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Photo by Danielle Murdoch, riding to Uganda - Kenya border

The only impossible journey
is the one
you never begin

Photo by Danielle Murdoch,
riding to Uganda - Kenya border



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  #1  
Old 20 Mar 2012
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German couple on a RTW trip with two 20 years old Hondas arriving in Darwin

Hello to all Australian bikers!


We are Bea and Helle, a young couple from Upper Bavaria in Germany and we are in the middle of the greatest adventure of our live, a round the world trip with our two twenty years old Honda Transalps!


We started in our home town Burghausen at the 18th of June 2011, so we are “On the Road” now since more than 9 month. During this time period we crossed 12 countries and had driven over 31.000 kilometer. We visited the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and from Vladivostok in the far east of Siberia we shipped our bikes to Thailand. From there we did a loop trough Cambodia, Laos and Thailand before we went down to Malaysia, Singapore and finally Indonesia. At the moment we are on the Island of Lombok and we are heading forward until Timor-Leste from where we ship our bikes to Darwin at the 19th of April.
During the last 9 month we had a great time, met some unbelievable helpful and friendly people, rode our bikes trough amazing landscapes and had some real adventures!


On our homepage www.timetoride.de and our Facebook-page www.facebook.com/pages/Time-to-ride/115955945143396 you can find more information about us, our bikes, about our trip preparations and some travel reports about the countries we visited so far. We also posted lots of pictures and videos about our previous travel experiences and adventures. So if you are interested, we would be very happy if you visit our homepage and Facebook-page!

But now we are really looking forward to go to Australia. We had never been there before but we heard a lot of great stories about this huge country and we saw a lot of great pictures and we are really curious about what to expect there! :-)
And we are also very interested in meeting local bikers, having good conversations, of course drinking the one or another and spending a great time while exploring Australia with our bikes! :-)

And if some of you might have some helpful tips for us in advance, that also would be great!


When we arrive in Darwin in the mid of April we have to stay there for around 2 weeks because we have to fix and renew several parts of our bikes, so if anyone can recommend a cheap place with a safe parking possibility for our bikes and maybe a metalworking shop where Helle can do some welding work and building 2 new aluminium boxes for our two bikes, that would be fantastic!


We hope to hear from you and looking forward to see some of you guys in Australia!

Many greetings, currently from Lombok / Indonesia
Bea & Helle

Contact:
Email: info@timetoride.de
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Time-to-ride/115955945143396
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  #2  
Old 20 Mar 2012
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Sounds like a great trip! I must admit I´ve had some of the best bike riding in my life in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia & Indonesia... incredibly beautiful and friendly all around (and being very warm 365 days a year, and quite cheap to travel, really doesn´t hurt either!!)

Remember, you must clean the bikes very thoroughly before you ship them to Australia. You must also contact their customs (in advance!) and get the temp import permission.

I did not have any big troubles bringing my DL650 to Oz (in Perth, March -08) but it was cleaned, not just from the outside, and the quarantine inspection is not to be underestimated.

In fact I just heard about a bus from Finland (yes, a bus, from Finland, and driven there all the way – Kazakhstan, China, etc!!) that was eventually rejected by the customs, and so that group had to freight it onwards, and hire another bus to do Australia. Any bike will probably be easier to clean than a bus from the 1980´s, though... and also note, that if you´ll use a wooden crate, it needs to be fumigated, and you need to have the certificate proving that. And remember the quarantine stuff also applies to all your clothes, shoes, bags, riding gear, etc.
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  #3  
Old 21 Mar 2012
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If you go past Broome shoot me a message
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  #4  
Old 21 Mar 2012
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Melbourne

If you get to Melbourne PM me. Can give you some tips for Victoria and If your timing is right maybe even a bed for a few days.

Cheers,

James
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  #5  
Old 11 Apr 2012
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Finally we arrived in Dili!
Wall Photos | Facebook

Container is booked for the 19th of April. Flight is booked for the 21th of April.

Australia we are coming!!!
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  #6  
Old 12 Apr 2012
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Hi there the 2 of you!

Just greetings from Japan!

Alexandra and Andre stayed at our place from Sunday until today.
Guess I should send greetings from them, too.
They will leave today, going to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara
and some other places and then ship their bikes on 12 May
from Sakaiminato via South Korea to Vladivostok - returning to Germany.
Just in case .... "Japan" is still waiting for you !!!

Take care, safe riding, and maybe some day, somewhere out on the roads ...
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  #7  
Old 19 Apr 2012
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It´s done! After 8 days cleaning our bikes and our equipment with the tooth brush (!!) (thank´s to the Australian quarantine requirements ) they are finally in the container!


