Well then, the day finally arrived!

At 4pm on the 11th August the eagle landed on African soil as we rolled off the boat and into Tangiers.  It was a sweet sensastion and the culmination  of months of planning and endless bum busting hours on the bike.  The elation was soon sidelined as we immediately had to tackle a whirling sandstorm and some interesting local driving rituals.  Carnage!  But in true tandem to africa spirit we got on the bike and ploughed through to reach our final desination; a campsite on the side of an alarmingly steep hill with a beautiful vista out across the atlantic.  Everything we had done was well worth it and we settled down with an air of smugness knowing that we had battled through the highs and lows of the trip and earned our reward.

 Our short time in Africa was spent lapping up as much local culture as possible.  We headed out into the bustling Tangiers (Tanheeerkth) night and the hubbub of the city,  sampled some fantastic local cuisine in a small but vibrant Moroccan restaurant and wandered through narrow streets.  We bedded down under African skies full, fat and happy.  The next day we were keen to sample more of what Morocco had to offer and explored the medina and the local Bazzar (very strange) before tucking in to some refreshing mint tea.  Going slightly overboard on the tourist experience we bartered with a street vendor to buy a couple of Fez (es).  Very patronising and typical Brits on tour, well done us!

 Although our time in Morocco was brief we were pleased with our achievements and would like to quickly say thank you to all those people who have made the trip possible ranging from family & friends to people who have lent us equipment to couchsurfing hosts and friendly locals with directions.   We have a couple of days left to unwind (having completed the trip in just 23 of 28 days), so i´m sure you will here from us again sometime soon and we will keep you posted on the undoubted trouble we will have as we try to get the bike home.

For now though, all the best,

Joe and Andy.   

Dear All,

Welcome once again to a small update and snippet of the last week or so.  We are writing from Sunny Malaga having spent a well deserved rest day on the beach.  But all is not as plain sailing as it may appear.  We are also using this internet cafe to locate yet another bike shop, in the hope we can patch up El Toro for one big final push (we hope to be on African soil within 48 hours) to the finish. 

 As our keenest followers will have noticed, it has been a bit longer than expected since our last blog.  This is due to the fact that we took the executive decision to push on while we could and try to eek out some down time once we have completed the journey.  As such a 6 day cycling week became an 8 day cycling week and it is fair to say that we are now feeling the effects (both physically and mentally). 

The last 8 days have been noticably difficult and we have faced our biggest problems yet.  The problems with the inner tubes (mentioned in our last blog) continued to manifest themselves and we battled the stifling heat, failing light and navigational problems to limp into our evening destinations on more than one occasion. 

 In addition, our list of broken and damaged kit continues to mount with the loss of two of the most psychologically important bits of kit.  The first casualty was the ipod which was stolen from under our noses while we slept in Altea. It was less than a foot from my head and partially covered by our belongings but it seems where there´s a will there´s a way and some opportunistic bastard is now the proud owner of lots of natalie imbruglia songs and some dodgy techno beats.  This resulted in the first real anger of the trip. The frustrations of the inners and the flat tyres were annoying but always expected to be par for the course.  But theft is something that someone has chosen to do and that is what hacks us off the most.  Next to go was our speedometer and onboard computer (essential for telling us how far we have travelled, how far to go and what kind of speeds we had been pushing out).  This slipped from its holster in relatively fast moving traffic, we slammed on the brakes and turned round only to see the display being pounded by car after car into the scorching tarmac.  We finally managed to pìck it up to discover that it was well and truly lost. Crushing!

However, the biggest disappointment of the whole trip came yesterday.  We were well on course to absolutely dominate a truly massive 160km day when disaster struck.   We pulled over to check out a few rattles that had accumulated throughout the morning session, to find that we had been dealt the worst hand posible.  The chain was damaged, the gear cable (but most importantly the gear cable connectors) were damaged and we had sheared a spoke on the rear wheel (meaning the rear sprocket would have to be removed).  The first two were technically fixable but the damage to the spoke was irrepairable with the tools at hand and requires a bike shop - the closest one that could help was 50km away.  It was therefore with MASSIVE REGRET that we boarded a bus to take us and the wounded toro to Malaga. As we sat on the bus we were noticably dejected and the sense of defeat crept over both of us (proud to the end!).  We knew that we had no other real option but were heartbroken to know that on a journey of nearly 2,800km we were stopped in our tracks by something out of our control for a measly 50km (we have done bigger sessions than that before breakfast on good days).  Every kilometer travelled on the bus brought with it a realisation that it was a kilometer not travelled on the bike and that it was ground that we could never make up (or go back and cycle). Defeat tasted bitter in both of our mouths. 

On reflection, we are still enourmously proud of what we have achieved to date and are aware that we must pick ourselves up and finish the trip off with a big effort.  We have battled like troopers over the last week and know that we had more to give and could have got the job done if only given the chance.  It is just a shame that such a small distance has left us feeling so dejected but such is life!

 On a lighter note, one of the most comedy moments of the trip so far has to have been turning up at a campsite near Cartagena (after our Couch Surfer bailed on us that afternoon) having freewheeled 10km down some of the steepest coastal cliffs we had yet seen to be told that we could not stay there without showing our naturist cards. Or without proving we were "boyfriend and boyfriend". (Who would have thought that further proof was needed given our attire, our mode of transport and the size of our tent? Suffice it to say that there followed another night´s sleeping rough in the wilderness. Proud to the end, remember?

