Joey Evans — Speaker, Inspiration, Adventurer, Family Man And Author Of From Para To Dakar

Let's make it 93.8 some legendary radio for your Monday evening it is what's involved probably brought to you by retire rich and happy we've had Lawrence in here he's been talking about the game of wealth the game of money now we talk a little bit more seriously on the one hand but more light-heartedly I think on the other hand my special guest in studio with me tonight is Joey Evans now if you haven't heard of Joey you might go okay so what who is Joey when he's at home well we're about to find out all about that he is the author I can tell you of an amazing book called from para to Dakar it's not a spelling mistake okay from para to Dakar it's all about his journey from overcoming paralysis and then conquering okay conquering the Dakar really what blew me away was you didn't just started you were like excuse me I have to share this but dumb enough to finish it as well welcome I just thank you awesome to be here thanks so so it's it's an amazing book and I want to get into this this whole writing the book thing but let's let's start off at the very very beginning yeah tell me a little bit about Joey as a kid where were you born brought up where yeah I grew up in Kimson Park on the East Rand another Eastern boy you can represent I like it but y'all grew up in in Kimson Park you know went to Burchaker's Primary and then Norcom Park High and you know I loved writing BMX's growing up that was you know myself and all my mates my brothers we had BMX's and we'd go in the felts and build ramps and and those kind of things and so we grew up pretty free you know a lot different to I think the way my kids grow up today and those kind of things you know we were free to just kind of build forts and do all sorts of stuff and and you know we read these BMX's and I guess my you know I had a couple of mates in high school who raced motocross and man I I just wanted to ride motorbikes I wanted to you know race dirt bikes and and those kind of things but growing up in a big family there wasn't there wasn't money for motorcycles and stuff so my whole childhood was really spent you know playing soccer and riding bicycles okay and then when when did it happen for you that you that you got onto a motorbike well I was 26 actually when I bought my first motorcycle yeah so I mean I you know saved up money you know myself you know working working my jobs and paid for it with my own money and then I bought a motocross bike a 252 stroke and started riding you know motocross was really the thing that then just I love motocross racing on the tracks and the jumps and that was just a motocross was fantastic okay so and you did you did fairly well at motocross I love motocross you know and and then I moved on to freestyle motocross which is where you have the metal ramps and the tricks and that kind of stuff and I was a bit of a hacker you know I couldn't do any like I was I was you know certainly no top rider what is it about this he's trained lot we kind of always go to you know to the weird and wonderful no for sure for sure and so you know you know I really enjoyed freestyle and could do a few sort of basic tricks and that kind of stuff and and then I discovered you know off-road and enduro and that was man that was where I found my passion and off-road and enduros when you race cross-country you know going over mountains and valleys and through rivers and forests and dune fields and you know I grew up doing a lot of camping and hiking and things like that and so not about a race motorcycles in a similar kind of terrain was just yeah that was endure and off-road was just incredible now the amazing thing is when you watch it on TV you probably get a better idea if you if you're a specter but on TV yeah it looks like you know you're actually standing around there going up but bumping up and down and it's an absolute joy it's an incredibly physical exercise oh yeah I mean it's a it's a massive full-body cardio workout and it really is incredible and one of the things that all kind of off-road bikers really enjoy is when you get a guy who's a you know you know real fitness guy in in a duff in a different field you know what I mean where there is a gym guy or something like that and you take him riding on motorcycles and and the guys broken not because we're any fitter but it's a different kind of fitness you know and so it's a it's one of those like you get guys are good swimmers and they can swim for hours and hours and then you take them running and they can you know do a few K's in there and they and they suck in hard listen I've been thinking about this biking thing and I reckon I could do five minutes but I mean to look at you now I mean I wouldn't look at you and say okay you're a typical biker because you are quite well built you know I mean for me I you know if I got into a motorcycle now that the poor thing would say one at a time please I know I'm a little built for comfort as well and you know you push in your 40s there and things kind of pile on you know but but John I when I was younger you know and when obviously these different kinds of biking you know if you if you do motocross for instance and things you've really got to be you know super fit and same with when you when you're racing in Dura and