ATW 2010 forwards

April 30th:

May 15th:
Today we drove to the southernmost point of the continent of Africa – Cape Agulhas. The Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic at this point, and we got our bikes as close to it as we could, so we’ve gone the whole length of Africa. The further south we’ve come, the more familiar things have felt – although the most-of-day power-cut made us feel as though we were back up north! I suppose the pizza by candlelight was fairly romantic though.

Well it's been a while since we got back from our Sheffield to Cape Town trip on the bikes in May 2011.

And now we're ready for round 3.

This time we're planning to visit North, Central and South Americas. On our first trip around the world we had to rush across North America, west to east, trying to keep ahead of the snow, which meant we didn't get to see lots of the places we'd planned to. And there was also a cock-up on the financial front, meaning we were running out of money, so we missed out South and Central America altogether.

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley" as Robbie Burns said.

Our original plan was to be on our way early February, but things conspired against us.

Our first spanner in the works came when the US government changed the rules earlier in the year for getting a visa. The US Visa Waiver Programme (VWP) allows most British Citizen passport holders to visit the US for up to 90 days without a visa, and we had to get authorisation from the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) before we left home in 2011 for our round-the-world bit.

The thing about travelling independently is that you can't always control what's going on around you and what's affecting you. Our journey to Manchester Airport was relatively easy, but once we got to New York things started to go pear-shaped.The weather was really bad (high winds and rain) and so after 2 interesting failed attempts at crashing at JFK Airport the pilot decided to take us to Philadelphia instead, where we landed safely. We then sat for 3 hours while we refuelled and Air Traffic Control worked out a way to get us back to New York.

After many more cock-ups and frustrations, we finally left New York on Monday 18th April at 5pm. We couldn't get far but were just relieved to get Foxtrot back - fortunately the container place had a very helpful fork-lift driver who placed the tent back on the roof and Bob tied it on securely'ish.

Tuesday April 26th
This was our first experience of a winter storm in South Dakota and Wyoming, and it was relatively manageable, so we set off for Mount Rushmore.
It continued to snow all the way there but was still OK - it's a very impressive place, and there is a pretty good visitors centre explaining the history of the place, and the logistics behind the sculpture.

Fascinating Mount Rushmore.

Thursday 12th May
Mainland Mexico is a completely different place to Baja. We're in a university town called Moralia, which has a lovely feel to it.We went for a walk to find some cash, and there was a square with people ballroom dancing to a band. People just doing what Mexicans do of an evening. We were doing what we normally do - arguing.

Four prickly things in a row.

Thursday 26th May

Wednesday June 8th
Across the border to Canada today, at Coutts, and into Alberta.
Barn in Alberta.

Friday 24th June
After an interesting visit to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax (where there was a Titanic exhibition), a wander around the lovely harbour-front, a tour around the Citadel and an awful lot of people-watching in the public gardens, we decided we'd exhausted all of Halifax's attractions.

We spent the following days organising the shipping of Foxtrot back to the U.K. And made some decisions.