the first of (hopefully) many mails from the adventuring duoSo here it is - the first of (hopefully) many mails from the adventuring duo. Not all of the mails will be as long as this one, especially when we're paying by the minute in cyber-cafes. We-ve chosen an appropriate namne for our joint email (sorebums (at) yahoo.co.uk) - Do you like it? Seemed to be fitting, as we'll be sitting on the bike for about 35,000 miles over the next 18 months. There will be some days when we just keep going and going for 10 or 12 hours, sitting on one buttock and then the other, to try and get some circulation going?
As our messages will be read by a range of people, there'll be bits that will be dull or impenetrable to some or all of you. Simon will waffle about bike bits and Georgie will describe the finer points of Turkish grammar - just skip the bits that are tedious.

So what is the trip, why are we doing it and what are the highlights we're looking forward to?

The Itinerary

We're planning to ride a motorbike to Japan and back, taking in about 25 countries on the way. We intend to be gone for about 18 months, from April 2002 to September 2003.

The Route

Here's a summary of where we plan to be and what we plan to see.

United Kingdom - we leave from Harwich to the Hook of Holland on 13th April 2002. My brother (Pad) is going to escort us down to the port to make sure we go!!

Belgium - we will shoot through Belgium as quickly as possible, shielding Georgie's eyes from the sight of Brussels, so as to avoid any psychotic flashbacks to her workdays. We may pop into the "Tesch" rally in Malmedy, where a bunch of overlanding bikers will be meeting to discuss "travelling round the world".

Germany - a planned stop in Heidelberg, for some beer and "spratzler" (cheesy noodles in the shape that the locals refer to as "little boys willies"). Then down to see my old boss at his house near Lake Konstanz - hopefully the apple orchards will be in bloom.

Switzerland - a little bit of twiddling will take us to meet Georgie's friend Rachel and her family in Basle. Are you getting the impression that we're in no hurry to get to the arduous parts of the trip? Then we'll see if we can find a relatively warm route through the Alps to Italy. From past experience it can be bloody cold in the Alps in spring, so Georgie will need the heated gloves and socks that she got at Christmas.

Italy - again, we'll see if we can stay warm through the northern parts as we head for a couple of nights in Siena - It's a wonderful place; too good to pass without a stop, and there is a book that Georgie needs to buy there (about the Palio horse race) that she's not been able to get anywhere else in Europe - one of many small targets to aim for. Then it's off to Bari or Brindisi on the Adriatic "heel" of Italy to catch a ferry to Greece.

Greece - we plan to arrive in Patras, which is only about 200kms from Athens. A quick scoot through to Athens should see us meeting one of Georgie's friends - Spyros. We'll probably spend 3 or 4 days in Athens, seeing the sights and adapting to the Mediterranean pace of life. Then a ferry from Athens to Izmir in Turkey, will help us to avoid 800 mile journey through the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; island hopping to Turkey or customs hassles and a long ride through Macedonia - easy choice!

Turkey - we'll be in Turkey for most of May 2002. Our original route assumed that we'd arrive near Istanbul, but that was before I got round to looking at a map. So at the moment we're still planning the exact route. However, we want to do some touristy stuff in Istanbul. Including having a Turkish bath - as Georgie wants to see be worked over by some hairy bruiser pretending to be a masseur, and she'd also like me to be clean for a change. We'll do some ancient sites and temples along the southern coast (and maybe a little sunbathing), a visit to Gallipoli, some old villages in the hills (including Cappadocia), and then head off towards the North West border of Turkey?

Georgia - we aim to be in Georgia at the end of May and stay for a couple of weeks. That way the mountain passes in the Georgian Caucuses will be opened after the winter snows. Georgia is supposed to be one of the most hospitable places on earth (that is, after Manchester), and they have fine red wine. There's a load of old villages to the north, in the mountains that border Russia. And of course there's Stalin's birthplace to look forward to.

Azerbaijan - there be oil in that there country. I'm not really sure what to expect in Azerbaijan; the only thing it seems to be famous for is the oil industry round the Caspian sea. So it could be a warm version of Aberdeen, or we might find it's a cultural delight in itself. I suspect that it will be the first "grim, former soviet state" that we get to, so we may be making a quick exit.

