Iron Butts Pursuit – 7 March 2010, navigating blind

 
By Danny John-Jules
and Graham Hoskins

I think I’ve become deeply and emotionally scarred by Egyptian driving – I keep feeling the need to talk about it and express my theories. As it happens, this particular theory has proven to be exactly right. 

Because of the sponsor filming that we needed to do this morning and the heavy traffic getting out of Cairo, we ended up riding for a couple of hours crossing the Sinai desert today and it struck me that all the drivers we came across were putting their lights on full beam as they approached. Of course, this might allow them to see us, but it left us totally blind driving across a foreign desert with the very real possibility of camels lying in wait next to the road.

This was confirmed later as we found out that Egyptian drivers prefer to drive with their lights off for the most part to conserve their batteries. They only put the lights up when they see others approaching.

Garmin is supporting Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules and team mate Graham Hoskins in their quest to ride nearly 7000 miles by motorbike for Sport Relief. Their ‘Iron Butts’ Challenge will see them circumnavigate the Mediterranean Sea, covering three continents and 14 countries in 15 days guided by a Garmin zumo 660 sat nav.