Dakar
The 51 year old grandfather Jose Geraldo de Souza Castro, also known as ‘Zé do Pedal’, reaches the halfway point of his trip this week while he is on his way from Paris to Johannesburg. José arrived yesterday in Abidjan, Ivory coast, 8.500 kilometers from Paris. He went via Dakar, where he passed last February. He still has the same distance to pedal to finish his 17.000 km trip.
Seemingly unbridgeable roads have been crossed with his pedal go-kart, manufactured by the Dutch company BERG toys. Extreme circumstances, including high temperatures and bumpy and sandy roads have been endured.
Nevertheless the monster tour, organized to raise money for the campaign ‘Sight first’ fighting against child blindness, is running across schedule.
Zé do expects to arrive in June 2010 in Johannesburg just in time to watch the soccer World cup.
Extreme circumstances
During the First year of his trip Zé do Pedal and his off road pedal go-kart were exposed to extreme circumstances .In the desert, temperatures rise to well above 40 degrees and the roads are of extremely inconsistent quality. Driving over asphalt full of potholes, bumpy sandy roads and desert sand is challenging for both man and kart.
Bas Roelofs, Director Marketing & NBD at BERG Toys: “ Zé do’s tour is running smoothly; his pedal kart plus trailer prove to bring him anywhere he wants to go, no matter the circumstances. Of course we test our pedal go-karts to the max in our laboratory by crash-tests, endurance-tests, etctera. But of course Zedo’s tour is the ultimate test even we can imagine. We are very proud that the pedal go-kart seems to endure this extreme tour so well and admire Zedo for what he is doing.”
The tour
The 51 year old Brazilian grandfather, who left Paris has crossed 8500 kilometers through 10 nations. Goal is to arrive in time in Johannesburg in 2010 to witness the world cup soccer. In total he plans to ride 16.593 kilometers through 20 (mainly) African countries. Aim of his pedal go kart tour is to raise money for de Sight First 2 campaign, organized by the international Lions Club. A project to fight child blindness in third World countries.
For a direct (phone) interview with Zedo in Ivory coast or any other questions please contact Germa Bokhorst +31 318 46 7171. Zedo maintains a weblog with pictures and short descriptions of his adventures in English http://www.pedaljoe.blogspot.com
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