off-road but as you there's so many other different types of biking you know there's adventure biking which is just incredible and you need some pretty good skills but you can afford a lower level of fitness and you know there's there's a whole world of biking out there where you can find your place in terms of your fitness and what you enjoy and you know biking is a is a big world with so many different areas and you are still and we're gonna get into your story a little little later on a more in-depth but I mean I look at you and I can see in your eyes you're still an absolute biking fanatic absolutely passionate about it we're gonna get into that a little bit more my special guest in studio Joey Evans author of from para to Dakar overcoming paralysis and conquering the Dakar rally if you'd like to say how's it to Joey maybe send a message you want to ask any questions you know the number SMS 41348 those SMS's are charged at 150 otherwise what's app us 0 8 4 8 double 2 0 9 3 8 when we come back we'll be talking about the event that changed Joey's life it is what's involved on mix 93.8 proudly brought to you by retire rich and happy you can check it out at retire rich and happy dot co dot ZA what's involved probably brought to you by retire rich and happy find out more info at retire rich and happy dot co dot ZA my special guest in studio with me Joey Evans author of from para to Dakar I said when we came back we're gonna get into this I'm just going ahead and assuming cuz cuz you know me I'm just talk a lot that you're gonna be okay with this and if you're not okay with it just tell me the injury let's talk about what happened you put it in the book but I'm not for sure I want to hear about it yeah I'm an open book with everything as well so you're welcome to fire away with whatever but yeah so so what happened is I you know I got into racing and I got into racing off-road and enduro and I started doing pretty good and now and I was lying second in a regional championship and so and for guys that do racing they'll get it you know also guys that are any kind of competitive sports you're getting kind of a space where you can win championships or win races and and suddenly your whole life sort of revolves around this and you're like you just got to do this and it was the second-last race of the season and you know back in 2007 and I lined up on a start on the start line of a race down in Huddleburg if I won that race I could win this championship and it was just kind of everything was on the line and I thought man I'm gonna make sure I get a good start and things and standing on that start line on that bike was the last thing I remembered and the next thing I remembered was waking up lying in the dust my helmet was off I'm looking up at the sky and there's just people looking down at me and I'd realized that obviously being unconscious and it kind of occurred to me okay obviously I've crashed I've been unconscious this is where I'm at and then I just realized that my mouth is full of dirt and stones and I started spitting out this dirt and stones but it wasn't dirt and stones was my teeth and what I'd done is I'd shattered 12 of my teeth just right down into the gums and but that wasn't the worst injury because as I lay there with my legs bent they were leaning against a friend of mine and and as they stood back my legs just fell to the ground and I just said to the medics I said I can't feel my legs Wow so you'd actually you'd started the race and at some point in that first corner where all the bikes came together yep there was a pile up of bikes and in the dust and mayhem I was I was ridden over as well by the riders and you came came to were you married you were married at the time yeah at the time yeah I mean I got married you know fairly young I was 23 when I got married and so the accident occurred when I was 32 and I was married with four daughters already four daughters yeah already and only it hasn't grown just to be clear just to be clear on that one but so you wake up there you can't feel your legs did did something start to register then in terms of like the reality of the situation holy crap yeah maybe I'm in trouble here not really to be honest you know in the beginning you know you know I've I've I've had crashes before you know what I mean and and it's all part of the game with off-road racing you know there's injuries but you you know in my mind if I'd broken something it meant I couldn't race for six weeks and I was bummed I couldn't race for six weeks but it never occurred to me that this was a life changer that this was a permanent injury that I was gonna deal with the rest of my life and so over the next 48 hours I mean I lay there in the dirt for for about three hours before I was medivaced by by vehicle and then it was three different hospitals over the next 48 hours and I landed up at the meal med spinal unit in Pretoria and really over the next few days is where I learned to extend to my injuries and so to be told that I was paraplegic I'd broken my T8 and C9 vertebra I'd crush my spinal cord and I was paralyzed from the chest down and the outlook was that that's how it'll be the rest of my life I was like yeah well that's it buddy this is this is you because literally from your chest down I mean correct yeah any anything can you can you crush