The Put Foot Rally Shoe drop 2012

Well, as you've no doubt figured out by now, we're pretty damn excited about road-tripping around Southern Africa. The parties - the wildlife - the thrill of knowing that if Constance breaks down there is no possible way we can fix her... But it's not just about the thrills - the most important thing we'll be doing along the way is taking part in a shoe drop at Senkobo Basic School in Zambia.

Photo © Put Foot Foundation

Jozi's turn to quiz

Jozi’s best and brightest braved the cold to gather at Pirates sports club last week Thursday for the 2^nd Team Pedal Pushers fundraiser. 

A fairly unwilling Mr Langley took on the role of quiz master and did a fantastic job of controlling the enthusiastic (read unruly) crowd – even as we were plunged into darkness by a momentary power outage. Well done to each of the eleven teams who fought to the (almost) death for eternal glory and the top spot. In total we raised R2900 for Project Rhino and the Put Foot Foundation which brings our fundraising total to R5800!!

A very big thank-you to everyone who came to support, to Pirates who hosted us free of charge and to Larry ‘The Quizwizz’  (undoubtedly the best quizmaster in Jozi) who advertised for us. 

Afri-Quiz Madness

So fellow adventurers, the first fundraiser kicked off this Saturday in old London Town and I think we can safely say it was a fabulous success. Five teams of friends/friends of friends - some willing, some less so, battled it out for the once in a life time opportunity to be crowned: Afri-Quiz Kings 2012. (I'm sure the medals and champers had nothing to do with luring them in!)

Our quiz contained all the necessary elements that make up a fun night of brain-testing endurance: beer, snacks, rumours of cheating, more beer, tasty home-made biscuits, animal-shaped sweeties, a bingo round, frayed tempers, jeering at fellow quizzers, jeering at the hostess, and even more beer. We gave animal-sweeties to the bingo winners, a mini bottle of bubbly for the team that amused us the most: Team Name: Agatha Quiz-Team (Cue raucous laughter) and the sorry losers went home with a great bottle of Sainsburys Basics Wine in a handy plastic bottle. Remember readers: Basics wine is for the table, not the cellar. Unless of course you're like one of the unruly Pedal Pushers....then it's for the bed while watching reruns of The OC....


And this little recap wouldn't be complete without a shout out to the brilliant venue, The Duke of York.This is my post-work local and I have spent many a boozy lunch/Friday night knees-up/midweek will-we-even-make-it-to-Friday drink there and can't recommend it enough. They allowed us to commandeer their upstairs function room and wavered the charge as it was for charity. Laura and I even chatted to a lovely local who flirted outrageously and told us of meeting Hemingway when he was younger - not too shabby. So yes if you're ever lurking about Fitzrovia, do pop in. You may even bump into me!

So big thank you to everyone who took part and to those who didn't: I think you'll find we're no longer friends on facebook.... ;-)

Oh yes and we made a sweet £130!

Papering the world with money

This rally is in large part about raising money and while I won't badger you about giving us your money in this post (subliminal messaging aside of course) I thought it might amuse you to see some awesome pictures of Zimbabwean money. Before we "dollarised" aka "admitted our money was useless and had to take on the US dollar" we went through many many iterations of the Zimbabwean dollar. Yes indeed once we had the $2 note then we had the one hunderd trillion dollar bearer cheque. How things change!

Image from here.

Sigh, that's not quite as funny. Image from here 

Image from here.

You should definitely read the whole article that goes with this.

 That's all folks, and of course, please do give us your money.

Top 10 Tuesday: Reasons to give us your money

With 98 days till we hit the road I thought it was about time to remind everyone why we're doing this and to give you ten reasons why you should give us some of your hard earned cash - at least I'm honest.

1) Rally contestant funds and other donations will help The Put Foot Foundation to put 600 pairs of shoes on underpriviledged kids feet. The Foundation itself works as an umbrella organisation investing in and supporting social development projects and so any money going to us and on to the Foundation is, as they say, for the kids.
2) A fully equipped anti-rhino poaching team - I'm not going to include links to all the horrible photos I've seen of rhions without horns, and baby rhinos next to their dead mothers - all I'm going to say is that poaching is a real problem and the Put Foot Rally organisers, in association with Project Rhino will put any monies we raise into helping to stop poaching. So if you're not too worried about the kids maybe spare a penny for the rhinos. They really are awesome and one of the closest things we'll ever see to a dinosaur.
3) We write this awesome blog which has entertained you with buzzfeed, animal facts, ridiculous fur-covered cars and promises to continue providing all manner of amusing, bizarre and sometimes important content.
4) We really really don't want to be the 3 girls that got lost leaving Johannesburg (you laugh, but this has happened to me before) AND didn't raise any money for the kids, or the rhinos. Save us from that shame at least.
5) The warm fuzzy feeling giving is meant to provide - why not test the theory by giving us some money. If you don't get a warm fuzzy feeing, don't admit it, that's not normal.
6) We're mad enough to travel 7000kms in 17 days in a Toyota Conquest which wouldn't be IDed if it was buying booze (it's definitely old enough). Surely that deserves some money just for comedy value.
7) We'll be really really happy.
8) And grateful.
9)  If we don't raise any money then this is just a glorified holiday and we don't take 3 weeks off, spend everything we have and create a blog for a holiday. That would seem...excessive. But if it's for the kids and the rhinos then our fun is totally definitely not completely selfish.
10) And finally, we're pretty. That's probably not a good enough reason. But it was worth a try.

Thanks in advance.

Most important  - this is how to give us your money:

1) Go to the Put Foot Give Gain account - HERE
2) Hit the DONATE NOW button
3) Don't forget our CREW NAME in the comments box
4) And you are DONE.

And we are smiling :)

Image from therealtimscott.com

Penny Pitstop Pays up

In true Pedal Pusher fashion we left the payment of our entry fee to the last minute.. But we are glad to announce that after some complex international bank transfers - and a weekend spent hard at work digging through the couch for change - the cash money is winging its way over to Put foot headquarters!

No time to rest though, now we have set our collective sights on finding some sponsorship and raising as much money as we possibly can for the cause. And potentially a small amount to buy leopard print fur and a glue gun to pimp out our car with :)

204 days to go

The official charities and causes for the 2012 rally have been announced! The official charity is Bobs for Good - so the Pedal Pushers and fellow Put footers will get to be part of shoe drops as we wend out way from checkpoint to checkpoint

The official cause is Project Rhino - the goal is to raise enough cizash to sponsor 2 Anti Rhino Poaching Teams!

The Put foot gods have set the goal at R300 000 - to do your bit go to the Put foot GivenGain page and click donate - easy as pie!

Blazing trails and busting myths

Stumbled upon this interesting article about the social entrepreneurship and charitable aspects of the Put Foot Rally. The 2011 rally raised funds for Bobs for Good Foundation and the crews raised over R150 000 to put shoes on the feet of children in need. Amazing. Check out some of the pics of the rally shoe drops in the Bobs for Good rally round up.