£400 raised for charity ...... THANK YOU :)

Mother and baby group with their new sewing machine

Today we have made a transfer of £400 to Searchlight Orphan Care.  We decided to get involved after Jen (Belinda's daughter) went as a volunteer and last year we raised money for a sewing machine.

Christmas day celebrations

We would like to thank everyone that made a donation in exchange for a Pyrenees Motorcycle Tours tee shirt.  Originally we thought the money would be used to create a rabbit farm, but unfortunately they are suffering from a serious lack of funds, they have little money to even feed the orphans and are having to close the school.  So the money that has been sent over will be to buy essential food for the empty bellies of orphans.

This is the message we received from Duncan Nyozani who is our contact:

We are glad to hear that money will be sent today.

With 400 British Pounds we will be able to buy food that will last for two months.

We have 15 orphans at the orphanage.

Searchlight Orphan Care

The kids will just stay at orphanage. A very few kids will go to other distant school but many who are very young will stay here. They can not walk very far to other schools. It is our prayer to get support to run this school. Because this school has really helped them very much.

The major challenge is to get funds to pay teachers and buy school materials.

Please may you pass our request around. 

Factory testing ...

My sat nav says ........

In preparation for the forthcoming adventure to Morocco, 4 of us left France for exhaustive factory testing in Spain, mainly for my Yamaha TT600R which was unreliable at the beginning of the year and has now proved to be faultless, touch wood!








 The conclusions reached:

• Rucksack containing water was far too big and was in the way when off road
• Sleeping bag needs upgrading for use in France at this time of year as it was 7 degrees last night, should be ok for Morocco
• Big investment of 5€ needed to get a camping stool (like Will's)
• Spare water bottles need more securing (so Will doesn't have to keep collecting them!)
• Errr that's it, everything else worked well - cooking stove and utensils, silvermans ex army pannier system and the home made rear frame

The bikes limited fuel range was supplemented by a 5 litre can and this was enough to get by.

Will just outside Yeba in Spanish Pyrenees 

One of the off road sections beyond Yeba

Camping at Puyarruego

Los Molinos

Off road section near Montgarri

Trip down memory lane ....

We recently had Judith and Kenneth stay with us in the Little House and Judith was a dead keen motorcyclist in her day.  She started riding because her brother had a bike a year or two before her and this is a picture of Judith aged 15 on her James.