Part IV - Letters From The Road

Recently I discovered a verse in Death Cab For Cutie´s aptly named and beautifully sung ´Brothers On A Hotel Bed´ that goes something like this:

On the back of a motor bike
With your arms outstretched trying to take flight
Leaving everything behind
But even at our swiftest speed we couldn't break from the concrete
In the city where we still reside.

Love Hotel

They are easy to recognise.

They are always on the outskirts of town and always one storey buildings.

As you drive in every room has it's own parking slot directly in front of the room, like a motel. As soon as you drive in an attendant swiftly draws the curtain behind your car so no one else can see it. You can pay by the hour. The sheets are clean and the water is hot. They also had the smallest towels I have ever seen.

How to Make a Middle-Aged Woman Very Happy Indeed

The bike having been taken to a workshop the other side of the city to have an extremely recalcitrant big-end bolt extracted, I slept badly because I woke up in the middle of the night convinced that when I refitted the gearbox I forgot to remove the flywheel-jamming tool (which is small and black and thus doesn't exactly leap to the eye). I take such things extremely calmly these days. (And remember all my pix are here.)I'll rewind a bit here.

Banos 02 Apr 14

It's been raining most everyday since I arrived in Banos however, there was a couple days of great weather and I took advantage of them. I rode some of the back roads in the local area, felt great to tear up some dirt with a naked moto and couple gallons of gas!

To the Finish Line

Friday 1st May – “he looked down, said it is finished and was well pleased” Book of Genesis
Friday 1st May – “he looked down, said it is finished and was well pleased” Book of Genesis

It’s done. Finished. All over red rover. I’m stuffed.

I was planning to stop off at old Cambria which is about half way between San Francisco and LA but when I got there some bloody Porsche rally had taken up every damned room in the township. So I pushed on to LA.

January Y2K7

The New Year was seen in, in a slightly drunken state at a house party in Billericay and now draws to a close with me in Benghazi, Libya surrounded by mad drivers and everyone shouting Arabic to each other. Doesn’t mean a thing to me however with a bit of arm waving its surprisingly how well you can get your point across. Which is good as everything here is in Arabic and I have managed to agree transit across the country without a guide sitting on my shoulder. A little bit illegal I understand, but if you don’t tell anyone things should be alright.

Broken Bike Bits 2

I watched as Willy tightened all my spokes.

'Do you know what you are doing?'

'Oh yes', he said.The next day I went for a ride into the mountains with Nico.

Even before we got out of the town I realised I had a big problem.

As I rode slowly down the road I stood up and looked at my front wheel over the fairing. It was wobbling like mad from side to side.

Willy had completely fucked it up. Brilliant.

Russian Farce Acts II and III

(with apologies to Dostoevsky, but I've just read Crime and Punishment as I've been that bored I'd have cleaned the bike if I had one).Act II

Having already bought my ticket for the boat, but not yet for the bike, I decided (fortuitously, it seems) that it might be wise for me to investigate the station and find out train schedules (if there be such) and the whereabouts of the baggage facility; I had been enjoined, whilst in Yekaterinburg, to make strenuous efforts to meet the train and specifically the appropriate wagon, tended by Sergei and Tatiana.

Tequendama Falls

From Pamplona I rode into Bogota and got new tires from Gonzalo Bueno MFG. Gonzalo is an ADV rider and I spent a few hours and lunch getting some good information on SA, it was a great day! Rode south out of the city and found a place to stay in Subia.

Riding from Sydney to Oslo

We started our ride on November 25th 2008 with our BMW R1200GSBackground - to save repeating ourselves hear it would be easier for you to see our website at www.riding2up.net
We will be keeping track of our location using google maps and photos will be available on Picasaweb album.

http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108051183506461822149.00045c66af99fde3d5a05&z=3

http://picasaweb.google.com/riding2up/

Vilankulo- the town that was

Wow, Vilankulo, is amazing, ive never seen anything like it. A cyclone or 2 came through a few months before i got there and its rather flatterned. I did not see a straight or undamaged building on my ride through town.

River Deep, Mountain High

Riding down a river is a strange feeling.

Funnily enough it's only open during the dry season.Visit www.fowb.co.uk for more details on this and previous trips.