Turkmenistan - now the adventure is really hotting up. To get to Turkmenistan we'll have to get a ferry across the Caspian, as the southern road route takes you through Iran and the northern route is through Chechnya - "hmm, 2 tickets for the boat please". Turkmenistan will be a complete change. If you look at the place on the map, there is one main road that hugs the mountains along Turkmenistan's southern border, and north of that road is nothing but desert. It looks like a guide on a tour bus might say, "to your right you will see lush oases and thriving towns, and on your left is 1000kms of dust and rock". I wonder how far we'll dare to ride into the desert? Too far as usual I guess. The culture in this region will be seriously Islamic, and major things to see include the markets in Ashgarbat (wanna buy a camel, or a hat made from a camel?), and a place called Merv (near a place called Mary) which is complex of ghost cities, swallowed up by the desert - got to be a cool place to camp overnight!

Uzbekistan - I wonder if it going to be swarming with American squaddies (as a lot of supplies for Afghanistan were being shipped there last year)? This is where we'll really hit "the Silk Road" with places that leap off the page at you - Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. There'll be lots of mosques and "caravanserais" (coach houses for camels). We'll also start to become experts on "tribal hats" by this point - each ethnic group has its own distinctive type of hat, made from different parts of various animals. I want to acquire a Kyrgyz hat, which are traditionally made from black sheepskin, with the fleece on the outside; the overall look of the hat is "Harry Enfield's scouser", with a dash of "afro". By this time we'll be getting fed up with eating mutton and chicken.

Kyrgyzstan - Have you ever heard of this place before? No? What better reason to visit? I first heard of it when I was working for Bestfoods in Moscow - we were shipping Hellmann's mayo by train to this far-off republic. They had to show me where it is on the map - sort of on the northwest corner of China. Kyrgyzstan is supposed to be really pretty, like the British Lake District, but with mountains the size of the Alps - a walker's paradise by all accounts - oh hell, we're going to have to get off our fat bums and do some walking. The capital of Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek) is also the place where the first of our "tenuous links" has to be met. Up to this point we'll have all of the visas we need in our pocket, but we need to get the visa for Kazakhstan in Bishkek. This should just be a matter of finding the agent that we've already arranged, and leaving them with the passports for a few days - here's hoping. If we can't get the visa, than we're buggered and a long way from home with no visas to get us across the various borders - anyone out there got a helicopter we can borrow?

Kazakhstan - where the Russians used to test nukes, launch Cosmonauts and plunder oil reserves. This is a big place with a lot of "bugger all" to see, so we're going to sneak into the east end, ride north for 3 days and get the hell out. We may be surprised at how beautiful the fields of wheat are on the steppe, or by what a buzzing place Almaty is - here's hoping. We've got the second of our tenuous links here - we'll get the double entry visa for Russia in Almaty, again through a prearranged agent. We live in hope - perhaps I'll have to be flattering about how nice Almaty is?

Russia - a place that's about as big as they come. It stretches across 11 time zones, although it cheats a bit 'cos it's stretching round the top of the earth!! We're going to cheat a bit too, as we're entering about half way across, near a place called Barnaul. Then it's north a bit and east a lot as we spend days riding through Siberia!! We'll be there in July, so it will be warm, it may be wet, and it will be bug-ridden. This is where our 2 fishing rods (one spinning and one fly) will come in handy. Siberia is full of streams which are full of trout - I reckon that by this time we'll be so sick of mutton that the prospect of a plump trout cooked over a campfire might be enough to make Georgie dive in and catch the beasts with her bare hands. A week or so of riding in Russia will take us to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal - a lake that holds 10% of the earth's fresh water, being 50 miles wide and 400 miles long. Tenuous link number 3 will see us obtaining visas for Mongolia.

