a little stressful for some people, but when you get into it, it's a routine of it. I'm getting a lot of help and support from everybody. I appreciate that a lot. Oh, that's good. It's really a struggle for me to be gracious and accept it and still do what I know I can do. Just looking forward to getting going, and I'm sure everybody's anxious to get those wheels rolling. Yeah, for sure. Let's get out, have a safe trip, have an enjoyable trip, and see our beautiful continents. And hope the wagon is not needed. Don't want to be needed. I'm there in case I don't want to be needed there. When you take off in the morning, you follow the line that we have drawn for that day from hotel to hotel, and you always have the security of having a chase vehicle at the end. It's the first day out, and we had a wonderful day. We're riding in weather like this most of the time. Saw the whales at Hermanus Beach. Beautiful whales just basking in the sun. Because I worked so hard for so many years, I really never saw any of the world. I just worked, worked, worked all the time, all the time. And now what I want to do is to see as much of the world as I can on a motorcycle. It's really important for me to do it on a motorcycle because we're more approachable. We find the people more. We're exposed. We're essentially defenseless. We have to be alert the whole time, and I don't want to travel any other way. Try to encourage yourself to go a little faster. I already set my land record coming here. You did great. I took the motorcycle riding course and failed miserably and was told, you know, really some people just aren't made to ride motorcycles. Of course, you said that to me, and I said, I'm riding a motorcycle. Welcome to Cape Agulhas, most southern point in Africa. We're at the bottom of the world. We're at the farthest, most southern place you can go to in Africa, and life is good. 27 years ago, I came here. There were no boardwalk. There were no monument. Actually, it was just a shipwreck that we're going to take and check out later. This is where the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean over there, Atlantic Ocean here, and I kind of meet. It's a very important place in shipping before the Suez Canal was built. What a day. Look at the sky. Look at the people. Folks are all around us having a great time. Nothing can be better. It's good to be alive. It's a lovely day, not as the day when I came here in 83. That's when I took this picture of the ship you see behind me 27 years ago, and the girl is falling apart. You can see it even turned around. There's not much left, but it still has a few years left, I see. And at that time, my bike blew over when I took a picture of myself. I'm not going to do it with this beautiful girl, the 1200 GS Adventure that I have here. I've been riding it from Cape Town, and now I'm going to continue up the garden route and see the rest of southern Africa. It's going to be a fantastic trip. Just like this, you take a cup of tea and you think about stuff. A little on the side. Now we just have to fill up that hole, I guess. This is going to be my launch pad. South Africa is the most diverse of all of the countries, because you have a high standard of living for some people, very low for some others. You have people in the countryside. You have the big cities that we are going through. The climate change coming from Cape Town, where it was cold. Some people brought even heated clothing with them, because we could have a storm come in and it could be very cold. It's beautiful riding, fantastic sealed roads. And then you can go in the backcountry and you have some awesome riding in the hills with the big farms, ostrich farms. The main reason why people have ostriches in this area is because the ostriches started migrating many years ago from the Sahara Desert. That is in the early 1800s. Tell me a little story about the life on the farm of an ostrich. These birds, they love high temperatures. So then the farmers started farming the ostriches in that time, only for that beautiful black and white feathers of the male. You're weird. Weird birds. But this product here, this one provides the main income for ostrich farming. Of course, it is the only leather in the world with that beautiful dots on it. That is the part where the feathers came out. That's how you also test your leather to see if it's real. Rub the dots from side to side. One side smooth, other side rough. And the leather is used to make handbags, jackets, wallets, shoes, all kind of stuff. And it has been tested as the second strongest leather in the world. Third strongest leather is crocodile. The first one, it is the kangaroo leather. Welcome to the big bad world. Bye, ostriches. We like to stay in the best accommodations we can possibly book wherever we stay each night, from five-star hotels to a homestay, almost, in some countries, because that's the best accommodation we can find in that location. The bottom line is, is the reason we do what we do, accommodation-wise, is just to make sure our clients are well-rested. To get ready for this trip, I worked really quickly at letting go, because I know these trips go by fast. And the longer you carry your past or your work and your relationships or what other challenges you have in your life with you, the sooner you can let go of that and get into the moment, the more that you can fully enjoy it and capitalize on the experience. Ready