Press-Release on the Motorcycle Tour ‘Around the World Following the Meridian’ Participants’ Visit to the Republic of South Africa

Bikers from the widely known Russian Motorcycle club ‘Night Wolves’ Yuri Volkov and Ilya Dubinin visited the Republic of South Africa in January 2016 as a part of a global Motorcycle Tour ‘Around the World Following the Meridian’, dedicated to the 55^th Anniversary of the first manned spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin. The tour is being partly sponsored by the Federation of Motorcycle Tourism of Russia.

The tour participants journeyed across South Africa, having visited Cape Town and Johannesburg. Drawing public attention to the Anniversary of humanity’s first manned venture into space by Yuri Gagarin is the main but not the sole goal of the event. The motorcyclists also offer symbolic support to various Russian legacy sites throughout the African continent, including memorials, burial grounds and Orthodox churches.

In South Africa Yuri Volkov and Ilya Dubinin visited the Old Burying Ground in Cape Town where a number of Russian sailors and Navy officers are buried, as well as the Russian Orthodox Parish of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Johannesburg.

The representative of the Press Department of the Federation of Motorcycle Tourism of Russia Anna Komarova, who accompanied the bikers during their visit to South Africa, presented an icon of St. Nicholas to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of South Africa.

The participants also presented icons to the Russian Orthodox Parish of St. Sergius of Radonezh.