BEAVERS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19
Honda and I are on the final climb of our journey. Snow closes in. Sun-lit peaks shimmer. I stop for lunch at a restaurant on the right of the road. The owner quizzes me. Where do I go next? Where will I leave my bike? At the Honda agency. I, in turn, ask what happened to the trees. Beavers did the killing. The beavers were imports from Canada.

Mexico, Done & Dusty

From lots of rules and regulations and relative order to chaotic driving and congested living and people doing what seemingly doing just what they want. Yep you have just crossed the border into Mexico.From lots of rules and regulations and relative order to chaotic driving and congested living and people doing what seemingly doing just what they want. Yep you have just crossed the border into Mexico.No one at the border seemed to care what I was doing or who I was. I had to stop them to ask how I go about temporarily importing the bike and myself into their country.

Everything is going smoothly

Everything is organised and paid for; the flights from Gatwick, the train to Gatwick and our hotel. The bikes are serviced and have a place on the RoRo from Liverpool to Halifax, Canada, and we have started the steps for the bikes to get on a RoRo from Seattle to Vladivostok.

Everything, including visas, are sorted.

Panama To Colombia

Thirteen bikes and eighteen passengers assembled in various hostels and hotels around Panama City waiting to board the Stahlratte (German for Steel Rat), a converted sailing cargo vessel built in 1903 that was going to carry us to Colombia.

VILLA EL CHOCON

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12
What began as a bad day has been a great day. I stopped for lunch at a shack in the middle of nowhere. A bunch of trucks and pickups were parked outside, a good sign. The drivers sat at two long tables laid with tablecloths. A young pregnant woman was serving platters of steamed trout and bottles of red and white wine.

Installment 3

I left you in Trinidad on a Sunday with a free day ( waiting for a clutch spare). I was sitting in the library with a bit of a sore head typing up as much as possible of the last few days riding and shopping fiasco's. I have had a few complaints regarding the 'technical content' of the last posting. I apologise for this, but in my defence would just say that I write about things that are happening to me at the time. At that time my head was full of bike bits and pieces! I wished that the riding was more straight forward and that I could just enjoy the trail a bit more!!

Mapimi, Durango

Just outside of Mapimi, Durango there is a suspension bridge at an old mining sight, Puente de Ojuela. It's famous in Mexico.From Mexico

Mexican Caribbean Coast

Modified Bike

TO MENDOZA

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9
Modern machinery and concrete sew the desert with water channels. From the sand sprout vineyards and citrus orchards and serial crops. This is Argentina: the scale is vast, the fields are flat. Close-by soar the snow-capped Andes. I long for a visual foreplay of wooded foothills.

Vive la France

November 22

Just a quick update today. We are in a town called Perpignan France. We are staying here for 5 nights to get organized and to do some much needed laundry!!

The weather on the ride up was mild and sunny from Spain. We had to go around Barcelona to continue on our way north and that was certainly a scary ride. Everyone was doing at least 130 klm and the trucks were passing each other as well as cars. I closed my eyes and tried not to poke at Patrick as we seemed to be dodging trucks for about 25 minutes....i've aged about 10years.....

Around Ushuaia

December 03, 2014:
A beautiful day, little to no wind, very rare condition down here. Took a short ride out to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. It's a small park with lots of hiking / walking trails.

From December 3, 2014

Zion And Las Vegas

I entered Zion from the east travelling through a mile long tunnel blasted through the rock in the 1930s. I couldn’t figure out why the GPS still worked with metres of solid rock on all sides when it refuses to work within normal house walls. The GPS correctly logged progress through the tunnel and showed each bend inside the tunnel.