Our Story of the Honda Quest 2017
- Thread starter Kamanya
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Sheepman
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Max the Panda's ride report " Travels through God's own motorcycle country " is corroborated by the Quest team's report and photos - there is something of everything for everyone, brave enough.... and in ABUNDANCE in that barren, but beautiful country.
GRyPH
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Ok so in my last report (Day 10) I promised to tell you about something that happened at Palmwag that was related to the humanitarian project we were given the opportunity to pitch.
This story of Kamanya tells it almost perfectly.
As Kamanya said, we were told about the pitch of the project in Windhoek when the adventure started. Immediately I thought about a friend's kid (boy not a girl
) that is suffering from leukaemia.
This was close to home for me because, as parents can sometimes be overprotective and worry about things that you shouldn't, we started to worry as my daughter complained of the same symptoms the boy was having. (she is 4 and doesn't know the story so it wasn't imitating symtoms)
So my wife and I resolved that we would have the bloodtests done to be sure and to put everyones minds at ease.
So ever since we heard of the humanitarian pitch we would do, I would sit on the bike during the day, preparing myself for the presentation, at the same time that worry for my own kid would be present eating away at your peace (the hour of solitude on the rest day also gave me lots of time to think this one through).
Palmwag was the first time in a couple of days that we got proper signal and were able to communicate better with home (signal at Purros was spotty and difficult).
I got the message from my wife, a long one, thats never good. :-\ so I started reading, and learned that they did the tests.
As I read the longest message ever (it felt that way) I remember thinking to myself "just tell me what the results are!"
Eventually at the end of the message she told me that all is good and the results are negative and that she did the test without me knowing because she didn't want me to worry anymore than I already was.
All the fatigue of the day, and the emotional roller-coaster of worry and now relief that all was ok rolled over me like a train! And although Kamanya said I was close to tears I think I actually had to wipe a few away.
The beers we had later was very welcome and in the end I decided to still present my friends kid in the humanitarian pitch as it was now not only close to home but already a big part of the trip.
This story of Kamanya tells it almost perfectly.
Kamanya said:When you spend such a concentrated amount of time together, there’s far more to the adventure than just riding.
See Phillip and I in our tent on the left there? This picture of Kobus' in Palmwag has a much bigger story behind it…
At Winhoek, we were told that at some point, we would have to present a charitable humanitarian idea that would be worthy of being supported by Honda and Specialised adventures. Not a lot of detail was given other than that. On the rest day Phillip told me of his;
He was going to suggest supporting a kid with a specific cancer of the blood as he had a friend whose daughter was going through this. Maybe she could be the beneficiary of this cause?
It was laudable, but, I was anticipating that this exercise wasn’t just about a good idea. It would also contribute to our competition and count in ways that spoke to being a future brand ambassador. My thinking was, not only are they looking for the best team out here in the bush, but they would have to also become spokespeople for the brand after the fact. Being able to speak a clear corporate message that reflects passion and compassion would be a good thing. Towards this end I tried to be diplomatic, but using cold logic said, “realistically, I don’t see Honda getting behind one little white girl. It’s tragic but what’s the message? Can you somehow tie it to a bigger picture that Honda can use? Maybe a current cancer project that focuses on types often contracted by kids?”
Phillip grasped the message but seemed a little quiet. I presumed it had to do with empathy for his friends plight and left it at that.
So, we put up that tent there and I was busy doing whatever and finally got a moment to lay down and catch up with the WhatsApp group. Phillip came in, sat down heavily, clearly something was up; he's normally a pretty unflappable sort. The photo was taken right about here.
“Hey, what’s up?” I gently enquired,
He couldn’t speak for a few moments and was close to tears, my mind was racing whilst waiting for him to gather himself, “****! he must have received some terrible news”.
Finally he manged to get it out; Due to his being close to his friends daughters cancer, some of her symptoms were also coming up in his daughter recently. His wife and he were greatly worried that she too may have it. They’d decided to have her checked out as soon as he had returned from Quest. Unbeknownst to him, whilst he was on Quest, his wife had managed to get some tests done and that day the results had come back. She’d typed out a very long message with the results only at the end. As he’d started reading it, and realising what the message was about, he’d gotten a huge fright and with mounting dread kept reading through the explanations and story. By the time he’d got to the end and finally the good news – she was clear - he was a wreck.
Such a rollercoaster of emotions! I was nearly in tears too after his retelling. I felt like a prize prick as well; just the day before, I’d shot down his idea, not realising that it was a LOT more personal for him.
I apologised for being insensitive. He would have none of it as how was I to know, and plus, I was right about the overall.
We had a good chat about life and stuff and much later had a few good beers. Such things happen on adventures, it’s not all about the bike but the stories and people one goes with that make the difference.
