The Elephant's Travels 2007 - 2008

Wth their children grown ad their lives settled, Mike and Jo decide on one more adventure.They say that every journey begins with a single step. The first step on this journey, however, was imperceptibly small. A tiny shift in mind set, a distracted feeling at work and, somewhere, a growing feeling that life was short and precious and, if not to be taken too seriously, certainly to be lived, these were the small beginnings of an adventure. Jo and I have always loved motorcycles and, if we were not as active in our child rearing years as we would have liked, the passion remained strong.

A Plan comes together......or so we thought!Making the decision to try and ride our bike around the world was hard work and, having gotten that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, we settled back to await the start of our adventure. A couple of weeks of reverie drifted by before the obvious became obvious: nothing would happen because we wished it, we needed to get some planning done! Once we got over the initial shock of deciding to go, the problem of planning seemed almost overwhelming.

With too little time, the bike is prepared in a rush and much is left undone.One of the first things you need if you are intending to ride a motorcycle around the world is, of course, a motorcycle. For some reason we had purchased a BMW 1150 GS Adventure over the Christmas break. What possessed us to do that is not entirely clear looking back, but perhaps we had some unspoken thoughts about the possibilities. Perhaps it was just time for a change from our trusty but aging Kawasaki.

The administration for this trip seems far more complicated than for our last adventure. We think our lives have become too complicated!We had heard it said that you need to spend as long planning a trip like this as you intend to spend on it. If that were the case we were stuffed before we started. There was certainly a lot to do and no where near enough time to do it. Just working out how to get to the start and get home from the finish was a challenge.

Away at last. First stop New York.Finally we are away. First stop New York. Having not given any particular thought to our few days stop over in New York, we arrived without any preconceptions and loved the place from the jump. This is our kind of village! It is big, rambunctious, smelly, crowded, cosmopolitan, decaying and exciting. Everything good, bad and indifferent is here and you would need to live here for a while to get a handle on all of the possibilities.

Underway but still bikeless.We escaped from New York with our sense of humour intact and some important shopping done. Jo and I both found down parkers at a good price as well as a small mountaineering stove and fuel bottle. Jo also had new walking shoes and I had a good light weigh micro-fibre shirt. Overall, not too bad. The escape was not without its drama. Aer Lingus staged through Dublin, a smallish hub run with such incompetence that they give the impression of a great hub on a bad day.

Lyon, Australia wollops Japan 91 to 3 and we eat far too well.Our week of indulgence in London was over too soon. We were just getting used to relaxing when it was time to go.

Mike finds heaven at Solihull while Jo reads a book.Birmingham National Motorcycle Museum 12 Sep 07 Like all good bikers I had no choice but to detour on our trip to Wales to visit the National Motorcycle Museum at Solihull near Birmingham. It was our first day on the road with the bike and a chance to settle down the luggage pack and get used to the weight of the fully loaded bike. Our first hour out of London covered 19 miles (whatever they are) and provided a fair test of our ability to keep the bike upright in heavy traffic. No lane splitting just yet!

A Welsh adventure to start the journey13 – 16 Sep 07

After the National MC Museum we had the economy class tour of Birmingham. Despite our best efforts riding the late night local buses, and our failure o find any real Brum-Balti food, we quite liked the place. It has a real “try-hard” feel to it and an interesting ethnic mix. Folks from Brm would understand the Gold Coast better than most other Brits.

The escape from England is not without dramaGetting to France

16 to 21 September 2007

Our initial plan was to tour the southern counties and then get a ferry out of Portsmouth to the south of France. This plan was dashed when our UK insurance company failed to send out some needed papers causing us to return to London to pick them up. Bureaucratic incompetence knows no geographic boundaries it seems.

We Settle in Sete as a base for the Monpellier game.21 to 24 Sep 07

We could set up in Sete without any difficulty at all. It is a great little town.

Settling in to Sete like a local. It is a tough life on the road.

We settle in for a week at Arcachon on the Atlantic coast and watch the weather change.The Atlantic Coast

25 Sep to 1 Nov 07

A few days in the Loire Valley to look at some old buildingsWed 3 to Sat 6 Oct

Our holiday by the sea ran out as quickly as the weather. One last walk around the village to check on the locals found these two Labs that obviously didn’t feel the need to share the road. France is a pretty good place for dogs.

Wine tasting in ChampagneA Tale of Two Wineries

Mike and Jo settle down with some Champagne beet farmers for a while.6 to 14 Oct 07

Troyes and Champagne

We came up the motorway from Blois about as fast as we want to go on this rig. We had been slower getting away than planned and needed to be at the next stop in Troyes (it’s pronounced something like Troi with a definite rolling of the r) by 1230. Needing to make about even time for the trip we paid our money on the motorway and opened up the throttle.

An unexpected find in a Troyes back streetA small Museum in Troyes

One of the delights of being an independent traveler is finding the unexpected. Sometimes it is a small bar, warm on a cold day, where the locals embrace the traveler and tell you their special secrets. Sometimes it is a small museum or local history overlooked by the rest of the world. A visit to Troyes, 200 km east of Paris turned up just such a gem.

We find a hilltop town with some interesting characters14 to 15 Oct

Laon

Riding the back roads of France on a Sunday is a delight. We left our cosy hideout at Bouy-Luxembourg on a cool, clear Sunday and headed North West through deserted secondary roads. The hunting season had only opened a week before and every kilometre or so a shooter walked through the cropped fields with a shotgun over his shoulder and a dog bounding along behind. Sunday is a Frenchman’s day to hunt and a good day for small birds and furry animals to lay low.

Belgium and back to the UK15-21 Oct 07

Against common sense we continued to head north after Laon into cooler and wetter weather. We were traveling north to see some old friends now living in Belgium and it would have taken more than a little cool weather to keep us away.

We decided, for no particular reason, to spend a night in Brussels. A number of our friends and acquaintances have been posted to Brussels for work over the years and we felt we should have a look at the place for ourselves.

Back in England, Jo and Mike attend the wedding of their daughter Sarah.22 Oct to 27 Oct 07

We felt like old hands crossing through the Channel Tunnel on Monday 22 Oct 07. Despite a rainy cold morning we arrived at the check-in with our order number, passports and credit card ready (no easy thing when we were rugged against the cold and wet) and were through in seconds.

Mike and Jo have a less than wonderful week and a quick trip back to Australia28 Oct 07 - 6 Nov 07

Some days are just merciless.

Still emotional after Sarah and Mike’s wedding, and a little sad at saying goodbye to Sarah, Mike and Nick, our run to the Channel Tunnel was always going to be an ordinary day. When it started raining heavily during breakfast we put on our resigned-determined faces and broke out the wet weather kit.