Mongolia - should be one of the highlights of the trip, and we'll be there for most of August. The idea of going to "Outer Mongolia" has been floating round in my head since boyhood - it's just about the remotest place I'd like to end up in. We'll be there during the traditional "Naarden" season, when every village holds games of strength and skill; wrestling, archery, horsemanship, all bound up with ritual dances and drinking of fermented mares milk (maybe like a vodka yoghurt??). While we're in the country, we'll spend a little time in the capital Ulaan Baataar, and then ride a big loop to take in the rolling plains, hills and the Gobi desert. Apparently there are no fences in the whole country, and you can camp anywhere. And the road system and signage is so poor that the guidebooks give you GPS co-ordinates on the basis of ?find your way there and use the roads if there are any?.

Russia again - our final stretch in Russia will be a slow sprint to the eastern seaboard, as winter starts to close in during September. This bit will be fun as the road system does not run all the way across the country - there's a section known as the "Zilov Gap" where we don't want to end up. So we'll head to a place called Chita and load the bike onto the Trans-Siberian Railway for 1000km and trundle across the tundra that way. And thence to Vladivostok - supposedly the San Francisco of Russia maybe I'll take my rollerblades. Here we hope to find a ferry that can take us to Japan.

China - I hear you say "what happened to the plans to visit China". Well, China's still playing silly dictatorial games. The main pain for us would have been that we?d have had to hire a guide, and a car and a driver to shepherd us around everywhere. It would have cost us about £100 a day for this irritant, so we thought ?sod you, we'll take our money elsewhere?. Maybe one day we'll go, but not just yet.

Japan - decent food, new tyres, clean beds, civilisation. I think this is going to be a big, pleasant but expensive shock. Georgie's looking forward to unlimited supplies of sushi and rice and Simon's looking to temples, broad leaved woods (after all those Russian fir and birch forests) and a BMW dealership. We hope to pick up a package of guidebooks for the rest of the journey from contacts in Japan. Then it's a small matter of finding a shipping agent for the bike as the next stage of the journey will be by air (for us) and air or sea for the bike, to Thailand.

Thailand - will be our base for the winter of 2002/3, as we get the bike imported, and then plan trips to the surrounding countries. There'll be some lazing on beaches, riding (and maybe walking) through rainforests, visiting temples and hill tribes, cruising seedy bars and some more lazing on beaches. Sometime during the winter we hope to meet up with Georgie's mum and dad. I imagine that their luggage will be full of goodies that we've emailed them to bring. Maybe even a spare gearbox by that time!

Cambodia - we haven't read the guidebooks yet.

Laos - we havent read the guidebooks yet.

Vietnam - we haven't read the guidebooks yet, but we understand that the older locals speak French so maybe for once we'll be able to chat to someone other than the local youths.

India - as you'll have realised, the itinerary for the winter is vague - we'll sort that out once we've got across the 'stans and Russia. But we have a definite date to hit in India. One of our friends - Tony Colgan - is coming out to meet us in Calcutta. As you can infer from his name, Tony is Irish, very Irish, and can sniff out a good "craic". So we're going to lead the St Patrick's Day Parade in Calcutta. I can see my shaved head having a green shamrock painted on it - Tony, don't forget to bring out the white and green face paints. So we'll be in India by March, and my 40th birthday is in April, so we'll have to find somewhere special to spend that. So far the best idea seems to be to spend it sampling tea in Darjeeling - if anyone knows how much tea I drink, the meaning of this is obvious. From Calcutta (on the east coast of India) we'll probably head north towards the Himalayas, and hit Nepal in April.

Nepal - Buddhism and views. We-ll probably spend a month here, doing more low-land things than most tourists. The guide-books all talk of "a month's visit will allow you time for a 2 or 3 week trek in the mountains, and squeeze in the other bits around that". Sod off, we're not mountaineering for 3 weeks!!

India again - back to spicy food for a few months as we drift around seeing various parts of the country.

Pakistan - oh we do hope the place is open to tourists again. The main focus at the moment (because again we've not read the guidebooks) is the Karakouram region, up in the west end of the Himalayas (where the mountain K2 resides). The Karakouram Highway links Pakistan to China, and is supposed to be a top biking road - full-on gravel and views. Out with the heated gloves and up to 14,000 feet on the bike, through landslides and icy river crossings. And I'm sure there are a load of cultural and culinary highlights that we'll sample there too. However, if Pakistan is still kicking off in June/July 2003, then we have a cunning plan to avoid it. There are regular boat routes from Bombay to Iran, so we?ll just load the bike onto a pallet and ship it, and then fly ourselves over.