it a better vertebra I don't think so but I mean it that was that could have very well ended your life though oh for sure you know if you you know when you break vertebra is in your back and you know you're a little higher you break you break in your neck and if you break it high enough in your neck that's it you're gonna you know you it's game over so so you're lying in hospital you've gotten the news and I can imagine initially it must be quite surreal because you go from being this fit athletic energetic and and and from what I understand the book family man I mean you know it was all about the family your wife your children yeah the mates and everything and suddenly you're getting people in white coat saying sorry mate what you used to enjoy not so much anymore well that's it you say you go from being this guy that the reality is you're still that guy you still that guy in your mind in my mind on this tough bike racing guy um I can do lots of things I'm very capable and I need no need help with stuff but suddenly you're just that guy in your mind where the reality is I'm sitting in a wheelchair I've lost all bowel control so I'm wearing nappies I've lost bladder control I've got a catheter strapped to my leg with a bag of urine on my leg and I'm missing most of my teeth and I'm paralyzed in a wheelchair and so your capabilities are at near zero people looking at you they don't see who you are in your mind they don't see who you think you are they see that picture and and the reality really hits home hard and it is incredibly difficult to keep it together not only physically but mentally it's a it's a very very dark difficult reality to be faced with and and I can honestly say I never truly considered suicide but I got it you know for the first time in my life I got what it felt like to look at the rest of your life and go like I don't know if I can do this man I don't know if I've you know I think I think you know checking out is a serious option this is if this is as good as it gets yeah and and then I mean surgeries in yeah all sorts of things and you're right though because I mean how did it change in terms of of your friends in that because I know some of them came through in a big way yeah some of them stood by you but also some of them so I know people are weird people yeah for sure I mean I think you drift apart from people when you don't have the opportunity to to still do the sports with them that you used to so certain friends of yours are like friends go to the gym with or friends you ride bikes with or or play squash with or whatever you know and when you can't do those activities anymore you kind of drift apart but for myself I had incredible support incredible support from my wife Meredith and for my children from my family and you know family and friends just rallied around me I must say that I was incredibly fortunate to have the support I did I it was I was blown away in fact it was so difficult having so many people helped me and support me all the time that I clearly remember being there and thinking I can't pay these people back man I can't you know I just felt like I was getting in debt in terms of friendships all around me is heartfelt okay and then and then obviously you got this news okay where they come in there and you get the mr. Evans this is it yep so you say from your chest down did you still have mobility in your arms and arms arms weren't affected shoulders weren't affected my chest wasn't affected and basically if you could draw a line it would be between my top two stomach muscles and my bottom two stomach muscles in the front and then going up higher at the back and so it's kind of like you could literally draw you can draw it with a with a pen on your body where you can feel and where you can't feel and we can move when you can't move it's literally a line straight through the center of your body kind of at an upwards angle going from the front towards the back okay then they come to you and they go that's it mr. Evans you know there we go wheelchair for you for the rest of your life yep you go obviously through so many stages that I don't think unless somebody's kind of been there I don't think anybody can really get what you've been through sure we can empathize but we don't think we can get it but somewhere along the line you decided oh yeah you know I had a lot to live for you know I had my four beautiful daughters and my wife Meredith and and there was a lot to still live for but it was a case that I'm a pretty positive guy and I decided look I'm gonna do whatever I can with this and if I don't get to walk again then I don't get a walk again but I'm still gonna live and I'm still gonna make the most of this and it was it wasn't a thing where every day I was like this warrior that you know freaking working hard and sweating blood and you know and I mean there were days like that where I was I worked hard man and I was positive and I was you know just kept fighting this thing but there were other times where I'd lie in bed alone in that hospital at night and just cry it was just so difficult you know you're staring at the ceiling and the and the tears are running down the sides of your head and it is just so difficult to face another day with the same injury again and then another day again and another day again it was just