West Africa Ride Departs UK

Overland motorcyclist and motorcycle industry lobbyist Craig Carey-Clinch has today departed for West Africa on a motorcycle expedition to explore and research seven West African countries in advance of a new motorcycle expedition which is being offered by leading motorcycle expedition operator Globebusters in December 2008.

Accompanied by his wife and fellow lobbyist, Barbara Alam, the ride is also being held to raise awareness of the charity Motorcycle Outreach, which supports projects in developing countries that utilise motorcycles for use in primary healthcare in remote rural areas. Globebusters will be supporting Motorcycle Outreach in 2008.

Craig And Barbara are flying to Malaga where their R1200GS will be collected from shipping agents James Cargo, who have also provided support. The port of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco will be the first 'port of call' before the pair enter Morocco and start heading south.

Countries visited after this will be Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. Both will return to the UK from Dakar, Senegal on February 17th.

The ride is being strongly supported by BMW Motorrad, who have provided the exceptional R1200GS. BMW Dealer, Vines of Guildford have prepared the bike and offered other support. Another major sponsor is Touratech, who have provided hard luggage and other essential items to kit the R1200GS for a long distance African journey.

Motorcycle Outreach was founded by the late Simon Milward, who was inspired by the Riders for Health (RfH) projects in Africa. He founded the first Motorcycle Outreach project on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2002. Based on RfH principles, the Flores project today serves over 55,000 people in remote rural areas, by providing motorcycles to healthcare workers, who because of poor roads would not otherwise be able to provide basic healthcare services.

Simon's round the world ride between 1999 and 2005, plus his charitable work inspired other similar projects, including the Polotos Solidarios project in Argentina.

As a result of this expedition, GlobeBusters, the UK 's leading long distance overland motorcycle travel company, will lead a team of riders on a new motorcycle adventure, leaving in December 2008. It will mostly utilise the growing network of sealed roads, surprisingly, making the 5,000 mile moto trek mainly on tarmac.

See www.globebusters.com for further information.