Key West to St Petersburg

Friday 27th February
We were up shortly after daylight and I could not wait to get out of the hostel. It's by far the worst place I have ever stayed in all my life but still glad we stayed other wise we would not of gone to Key West. Although the road there is only a single carriage way with road works and traffic jams at all the different Keys it was deffintately worth doing. It was hard to keep your eyes on the road. When I went to load the bike I realised I had left the helmets locked to the bike during the night and it had rained so we both had to suffer soggy helmets.

ROCKET's MATE

Morocco2

Sun 13 and we were off to Marakesh after having had our boots cleaned for 50p,through the Atlas mountains and what a spectacular ride on deserted roads with tiny villages.They say that traversing the Atlas is one of the motor cycle 'musts ' and we tend to agree with that!
Again we were offered kif and there are pottery places every where trying to sell their wares or crystals of bright red or green. A lorry had lost 2 wheels off the axle near to the top- just avoided going over the edge !

EDP

The EDP (Temporary import letter of approval) and The last piece of the puzzle has arrived. So all I need to do now is book the freight then sit back and wait till the 9th of Feb.
Getting really excited about it. Its now starting feel real.

Maldah - Sikkim

Beautiful road, beautiful people, beautiful mountains (though these are hidden behind pollution and dust mostly at this time of year)..
11 – 20 March: Maldah, Gaur, Balurghat, Darjeeling, Legship (Sikkim) and Pelling (Sikkim)

Everything north of Kolkata has been enjoyable, especially the Nepalese-type people in the hills up here :)

In India pedestrians don't walk across the road, they run:

MICKS HOT TODDY!

The next bike ride was to be a ride up the alp's to the Italian bar on the top which served the famous HOT TODDY!

2008 Wrinklies Ride to Russia!

Hi there folks - well, Wrinklies are off again on their trusty BMW 1150 GS. This time to meet some friends( Brendon and Tasha) who have already ridden across Canada from Halifax to Vancouver. They are then air freighting to Japan , travelling around there and then boat to Vladivostok. They are then to transit Russia and we hope to meet them somwhere past the Urals ! ----- That's the plan anyway.They are on a BMW 1200-- and 2 up.

Week 2-3

Harbour at Vada, northern Italy.

11th March – Made an executive decision to travel down Italy’s leg to avoid the snowstorms etc in northern Italy and Balkans. Found small pension right on the harbour at Vada. Bob took the accompanying photo, which his Dad would be ever so proud of.
12th March – Motorway miles to head south. Lovely mountains on left and Med sea on right.

Update

First we rode to the valley where we had seen the Marmots, but no joy today. So we just took a few photos, we then rode up to the top of yet another mountain. A lot of stalls had been set up selling local produce and goods i.e. sheep skin rugs and cheese etc. As we started to ride down the other side the scenery just got better. See photo. After a while we stopped once more for photos, then headed for a roadside bar for coffee and rolls. We all managed to sit at one table watching bikes of all makes and from all over Europe pass by.

Greece

Left Thessolonýka 21/3/06 for Alexandroupolý. The 2 hour týme dýfference and seeýng a road sýgn for Yugoslavýa and Bulgarýa brýgs home how far we are away- but ýt does,nt seem very long sýnce we started.

The shops are stýll open at 9pm and the chýldren out wýth theýr parents. There ýs no graffýttý and everywhere ýs clean. Concrete houses of 2 storeys each wýth verandas.

Week 24 - 28

August 17th – started talking to a lady with a crash helmet who appeared at breakfast time. She was from Sydney (although originally from Bexhill years ago) and was touring round the coastal roads for 5 months. She’d come off her bike (F650GS), and it was being fixed at the same BMW dealer. So we swapped stories, realized we had a lot in common and got on really well. Lizzy was also responsible for our first trip in a police-car with Perth’s finest!

Update

Dinner eaten, Rocket off to bed, i decided to have a look around the site. There was one guy keeping watch at one of the bars, he invited me over and gave me a pint of Lager, which i gladly accepted. His English was as good as my Italian, lousy to say the least. After a beer or two i wished my new friend a good night and headed back to the tent. I made a small fire put on some tunes and sat under a sky full of stars and chilled, while Rocket knocked out a few zzz's. The weather was still warm and dry and the skies clear.