it was just it it felt like it broke you and it and it you feel incredibly undignified because I mean as you say you've got a catheter yeah you know you lose control of your bowels so you're having people having to attend to you look after you both you wash you clean you that that in itself to come from being this proud sportsman to that must have been an incredible chance incredibly humbling but I can tell you now for anyone who goes through that and there's lots of people who will at different times in their life that it's all mental it really is all mental it's all in your head you know once you get over that kind of pride and stuff I mean I had to go for so many tests and all sorts of stuff over the years now I'm like man you bring it on I don't care you know what I mean it's the worst you know so you see you get over it but you know going back to the the positivity thing and I did make a decision to live and I made a decision that I was gonna gonna fight this thing with the help of my family and friends but but I was in I was in for the fight but along with that I'd had this dream you know to race the deck already for a number of years before that and I always had that goal that one day I'm gonna race the deck already and when I was lying in that hospital bed I thought you know what how cool would it be to come back from this and still race the deck already on my motorcycle that would be that would be pretty epic and it became a goal from in that hospital that that's what I was gonna do one day we talk about this I'm gonna race the deck I it's 9,000 kilometres it's not a stroll in the park for sure when we come back let's talk about about that and about your progress from hospital to get to the starting line we needed more time with you Joe because we're gonna try and cram all of this in get the book okay somebody's just gone please say the man's name again he is incredibly inspirational he is indeed his name is Joey Evans and the book is called from para to Dakar I'm assuming it's available through all good bookstores available online as well correct and there's an audio version as well an audible and so you can get an audio version you can get an e-book version you can get a printed version it's also available on my website JoeyEvans.co.za the audible version did you narrate it yep I narrated it and my wife wrote some parts in the book as well some of her feelings and she narrates her part listen I got to tell you those little paragraphs oh look you can see it's happening again man alive it was so so inspirational we're back chatting a little bit more to Joey Evans it is what's involved probably brought to you by retire rich and happy you can find out more at retirerichandhappy.co.za what's involved is probably brought to you by retire rich and happy my guest in studio author of from para to Dakar Joey Evans so we ended with you sort of deciding that a goal for you would be to ride in the Dakar rally this from your hospital bed number one it sounds insane number two if you know anything about the journey I'd how many people told you it was impossible you know it was one of those kind of things that you you sort of internalize you know you can't tell a lot of people about it because here you're this guy who's who's stone broke and paralyzed in a wheelchair and you're talking like hey man I'm gonna go race and 9,000 kilometer through you know race on a dirt bike through through several countries you know we're half the guys don't finish and guys die every year and you know the people will look at you and they'll be like hey I think this I think this guy's on a little too much medication so so it was you know there was a there was a few people in you about my goals but it wasn't like it wasn't like a big public thing if that makes sense and then yeah then but we that's where we were it was at the time it was a dream it wasn't I couldn't even call it a goal yet it was really a it was really a dream still because at this stage little to no feeling at all yeah well zero movement you know and from the chest down and I could feel touch which was quite fortunate but no no pain sensation no and hot or cold sensation I couldn't sweat below my chest and all of that was gone so so what what was what were they what are the doctors and everything recommend to you because I mean obviously you ignored all of them and went on and started to walk again so so what happened well what happened was they fused my back at T 89 so so my back was fused in an effort to you know release some pressure off the spinal cord and just prior to the operation I'd started to get a little flicker in my right big toe so my legs are obviously all wasted away I'd be skinny little legs you know all the muscles atrophied and stuff but then I got this little flicker in my toe that if I really focused and it sounds silly but I could make my big toe twitch a little bit and we went in for this operation we came out and the flicker in my toe was gone and we thought man what have we done you know and then as the days passed the the flicker came back and as the days you know carried on and turned into weeks I got a little bit of movement in my left ankle and a little bit of feeling in my right quad and slowly but surely I started to get a little bit back and a little bit back but obviously once you get a little