Ed: Mark, thanks for your time to talk to me. Give me a quick run down on who you are and what you do.

I’m Mark Davidson, I’m 51, and I work in the construction industry.

Ed: Glenn tells me that you are self employed. That puts paid to my next question about how you told your boss you wanted time off to go and do a rally over Christmas and New Year.

You mean how do you explain you want a year off?

Ed: So it’s really been in the works for a full 12 months.

MD: Absolutely.

Ed: Glenn told me you’ve been working very hard all year to prepare for the rally. Has it been a hassle to organise the time off to do what you want?

MD: Fortunately not, no. Thankfully I am in a situation where I don’t have to explain that to anybody. My work colleagues and I came to an agreement at the beginning of the year and we signed off on it. It’s worked out well.

Ed: Did you start riding as a kid or were you a late comer to bikes?

MD: I started in trials at about 16 or 17, so I’m not a real go-fast bloke. I think my first bike was a Montesa Cota 123 and then I had a whole bunch of trials bikes so it’s hard to remember which was which!

Ed: At 51 I gather you have a fair bit of riding under your belt…

MD: Well… I do and I don’t. More to the point is when did I STOP riding. I’ve done 6 Safaris… Until 2010 I think my last Safari was in 1996 and basically didn’t get back on the bike until February this year. So it’s a bit of an absence. But I have been pretty fit and and I have always surfed. I’ve never been a couch potato and put on 40 kilos or anything.

Ed: Tell me more about the training you’ve been doing recently.

MD: Time wise, my goal was to do 500 hours on the bike this year. I broke my right wrist riding halfway through the year and I lost 3 months with that injury, but I’ve finished up with probably 320 hours of riding. Basically it’s been 4 days a week – two weekdays and the weekends – continuously apart from the 3 months off with the wrist. I have a training bike which is essentially a replica of the Dakar bike and I’ve clocked up about 170 hours on that. I ride it full of fuel, and I ride it pretty much anywhere – up killer hills, down again and I do plenty of sand. I have a 35km loop in the Stockton dunes that I’d normally ride 4 times in a session. I did the Safari this year. The wrist was a really frustrating thing – a small fracture, but with all the soft tissue damage that comes with it. I’ve tried to focus on my weaknesses, but with a degree of caution – I didn’t want another injury.

Ed: At what stage did you decide you wanted to do the Dakar?

MD: I’d always had it in the back of my mind, but it turns out that the right circumstances arrived to go in 2011. I first met Glenn Hoffmann when he did his first Safari so there’s a fair bit of history with the two of us. I walked in to GHR in early February this year with the intention of asking him to build a bike for me based on my experiences with him on past Safaris, but with no firm ideas beyond that point. Unbeknownst to me he was already in the process of getting a Dakar team up and running. He then said “well actually…” and one thing lead to another. It’s all fallen into place quite conveniently for us both.

Ed: What are you hoping to achieve in the Dakar and what are you expecting from the event?

MD: I hope to finish… nothing more, nothing less. What am I expecting? Pain and anguish I guess (laughs…) and lots of soul searching. I just want to be smooth and keep out of mischief. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am up for. I’ve done 6 Safaris, and one of those was the 1988 event. That was 10,000km so I know what it’s going to take to spend day after day on the bike. I don’t know about the terrain in detail, but I’ll just take it as it comes and do my best. I’m the tortoise amongst the hares, so I’ll just do my thing. I’m not a complete novice and have my eyes wide open. I don’t think the scenery will be too bad either!

Ed: Are you taking any other support people on the trip?

MD: No. I’ve got the “Cocky Boy”… do I need any more? (laughs…) By the way ask Glenn about the dead bird one day!

Ed: Thanks again for your time Mark.