The Blackbird Association of South Africa are doing a ride in support of Operation Smile. This is the organisation that does free facial surgery on kids with cleft pallets & lips, a really worthy cause.
We're doing a circum navigation of South Africa. From a place called Kosi bay on the east coast across the top of SA (semi dessert) to Alexander Bay on the west coast. Then down the west coast to Cape Town and Cape Agulhas and up the east coast back to Kosi Bay.
The trip is about 7,500 kilomteres and should take us about 12 days including the time spent for fund raising. It should be a great one with about 10 Birds doing the entire trip and more joining us for the various legs along the way. I'll take lots of pics and post them here on our return.

That's a noble cause,looking forward to see pics.
How do you raise money by riding your bike?Do you have sponsors or some kind?Is it the entry fees that gather the money? If we can help, whatever associations, and raise funds at the same time doing what you love,i think that something that should be done more often. We have a box at SydneyRiders, when we gather for coffee meet everyone put a couple of bucks then the money goes to an association,last time the money went for a mate that rode 3000ks on his scooter for the breast and prostate cancer.

The company I work for (large corporate) has set a challenge for all the branches to do fund raising excercises (Golf Days, Dinners etc) The ride is a publicity thing for this. We will be visiting each branch in the country to pick up their donations. Our erstwhile President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is giving us a letter of introduction to the mayors along the route and each mayor will add to the letter as we pass it on from town to town along the route. Hopefully they'll buy into the spirit of the thing for the long term and assist in supporting Operation Smile in their towns for the future. Or probably not, maybe they'll stay true to form and pocket the loot

Ride 4 Smiles is progressing in leaps and bounds. We've been on radio stations, in the press and many of the other media organisations. Companies, communities & individuals are banding together in South Africa to make a difference, one smile at a time. I'm completely blown away by what is happening. It seems that on some of the legs of our route we will have bikers from other clubs join us and it looks like there will be up to 200 bikes on the road riding in a group. If that doesn't draw attention to the cause, I don't know what will. The ride kicks off on 9th May. I've just finished a 30 minute interview on radio and apparently the stations phone lines are going nuts. Yeeeehah, I'm so pumped.

Good man!
Best wishes for success of the tour!
May god bless you guys!

Well done. I hope you all have a trouble free ride & stay safe