Prince William (pictured, right) and Prince Harry will after all take part in a dangerous 1000-mile charity motorcycle rally through South Africa.

Clarence House confirmed, “The Princes are looking forward to taking part in this arduous motorcycle ride.”

It will be an eight-day ride later this month in an attempt to emulate actor Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman who rode from John O’Groats to Cape Town in their TV series The Long Way Down.

Now we know the reason Prince Harry attempted and passed his motorbike test after taking an intensive course this summer. It was, it seems, Harry’s idea to raise money for charities, including his own Sentebale, based in Lesotho, and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

This will not be an easy ride by any stretch of the imagination. The brothers will sleep rough as they cross some of the toughest terrain on the continent.

They will, of course, be accompanies at all times by up to six armed police protection officers.

The ride is being sponsored by Enduro Africa. Each participant will be provided with a Honda CRF 230s, a light 200cc trail bike easy to manoeuvre.

The organizer of the event, Simon Smith, says, “It’s going to be one of the hardest and most demanding things they will ever have done in their lives and at night they are going to struggle to get off their bikes as the pain will be so bad. At times they will be sitting on their bikes looking up at a 60 degree slope wondering how the hell they are going to get up it – not even realizing there is a deep river crossing to get through on the other side.

“It is a very dangerous route and they will undoubtedly collect a fair few bumps and bruises along the way.”

Harry recently returned from training in Canada to be with his girlfriend Chelsy Davy, who needed hospital treatment to remove her wisdom teeth.

William is currently working at the Ministry of Defence, before moving on to the SAS later in the year.

In the past that question would inevitably be answered with, “Somewhere in Africa — not far from Chelsy Davy.”

Prince Harry with African children in Lesotho

Later, it became “On secret deployment somewhere dangerous.”

So where is he now? Well, last week he was “Somewhere in Africa, but not near Chelsy.” What a complicated life the young Prince leads.

It seems Harry was at a circus near Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, with 30 African street children. Reports say he had great fun watching clowns and various animals in the Brian Boswell Circus’s Big Top.

The trip was organized by his charity, Sentebale, and the show included a Chinese trapeze act — the Chinese are everywhere these days — and some poodles.

An observer said, “”Harry loved it all and was as wide-eyed as the little kids around him.”

Beats running after “Terry Taliban” any day.

Prince William yesterday launched a cycle expedition to raise thousands of pounds for animal conservation in Africa. The Cycle of Life team aims to travel more than 5000 miles across Africa and raise £500,000 for the Tusk Trust, of which the Prince is Patron.

The Trust is a UK-based wildlife conservation charity that plans to use the funds to alleviate rural poverty in Africa without threatening environmental sustainability.

The mission will also involve Prince Harry’s charity Centrepoint. Clarence House explained :

“The link up between Tusk Trust and Centrepoint was made possible because of the Princes’ Charities Forum, which was established two years ago to discover how the charities that Prince William and Prince Harry are patron of can work together, where appropriate, to discover mutual benefits.”

This expedition is probably the reality behind an earlier story that the two Princes were going to ride motorcycles down the length of Africa in the manner of a recent television programme.

That always seemed far-fetched, like a plan dreamed up over a few drinks only to prove unworkable later.