bit of movement back the muscles still gone you know and so you have to really work at getting all the muscles back and and slowly getting better and stronger and there's some and so slowly I went on to learn to walk again eventually but but that next year 2008 was a incredibly difficult year spending a lot of time in the wheelchair and obviously coming to terms with a lot of things that that never changed over the years you know to give you an idea I mean here I am 12 years later and I do still have to use catheters every day and it was one of those things that didn't return I still can't sweat below my chest I can't feel hot or cold and or pain sensation below my chest and I still can't run and and so as much as I got a lot back I didn't I didn't get it all back but but you know I got a lot back and I'm very grateful for for how much I did get back what do you tribute that to though is it is it the the power of your mind is it the mind in combination with exercise what was it for you I think it is a combination of a lot of things you know I certainly feel very blessed you know to have the recovery that I've had and but I do think your mind plays a massive part in any kind of recovery of any kind of thing you know when you when you wake up every day and you're positive and you focus on getting better and that makes a big difference I really do believe that I don't think it's just kind of a mumbo-jumbo hey try to be positive about it I think it really makes a big difference but along with that it's hard work as well you know it's it's very easy to line a hospital bed and and feel sorry for yourself and can I tell you it's you have every right to do that you know it's miserable it's terrible it's it really is but you're not gonna help yourself by doing that and so you've got to kind of get all these things together get the best possible medical care you can I had you know very skilled doctors and incredibly dedicated physiotherapists you know my physiotherapist in the hospital was Melanie and she was fantastic and after the hospital you know I went on and with you know physiotherapy for ten years you know Shawnee Bailey was my physiotherapist for many years after that and just you know there's a lot of when you have people like that who are just passionate about their job and they push you and they and they constantly strive to help you get better and better it's all part of that little formula you know it's the headspace it's it's good doctors it's working hard and and I feel you know being blessed as well family five supports I mean I mentioned that earlier that is huge an injury like this doesn't just affect you it affects your whole family you know my kids paid a price for this my wife certainly did and you know my friends you know when people rally around you and help to keep you positive and give you reason to keep going it's massive yeah because I mean it's easy when you know as a friend if somebody and lands up in hospital yeah you know for the first couple of weeks there you go go and support Rara get better but you know life happens you know later they're on their own after a couple of weeks you kind of on your own there you know and then it really comes down to those people that care you mentioned being blessed faith an important thing for you and you know that's a that's a tricky one I do see things different you know to how I used to when I was younger if that makes sense and and so I do think that you need to believe that you can get better you know and I and I do believe and there's a God up there looking down at us and once the best for us and things like that and and and I do feel very blessed exactly love it somebody sorry I got distracted by all of these messages coming in here somebody says Mia biker of 47 years simply cannot admire this man's story enough and positivity rules that's from Deon so there you go and I think you know what yes you know it's it's a terrible thing was it it was a long road to recovery somebody said here as well but you know from a from a crushed spine and and you know broken vertebrae you're okay you're riding again I mean does this mean everything goes back to normal there's no pain there must still be pain yeah I know there's a lot of pain pain must be something must be your constant companion absolutely and it is and it's one of those things where we've people ask about pain because there's a lot of people out there a lot of your listeners today will be dealing with pain with different kind of injuries and stuff and it's one of those ones it's very difficult to deal with and and I get asked about it like what's the best thing and stuff I mean pain is real and it's hard to live with every day but but a couple of things you need to find something that takes your mind off the pain first of all you know a hobby a challenger you know keep you keep your headspace busy and that helps to take your mind off the pain also we're in a fortunate time you know in the history of mankind I guess you could say where we have a lot of a lot of medications and a lot of knowledge about this kind of stuff and so there's a lot of really good pain management programs that you can get on to to help you to overcome this as well so I think a mixture of those two things is a good place to start to to overcome pain a lot of people talk about I interviewed