At the time of the Adventure Mike was a young 73 year old with a fascinating and distinguished career behind him. He was born in East London and educated in Grahamstown. He became a pupil pilot with the SAAF and got his ‘wings’ in 1955. In 1959 Mike started his own flying training school in George.

Mike has been a charter pilot, survey pilot, crop sprayer and had an exciting time spraying tsetse fly in the Okavango at night! Mike founded Avex Air, together with Nick Turvey, in 1965. He resigned in 1993 to become Director General of the Aero Club of South Africa for the next 8 years. Mike spent his entire working career as a pilot, clocking up over 27 000 hours in over 100 different aircraft.

Although a commercial pilot by profession, Mike flew gliders for many years as a hobby. He is also a lover of old cars, having owned a 1948 Chevrolet and a 1954 Vanden Plas Princess.

Mike received his Springbok Colours in Aerobatics in 1968 and represented South Africa in Magdeburg, East Germany. In 1969 Mike and Jeanette won the State President’s Air Race and in 1972 they won it again for the second time.
 

Jeanette met Mike when still a schoolgirl and ballet teacher. They married in 1955. Jeanette assisted Mike at the flying school in George where she was taught to fly aircraft by Mike and was the first licensed hot air balloon pilot in South Africa, representing South Africa in the World championships at Castle Howard in York, UK in 1976. Jeanette went on to become a balloon instructor and testing officer and is an international ballooning event judge.

Jeanette is a successful interior decorator and has owned the well-known Tylers of Rosebank for 38 years. Jeanette is an enthusiastic driver and is a vibrant person.

Mike and Jeanette have two sons who are pilots, one in Australia and one in South America.
 

Roger Pearce is a well known and very experienced travel adventurer. He competed in the London to Cape Town in 1990, the London to Sydney in 1993, the London to Mexico in 1995, Shield of Africa in 1998, two Targa-Tasmania events in 1996 and 1998 and a further London to Sydney in 2000. In 2004, he single-handedly drove from South Africa to Silverstone, UK in an MGB GT! Roger has also won the South African Historic championship three times, for which he received South African colours.

Roger runs the well-known EmGee Workshop in Randburg, which is acclaimed for servicing, rebuilding and general maintenance of classic cars.

Roger enjoyed an illustrious racing career, and competed in the Porsche Turbo Cup with the likes of Sarel van der Merwe and Chris Aberdein. He was the team leader for the MINI Odyssey in 2006, when 5 Mini Coopers did the Cape to Cairo trip. He travelled in the support car, a BMW X5.

Roger Pearce is the current Chairman of Motorsport South Africa.
 

Koos has had a long and distinguished career as a cameraman and film director. He has directed the photography for productions of all kinds - commercials, documentaries, TV dramas and full-length movies.

Koos started his career in 1962 as assistant cameraman , working for Jamie Uys (The Gods Must be Crazy). After a variety of documentaries and feature films he graduated as a camera operator working on international features at SA Film Studios. In 1969 he photographed his first feature, the highly acclaimed “Geheim van Nantes”. After photographing more than a dozen features in a short span of time, winning high critical praise from the media, he graduated as a director for both television and the big screen.

Koos has won numerous awards, including the Kodak Spectrum, Rapport Artes, Star Tonight, SA Academy for Arts & Sciences, Artes, M-Net Vita & ATKV.