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Billy and Leon were awesome in getting me aboard the biggest bird in the world
Ride an ostrich
5 - Completed
Oudtshoorn South-Africa - No specific date
Legend:
I never even knew you could ride an ostrich, but when it was sent in as one of the suggestions for the "Add 5" list, it had to go on the shortlist. I'm glad it got so many votes. I think it will be great fun!
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Vote now for "Add 5" extra goals Sunday, July 13, 2008
There have been hundreds of suggestions for extra goals which could be added to my list, many of which sound absolutely fantastic. It has been pretty tricky to narrow it down to only 20 to choose from.
There are so many wonderful places to go too, many of which I have never considered before. I think that is one of the big problems when you start travelling, and see some great places, and meet others who have travelled too. The more you see, the more you realise that there is out there that you would like to see. So instead of getting shorter, your list gets longer and longer.
Anyway, there are a few travel goals on the list, a few activities, and a few experiences too. This list of twenty needs to be trimmed down to five, which will get added to the 95 that I already have.
Cover yourself in honey bees Climb Big Ben Learn to ride a unicycle Spend a week in a silent retreat See an active volcano Live someone elses life for a week See Kakadu National Park, Australia See Angel Falls in Venezuela Climb "7 peaks in 7 days" from the 53 Colorado 14ers (14,000ft+ mountains) Spend a night in a haunted house - alone! Ride an ostrich See the giant redwood trees in California See the Red Paperclip house Attend a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl Visit Red square in Moscow White water rafting See Burg Hohenwerfen, 'Schloss Adler' in film Where Eagles Dare See a plane land at St Maarten Island Become vegan for a month Adopt an animal (preferably an endangered species)
My favourites are (but don't let this influence your voting!!): Learn to ride a unicycle Ride an ostrich See Burg Hohenwerfen, "Schloss Adler" in the film Where Eagles Dare
"Add 5" voting now ended!! Monday, July 21, 2008
Voting for the "Add 5" extra goals has now finished. I have been watching the voting with interest, and have not been too worried about which ones make it into the 100 list, as I think they are all pretty exciting.
However some of the movements are interesting, and it would seem that some people have their own particular favourites, and are very keen for them to be in the top five. A couple of the goals seem to have come from nowhere to appear at the top of the list, whereas others which were early leaders for a while have dropped away. On a couple of occasions a goal has appeared to have several hundred votes in the space of a couple of hours, when other goals have received none!
So in the interests of fairness I asked my web-designer-guru to weed out all the multiple votes from the same IP address, and the final results are as follows.
The five goals added to the other 95 to make up the total 100 goals are as follows (click on the link or the picture to find out more):
Goal 72 - riding a real ostrich this time! Saturday, January 9, 2010
After the excitement of the shark cage dive we headed further east along the coast to the Garden Route, and stopped in a picturesque little town called Wilderness, where Martin and Rachel found a luxurious room, and I got a cheapie dorm bed at the backpacker hostel, which had a fantastic view along the coast.
The next day we took it easy, and played a round of golf, in which I was soundly thrashed by both Martin and Rach, and then spent another night in Wilderness.
A drive up into the spectacular mountains early on Saturday took us to the ostrich-farming town of Oudtshoorn (prounounced "oats-horn") where at the huge Safari Ostrich Show Farm we met up with marketing manager Billy.
I had emailled a couple of ostrich (or volstruis in Afrikaans) farms, and Billy had replied, offering to help out with my ostrich-riding goal. He introduced me to ostrich handler Leon, and before long Martin and I were climbing aboard a huge male ostrich called Sarkozy for a couple of photos.
And then it was time for me to try to actually ride Sarkozy. The last time I was aboard an "ostrich", it was much easier to handle, as I completed Goal 55 back in August last year, leaping from Worthing Pier in the annual Birdman competition.
This time the real thing was alot more fiesty, and I climbed aboard, following Leons instructions. He had asked if I wanted the tame, tourist ride, where the ostrich handlers would support me, or if I wanted the "adventure ride"! I imagine you can guess what I picked - I should have maybe stuck with the tamer option, as the eventual, inevitable fall off was pretty painful! Check out the video below, which is accompanied by an awesome laugh-track from Leon. After my ride, there is an idea of how the professionals do it:-
Afterwards we went on the farm tour, which was very interesting. They really are quite incredible birds. The whole set up is very professional, and the tour we took was the sort of thing I had expected from the shark dive operator too.
We saw video of the hatchery where the eggs are incubated, and then saw chicks in the paddocks, and several different types of ostriches from different areas of Africa - all very educational and informative. After photos and rides for some of our tour group, the grand finale, the spectacular ostrich race, was brilliant.
The final picture below was taken in the local supermarket - I don't imagine there are too many places in the world where you can buy ostrich eggs right alongside the hens eggs!
What a fantastic fun goal to achieve. Huge thanks to Billy from the Safari Ostrich Show Farm for making this possible. And thanks also to Martin and Rachel for getting us there, their immense patience for driving me all over South Africa, and for joining in with yet another goal.
This completes the final goal of the five extra goals added by people voting on what they thought I should add to the list of 95 goals I had come up with for my 100 weeks adventure. Furher details on the five added goals here.
Happy Birthday Martin! Thursday, March 11, 2010
I only have one sibling, my younger brother Martin, and today is his birthday.
Martin and I have always got on pretty well, but with me living in Australia, and him and Rachel in London, opportunity to hang out together over the past eight years or so has been somewhat limited.
However, Martin and Rachel are keen travellers to, and in the first five years that I lived down under, they came to visit four times! I also headed back to the UK a couple of times during those years too, so we saw each other about once a year.
But since I began my 100 weeks adventure, I have seen quite a bit more of my brother. Martin, and his girlfriend Rachel too, have been a big part of my 100goals journey.
He and Rachel live in Ealing, fairly close to Heathrow airport in West London. And so each time I pass through the UK I drop in there. It's only a short ride on the Underground from the airport to their house.
I also spent Christmas with them up at mum's house in Darlington just recently, and after New Year, once again met up with them both down in South Africa, where they joined in with a few of the goals scheduled for my time down there.
On the "Join In" page, I have started a "100goals Fantasy League Joining In" table, and have listed on it anyone who has joined me for two or more goals. It is down at the bottom of the page, below the long list of goals, detailing who has joined me on each one.
For a long time my friend Mel here in Perth was leading the field, having joined me on six goals, but Martin, who had joined in with three previous goals, added another three while in South Africa, bringing him level with Mel in first place.
My friend Val, who had joined me in two goals in Colorado, joined me for a few weeks in South America, and added four more goals to his total, putting him in first place too, alongside Mel and Martin.
Rachel is in fourth place, behind these three, as she didn't come along in London when Martin and I went to meet Richard Branson, and she also missed out on diving with the Great White Sharks in South Africa.
I only have 19 goals left to achieve now, so if anyone wants to beat the league table leaders, it's going to be pretty tough!!
Anyway, I just wanted to say a BIG happy birthday to my brother, and a BIG "thank you" too to both him and Rachel for their help and support through my adventures. Hope you both have a wonderful day.
Happy Birthday Martin!!!
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.."
Oudtshoorn South-Africa - No specific date