Iran - from memory seems like a scary place, but recent reports from other overlanders say that the Iranians are really hospitable and friendly people (but without the red wine the Georgians have). We think we can get visas for a couple of weeks in Iran, so we can have some desert adventures in the time it takes to cross the country (another big place). One delight will be the clothing for Georgie. We've seen photos of other western women crossing Iran on bikes wearing long, black flowing gowns and black hoods. So we plan to buy a similar outfit for Georgie in Pakistan and have her wear it in Iran. She might also have to ride side-saddle (or maybe not!!)

Turkey and home again - that piece of elastic that attaches us to home will be getting pretty tight by now and the pull will be almost unbearable. However, there will be a few more sights in Turkey to see, including Mount Ararat and the Hittite villages around Ankara. We're not clear on the route we'll take on the way home. Through the Ukraine and Poland would be cool - who knows.

Heavens, this entry is almost as long as the journey - by the time you've read it all we'll be half-way home.

The Gear

Half the readers can skip this bit!!

We're going on a 1990 BMW R100GS. It's got 40,000miles on the clock at the moment. The shaft has been changed about 5,000 miles ago, as a preventative measure. Ohlins shock. 43 litre Acerbis tank. Keihan Y-piece. CBR600 silencer attached low. Recently replaced diode board. Givi screen. High output regulator. Garmin 12XL GPS. Heated grips. 20 watt pilot bulb. LED additional light array for tail and stop lights. Avon Distanzia tyres (to start with) - not taking any spare tyres - we'll see what providence supplies en route. K-bike coil.

Home-made fibreglass panniers, holding about 105 litres - the aluminium lids are about 5 inches deep, so they double up as washing up bowls and seats. Home-made pannier racks that angle in at the bottom to reduce the width across the bottom of the panniers. Aerostich tank panniers. Small Lowe-Pro rucksack converted to a tank-bag. Ortleib map-case attached to the tank-bag. Lowe-pro 90 litre sack on the back for light bulky stuff that can get a bit wet.

Wild Country Hyperspace 3 man tent (very much luxury!!). Ajungalak sleeping bags. Thermarest mattresses. 17 year old Peak 1 petrol stove, with spare generators.

Lonely Planet guide-books all the way.

Visas through Travcour (Amanda - travcour[at]cableinet.co[dot]uk) and Alpha-Omega (EverlinaF[at]alphaomega-travel[dot]com)

How to contact us

The wonder of modern telecoms is upon us. From my past experience in Former Soviet countries, the landline systems are impossible to use and unreliable. I guess this will be the same in most of the places we're going to. However, the mobile, satellite and internet telecoms companies have set-up shop EVERYWHERE. I have been amazed at how easy it has been to communicate by email with agents in remote countries. So here is the plan for keeping in touch with us?..

We'll be taking my mobile phone, which I'll keep charged up from the bike's battery. We'll turn it on everyday (when we're in range of civilisation) so that we can pick up and send text messages. This is a nice, cheap and reliable way to contact us. If you call us on the mobile, 99% of the time you?ll get the message service, and it will cost us a fortune to pick up the message you leave. If you manage to get us when the phone is on, it won't cost you any more than if you were calling us on our mobile in the UK, but it will cost us a huge amount in roaming fees. So

TEXT MESSAGES = GOOD
MOBILE PHONE CALLS = EMERGENCY ONLY

We'll be picking up and replying to emails when we can - generally when we're in large cities for a couple of days. Again there are some limits to what we can do. Please DO NOT send any large files to our email address as the Yahoo system limits our total mailbox size to 6MB.

NO PHOTOS
NO ANIMATED JOKES

If someone fills up the mailbox and we can't receive an important message (such as a visa invitation or instructions on how to fix the bike!!!!) I'll, I'll.. well you get the idea.

So if you want to contact us (with all our regulations!) the contact details are:

Mobile phone 07770 638 611 (+44 7770 638 611 outside the UK)
Email address sorebums (at) yahoo.co.uk

Ok that's it for now. I'll get a nervous Georgie to write next time.

Simon (and Georgie)