Wednesday 1 March 2017

The Goddess Triangle Takes on Husaberg 390ccs

Nicole:

Tiffany has now joined us, and we are that much stronger as a solid goddess triangle now. How wonderful it is to have her with us finally. We have whisked her away to Punda Milias resort that is sheer heaven with bouganvilla, cacti and acacia trees painting the grounds. Each of us have our own separate bandas, tent cottages, with luxurious beds and mosquito netting for us to nest at the end of our “senses-on-full-tilt” days. Open showers allow us to rinse the dust off under the beauty of the bamboo after a day exploring Soysambu Conservancy on Husaberg 390s. This was the first time I did dirt on a very tall bike, and boy was it a confidence builder after a kick ass day by the three of us.



Netta, our tour guide extraordinaire of Soysambu and owner of Dusty Helmets, an adventure moto safari company, gave us the private Conservancy tour of a lifetime. This beautiful soul is so connected to the land, animals and locals that this private “farm” would definitely bog down without her. She is the oil, the love and the inspiration of this entire operation. I am changed forever for having been introduced to her and this gorgeous African landscape and sanctuary for wild animals.

She and her right-hand man, John, let us loose on their 3 super-responsive Husaberg 390s, to ride through open bush with John leading and Netta as sweep. Our mouths we’re lined with dust as jaws dropped to ride past giraffe, baboons, zebra and gazelle. It was quite a surreal experience to realize that we were actually here in Africa together working on a project so dear to the hearts of many. Serendipity would ride pillion day after day as people, animals and accommodations lined up in full beauty to greet the three of us and our cameras.



The staff at Punda Milias welcomed us with huge smiles at the end of our riding day with menus in hand and chilled Tuskers (local beer) on the ready. I got the girls hooked on our custom smoothies of banana, passion fruit and what I called “Wicky Wicky,” kale called Skuma Wiki, which means push vegetables for a week with only 1 day a week of meat. I would be slow to learn Swahili by picking up only the basics with “sawa sawa,” or “OK,” “asante” “thank you,” and “pole pole,” or “slowly slowly” like the take-it-easy attitude these beautiful locals carry within.

Lorraine, Tiffany and I make a beautiful team with each of us bringing to the table a strong varying background that would lend something special to this project. With three riders shooting this film ourselves with no support vehicle or crew, we all juggle lots of jobs to keep it moving forward seamlessly. We take on at least four cameras a day with many SD cards that have to be labeled and downloaded before we take on the next day of shooting. Finding accommodations with electricity is a luxury as we come with our international outlet adapters and multi USB port adapters ready to charge batteries and connect card readers. We pre-purchase a “dongle” wifi connector that gives us access to the internet wherever we land.




I am usually the last one to bed as I download my heart out, and categorize the day’s footage onto both Lorraine and my external hard drives. It’ll be so much easier in the editing room with footage labeled while it’s still fresh in our minds. Ahh, the luxuries of the road: a nice bed, a shower and our beloved electricity. Time seems to be slipping away, as days seem like weeks with this way of life stealing my heart.Rallying for a Wild Life

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