one of the guys who was at the singularity singularity University conference together with Adam Pantanovich also incredible pain issues that he's got meditation he says he helps a lot are you are you a proponent of that or of quiet time of focusing on the good I don't really want to always label it meditation I totally tell you well I'll tell you what my meditation is this riding motorcycles you know and I promise you you know a lot of guys on the outside who don't ride they kind of they see the the injuries and stuff and they think we're a little bit of a nutter yeah but the truth is if you've ridden a dirt bike and you've ridden through the Maluti mountains in Lesotho or you've ridden through the Northern Cape through the Richter's fault I promise you there's very little you think about other than the incredibly beautiful area and twisting that throttle and making it through the corners listen I gotta tell you mate of mine had a farm in Zimbabwe tobacco farm yeah and he had little DT 125 and just tooling around that farm you know on their DT that sense of freedom it wasn't big and powerful and fast yeah but the wind in your hair sense of freedom I can relate to that you know it's it's never about the size of the motor it's never about how new your bike is it's about getting on that bike and getting out there that really is what the beauty of biking is okay so now you you've on the road to recovery you've had this dream how long after you were released from hospital before you said okay I'm gonna get on a bike again and what did I mean Meredith must have gone you are nuts and I shouldn't know the first time we're not that dumb the first time was a little bit by chance you know I had a buddy and he was with another mate of his never riding bikes in the felt and I and I went over to them and you know got on the bike and I couldn't even start the bike the first time I fell over the bike still between my legs and it was a bit of a mess but then they helped me up and I and I rode around this field and I did about 200 meters on this flat on this flat sort of felt area and just came to a stop next to them again but not being able to run or jump or do all the other sports I used to do to be able to twist a throttle and just move effortlessly was just incredible it was just for my mind was just wow and after that I got a second-hand bike and I told my physiotherapist she needed to teach me to get on and off a motorcycle which she was very excited about as you can imagine and and then we we started to ride again yeah I can imagine she was excited because I mean this involves rather large movements yeah that's it's getting on and off of a bike I mean and one or two little risks along the way yeah yeah well there is that whole falling off thing how did the family relate you know how did they react because I mean listen I and I'm sorry we are focusing on you but I can't help but focus on your family because Meredith and the kids must be like super super super awesome people to go yeah you fell funds you're better than that yeah yeah for sure it was and a lot of people you know will look at it on the outside and go like man she should have left the psych and I mean they're probably right but but it's one of those where Meredith gets me she understands me you know more more than anyone and naturally you know she her personality is that that she thinks I'm crazy to ride motorcycles especially after the injury and she totally thinks that's like why would you ever want to but but she loves me and she cares to me and she knows that I get such incredible joy and fulfillment from riding motorcycles and going to these places and so it's one of those that she sees that and she sees my need in this and she's like yes I want my husband to fulfill all these dreams and do these awesome things and so as much as it's scary you know for her she she backs me a hundred percent with all these adventures and and things I suppose though that that that the freedom and exhilaration of riding kind of makes up for the pain I it you know it really does and and it's and it's and it's a little bit ironic I guess in a way because after the injury I can't play the other sports I can't kick a soccer ball without falling over I used to run marathons and stuff I can't do any of that anymore and I played you know soccer and and skateboarded and I did all sorts of things and all of those things because of my injury I can't do those kind of sports but I can ride a dirt bike and so the one thing that kind of took it all away is kind of the one thing that I can still do pretty good and so it has become like as much as it took so much away it's given me so much but I mean to look at you now you are I mean you're you're a well-built man I'm also married so done and can I say my fiance is listening as well but I mean you go to gym you obviously have to gym as well what is what is that like well it's it's difficult because you'll see a you know I can do you know some some arm exercise and bench pressing and stuff and then I'll get on to a leg extension machine and there'll be a skinny 14 year old girl that climbs off it before me and then I'll get on off to her and have to move the weights down and because there's there's not a lot of strength in the legs but yeah I enjoy I enjoy swimming I enjoy rowing and so I find