As is customary here are our highs and lows:

Highs

• Beating central Spain and hitting the coast
• The med
• The beach in Malaga and beers with friends
• Puncture free days
• Good food (platos combinados anyone?)
• Some spectacular views
• Breaking new ground in the travel game genre
• Petrol station discos (and sun frazzled brains!)
• Comedy lycra tan lines

Lows

• Thieving bastards
• Temperamental kit
•  The effects of pretty bad dehydration (dizziness, shivering in the midday sun, feeling sick)
• Sweat gushing from everywhere
• Smelly kit = swarms of flies. Everywhere.
• Being beaten by the bloody bike
• Big hills
• The hard shoulder.

Ttfn mgf,

Joe & Andy

P.S. As ever we´d love to hear from you.x

Hola Tandem Followers!

The latest update is brought to you from central Spain, Calatayud to be precise.  We are currently enjoying our second rest day which means that we have safely reached the halfway point of the journey. 

The few days since our last blog have proved dificult for a number of reasons but we have come through them unscathed and are looking to press on into the Spanish sunshine with a new vigour and determination as we realise that we are now just 2 weeks from completing the task (fingers crossed) and still have much to achieve and even more to experience.   

 Since our last update we have traversed the Pyrennees with some help from the weather and two days of light drizzle rather than the blazing sunshine that has proved to be a constant of the last few days.  We have visited the City of Pamplona (where all the famous Bull running happens) and made headway into the barren interior of Spain. 

 The feature of recent nights has been couch-surfing and we have made the most of generous hospitality througout northern spain, the range of hosts have been eclectic in character but the general feeling is that of overwheming warmheartedness (if that is even a word) and a kindness that both of us would one day hope to repay.  It is fantastic to know that as we complete the journey for charity, people who we have never met (and may never meet again) are willing to provide charity of their own to support us along the way.  From what we have experienced so far, we would recommend the system to everyone, it´s a great way to meet some pretty interesting people too. 

 The bike (no longer called Tierry but rechristened El Toro at the border) has not been without some problems.  We carried on over the Pyrenees regardless of of a ´wobbly wheel` that has since been fixed but the persistent rear wheel puncture still features heavily in our day and we are rapidly running out of inners and are having a few difficulties locating decent bike shops to help.  Let´s hope we can sort this soon.   

 From here we will head South East towards Valencia and then begin the long (overly tourist) coastal route to Gibralta/Tarifa to catch the ferry over the water.  We will hope to update you again soon, but the likelihood is that we will too busy fighting chavs in Benidorm to bother with computers.  For now, here are a fw of the highs and lows of the last few days. 

Highs:

• Conquering the Pyrenees 
• The Vista around the French/Spanish border between Biarritz and Irun
• New Tandem speed Record of 73 km/h
• Meeting our hosts through Couch-surfing
• Eating our weight in Tapas and then ordering a steak each. 
• Good beds.

Lows:

• The language barrier (proving to be really difficult)
• Punctures, punctures, punctures
• Al Fresco toilet visits
• Cycling in 37C
• Flies (absolutely bloody millions of them and the persistence to annoy us)
• Small sleepy spanish towns with a rubbish shop, no water and unfriendly locals
• Joe being crowned as the sweatiest man in Europe!

All the best and lots of love.

Joe & Andy

P.S. Keep sending us emails, jokes and messages they really do make a difference and if not at least provide more to talk about. jba.gray@gmail.com or andrewvoysey@gmail.com

Hi TTA fans!

Here is our first update on the road to Africa. Apologies for the brevity, but the French keyboard is doing our sundrenched nuts in!

So it's day 8 of the voyage (note use of stolen french word) and all is going well. We are on course to cross the spanish border later today and begin our assault proper on the perrinium-busting Pyrenees tommorow. 

Lessons learnt so far are:

•  The early bird catches the worm as temperatures in the sun escalate pretty quickly.  Valencia is curently 40°C so we are pretty apprehensive about cycling at all in that kind of heat.  Bet hey, the show must go on!

• Joe should not really be allowed to ride a bike in England as attempts to do so thus far have been disastrous.

• The range of foods sold in cans is surprisingly disappointing for a continent as large and "advanced" as Europe. Beef raviolli anyone?

Check out our photos for more on our day to day experiences, but in the meantime, here are some of our highs and lows:

Highs

• Being fed and watered (read "wined") by a man resembling Obelix and his amazing family near Bordeaux
• Camping on the shores of pituresque French lakes
• Downhills
• Achieving max speed of 68 kph
• Conquering France in a mere 8 days
• Moules Frites + aperitifs + digestifs + nightcap
• The Atlantic Ocean

Lows

• Headwinds
• Blow out punctures requiring immediate new tyre. 10kms from the nearest town. 
• French campsites resembling something from Eurotrash meets Eurovision;
• French toilets
• Having to ask for servietteswith every drink to avoid having to buy loo roll
• Thunderstorms

This article appeared in today's Edinburgh Evening News.

Comedy journalism at its best.

Big up "Andy's mother's birthday" on August 16th...

Well, avid fans of Tandem to Africa, our second training weekend on the tandem is now complete. We are now fully kitted out in matching gear, very nearly fully equipped with panniers, camping gear and so on, and have a good 200 miles under our (spandex) belts. I think it's fair to say our confidence has grown exponentially as we've tucked the miles away, but our big fear still lies in the mountains...you simply wouldn't believe how much hard work it is getting a tandem bike up a hill.

We've now marked out a full route, complete with stop-overs as far as we can plan at this stage. If you think you might be able to help us with a friend/family/long-lost-cousin contact somewhere on the West coast of France or East/South coast of Spain that could put us up for a night, do get in touch!

Oh, and the only major outstanding problem is that the tandem is still stuck in Edinburgh with Joe after Andy tried (and failed) to bring it down on the train to London ready for the launch. So big shout out to our friends at National Express for being so helpful (!) and fingers crossed that Tandem to Africa doesn't become a really rather long walk...