He’s a good man.
As Kamanya said, we were told about the pitch of the project in Windhoek when the adventure started. Immediately I thought about a friend's kid (boy not a girl
) that is suffering from leukaemia. This was close to home for me because, as parents can sometimes be overprotective and worry about things that you shouldn't, we started to worry as my daughter complained of the same symptoms the boy was having. (she is 4 and doesn't know the story so it wasn't imitating symtoms)
So my wife and I resolved that we would have the bloodtests done to be sure and to put everyones minds at ease.
So ever since we heard of the humanitarian pitch we would do, I would sit on the bike during the day, preparing myself for the presentation, at the same time that worry for my own kid would be present eating away at your peace (the hour of solitude on the rest day also gave me lots of time to think this one through).
Palmwag was the first time in a couple of days that we got proper signal and were able to communicate better with home (signal at Purros was spotty and difficult).
I got the message from my wife, a long one, thats never good. :-\ so I started reading, and learned that they did the tests.
As I read the longest message ever (it felt that way) I remember thinking to myself "just tell me what the results are!"
Eventually at the end of the message she told me that all is good and the results are negative and that she did the test without me knowing because she didn't want me to worry anymore than I already was.
All the fatigue of the day, and the emotional roller-coaster of worry and now relief that all was ok rolled over me like a train! And although Kamanya said I was close to tears I think I actually had to wipe a few away.
The beers we had later was very welcome and in the end I decided to still present my friends kid in the humanitarian pitch as it was now not only close to home but already a big part of the trip.
GRyPH
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Scalpel said:
:imaposer: :imaposer: Ek het vergeet hiervan...
Nee dit was ek gewees..... ek het middel van die nag opgestaan omdat ek klaar was met daai rum en bier wat ons gehad het, my koplamp se batterye was oppad uit so die lig was maar flou. Volgende oomblik beweeg daai donkie so 10 meter van my af
atch: Ek het amper n boom begin klim :imaposer:
n hele paar nice fotos daarso :thumleft:
GRyPH
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Day 11 - Brandberg to Windhoek
The last day finally arrived....unfortunately :-\ This truly was one of those trips that you just wanted to continue. Later that night when Barend jokingly said: " Ok guys, who is up for round 2? lets do the whole trip again! this time the other way around" There was no hesitation from anyone and all hands shot up in the air immediately.
Once again before we headed out , we were briefed and asked to be vigilant as we would be heading back into traffic and that there would be lots of it as the people of Windhoek would be heading out for the weekend.
One thing that I have to mention of this day was the amount of punctures! I would not be surprised to learn that we (as a group) got more punctures on this day than all of the other days combined. I quite honestly stopped counting as it started to feel that we would stop every 10-20 kms.
The route for the day was only about 380kms of gravel highway and a lot of tar, yet we only reached Windhoek in the (very) late afternoon.
So we arrived at Honda Pupkewitz, right where we started off 11 days earlier and had to hand in the bikes.... no time for sentiment or to think about it, we had to hurry to the hotel as the gala evening and the announcement of the winners were to take place and we couldn't be late for that.
Once we got to the hotel we had a little bit of time to have a decent shower and put on some fresh clothes (that most of us tactically left at Honda) before we headed out to the gala evening. (I will rather not say anything about the state of the showers once we all got a turn :imaposer
Walking in at the event I almost didn't recognise some of the guys :imaposer: everyone cleaned up nice!
So with a couple of speeches and some formalities done it was time for the big announcement! Charl Potgieter (charliepappa) and Hennie van Heerden (Tyres) was declared the winners!
Anyone that claims they weren't at least little disappointed in not winning that awesome bikes would be lying through their teeth ;D. Yes I fully agree that going on the trip was the big prize already and what an awesome prize it was! Winning it (and the bike) would have topped it all off though
That said, I honestly cannot think of a worthier team to win this in the end and if I had to choose a winning team (objectively :biggrin I would not choose any other.
Congratulations again to the winning team! ( [member=14730]charliepappa[/member] & @Tyres ) you guys really did deserve it :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:
[member=2306]THROTTLE JOCKEY[/member] and [member=14780]McSack[/member] was announced as the winners of the " Spirit of Quest" award. Again I couldn't think of a worthier team to receive this award! Well done to you guys as well!
After the event was done, we headed to the bar for couple of drinks before most of us retired to our rooms and beds. There was some though that headed to "groener weivelde" and explored the nightlife of Windhoek.
The next morning we were transported to Hosea Kutako International ( a name I will always remember after the quiz at brandberg :imaposer and after checking in our luggage we had a last lunch and a beer together in Namibia.
