Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama

It was only an hour from Choluteca to the Nicaraguan border near San Marcos de Colon. It was a lot easier getting out of Honduras than in and to my surprise Nicaragua was relatively simple. Best of all it all happened in the shade! I met a fellow motorbike traveller, Jacob Sherman (HU member) at the border and we decided to ride together to Granada on Lake Nicaragua. The ride to Granada was uneventful with mainly uninteresting roads. Nicaragua seemed a bit more prosperous than Honduras. Granda was a nice surprise.

Rock stars, the Brazilian slalom, big water and a flashing of knives

I had just "threaded the needle," passing between a
big truck and an ox-drawn cart while dodging potholes,
when it occured to me that the part of my brian that
should say "Gee, that was a bit unusual," had been
numb for thousands of miles. We were unable to locate the exact trails in Fortelza
that the ISDE will be run on and we are a bit pressed
for time to get into Peru so we left for Belem without
getting to ride the trails.

Size IS Important

Spent the last two nights at Phonsavan, which is in the middle of the Plain of Jars, which is also more or less in the middle of the saturation bombing by the US during their rather better publicised exercise next door in Vietnam.While there I decided to have a go at getting through the border to Vietnam - the closest crossing was only 140km away at Nan Cam. So off I went yesterday morning and arrived at around 11am. The Lao border chap said there was no point doing me until around 1:30 as Vietnam didn't open until 2. So I was duly done at 1:30 and pootled off to Vietnam.

Venezuela to Brazil

Departed Caracas on 02 November and headed for Ciudad Guayana to get a visa for Brazil, two day mostly uneventful ride. Arrived on a Sunday and got settled in at the Rock Inn Hotel. The next morning while inquiring about the location of the Brazil consulate the owner of the hotel, Pedro, offered to drive me there and help with translation, Portugese. Come to find out I needed to provide a six month bank and credit card statement to apply for the visa. Pedro let me use his office at the hotel and I was able to print out everything I needed and was able to submit everything that day.

Adventures On Eighteen Wheels

The final part of the test was to park the 40-tonner as close to the pedestrian as possible without touching him. Or without him even realising I was there in the huge articulated lorry.
This test checks that you're able to use the front-view mirror to see if anyone is loitering on the crossing in the blind-spot right in front of the bumper, and to manouvre right up close. Without this mirror the pedestrian is completely hidden from the driver's view - that is - my view. So I have to show I can use it properly and keep out-of-sight pedestrians safe.

The Gobi (22 - 28 July)

The GobiA trip has been planned in the last week. Four of us are to do a loop of the Gobi down to the dinosaur bones, the big dunes and back. This is what I rode all this way for. Team members are:
Bill. My riding buddy from Wisconsin (KTM640 Adventure)
Mario. A german rider who has been holed up in UB nursing a dislocated AC joint in his shoulder (Honda Africa Twin 750)
Renee. the owner of the Oasis (Kawasaki KLX250)
Myself (KTM400 EXC)

How Plans Change. January 2005

We only plan to spend eight days or so in Belize. Yeh right!!!!!!!!!! having come into Belize on the 3rd January we were looking forward to nothing more than seeing Camille and Alex (our friends from England) and seeing a little of the country before riding onto Guatemala in a little over a week. Boy has that all changed. We did indeed meet Camille and Alex and had a fantastic time with them seeing and doing so many things but one of those things has lead to an unexpected outcome.

More Red Dust

It gets worse.

The Land Of A Thousand Hills

It's not very far from Lake Bunyonyi to Kigali, capital of Rwanda.
So here I am.

Birabidzhan 1354km

Troubles alreadyWe headed out of town towards Birabidzhan 200km away on a sunny cloudless day. We crossed the huge Umer river bridge. This took some time since the river is wide like the Mississippi, the bridge extends over the flood-plains and the speed limit is 40km/hr. The land in that region is lush and green (mainly due to it being swampland). Those endless green swards are bottomless peat relieved only by the beautiful birch forests where the water is not so deep. Deep blue irises decorate the green.

South to the snow. October 2004

I never thought I'd say this but we've been feeling a bit 'treed out'. Since Canada we've seen nothing but trees, EVERYWHERE. We're ready for a change of scene and not being ones to do things by halves Death Valley seemed like a place that would be that change. We've ridden through a few desert areas on this trip and love them. Every desert has its own character and mood and the more time we spend in them the more we appreciate them. In Sequoia NP we met Mark, a lone biker from New Mexico, taking some time off work to ride around the country and have a break.

Overwhelmed Again

Everyone here in SA is so friendly and helpful.

I've had dozens of offers of meets and beds from bikers all over the place, and the dealer here in Port Elizabeth (Continental Cars) was brilliant.