Central Asia and Beyond

Three retired guys -- Karst Postma, Paul (Shu) Shushan, and Tom McKinnon -- are heading out from Germany to Mongolia via Central Asia, and then return via Siberia.We met up in Heidelberg on May 04 and picked up the bikes that we shipped through Knopf Tours. After a little wrenching we got them ready to roll. We have a week before we need to catch our ferry to Greece to so we are exploring the Italian castles, old cities, and -- of course -- the beer. Here we are just about ready to head out on our 30,000 km journey.

Update

We walked Berlin for 8 solid hours. We visited the Fassbender and Rausch chocolate stored. They claim to be the largest chocolate store. They have been in business for 150 years. The Titanic, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate are chocolate. They average 3 to 4 feet wide and 3 feet high.

Puno (Peru) to Tilcara (Argentina)

Yesterday was a long day, and last night in Puno it got down to minus 6 degrees Celcius, so we have a bit of a sleep in before venturing out for a bacon and egg breakfast and hitting the road for (hmm is it back to Bolivia or off to Chile) a toss of the coin and Bolivia it is.We leave Puno easily, fill up with fuel and enjoy a short ride to …................... the first police checkpoint. They check our papers, including our SOAT insurance and we are off again.

Heading towards the Mali / Senegal border

El-Ouatia/Maroc

Tach zusammen!

Nachdem wir uns das letzte Mal gemeldet haben, haben wir zwar nicht viel erlebt aber viele Km gemacht! Von Tinerhir aus sind wir an einem Tag nach Merzouga gefahren und haben bei Ali unsere Reifen abgeholt 210 km. Am 2 Tag zuegig von Merzouga nach Foum-Zguid 430 km. Am 3 Tag von Foum-Zguid nach El-Ouatia (westl. von Tan-Tan) 580km.

Nach der Gurkerei sind wir jetzt auf der richtigen Strasse Richtung Sueden..... wird Zeit nach Mauretanien zu kommen!!

San Cristobal

Mountain High HI: We are in San Cristobal. It is Sunday. We took the long route. We got mixed reports about safety, for a single bike, on 199 MX. 199 MX is suppose to be a well maintained paved road. Not knowing what to do, we came back to Villahermosa and went south on 195. I would have rather taken 199 MX and probably should have.

Tikal (Guatamala) to Mezunte (Mexico)

We awake to the sounds of spider monkeys dropping debris onto our roof, not a bad way to awake to a new day.We pack up, have breakfast and say farewell to our new found American friends. Spoons and the big Mercedes have already hit the road.

We leave the beauty of the Tikal National Park and head towards the Belize border, it is a really scenic ride which we thoroughly enjoy and before we know it we are at the border.

The lovely grounds of the Jaguar Inn

Vino and tapas in Sevilla

Cartagena

In den letzten 6 Wochen haben wir so viele Kilometer unter die Raeder genommen, dass ich gar nicht weiss wo ich anfangen soll.

So many kilometers lay behind us .... were do I start.

Finally we had to leave the Villa..
Valparaiso-Cartagena 11520Km

32. Louisville, Detroit and the Journey Home

Louisville = Kentucky Derby
Detroit = Stay home after darkAfter 2 weeks in Washington I rode to Louisville using backroads, good ride,
stopped at Huntington for the night and from there it was a short ride to Louisville.

Washington to Huntington

In 3D

Bolivia - Tupiza, Uyuni & Sucre

Well what will today bring, another new country - into Bolivia!We get away by 10.00am after manoeuvring the bike out of the building very carefully, as you can see.

We get the bike out of Hostal Copacabana

India - 1

Amritsar (09-12-2000) till Mumbai (07-01-2001)

I wasn't really sure if they would accept my modified extension letter at the border, but the border was just 25 km from Lahore so I could always return to let them sort out the problem. But I was worried for no reason as they accepted the paper without any problem. On the Indian side they wanted to go through all my luggage, but briefly so no major problems here as well.