for the world's highest bungee jump? See what happens. First time bungee jumping. You start getting a little nervous, realizing what's about to take place. Well, here I am, all suited up in my harness for the world's highest bungee jump. It's the next thing I know I'm going down the catwalk and harnessed up and I've got my feet over the edge of this bridge and end up jumping 216 meters down to, with about a 300 meter stretch one of the most exhilarating things in the world. We got lost and found ourselves lost in a game reserve. This place was well sought out. We did a lot of research to find this place here and log routes. Basically, we got lost and Ben said there's a shortcut up ahead. I got bored of being on the highway today. We're going to see some animals in Africa. It was awesome. It sure seemed we had these giraffes on both sides of the road and they finally came up and crossed the road right in front of us. Yeah, we are really lucky because normally they wouldn't let the bikes go through a place like this. Luck is on our side. Let's see what we can find around the next corner. Then we got nearly accosted by a herd of Cape buffalo. They were beautiful and had babies with them. So we were, I said, we got to get out of here. So as we were leaving the game reserve, we see this steep road that led up to a globe. Just this unbelievable globe, like just, it was meant to be for the globe riders to find it. And it had the whole world in relief on it. It was amazing. So we decided as globe riders, it would be appropriate to ride around the globe. It seems like every corner you can turn and find another dirt road that leads somewhere that'll have something even better around that corner. So it's a pretty wonderful experience so far. We don't like our clients actually riding big groups. That's dangerous. We like to have separation between our clients' bikes just for safety purposes. Because most of the places we ride are very remote and you never know what's going to pop out on the road from a farmer on a tractor to a mule to, you know, an elephant. So you never know. Every day is a lot of fun to me. I don't have to worry about anything. I listen to music while I'm riding my bike. Much to the regret of my partner, David, because every time he talks, I can't hear him. It always takes me about three minutes to get my gloves off, turn my iPod off. I just look forward to waking up in the morning, hopping on the bike and driving somewhere else. I could do this for a lot longer than the trip is scheduled to take. Everything was going nice. We had some good riding. People were upbeat. We were just getting into the rhythm of it and bang, there it happened. Roger went down and he was really sad because he had an accident that it was bad. He hit this big pothole and then he started swapping ends. His right pannier flies off tumbling down the road and then high sides and rolls a couple of times. It was a good hard hit. I've got a broken collarbone. I think there's a couple of ribs in the back, but never broke a boat before and it doesn't hurt as bad as I thought it would yet. Yet. What's Emily going to say? Oh, she's going to be pissed. For me, the most important was to get Roger comfortable. He was in a lot of pain. We gave him ibuprofen and some painkiller and then got him in shade. So I just sat there next to him and supported his body while I asked other people to do other chores and it worked great. The call came in from Jeff who said, listen, we need to come and pick up the bike because it's broken, as he put it. I think not wanting to alarm anybody, which is always a good thing, especially when you got the damaged bike's owner's wife in the car with you. This is what happens on these things. At least he's doing good. It seems like he's in good spirit. So as long as he's getting an ambulance to get his arms set up, he'll be OK. So, Meneer, how was the day? Hey, it was going fine. We found three broken ribs and a collarbone. And the next day when he went to the hospital, we found out that the one lung had collapsed. And it's sad to say, but that was basically the end of the trip for Roger and Emily. It's sad that someone got hurt, but the group goes on. Check into the border here. Another stamp and then up to the pass. Hello. I think the most intimidating thing in my mind was Santee Pass. I mean, that was a real challenge for me to kind of get myself to do it. And it was more of a mental problem that I had than it was a skill problem of riding my bike. Santee Pass was a highlight for me because I was able to take my panniers off the bike, lighten it up and for the first time kind of let it go. And it was a real rough road. And it was very exciting for me because I was attempting to ride really fast. We let air out of our tires. We rode them at about 20 to 24 pounds. We took our panniers off, made the bikes a little bit lighter. I think for the most part, the luxury we had is the partnership of a couple other guys going with us and spending the time and that reduces the risk a little bit. My philosophy about riding on dirt, I think is different than most of the groups. I'm at a point in my life, I'm 71 years old. I'm not looking for challenges, I'm looking for joy. So I went up and went past a few easy switchbacks and figured I'd wait till a later date to challenge myself and possibly screw up myself and ruin the trip. Some of the guys that are up in their years are very