http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/ UK to Turkey... oops, still going... India, Australia... RTW? en-us As I came over the crest of the hill, a mist of fine red dust was settling slowly in the baking outback sun. Bits of shattered plastic fairing and the eviscerated contents of Mark's panniers made a chaotic trail through... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000288.php After leaving Brisbane, I rode South in the company of fellow British overlanders Mark and Clare (Also on XT600's), who were heading for Sydney to catch a slow boat to NZ. I had recently spent a month in NZ myself,... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000287.php An over-budget spectacular, set in Brisbane, Queensland, and featuring an international cast: THE STORY - Connor's Tenere is badly in need of new 4th and 5th gears, to replace the disintegrating and crappily case hardened items installed by the evil... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000286.php The flight to Sydney dumped me into temperatures which felt subarctic in comparison with the balmy Indonesian climate. After a week of sitting on my ass in Sydney, and a couple of visits to the cargo agent in Port Botany,... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000285.php The first day's travel from Jakarta to Bandung was agonisingly slow and in desperation I tried to detour round the congestion of the major highways by using the secondary roads marked on my map. This worked well initially, but the... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000284.php Finally...Jakarta Big. Hot. Smoggy. Standard issue loony traffic. All these things I've seen before, but how quickly you forget.... After half a day of stop/start driving with heavy emphasis on the stop, my clutch hand was cramping painfully and I... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000283.php Continuing my tour of Indonesian volcano lakes, I travelled the short distance from Bukittingi to Lake Maninjau, a smaller version of Lake Toba. I tumbled down the 44 spectacular hairpin bends, running so badly out of control that I ended... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000282.php The audience turned expectantly towards me, and I didn't feel I could let them down. Up on the pegs, I launched myself at the thing gamely, with predictable results. Something solid in the glutinous muck grabbed pulled and twisted, and... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000281.php Lake Toba was my next stop - to quote from the guidebook: "Damau Toba is, like, this big huge lake yeah, in the middle of a ginormous collapsed volcano thing". (I really must get a better guidebook).... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000280.php 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... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000279.php I had grown used to thinking of it in the same way as it was viewed by most of the people I met along the way: A technological marvel, impossibly big and shiny with undreamed of capabilities, no doubt able... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000278.php The 747 sank heavily into the leaden clouds below, and my spirits sank with it. Rain skittered against the perspex of the window, obscuring my view of the grey anonymous clutter below - London on a wet weekday morning. If... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000277.php Thailand: Chiang Mai: It's cold. I stare slack-jawed into my Ovaltine and listen to the rain dripping listlessly from my cheap plastic rain cape. Nearby stands a lifeless XT600. Her motor is cold, and her once-jaunty mirrors droop pathetically in... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000276.php Subtly at first, and then with more force, I felt the bike starting to labour and inexorably lose forward momentum. I shifted down a cog and continued, but the drag worsened. Nightmare scenarios of mechanical failure ran through my mind,... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000275.php The journey was largely without incident, except for a brief involuntary tour of Delhi international airport, during which I was dangerously close to receiving clearance to take off for Switzerland. In Jaipur I met up with a party of four... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/carson/000274.php