NAMIBIA 07.05.11 - 11.06.11

The luxury of a developed world strikes us as soon as we're hitting the border!
There are roads in perfect condition, ATM's, shopping malls, internet and many effordable places to stay overnight. From one day to another everything isn't a problem anymore. Suddenly we're able to get money on the first ATM machine, buy nice food in a supermarket and have a good night sleep in clean sheets...
No wonder we just want to enjoy the luxury and relax for 1 week in Tsumeb before deciding what to do in Namibia.

a tour through the Etosha National Park

Mongolia here we come!

Leaving Bisck we head to our end point for this trip...Mongolia, riding through the Alti region of Russia was fantastic, sooooo beautiful - snow capped mountains on one side and grassy plains on the other. It was simply awe-inspirering and hot to boot, not what we thought Siberia would be like. We keep stopping to record the view ( for our up and coming dvd, for sale at all good car boots ha ha ha ) and take photo's to prove to the doubting Toms that we did it.

All at Sea

We got away from Portsmouth on time yesterday, having spent most of the day in the Historic Dockyards and, more specifically, the "Mary Rose" exhibition. We left Moray a day earlier than our original plan specifically to do this, and it was well worth the effort.

Football, as an insult

While we were having dinner with our friend Jorges back in Tarija, we talked about football as well as bikes.

I was interested to know how good Bolivian football was and how their leagues compared to the the rest of South American and the world.

Jorge explained the size of the leagues and how the team names did not always reflect the city. For example "The Strongest" is a team from La Paz and "Universitario" is from Sucre.

GABON 25.03.11 - 11.04.11

one more time at the equator

6.Tabatinga to Manaus, Cruising down the Amazon

Taking my third consecutive banana boat since Yurimaguas in Peru, I finally got to see and taste the Amazon..."Fresh" off the boat from Iquitos, I decided to jump straight on the next one for Manaus the same afternoon. I figured the more tired I became, the more likely sleep would come in the hammock during the next three nights. The price for the voyage had doubled in comparison to Peru, at 37 USD for me , the same for the bike.

Can we Escape

I continued the journey north to the next town Mataranka which is famous for its thermal springs and the story We of the Never Never. This was an autobiographical novel about the first white women to settle in the area back in 1902, it was later made into a film. I had a quick cuppa in one of the few cafes where again my time out was spent in the company of one of the locals. From there I continued to travel to Katherine to look for Cocos Hostel which I had been advised to stay in by a biker that arrived at the Pink Panther Motel in Larrimah that morning.

Mi nueva casa

On the shores of Lake Champlain, Vermont.

JAPAN Weeks 6 & 7

8 July – 12 july

Arrival in the land of the Rising Sun.

Japan is a country steeped in tradition and tea in similar amounts.

Tight pack, loose plan...

We've had an adventurous past month, travelled with friends and even made a bit of headway. Irrespective of the fact it's been in the wrong direction!

Click below to read more...

Leaving Santiago the plan (I use the term loosely), was to return to Argentina and take an easterly meander towards Buenos Aires. Only it didn't quite work out that way...

Indonesia and the 'Friendly Customs Men'

I myself was propelled across the Melacca straits by an ageing high speed ferry, and arrived in the early evening a good few hours before the bike would come chugging slowly across.

At this point, consulting the email notes that Ken had written for me, I would apparently encounter "Friendly customs men".

I had puzzled over this unlikely statement for some time. Obviously this was not what Ken had intended to say. Perhaps he was being ironic. Or feverish. Gone "tropo".

And then there was one!

Happy 2003 to everyone and thanks so much for all the emails and comments gush, gush, gush....