smart. You know, they are very wise about not putting themselves out there too much. You know, I probably suffer from thinking I'm still 30 some years old and I'm not anymore. I probably get it competitive but not in this type of thing. I'm pretty competitive but not riding my bike because I'll do what I think I can do and I'll push it a little beyond what I think I can do. But I try to dial it back if I think it's over my head. You know, you do a lot of steering with weighting the pegs on the bike, keeping your weight off your hands and actually going up and down the pass was important because you get tired. One of the things that you got to be careful about is staring out at the beautiful scenery and not keeping your eyes on the road. It's been a nice transition building up to more technical stuff. We've had some fabulous twisty roads, some great gravel. I've built a lot of confidence along the way. The whole group's been great because everyone's got a bit of advice here, bit of advice there, how to handle this, how to handle that and you just become a better rider, become a better participant. When we got to the top it was kind of cool because, well I think we all wanted to have a beer because it was the highest pub in Africa but we thought better and took photos, enjoyed that the villages were cool, took some pictures of the people up in the villages. Could have spent a lot more time up there. I and a couple other guys stamped in but forgot to stamp out so we're concerned they're still looking for us up there. When we left Durban today it was kind of sad because we left behind two of the group members I think it's the worst thing that happens when you're riding in a group. We were really a nice group together and Emily and Roger had to stay back because Roger still could not move. We had hoped that he could go with the group but he had a collapsed lung, he had eight broken ribs so quite a mess. But he's recovering but unfortunately he has to go home. Medjet Assist is helping both of them to get home back to New Mexico. We have just arrived at the Damasulo village where we're going to experience a little of the culture of the Zulus in this area. This is our traditional village, we call it Umuzi in our language and the wooden fence around the village we call it Utango. We use it in order to protect the people in the village and to keep the wild animal away. This is the war shield. The warriors they use it in order to protect themselves when they're fighting. The shield has become straight and balanced now and cut it like this. Then the warrior takes one spear as a reserving spear and another spear on the left hand side. Then the warrior starts walking. When the warrior comes across with an opponent on the way and when the opponent tries to attack the warrior, the warrior uses a shield just to move it side to side like this and then the spear of the opponent just becomes stuck here like this. It is not easy to penetrate that side because of that beautiful decoration. That decoration here we call it a macabelo. For that time the warrior gets a chance to take that spear and stab the opponent. And this one. Oh man that's the best. I just love that part of traveling. You know we were just one on one. Language was a barrier but we have arms and legs. It was fun. They were having fun. I love it. It's great. Big part for me is getting away from all that I have at home and stepping back from it for a bit. Seeing life with new eyes. Meeting new people and learning maybe a little more about myself and hopefully you know learning enough that I can take that back home and experience life a little bit better. Got to cross the border into Swaziland. Easy border crossing. Then head to the hotel. I have 35 cows. 35 cows. Yes. Very good. And what is your name? My name is Nolita Samamba. Nice to meet you. It's pretty scalding hot here. As long as you keep moving it's okay. I didn't think the cow were really gonna fill up here. I think it was more a shade thing for the cows. 102 Fahrenheit. We start with moto Cape Town. Cape Town, Durban, Swaziland. All by moto, moto, moto. It's good. Yes. This motorbike. This motorbike we go. Today many motorbikes. 15. 10, 15 motorbikes. How old are you? How old do you think me? How old me? 45. No, 105. I'm kidding you. I'm here in Swaziland on our first day with John, Ben and Rich. And we are going to go out for a ride. And what I think is good with GPS is that the GPS, it's a good thing to go and explore places so you can get lost without being lost. And let's go riding. Having the GPS with the tracks, you could just take off when you wanted to go, but had the flexibility to go off, take different routes if you wanted to. And if for some reason we took a wrong turn in some small town and ended up in the middle of nowhere, we'd have a way to easily get back on track and make it to the hotel at night. Auto routing is starting right off the hill here. And it say that it's 37 kilometers to the hotel. We will be back at 5.51. A combination of map and the GPS is really the best combination to fill in if you're interested in the detail. How long does it take to carve and polish and finish a piece like this? I think it takes me a week to finish it all. So a full week to do it? No, a week. One week. And this guy's got a hard, hard job. He's along the roadside selling soapstone objects that have been chiseled out of blocks of soapstone. And the prices are