Getting onto the plane however proved once again to be a bigger challenge than we anticipated as we once again had to pass through a very long and slow line to get through passport control.
It was sad that such an epic trip was at an end but at the same time I was looking forward to seeing my family again.
As I mentioned before, the trip itself, the adventures it held, the memories as well as all the new friends made, THAT was the real prize in the end.
Thanks to every single person (contestant, crew or organiser), that made this trip such an Epic adventure, a TRUE ADVENTURE.
And so ends my part of the report........ I do however have some footage and a couple of photos that I still need to work through and that I will post when time allows. :thumleft:
The last day finally arrived....unfortunately :-\ This truly was one of those trips that you just wanted to continue. Later that night when Barend jokingly said: " Ok guys, who is up for round 2? lets do the whole trip again! this time the other way around" There was no hesitation from anyone and all hands shot up in the air immediately.
Once again before we headed out , we were briefed and asked to be vigilant as we would be heading back into traffic and that there would be lots of it as the people of Windhoek would be heading out for the weekend.
One thing that I have to mention of this day was the amount of punctures! I would not be surprised to learn that we (as a group) got more punctures on this day than all of the other days combined. I quite honestly stopped counting as it started to feel that we would stop every 10-20 kms.
The route for the day was only about 380kms of gravel highway and a lot of tar, yet we only reached Windhoek in the (very) late afternoon.
So we arrived at Honda Pupkewitz, right where we started off 11 days earlier and had to hand in the bikes.
... no time for sentiment or to think about it, we had to hurry to the hotel as the gala evening and the announcement of the winners were to take place and we couldn't be late for that.Once we got to the hotel we had a little bit of time to have a decent shower and put on some fresh clothes (that most of us tactically left at Honda) before we headed out to the gala evening. (I will rather not say anything about the state of the showers once we all got a turn :imaposer
Walking in at the event I almost didn't recognise some of the guys :imaposer: everyone cleaned up nice!
So with a couple of speeches and some formalities done it was time for the big announcement! Charl Potgieter (charliepappa) and Hennie van Heerden (Tyres) was declared the winners!
Anyone that claims they weren't at least little disappointed in not winning that awesome bikes would be lying through their teeth ;D. Yes I fully agree that going on the trip was the big prize already and what an awesome prize it was! Winning it (and the bike) would have topped it all off though
That said, I honestly cannot think of a worthier team to win this in the end and if I had to choose a winning team (objectively :biggrin
I would not choose any other.Congratulations again to the winning team! ( [member=14730]charliepappa[/member] & @Tyres ) you guys really did deserve it :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:
[member=2306]THROTTLE JOCKEY[/member] and [member=14780]McSack[/member] was announced as the winners of the " Spirit of Quest" award. Again I couldn't think of a worthier team to receive this award! Well done to you guys as well!
After the event was done, we headed to the bar for couple of drinks before most of us retired to our rooms and beds. There was some though that headed to "groener weivelde" and explored the nightlife of Windhoek.
The next morning we were transported to Hosea Kutako International ( a name I will always remember after the quiz at brandberg :imaposer
and after checking in our luggage we had a last lunch and a beer together in Namibia.Getting onto the plane however proved once again to be a bigger challenge than we anticipated as we once again had to pass through a very long and slow line to get through passport control.
It was sad that such an epic trip was at an end but at the same time I was looking forward to seeing my family again.
As I mentioned before, the trip itself, the adventures it held, the memories as well as all the new friends made, THAT was the real prize in the end.
Thanks to every single person (contestant, crew or organiser), that made this trip such an Epic adventure, a TRUE ADVENTURE.
And so ends my part of the report........ I do however have some footage and a couple of photos that I still need to work through and that I will post when time allows. :thumleft:
Bwana
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Well written you guys should all become journalists great reading.
Dis vir my verbasend die hoeveelheid voor papwiele wat die trip opgelewer het.
Doring steek/klipsteek of snakebikes deurstamp?
Doring steek/klipsteek of snakebikes deurstamp?
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ChrisL - DUSTRIDERS said:
Hi Chris
Almal bo na verwys. In alle eerlikheid dink ek nie die standaard binne band is van goeie gehalte nie.
Ek dink ook ons sou beter gedoen het met Metzeler Karoo 3 of 'n ander soortgelyke band.
GRyPH
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Hardy de Kock said:
Ek dink nie die continental bande was noodwendig n probleem nie. Ek ry al baie jare met n TKC voor en verkies dit ook so.
Ek stem egter saam met jou dat die standaard binneband nie opgewasse was vir die paaie wat ons gery het nie. As ons n “heavy duty tube” ingesit het sou dinge aansienlik verbeter het.
