Blazing Saddles: The True Story Behind the Tour De Farce

This is the hilarious story - a true adventure - involving six men in various stages of decrepitude who, on a sudden whim, decided to embark on a I000km cycle ride down the River Danube. None had cycled since childhood - nor even owned a cycle. The story -reminiscent of Jerome K Jerome's "Three Men in Boat" - is told by their not terribly good leader, James Clarke. Their Danube ride passed through four countries - Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary - and although none fell in the river they did things one would not expect of grown men. Their ride became known as the Tour de Farce. The Tour de Farce has since become an annual event taking the six across Italy, Ireland, twice into France and finally down the entire length of the River Thames. The team includes four well-known South African editors - Harvey Tyson, Rex Gibson, Richard Steyn, and Peter Sullivan. The fifth newspaperman is the author himself and the one bewildered non-journalist is Alan Calenborne, a retired company director who was swept along by the crowd. He was designated the 'official photographer' for the last Tour, despite being as ill-prepared for photography as he was for long-distance cycling. To ensure the veracity of the text Clarke invited Harvey Tyson to edit the book and correct any lapses in the author's memory. This resulted in many humorous interruptions in the text.