ways to to work out or be tricky something I do because I can't you know run on a treadmill or anything like that because obviously I mean people wouldn't think so but bike riding requires a fair amount of leg strength oh you stand most of the time without a dart yo so I can't do like big hits in in motocross and that kind of stuff so if I got a motocross track I'll kind of you know ride the jumps as opposed to really jump them you know now and and there's a lot of different challenges like that but for the most part I can you know I can ride and riding is how I get fit when we come back I want you to skip forward and take us to the starting line of the Dakar rally so we'll do that when we come back my guest in studio is Joey Evans it is what's involved probably brought to you by retire rich and happy find out more at retire rich and happy dot co dot today what's involved on mix 93.8 party brought to you by retire rich and happy my guest in studio is the one and only Joey Evans from para to the car said we come back and we'd like to find you on the starting line at the Dakar rally do you want to give us a bit of a recap just quickly so how did you get to the checker yeah so ten years after breaking my back I finally made to the start line of the Dakar and you have to you have to qualify to get there you have to be selected so it was it was yours of you know getting time bought at races to finishing races to finally doing multiple day races and then building up to to getting that international rally that I needed in the pro class in order to get my that was the final kind of stamp you need on your CV to get accepted to Dakar and then I got accepted to Dakar and then on top of that I didn't have money to do it but then we had to raise money and all sorts which is a whole you can't just rock up and go I'd like to it costs a substantial amount of money yeah well at the time for me it was it was 1.1 million and I had if I totaled up all my asset I had nothing I had nothing which would spent our savings on going to Morocco and or you know for me to go to Morocco to rent a motorcycle to buy a place on a on a French team so I could go and race that and and so you know we had nothing but we had an entry and and like I've often said before it took me 10 years to get that entry in my hand I wasn't about to let us sell a little thing like money stand in the way then yeah so you're there yeah so we're on the start line in a sunshine Paraguay South America you know facing a 13-day race 9,000 kilometers through Paraguay Bolivia and Argentina and there was three of us South Africans that stood on that start line and off we went and you know the race was just brutal you know I've obviously raced a lot over the years before the accident and since and and I thought I knew racing I thought I knew the risks and that kind of stuff but suddenly it's next-level let's just let's just set the scene though because they let the bikes off first yeah okay and then all those other wusses that have got nice fancy roll cages and stuff in the vehicles come after you correct so they are chasing you yeah they they send all the bikes and when the year I did it they sent all the bikes at 4 o'clock every morning and then after the last biker they waited half an hour then they sent the cars and off to the cars they sent the trucks mm-hmm so you know that you've got those guys on your tail I am cars and trucks are a lot faster than most of the bikers so especially someone like me I'm not running up top you know I'm running near the back of this race and in terms of the bike category and you know I'm not a I'm not a pro racer I'm an average guy with with physical challenges as well and so I run near the back of these kind of races and so I would get passed by cars and trucks every day now you mention at one stage when the alarm goes off yeah on the bike and you kind of get startled because now I understand this correctly it warns you of oncoming vehicles from behind correct and and you mentioned startled I think I think it'd be more correct to say you crap yourself it's it's it's pretty damn scary because you're riding along and suddenly this alarm goes off on your bike just did it did it did it did it and that means there's a car or a truck behind you that wants to come past now when these guys come past you they cover you in just a cloud of dust you go completely invisible and they cover you in rocks and stones the size of half bricks that just come flying out the back of those vehicles so when that alarm goes off normally they're about 200 meters back you look for a place on the track you can pull off you pull off to the side you you know right out of the way of the track and you stop and I would stop and I put my hand up so the the vehicle behind me knows that I that I'm not gonna pull back out in front of and he'll come flying past me and then you're invisible in this cloud and that's why it's important you're off the track because sometimes there's two or three vehicles in a row so you need to be right out the way because this isn't a case of make way this is like get the hell out oh that's it now these guys are racers you must understand that you know you see a car or a truck and you and you think of it these guys and the guys in cars and trucks are these are racers these are like teenagers on Red Bull