Starting the blog - with an outline of the TransAM 07 plan - and how I get the plan into shape.
Alaska to Argentina via South Africa!!!!Well - I talked about a blog long enough - it is time it actually happened!
I chose using Horizons Unlimited http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/index.shtml as a site for the blog as it is very appropriate - a site full of interesting stories about motorcyclists travelling the world.
3 Days in a game reserve area in Botswana- camping & motorcyclingIts late April & I have booked a motorcycle weekend at Kwa Nokeng Lodge in Botswana - with 2 nights in the Tuli Block area - northern side of the Limpopo River. This trip was recommended by Mike Pohl (Mike da Bike) from Lyndhurst motors.
I joined Koos (see photos) & the back up ambo image
Bike prepped, packing sorted - a short trial run, and to the freight companyJust got back from Brissy on R & R late Friday 15th June. 8 hours behind, and it always takes me a few days to get the sleep pattern right. Woke at 4.00am Saturday to start the day. Today (Sunday) I woke before 3.00am. Tried to force myself to sleep for a while, but gave up - and decided I would do my final trial pack, weigh all the gear one more time, and have a bit of a run to check the handling of the whole system.
5 Days at the Makgadikgadi Pans - Botswana with the brilliant tour group from Kwa Nokeng LodgeThis is a trip offered by the Adventure Riding company - Kwa Nokeng in Botswana.
The same group I went to the Tuli Block with, a few months ago. If you get the chance - go stay at their lodge at Martin's Drift, and ride with Clinton, drink with Chemmy - you won't regret it!!!
4 Bikes & two 4 x 4's do Lesotho in the cold & snowAfter having met a few guys at the BMW club a few months ago - one fellow invited me for a 3 day ride to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. I remembered fondly my visits to Lesotho over 20 years ago following the famous Roof of Africa 6 day motorcycle race - so I accepted enthusiastically.
That trip was planned for early April - but the local guys had to cancel - due to work commitments. What a bugger when work gets in the way of good riding!!!
Trans Am 07 has started!!!!
Say farewells to friends & family & off to Anchorage.
The first leg - Alaska!Well - it has started!!!
I left Joburg on 19th July, and finally Brisbane on 25th July - after a great rousing farewell at Jeff & Susan's in Joburg and the Story Bridge Hotel in Brisbane - thanks all who managed to come along, I had a ball & hope you did too.
Western Canada - Yukon, BC, Alberta
Majestic, unpredictable, inspiring
Great in summer - I can't comprehend living in -80 degrees F (-27 degrees C), with less than 6 hrs of light a day in winter though!We have just left Canada & re-enetered the US - in Montana.
Journeyed through the Yukon, British Columbia (BC) and Alberta.
Rode the Alcan Highway, the Stewart-Cassiar, the Icefields Parkway.
Was overwhelmed by the Cassiar Mountains, and The Canadian Rockies.
Embraced countless vistas of glaciers (the Bear and Salmon Glaciers in particular).
Travelling the quieter trail through the US - focusing on the Rocky Mountains with national parks, mountains to deserts, and great riversOur route down through the US has been very carefully crafted to:
Appeal to motorcyclists (a perpetual smile lurks under the helmet)
Avoid big cities (before Tuscon the biggest town we have stayed in was about 10,000 people)
Get to the heart of the great national parks that live down the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Wyoming
See the desert & canyon country of Utah & Arizona
Wear out tyres rapidly!
A wedding on expedition & the end of Stage 1 - people move on, new peopl oingWhat a fitting way to bring the end of Stage 1 of our expedition to a close than the wedding in the group.
Ola!
South of the border and it all changes!
Blissful chaos - isolated roads - halepinos and tequila!Mexico has been a real blast chaotic, historic, surprising, friendly, and often beautiful the riding has varied from rainy days in clouds at 2,500m, (we went even higher later - to 3,200m) to wonderful windy mountain roads near Copper Canyon (bigger than Grand Canyon), to steamy coastal strip near the Caribbean, to traffic snarled towns where stony faced aggression is the riding technique to choose, and a very few freeways.
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and PanamaCENTRAL AMERICA
Well some of it anyway.
Thats really Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama for us.
Seems like a lot to see in just over 3 weeks but we have been moving slowly short riding days and lots of time to enjoy the beaches, mountains, lakes and volcanoes and the great old towns as well. Towns like Copan Ruinas, Altitlan, Chichicostingango, Granada, and of course Panama City.
These countries are all pretty small and very diverse for such common histories.
Into South America!
Fly into Quito Ecuador - a few days to haggle the bikes through customs - then into the Andes!
Yahoo!Sorry for the long break in entries. I fritzed the screen on my computer & had to rely on finding a monitor to plug into for quite a while. Thanks to the great IT guys in our Santiago office (Chile), I now have a new computer.
My guilt for being so tardy has pushed me to publish!
I am back in Aus (not for much longer) & trying to catch up.
Southern Peru was magnificent & very eventful!
The deserts of Northen Chile were seen from the comfort of the Van (Annie the Trannie - a Ford Transit van). This adventure is proving to be just that!
Patagonia - Wow!Mountains, lakes, culturally rich old towns & cities, well formed dirt roads (sometimes) or windy mountain bitumen, and a great bunch of people to travel with - yet more ho hum!!