As the time draws near, the enormity of what we are attempting begins to dawn.Maybe I don't have a very active imagination or maybe I'm just stupid but how come when people question the dangers of our trip, I haven't even considered them? The HUBB has been great in this regard. There are few anecdotes about the pirates, brigands and murderers who are apparently waiting around every corner to ambush travellers especially motor-cycle travellers. On orange motorbikes.

So where are we going? This has been a matter of discussion and really we don't know for sure. I have a start point in Vladivostok on the Pacific coast of Siberia and an end point 4 months later in Athens. Between these two points there are a world of possibilities. We have all read blogs about people making hasty trips and trying to maintain tight schedules. These are self-imposed sources of stress. I may never pass this way again and to rush past a festival or experience just because it is not on the plan we made months ago while sitting in our living room is no reason at all. To convey our general intention, I have made the map below. It is just a proposal and has no dates. We have visas but have intentionally made them as flexible as possible.

Click here for a map of our Proposed Route

I fly to Osaka, Japan where I am (hopefully) reunited with my bike. I ride to Fushiki on the west coast of Japan and catch a vehicular ferry to Vladivostok. I meet Bill in Vlad and then we head north following the Chinese border. Bill comes from near the Great Lakes in the USA so we will circumnavigate Lake Baikal, the largest lake in the world. From there we travel to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaan Baatar. Things start getting hazy here. I would like to do a clock-wise loop through the Gobi desert but anyway all of Mongolia is off-road. We will exit Mongolia in the north-western corner via the Altai mountains.
We have a short excursion through Russia until we can enter Kazakhstan near Semiplatinsk. A detour to the new capital of Astana is in order then another clockwise rotation to the old capital Almaty in the south and across to the Aral sea in the west. Exit from Kazakhstan will most probably be at Astrakhan.

The passage to Turkey has four possibilities
Via Russia and Georgia (a little unstable at the moment)
Across the Caspian Sea and via Azerbaijan and Armenia
Via Turkmenistan and Iran
The last option via a Black Sea ferry from Sochi in Russia to Rize in Turkey seems the most likely. Local information will be the final decider.

My only must-see destination in Turkey is Gallipoli where a contingent of New Zealand soldiers died in a glorious first world war blunder. It has become a defining moment in NZ history.

The summary above seems all very simple and now that I read it, is just a geography lesson. It has no mention of heat, cold, mosquitoes, ticks, bears, endless camping, getting lost, bureaucracy or accidents. Nor about the sense of adventure, the one-ness of man and machine, the clear frosty nights with the moon for company, the smell of the morning, the cosiness of the sleeping bag when the frost is snapping outside. What about the self-reliance of carrying your life with you.
And here lies a problem. We are all so used to the things in our lives that it is very hard to let them go. The gear list contains many things that I could do without but they obstinately remain. It is my mind that can't live without these things, not my body. And I guess that worldly possession are what we should all escape. Years of consumer conditioning has made me believe that I need an iPod or a mattress or a satellite phone. The depth of that belief is such that despite knowing in my mind that I don't need something, I still keep it. Is this the modern-day equivalent to superstition or belief in witchcraft? No logical basis for our actions. Maybe after a couple of months on the road and the choice between an iPod and death, things will become clear.
The pragmatist that I am has decided that if I must take these objects, at least they will the least burdensome. The total gear weight is down to 25kg, just 5kg above the target weight. To achieve this, I have taken the scales to every item. It has meant making equipment if none was available or modifying equipment to lessen weight. With an motorcycle weight of 145kg (including 26 litres of fuel), things are manageable. Compare this all-up weight of 170kg with the 'Long Way Round' bikes at about 340kg. When your body weight is only 20% of the bike weight, your input is limited to steering. All the off-road riding techniques of weight transfer become impossible. When the gear is stacked up in front and behind, fore-aft movement is restricted as well. Bikes of that weight cannot be ridden at speed over rough terrain and so the other off-road tool of momentum disappears. No wonder those guys had such a hard time in Mongolia.

Our intention is to camp as much as possible allowing one night per week to clean up, dry out and shave. How often we will camp is a balance between budget and inate slothfulness. When you've been riding in the rain all day, it's hard to stop and put up tents and cook when there is a town just down the road. Security is always a problem with bikes. Despite having an alarm and a cable lock and removing the panniers etc. there is always something to steal. Again, there are not many reports of theft on the HUBB. Maybe the fear of theft is another thing that must be left behind. A remnant of years of scare-mongering. Having read 'Animal Farm', the parallels are very clear.