The Big Trip 2

This is the first instalment of what I hope will be an interesting Blog about our preparations for and journey through Central and South America. I thought it might be interesting not just to write about what an exciting time we are having, but also a little about some of the preparation that goes into such a trip, so if you are only interested in the exciting bits, you’ll have to wait awhile!!

In the last 2 weeks, we have been busy sorting out all the documents that we need to take with us.
We got our international drivers licences and international registration documents and booked the shipping of the bikes.
In the last 2 weeks, we have been busy sorting out all the documents that we need to take with us. I had to get my bike registered in my name instead of Arno’s, not just for this trip; incidentally, the machine has to be in my name when it is shipped to Australia, if we ever get our Permanent Residence Visas.

Here for anyone who is interested in what we are taking with us, is an almost complete list of what we packed into our alu boxes and ortlieb sacks.LIST OF EQUIPMENT WE STARTED OUT WITH.

BIKE EQUIPMENT
No ‘rocket science’ here, just common sense! The Spare parts and tools we take, will take up a lot of space and are relatively heavy, however, they will, we hope, give us more chance to help ourselves if, or when we break down.

Time is flying past, last week we visited one of our sponsors, Siebenrock in Stuttgart. With the shipping date now decided, it was time to do a trial pack of the bikes and see how and where everything would fit.
The really good news this week was an email from the Australian Embassy in Berlin.

We have been in top gear the last couple of days, trying to get everything done. We went for our medicals and collected together all the extra paperwork that the Australian Embassy required. Arno took his gearbox out and took it to the specialist, who pronounced it fit after taking it apart and replacing the main seal. He and Hans put the whole thing back together again in a couple of hours. It is so helpful to have a BMW specialist in your circle of friends!!
A visit to the copy shop was also squeezed in, so we could copy all our important documents.

Things are beginning to come together, we may even get our Permanent Resident visas before we leave. We spent a whole day preparing the crates for the bikes, time to see how they fitted together.
We are also the proud owners of a laptop - Thanks Micheal!!

Highlight of the week – an email from the Australian Embassy, “pleased to inform you blah blah….” They have decided to grant us our visas at long last. That was darn quick!! Just have to wait for Arno’s new passport to arrive, then we can get the visa actually in our hot little hands!

Monday – first day free from our jobs, but no rest for the wicked. Spent the whole day packing and crating the bikes.

The bikes are on their way, but there is still so much to do. We spent the next couple of days packing all our belongings. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a big van from L&M, and so with the help of friends, we squeezed all our stuff in and then drove it to Arno’s brothers place, where it will stay until after our trip.
Our passports were waiting for us when we got back, complete with the long awaited visas for Australia. It was so good to read the words “permitted to remain in Australia indefinitely”

The majority of the work on the bikes was done by Arno, he is more mechanically minded and has lots of experience from his first trip. I helped where possible and tried to learn more about my bike where I could.
Arno’s bike had had a complete overhaul recently in addition the drive shaft and the cam shaft chain had been replaced.
A little welding and painting and she was ready to go again.

Our starting point was organising the shipping of the bikes to Los Angeles. Air was too expensive so we started collecting Ocean Freight quotes from various sources. The next big project was getting our camping equipment sorted out. For anyone that is interested, have a look in the archives for a complete equipment list of what we started out with.

Germany and England are behind us, we landed in Sydney yesterday, after an 18 hr flight and validated our new visas. For the next 2 weeks, we will be spending time with family and friends, and sorting out relevant paperwork, including collecting together the documents that will allow us to import our bikes into Australia at the end of our trip.

Quite by chance we discovered that the National Motorcycle museum of Australia is just down the road, (by Aussie standards) at Nabiac in NSW. We borrowed a car and headed down the mountain - 30km’s of unsealed road. A further 25km’s towards Sydney and we found the museum, in a tiny village alongside the Pacific Highway. It was huge, 3 halls containing over 400 bikes, from all over the world.

Here we are on the correct continent at last. Things are not however, going exactly according to plan…….

The bikes arrived at Los Angeles Harbour as expected, we even manage to get a lift to the warehouse to pick up our bikes, problem is they aren’t there.

Here we are on the correct continent at last. Things are not however, going exactly according to plan…….

We have been in LA 12 days now, we are running out of patience, but there is nothing that we can do. We call the warehouse every day in the vague hope that our crates have slipped through the pickets, but the strike is holding firm. Nothing is moving, there are more ships arriving everyday, over 200 now wait offshore.
The government is finally getting involved as the economy starts to be affected, if luck is on our side we should be able to pick up the bikes tomorrow.

A lot has happened in a short time. We at last have our bikes, bade farewell to LA and went to an Oktoberfest in San Diego. After a taste of the desert in SE Arizona and a visit to the old outlaw town of Tombstone, we crossed the border at Douglas, it was easy, but time consuming.

At some points I wondered if I really had ridden down this road. Arno was having fun even though he has a much heavier bike, I was struggling at some points but chose a reasonably easy stretch to dump the bike for the second time.Today is Day of the Dead, here in Zacatecas. Yesterday the children celebrated by dressing up in Halloween type costumes and parading around the city asking for sweets. Today they accompany their parents to the cemetery where the graves are decorated with many flowers and examples of the dead persons favourite foods.

We awoke he next morning to the sound of rain on the tent, oh joy!! Now to decide, stay and get wet, or go and get wet. When Ruth came back from the bathrooms saying there was no water the decision was easier, we go. After riding down the middle of Mexico, we felt that it was time to head to some water, the coast was a little far so we decided on Lake Chapala. We had to negotiate our way through or preferably around Guadalajara, Mexico’s second city. We rode with Ruth and Merv and I was surprised how much more attention we attracted, being 3 bikes rather than 2.

As we descended towards the city we found ourselves driving in the dark, breaking the first rule of motorcycle travelling. We had 30kms ahead of us, the road was ok, but it was still a nerve wracking experience.

We survived our night in the jungle, despite the spiders, mosquitoes and our own cooking. It wasn’t actually raining the next day, so we set off for the Lagos de Montebello, several beautiful lakes near the border.Guatemala was calling, we just had to decide which way to get there. Through Yucatan and Belize, back towards San Cristobal or the loop, along the Guatemalan border past Bonampak, Yaxchilan and the Montebello Lakes. We decided on the road less travelled and take the loop. According the guide books, the road hasn’t been paved all that long so it sounded a bit more adventurous.