these guys are out there to win you know they they're hardcore racing guys and they're not they're not here to be polite and stuff I mean obviously they don't want to kill anyone and they're trying to you know race in a in a good fashion let's say but but they're racing make no mistake they're every second counts for these guys so you're there you're hearing this sorry just another one that's just come through so many messages coming in you somebody goes well done my friend well done to Joey my friend was Ross branch on that starting grid yeah and he's a mate of ours penny and Wayne say well done so they are Ross Ross incredible guy just got to drop this quick he's racing he raced that guy actually this year and he's racing it again next year and he is a guy from Botswana who is probably the best rally racer that that probably Africa has ever produced and keep an eye for him in January he's gonna do really well fantastic stuff so now you're racing okay this is this is a good couple of days it's it's grueling it's exhausting you're putting up with pain it wasn't plain sailing because that wasn't enough for you so tell me what else happened there yeah so we raced on you know and by you know long story short by the end of day five on the on the last South African left in the race and and and I must say that by the end of day three I felt like I thought I would feel at the end of the race I was just broken physically mentally it was just so grueling and so dangerous that the dangers had me just wide-eyed you know I thought I knew danger from racing but suddenly racing with cars and trucks in these kind of terrain over this kind of distance was just it's just like you hear about guys dying at Dakar and you're like yeah it's guys taking shots and stuff suddenly you're there and you're like oh this is how guys die and it's not like if you know every day you're seeing guys going home with broken legs and broken arms and being medevaced out in choppers it's it is very real and here's you who's just spent 10 years yeah recovering from an accident exactly yeah and along with a couple others on the way but um and so it all kind of came you know I got through each day bit by bit just hacking my way along and really just hacking my way through and trying to stay alive and I got all the way to day 12 of 13 and that's when it all just unraveled for me what happened I was racing along in the morning and I was stone lost but that's normally where I roll at these kind of races and but I was lost in the bike category and I'm racing along on this two spur trail through a semi-arid environment and the spurs over the years had gone really deep and they filled with fish fish which is like a really fine dust you know like talcum powder and my alarm goes off and we can only ride at like 50 or 60 k's an hour as a biker you kind of pick one of these ruts and stick in the ruts but the cars and trucks come through it like 120 130 and my alarm goes off and I look around expecting to see this car 200 meters back and he's he's like 30 meters back doing more than double my speed and I know he's expecting me just to swerve out of the way and I swing those bars and I try to just just swerve right out the way into the bush so this guy doesn't hit me and where I am that two spur track is just really deep and that front wheel won't climb out of the rut and and I've committed my weights and I'm leaning over but this bikes not moving this guy's right on me and I and I literally just dived off the bike the guy missed me by a couple of centimeters and just completely flattened my motorcycle so you were riding the KTM that's right John KTM 450 ready replica yeah so we're about out of time we're gonna have to do this I got the next guys looking at me gotcha so you total you totaled the bike was totaled back was totaled it looked like I was out of the race you were almost at the finish I mean you were gonna be finishing what did you do well a long story you know after that which I think the guys are gonna have to read it to find out but the bottom line is some pretty crazy things happened and found a bike in the desert and along with a whole bunch of other crazy things we had an outcome that we we certainly didn't expect you got to read the book it's all I can say in conclusion yeah what's next what's next for Joey Evans man and there is so many things I still want to do but but a two little highlight things is in January I'm doing another race and the Africa eco race with some guys from overseas we're gonna get some coverage on it and then in I've got a big plan for next year we were gonna raise a lot of funds for guys with spinal cord injuries along with the adaptive sports fund where we bunch of guys where we we do things to help guys with spinal cord injuries to still be involved with sports wonderful stuff Joey wish you all the best we're gonna have to bring you back in tattoo again it was just it was too short we always say this but this time was especially true thank you so much for coming in we wish you all the best and yeah we'll talk to you again I'm sure awesome thanks there you go my special guest Joey Evans don't forget that book called from Parrot to Dakar available all good book shops online otherwise check it out Joey Evans co dot Z day and he's also available for speaking engagements so don't be shy