very, very inexpensive. And when asked how much money he made yesterday, he sold nothing. So today we stopped. We bought some objects from him. OK, so I just want to see what you are packing it in. Birthdays, no? Virgin for sex. I got a water buffalo at this roadside attraction. An ashtray foot. And I don't even smoke. You know, I'm just amazed at the names I remember hearing and history and aspects of the Boer Wars and the Zulu Wars and the different cultures that exist. But what's amazing to me is also just the richness of not only the people, but of the country. It's incredible. When you drive, you say, brrr. Then we stopped at another roadside stand where they recruited about five, six kids to dance. And they had green leaves tied to their shins and tied to their arms and tied around them. Helge put them on his motorcycle, put the helmet on. We got some great pictures. They're like kids everywhere. In these stops, it was probably a highlight of their day, their week, their month, maybe their lives to have somebody interact, someone from America that was friendly. Thank you. So we are here in Swaziland, just along the road at the same place as last time, which was five years ago. There were some dancing boys. Let's see their reaction when I bring the picture here and some of them might know them. Do you know this guy? Do you know these guys? Do you know this? It's five years ago. We can take picture of you too. Today we take picture and two years, I think I will be back here. I'll bring another picture. But if you can take this picture and give to them. Yeah, that is good. When you make a lot of money, do this man take all your money? Yes. No. No, he don't take. You get all the money. I understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't believe him. We call him Pimp, where we come from. I'm saying. Yeah, the man that used the small children for work. Besides South Africa being a very diverse country in terms of the scenery, the areas that you can travel, there's just accessibility. There's a great many fantastic, beautiful, spectacular countries in Africa. But the vast majority of them, for example, just something as simple as roads, very lacking in infrastructure, just any way of being able to move around, where South Africa is always the exception in that. And that it's a relatively easy country to actually just travel, whether you're doing it yourself or you're going on a tour. It's unique in that it's one of few countries in the world that's classified as being third world and first world at the same time. Anything you really need, if you want it, you can get it in South Africa. Hey, now we're in Africa. I'm not allowed to drive or ride bikes through the Kruger Park as such. I've seen it a couple of times with some of the field rangers. They're allowed to use motorbikes and you can see they do react quite differently. So yeah, not to be recommended. But I do know a guy who went underneath an elephant on a motorbike at full speed. Well, this is actually one of the older parks in the world. It was originally started in 1898. At that stage, however, it was divided into two sections. And this river right in front of us would have been the northern boundary and further south. So this was called the Sabi Game Reserve. And then quite a bit further north, you had the Shungwetse Game Reserve. And then in 1926, it was all joined up as one, essentially, you know, to form the Kruger as it is today. I mean, to many South Africans, this is the park. It's in many ways, it's the only great park in South Africa. In terms of everything from research to the amount of money it produces in terms of revenue, it sustains more or less everything in South Africa. It's a bit of a pity that you guys are only here for such a short amount of time. You know, if you had two, three days, you could really see so much more. Coming up tomorrow, apparently, we have 100 miles or so of off-road. You know, sand and mud is always challenging. I feel pretty good about it. I'm looking forward to the ride. Today, we had a great ride through some mountain passages. They're engineered highways, you know, with consistent curves and good radiuses and good asphalt with fantastic scenery. The terrain is incredible. And to actually ride through it with a group of people and have the time to stop, it's incredible. The riding has been hot. It's been long. It's been hard. It's going to get more challenging. I've got, you know, some personal demons in my own riding. Usually, they involve downhill bouts of deep sand. Basically, you know, when I've had a bad day, it's been because other people in our group seem to be having a bad day, and it's been disappointing to me. Well, we left the South Africa border, and first thing was all this soft sand, and it just looked like we were driving down, I didn't know where we were going. When we went up to the border crossing, that road was a wretched road. If I were reincarnated, I absolutely wish that somehow I could have ridden a motorcycle when I was two years old. I don't know if I'd enjoy it that much, though. If I started when I was two or three or five years old, would I love it as much as going, this is my gift at 60 years old, that I get to do this now? Wow, what if it had never happened? I don't know if I'd even enjoy it as much. I wish I had the skills. I wish I was six feet tall. I wish that I could stand up to pee, but maybe in my next life. But on the other