Portugal 2006: Fourth Annual HU Travellers Meeting

Why Come to a Horizons Unlimited Motorcycle Travellers Meeting?

You can meet people who don't think you're crazy for wanting to ride your bike to South America or Africa or across Asia, or even around the world! Admit it, all your 'normal' friends and most of your family fears for your sanity! So, this is your opportunity to meet the people who will encourage you in that craziness, share their experiences and advice on how to do it, and maybe you'll meet them again in Mongolia or Timbuktu!

GÃ³is, Portugal, September 15-16, 2006

The Plan

Rally Location - Where is it?
Local hosts, information

Short History of HU Meetings

How you can help - put up a few posters! (English and Portuguese) updated Portuguese version!

The Plan

The general plan is simple. Show up Friday or Saturday, have a drink, tell some lies, have another drink, eat early , then slide shows are planned.

2006 speakers so far:

Grant and Susan Johnson
Tito BaiÃ£o and JoÃ£o Pedro,, Portugal, Australia and East Timor, on Saturday
Antonio Bras and JoÃ£o Menezes, Portugal, trip to Guinea
Henrique AraÃºjo and J. Cacho, Portugal, will present USA from Coast to Coast
Filipe Elias, Portugal, will do a presentation on how to use a Compass, how to read a Map and to use a GPS.
Carlos Azevedo,, Portugal, South America
Joaquim Silva, , Portugal, Discovering Timbuktu
Antonio QueirÃ³s, , Portugal, The Green Hills of Great Britain and Eire
JosÃ© Fonseca, Portugal, will do a presentation on riders gear, sponsored by SPIDI
Luis Lorenco, Portugal, "Mauritania, 'one sand-world, two wheels' or in Portuguese 'MauritÃ¢nia, um mundo de areia em duas rodas'
you? Let us know if you have something to show! Volunteers wanted!

There will be slide shows Friday and Saturday night , so come early and make it a great weekend!

Portuguese forum posts about the meeting:

http://www.rituais.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=607

http://www.motoclubedoporto.pt/

http://www.lusolabs.com/nomads/viewtopic.php?t=1146

Photos from the 2006 Meeting:

by Antonio Caldeira

Outdoor tech session

evening seminar participants

Lunch!

evening seminar participants

Grant and susan presenting something exciting! :)

evening seminar participants

Saturday night barbecue - a major pigout!

José Fonseca, Portugal, presentation on riders gear, sponsored by SPIDI

José Fonseca, Portugal, presentation on riders gear, sponsored by SPIDI

evening seminar participants

Antonio and Grant and the RTW bike

Susan and Antonio

You can help!

If you have a few minutes, please download one of these two posters - (Adobe pdf format) and print off a few and hand them round your club or your local bike shop or anywhere seems like a good place.

(You may need to right click and choose "save target as...")

2006 Poster in pdf format, in English (890kb) full colour A4

2006 Poster in pdf format, in Portugese (900kb) full colour A4 updated Portuguese version!

Thanks for the help!

The Meeting Location for 2006

Parque de Campismo de Gois , the web site is www.goiscamping.com

Camping is included in your registration fee!

The town of GÃ³is is near Coimbra (ca. 40Kms) and about 200Kms north from Lisbon and 160Kms south from Oporto.

Click the map above for a high quality version.

Entry gate to "Parque de Campismo de Gois"

camping area

grounds

on the grounds

The meeting room

Local Hosts

AntÃ³nio Caldeira is the organizer for this event. Thanks AntÃ³nio! If you want to help make this an even better event, please contact AntÃ³nio. He could use some assistance!

If you have any questions, he can be contacted here:

AntÃ³nio Caldeira
Rua Marques de Oliveira, 22 - 1Âº
4250-280 PORTO

Home: 00 351 22 834 69 31
Mobile: 00 351 93 830 61 70 or
FAX: 351 22 947 90 89

Email for further information.

Short History of the Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meetings

Susan and I started the Horizons Unlimited Motorcycle Travellers Meetings in May of 2001 while we were living in the UK, with an event held in our backyard in Slough. That first event had almost 40 people show up, and we were especially pleased that some came from as far away as Norway!

In 2002 we had moved back to Canada, so we organized a meeting in Nairn Falls, British Columbia, and also asked Chris Bright and Glynn Roberts if they would organize a second UK meeting since we couldn't be there. We had a small but enthusiastic turnout for the Canadian meeting, with folks coming from as far away as Missouri (almost 3,000 kilometers!), Alberta and California, as well as two round the world travellers, from Switzerland and the UK.

But the Brits really exceeded our wildest expectations. Almost 100 people came to the HU UK 2002 event, and had a great time. No rock bands or beer bashes, just motorcycle travellers and would-be travellers getting together to share experiences and tips - what a concept! For the HU UK 2003 event, just finished, almost 200 enthusiastic folks came together over several days and this is now well established as an annual event, with Glynn and Chris continuing to provide superb organizing, and a host of volunteers.

Ken and Carol Duval hosted Australia's first HU travellers event in 2003, and they had almost 60 people. The meetings in New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico and Portugal in 2003 were also big successes, and we look forward to many more in the years to come. It's wonderful for us to come to the meetings and visit with the many friends we've only met over the internet, and of course for everyone meeting up and sharing stories - and planning to meet in Ushuaia next year!

In the 2006-7 season, we'll have 10 meetings around the world, on every continent except Antarctica and Africa!

See you at a meeting this year!

Grant and Susan