The Evening Telegraph
Matthew Tattersall who is doing a trek in Morocco for Help the Heroes. Photo: David Lowndes/Peterborough ET (METP-24-02-12DL045)
By JOHN BAKER
MOTORBIKE-MAD Matthew Tattersall will put his love of two wheels to the test in a charity trip across Morocco.
Werrington rider Matt (36) will ride his way through North Africa next month during the Legion Expedition, raising money for Help for Heroes, while preserving relics of the French Foreign Legion.
He is one of a quartet of riders who will travel 2,000km over six days and seven nights, documenting long lost forts buried by sand dunes.
During that trek, the men will be surrounded by daunting mountains on a challenging route, using gravel roads connected by off-road trails.
Matt said: “All in all it should be pretty testing, spending six to seven hours a day riding, and camping out in the wilderness for at least two of the nights we are there. And it’s also about helping a great cause.
“I want to break the £1,500 barrier. I am up to around £700, and as a group we are on target for about £4,000, but we are hoping to smash that.
“Although my mother is in meltdown and convinced I’ll never return, I can’t wait to get going.”
Matt, who works as an operations manager at BNP Paribas in Lynch Wood, has been into bikes all his life.
He cheerfully remembers thrashing his dad’s Honda C90 up and down the driveway in Stanground from about the age of 10, and eventually got his full licence at the age of 24.
He gave up football on the local scene at 33 through injury, and bikes started to fill the void
Until last year, his riding was mostly on the roads on a range of Hondas, with his current bike being an Aprilia RSV Factory.
But he said: “I decided last year I wanted to try a bit of off-road or expedition riding to expand my riding experiences.
“I found a company in deepest Gloucestershire, called Trailquest, which specialises in off-road skills, survival training and navigation.
“I signed up for a one-day, off-road tuition around the estate they use in the Malvern Hills. I fell off twice, but by end of it I wanted more. So there and then I signed up for the seven-day expedition.”
Matt is at a distinct disadvantage in experience compared to his three companions, Trailquest owner Captain Richard Jeynes and brothers Tony and Jez Dix.
So he has put in the hours in poor conditions on a new KTM 250 Enduro, including a challenging two-day trip in Wales last weekend.
He said: “I’ve had a few spills but I’m starting to get to grips with the differences between off and on-road riding.
“It was very cold in Wales, but we had brilliant sunshine, rain and hail, plus snow, all in the space of two days, which we won’t face in Morocco. It served as a team-building weekend and certainly tested us all.
“We also did abseiling, bike recovery from a cliff face, tested our climbing skills and shelter building.
“It was full-on and exhausting both mentally and physically, but I feel much better prepared now.”
For more information, go to www.justgiving.com/Matthew-Tattersall0
FACTFILE… on forts
The expedition aims to locate and record some of the more endangered desert forts once inhabited by the French Foreign Legion in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The image of the remote forts, manned by Legionnaires, surrounded by hundreds of hostile tribesmen, is an iconic one made famous in many books and films.
Operating in extreme conditions, the legion built and manned remote outposts all across the Atlas Mountains and the deserts beyond.
But many of these are now long abandoned and are being submerged in the sand.
The trip starts in Marrakesh on March 18, with a seven-hour drive in 4x4s to the base, a small garrison town on the edge of the Ziz gorges, in the south-east of Morocco.
From there, the riders will pick up the bikes and support vehicle, before venturing out on KTM450 Enduro bikes into the desert for six days and camping under the stars on at least two of the nights.