hand, I like being a girl, so maybe I'd be five foot eight and still be a girl. We hit some kind of rocky, rough road, a lot of washboard type stuff, and being on the back, I just try to sit as still as possible so Jeff can control the motorcycle. Overall, it wasn't too terrible bad. There were a couple places where for probably 20 or 30 yards, I had Debbie get off so I could get through it without falling over in those, but after we got through those, it was pretty much rough and slow going for us riding two up, but it wasn't any big problem. Did you just put it on the car? Yep. It's a long ways, and if everybody is waiting for me, it's going to be late. Not time to practice today. Lynn had fallen twice in the sand. She just doesn't yet have the skills for loose dirt gravel sand. Seeing people fall and having to worry about somebody is a stress for everybody, and I really don't want to do that for people. I've made the call. We put the bike on the trailer, and I said that was it for the day, and Helge's come up with a good solution. We'll route her on sealed roads around the dirt sections in Namibia, and we'll meet back up with her in about five days. I don't want to hurt anybody. I like them to have the best experience, but I have to think of the group too. Try to get through each day with a good attitude and keep moving forward. We continue up, and we go north, and what do I see in front of me? Dan's bike upside down. Dan with a broken ankle. The picture speaks for itself. The bike stopped on a seat, and I stopped beside it, and I just sprained my ankle. Everybody in remote parts of the world stop and make sure you're okay or offer help. I love people, and when that happens, it just reaffirms everything. The bike actually held up amazingly well. Just the front cockpit brackets and instruments got bent back a little because it took the initial hit, but the rest of the bike is perfect. My body's fine. My ankle just got smashed by the bike when it landed on it, so it wasn't a twist sprain or anything bad like that. It just got compression. I think in a couple of days, once the swelling goes down, I'll be able to get a boot on, and I can stand on it, but I just can't torsionally dance on the bike with it. Late 2009, I started geocaching, which is playing hide and seek with little trinkets that people have hidden. Ah, I found it. You found it? There it is. Congratulations. First one in box. It's just, it's very tiny, and it's just got a little log to sign. So what are you writing? The date and then what I go by. So ADV Traveler, somebody look on the webpage, they can see who you are. This is what you call a travel bug. Little toy elephant, and then there's a little description of it, and so we'll just put this in the Ziploc bag since it won't fit in there, and then whoever finds it next will be able to take this out, and then this will travel around the world with different people. It's just a kind of like I've been there, done that, and I've become addicted to it. Now my wife hates me because that's all, because whenever we go somewhere, we go looking for him. Something has hit his radiator. The particular piece of equipment he needed today seems to be left in his garage. An oil cooler protector. I have one of those goddamn guards at home. Stone obviously got thrown up and punctured a hole in it and sprayed his bike and him down with oil, which is truly fitting. Oil is very deceiving. It can creep around everywhere, so what I did, I threw a bunch of sand on it, and it absorbs and get rid of the oil, and then you will see where it freshly starts out. John found this little dent here, and to determine what really is the fault, sand again is our friend, so throw a lot of sand in here. Since there is damage, since there are damage there, I really suspect it's there. We cleaned it with gas, toothbrush, hopefully got off all the dirt and stuff there. Now I'm going to take the knife and just scrape a little and make sure that it definitely is dry, and then we're going to apply JB Weld to this area here. So we were going to do this with JB Weld, but then in the last minute, we discovered it was the four to six hour. JB Weld also comes in a five-minute set, which can be nice to have with you, but so we are now changing over to quick steel. It's a two-component steel. You just take and cut off here without taking your finger, and then I start just mushing this stuff together. Make sure you mix it really, really good. You need to have one even color. That looks pretty good. So we're going to take a little dash here, and I'm going to use John's knife again because I don't want to get my greasy fingers in there. I'm going to go in here and put a little tiny bit and massage it in there. You should always make more than you need because this is a good guide for when it's definitely set. So we know that, but already know I can't really do much more with this part. It's setting very, very fast. I think we are going to start putting the whole bike together. By the time that's done, the big test is going to come. We're going to toss more sand on the oil, and there's not going to come more sand out. That's the plan. I've talked to a lot of people along the way and told them where we're heading, and they've all told me, bar none, you haven't seen anything yet. There's a lot more left in this trip yet to come, and I'm just taking it day by day and going with the flow and enjoying it all.