Man who survived 'bandit country' on 9,000-mile charity trip round Africa has motorbike stolen from outside his home

His motorbike carried him 9,000 miles across war-torn Africa and was then stolen – from his home in West Jesmond. Jim Adams journeyed for three months through dangerous territory and third world conditions on his trusty BMWS650 Dakar. The 21-year-old drove from Cairo to Cape Town, through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nairobi, Tanzania and Mozambique to raise money for brain tumour research. One stretch of the journey drove him along 650 kilometres of dirt track for three days through a highly-dangerous area known as bandit country, where other bikers had been robbed and shot just a week earlier.

But when he parked it up outside his West Jesmond home this week it was stolen. “I loved that bike,” said Jim, a business management student at Newcastle University. “It carried me from Cairo to Cape Town, crossing three major deserts. On one stretch of desert from Ethiopia to Kenya, we were warned it was really dangerous and people had been killed. There were some really hostile environments and the bike could have been stolen lots of times but nobody did, so to have it taken from our quiet street in West Jesmond is unbelievable.”



After setting off last June, Jim spent three months driving through 12 different countries with university pal Humphrey Wrey, raising £20,000 for charity. The bike, which is worth £2,500, had just been made road-worthy again after the gruelling trip. But thieves struck overnight on Sunday, leaving Jim distraught when he realised the bike was gone from outside his house on Holmwood Grove, in West Jesmond. “When I woke up on Monday and realised it was gone, I was devastated. It cost £2,500 but it’s not the money, it’s the sentimentality. I have so many important memories. I even named the bike – it was called Pegasus.

“Those bikes are really hard to jump-start so it must have been picked up and carried away, which makes me think it was planned. I hope someone will see this and realise how important the motorbike is and what I’ve been through on it. I am willing to pay a reward to anyone who can give information leading to the bike being returned to me.” Jim planned his charity motorbike ride last June in support of research into brain tumours, a condition which his grandmother died from.