Wall Photos | Facebook


Australia we are cooooommmmminnnngg!!!
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German couple on a RTW trip with two 20 years old Hondas arriving in Darwin-dsc_0036-kopie-.jpg  

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  #8  
Old 23 Apr 2012
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Hi Bea & Helle,

If ever you get to Sydney and need a place to camp then PM me.... Got a spare room and your own bathroom. I'm a Honda fan with my adventure bike being an XR400 and trailbike is a CRF250.... but the pride is my BMW650GS for the road....

Enjoy Australia. I've been fortunate to experience a adventure ride from Perth (Western Australia) to Airlie Beach in North Queensland via the Simpson Desert. It has got my juices flowing for more adventure riding for sure.

Kat
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  #9  
Old 23 Apr 2012
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Hi Bea & Helle,

If you do head down to Sydney and want to stop on the way I can offer a room in Newcastle (about 150km north of Sydney). Only a shared bathroom - but a good garage if you need to do any maintenance. Just PM me. Safe travelling.

(Offer also applies to any other traveller who happens to read this)

Martin

Away On My Bike | Just another Adventure Riders Blogs site
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  #10  
Old 21 May 2012
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Finding a seasonal job in Queensland?

Finding a seasonal job in Queensland?

Sorry, no bike question today! But maybe you guys can also help us this time, too!

Traveling around the world with a bike costs a lot of money and the Australian Dollar is pretty strong at the moment, too, so we have to improve our travel fund a little!

We have a “Working Holiday Visa” so we are official allowed to work in Australia. Helle is a qualified electrician and technician and had worked for several years on any kind of building site and, of course, he can repair and maintain any kind of motorcycle as well!

Bea is an environmental engineer, but, however, we are only looking for a job from the mid of June to the end of September and we know, that it is nearly impossible to get a job in our real branch (at least for Bea) so we are open for every kind of job! Shift work, hard physical work or staying in a remote area is also no problem for us, if we can make some good money!

So, if anyone of you can recommend a good area in Queensland to look for a job or, even better, someone has a job for us or knows someone who is looking for workers, please send us an email!

Cheers, currently from Mt. Isa
Bea & Helle
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  #11  
Old 9 Jul 2012
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Hey Guys!

Some of you asked us if we can keep you up to date from every now and then and so, here we are with our first report, currently from a cattle- and cotton farm west of Goondiwindi in the Southwestern Outback of Queensland.

If you are wondering what we are doing here in this freezing cold place (yes, we definitely underestimated the temperatures during the winter time here… *brrrrrr* ), we are working and working and working – actually about 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and this for the next 3 month to refill our travel fund!


You don’t believe us? Hera is the photographic evidence!


We´ll continue travelling in the End of September, heading up to Cairns and start our trip down the East coast from there in the Beginning of October!



And yes, you can believe us, we are REALLY looking forward to be on the road again!


Cheers from the “labor camp”


Bea & Helle
Attached Thumbnails
German couple on a RTW trip with two 20 years old Hondas arriving in Darwin-1.jpg  

German couple on a RTW trip with two 20 years old Hondas arriving in Darwin-2.jpg  

German couple on a RTW trip with two 20 years old Hondas arriving in Darwin-3.jpg  

German couple on a RTW trip with two 20 years old Hondas arriving in Darwin-4.jpg  

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  #12  
Old 9 Jul 2012
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Hallo Ihr 2 - hi there the 2 of you!

Well, at least you got your "environment and technician related" jobs - right ! Just kidding. Good to hear from you again - keep up the good work , safe riding and ...... Japan is still waiting for you!!
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  #13  
Old 9 Sep 2012
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Dinner in exchange for conversation?!

Hi Bea and Helle,

We're interested in travelling from Australia to Europe and live close to Toowoomba, which may be not so far from you depending on how far away you are from Goondiwindi.

If you ever get some time off from working let us know ('we' being an Australian/German couple), we're happy to offer some hospitality in exchange for hearing about your experiences!

Cheers, kjd
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  #14  
Old 16 Sep 2012
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Bea and Helle,he conocido a otra pareja de alemanes que en este momento están viajando por Australia ( Panni y Simone)Yo estoy por viajar a mediados de marzo del próximo año.
Aun no he podido tener una opinión clara del clima por estas zonas,como ustedes lo han hecho en fechas similares,serian tan amables de contar como les ha ido con el clima y que condiciones climáticas son las de esta época del año.
Gracias.
buenas rutas!
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  #15  
Old 7 Apr 2013
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@kdj:


Hey you two, we are very sorry but we haven´t checked this posting for quite a while now!


As you can imagine, we are not in Goondiwindi anymore. Actually, we are in Adelaide at the moment, heading up North in the Centre in a couple of days!



It would have been a pleasure to meet you two and to talk a bit about traveling! So thank you very much for your invitation!


But if you still have some questions, maybe just send us an Email and we try to give you some answers!


Cheers
Bea & Helle
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