A bit about usHello to all our family, friends and HU users.
We are Ant and Nikki Robinson and this is our blog for our around the world trip.
We currently live in Walsall in the West Midlands, UK. Ant is a welder fabricator and I was, until very recently, a civil servant.
We have been dreaming of doing some serious travelling for many years, as we love being on the road and have always enjoyed our camping trips to Europe.
OK, so the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that our intro says we are hoping to set off in August, its now October and we are still here. Who knew that organising round the world trip paperwork could be a full time job, so its handy that I no longer have an actual full time job.
I wont bore you with the details, but after much faffing about with DVLA, the passport folks and the local council we now have a log book with the correct bike details on, new driving licences, new chunky passports and regular rent payments YAY!
After having spent the last several weeks surrounded by maps, rulers, map measuring devices, calculators and the always scientific bits of string, my grasp of world geography is much better than it used to be, but we still dont have a proper route plan.
On August bank holiday Sunday we met up with Martin and Mark. They had just returned from their RTW trip and a thoroughly good time they had. You can read about their exploits on their blog here http://strimstrum.blogspot.com/. They were really nice chaps and full of useful advice and info. So many thanks to them for giving up their Sunday afternoon to face our barrage of questions.
Ant and I had our jabs for Yellow fever a couple of weeks ago. I wouldnt recommend it. Random parts of us would ache for no apparent reason, but it only lasted for a week or so and Im sure its much better than actually getting Yellow fever. Weve just got 2 to go on the 25th of October and then we will be immune to everything the world has to throw at us . Well mostly.
If you where wondering why our blog is called "rat round the world" then one look at the bike and it should all become clear. I'm not going to go into the philosophy of the whole bike genre just go look at ratbike.org.
We're off! Still doesn't seem real.
We had a fantastic leaving do at our local community centre on Friday and we left yesterday at 1.20pm. Which was only twenty minutes after we intended, not bad.
Good ride down to London yesterday, a bit cold, but a BBQ, bonfire and good company soon banished the chills.
Off to the Cafe for breakfast and then to the Ace Cafe later. Looking forward to seeing everyone, but not as much as getting on the ferry tonight and having a good nights sleep. There are only so many nights of drinking in a row I can manage.
Hello from the Cap Finistere ferry to Bilbao. The crossing has been reasonably calm so far, but we havent got our sea legs yet so much bumping into things is occurring.We sailed away from Portsmouth last night after a couple of manic days.
Thanks to all our friends and family who came to our leaving do on Friday night and big thanks to Nessie, who is a mad cake making genius.
Week 1- Bilbao in Spain to Alcacer do Sal in Portugal
What can we say about our first week except its been a bit of a roller coaster. From elated due to being on our adventure, to tense, very tense when wild camping, to miserable when wet and cold due to the weather.
The ferry crossing was a bit rough, both Ant and I felt pretty sick so most of it was spent asleep. Left Bilbao to a beautiful morning and the old road to Santander was really wiggly through some fantastic countryside. We stopped in Torrelavega to find it is All Saints Day and Spain is shut!
Week 2 - Alcaser Do Sal in Portugal to Estepona in Spain.
Monday dawned warm and sunny in Alcacer Do Sal and we couldnt decide whether to stay another day or move on, so we walked into town. Nice place very picturesque, but its one heck of a hill back to the campsite. By the time we got back it was too late (and we were too knackered) to move on so we went to the beach. It was beautiful, empty golden sand as far as the eye could see. You will note from the photo though it wasnt warm enough to take your coat off.
Week 3 - Estepona in Spain to Cap Spartel in Morocco.
Mom and Dad tanked it across Spain and joined us on Monday evening. We had a few days relaxing, BBQing and drinking Sangria in Estepona. Got chatting to a Dutch chap who was also staying on the campsite. He and his wife are travelling around Africa for 12 months, but were stuck in Spain waiting for their carnet de passage to turn up. They were in a 15 tonne, ex UN, cruise missile truck, which we worked out did 13mpg. Bonkers!
Week 4 - Cap Spartel in Morocco to Mohammedia in Morocco
Were in Africa and its raining, theres something wrong there!
Week 5 - Mohammedia in Morocco to Sidi Ifni in Morocco
Left Mohammedia heading for a campsite in Da Bouazza which was south of, but closer to, Casablanca. The downside of this was that we had to ride through Casablanca. Although Rabat is the capital of Morocco, Casablanca is a much larger city. You can tell this by the thickness of smog you are inhaling from about 2 miles outside of town. They dont go in much for catalytic converters around here!
Week 6 - Sidi Ifni in Morocco to Sidi Akhfennir in Morocco
Mending, sort of.
Week 7 - Sidi Akhfennir in Morocco to El Ouatia in Morocco
Monday morning after another lovely breakfast, courtesy of Lila, I tried to phone the hospital to see if we could resolve the medical certificate / police problem, but a combination of my bad French, their limited English and a bad phone line didnt get us very far. So we were left with no option but to travel the hour back to Tarfaya and go back to the hospital.
Week 8 - El Ouatia in Morocco to Tiznit in Morocco
On Monday Ant tried the bike out and concluded it rode well enough to get somewhere else. After much discussion we decided to go to Tan-Tan on Tuesday and see if there are any better shock absorbers to be had there.
Week 9 - Tiznit in Morocco to Taghazoute in Morocco
With the new shocks on the bike it was time to try it 2 up and to see if I could manage to get on and off with my bad ankle. Set off for a pootle round Tiznit and met Alesh and Noamy at the paint spray shop. They were very excited as they had been parked up for nearly 2 weeks having work done to their van, but it was almost ready for its new paint job.
Week 10 - Taghazoute in Morocco to Fes in Morocco
Monday we got up early for a long ride to Marrakesh. The Mom and Dad support wagon said they would catch us up so we set off on our own. Back down the coast to Agadir and then turned north for the road to Marrakesh. We started climbing into the Atlas mountains almost immediately and the scenery was lovely.
Week 12 - Cap Spartel in Morocco to Pisa in Italy
Monday night we packed up as much stuff as possible and went to bed excited at the prospect of moving on. On the whole we enjoyed Morocco, but we were both more than ready for somewhere new.