6months travelling, 6months Cairns from 1999-?

Get on your bike and head to Chile! We have just had the most relaxing and visually varied month of travel ever! The secret has been having an enduro motorbike as independent travel to get out of the cities (and stay out) and get to lovely out of the way places on any type of road.

Photos at long last, thanks to Orestis in Athens! How can we ever thank you enough for all of your help?

Our farewell party "dress as a Muslim" and everybody did!! John, Hoppy, Lynne and Pat, great bellydancing thanks to Olivia.

Pat and Kate with our motorhome in New Zealand freecamping by a river! Heaven.

"Life is not measured by how many breaths you take, but by how many monents you have that take your breathe away"

Whos that Muzlim woman in front of the Pyramids!?

The classic pose in front of the Sphynx.

Horse and Cart in front of Luxor Temple.

Life is tough on the road, exhausting for navigators too you know!

Slumming it on Christmas Day! We had this lakeside Lodge all to ourselves.

Flat tyre 2- not bad after 4 years travelling and over 110,000km!

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Pat, Nevionne, Don and Belinda in their Mexican villa, paradise!

Mexican sunsets, the best in the world!

Pats Mum, Colleens 81st birthday party, mexican style. Nev, Don, Kathy (Pats sister), Colleen, Pat, Bin

The last month we have spent 2 weeks in Mexico and 2 weeks in Egypt.

Bins Mums lifelong friends Don and Nevionne Crawford have a time share apartment in Puerto Vallarta and invited us to stay with them. While we were there Pats Mum, Colleen and sister, Kathy flew down from Edmonton, Canada so we had a great reunion. Colleen had her 81st birthday Mexican style and we walked all over Puerto Vallarta and watched all the free dancers and entertainment in the centre square every evening. These "oldies" kept us going all day and we fell into bed absolutely exhausted each evening!

Marhaba from Jordan in the Middle East!
Welcome to the next update of Our Magic Carpet Ride. We both celebrated our birthdays in the last month and it was really clear to us both that there was nothing better that we would rather do on our special day than what we were doing. Travelling has taught us to be humble and not materialistic and to realise how very fortunate we are to be in the position we are in where we can simply ride and admire this wonderful world that we live in, like a couple of birds really!

Hello again from the long lost travellers! When we wrote last we were in Jordan heading off towards the Oasis town of Azraq in the desert to check out the "Desert Castles" built between 2~7th Century AD. Amazing!

We then crossed back into Syria and then into Lebanon. We were a bit nervous about Lebanon as the Aust Gov website rated it the second highest grade in no go zones, only go there if you have to, so we went!

Pat, Belinda, Zoe, Antonis (HU members Cyprus), Krisztina, Elvira, Cosmin and Szabi (HU members Romania) in Cyprus.

Policeman Pat.

Famagusta Ghost Town, prime real estate left to rot.

HU bikers meeting in Cappadocia- Mike, Belinda, Pat, Stephan, Waiter, Regina and John

Wide load, there is a motorcycle under all that gear and no camping gear!

Belinda borrowing a policemans gun in Egypt.

Venetian bridge in Cyprus Pat and Bin, Zoe and Antonis.

Bin in the gorgeous village of Kakopetria Troddos Mountains.

Turkish tank fallen off narrow maountain road 1974.

Goodbye to Orestis (HU member Athens) in Ephesus, Turkey.

On the road to Bagdad!

Tabouli dinner in the Middle East, fantastic!

We finally left Cyprus, the ferry to the mainland being 12 hours late leaving at 12 midnight with every seat full and no sleeping cabins available. With very rough seas the toilet reservoirs overflowed which caused even more people to throw up everywhere. Great fun. Cost was 108 euros for ferry plus 29 euros harbour tax.
Upon arriving at 8am we encountered a 2.5 hour queue to get through customs and immigration and a 8 hour ride to Cappadochia ahead of us. Luckily the scenery and roads were fantastic, which helped keep us awake to make our destination.

Next stop is Trabzon, Turkey on the Black Sea coast to order our Iranian visa at $50US each, as there is a Consulate there, which can process the application in 2 weeks. They issue a completion number and we can pick up the visa from any Iranian Consulate in the world. There is a unique and picturesque Byzantine monastery carved into the side of a sheer cliff and hidden away in solitary location.
Unexpectedly, we bump into Baha the HU member for Istanbul on his TDM 900 who offers his services as a tour guide and companion for the next week.

Orestis (HU Athens member) and Pat with their machines!

Us and Orestis sharing a snapps marinated watermelon, try it you will love it!

Serpentine road in Greece.

Back in real estate mode?! Not so soon!

Riding around in Romania.

Partying in Romania with Csilla and Oli.

When we left Oradea Romania, Oli contacted his friend Vali in Timisoara Romania to look after us! Romanian hospitality at its best, thanks heaps Oli! Vali was great, he met us, took us to a great, central hotel and showed us around beautiful Timisoara. We loved it there and stayed 4 days as there were bands playing in the central square most nights, great walks in the area, stunning mountain rides and Vali was there to keep us entertained!

Salam from the Middle East!
Last time we wrote we were in Greece. We spent a wonderful week riding around the Greek Island of Lesvos Island, a lesbian pilgrimage island, with wonderful scenic rides.

Introducing you to "The Peck Flag", that we hoist everyday in our hotel rooms to let everyone know we have arrived!

Meeting up with the locals in Iran.

HU member David Mildwater in Abu Dhabi kindly storing our bike for a year.

This is a cheats way of saying Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all our fans and airconditioners!
We are now back in Cairns, Australia and back at work :)
Our son, Johnathan, nearly 21, has just bought a 2007 KLE500 (its like a small Super Tenere, which is our bike of choice for those that dont know about motorbikes!) He is now driving 3,500km solo trip from the top of Australia to the bottom. He spent 6 weeks with us in Cairns choosing this bike and then getting the bike and his riding skills up to the challenge.