Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow recently departed on a 6 500 mile (10 500 kilometre), six-man expedition from Bagshot, England, to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on specially modified Yamaha motorbikes. The 36-day expedition, dubbed 3boyzonbikes after Bristow and his sons, is the second such trip. The 2012 expedition traversed 17 countries: England, France, Brussels, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali (see map below). They kept an online journal of their adventure on www.3boyzonbikes.com

The purpose of the expedition, like that of its forerunners, is to be a fundraising vehicle for a number of charitable causes including the Julian Baring Fund, which supports the education and career advancement of geologists and mining engineers in Africa.