I originally set off with my friend, Becky Lincoln, for a simple trip to India, and now, five years later, I am on my fifth continent.
Here is how it happened... I originally set off with my friend, Becky Lincoln, for a simple trip to India, and now, five years later, I am on my fifth continent; I obviously took a wrong turn somewhere.
The Journey Ahead
The 12,000 miles from Dead Horse, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina will encompass a wide variety of stunning natural environments as well as taking us through some of the most dangerous regions of the world. The route is mostly tarmac but with lots of opportunities for going off-road something we now relish after our extreme off-road experiences in Africa and Asia.
Setting off once more...but on my own this time as the friend who was hoping to travel with me couldn´t make it after all. I´ve always travelled two-up on Thelma and so it will be a very different experience to be solo - particulalry after getting used to dozing off on the back for half the journey!
Vancouver was great, of course the air freight people had lost Thelma - apparently the pilot had taken one look at her and said she couldn´t go on his plane - and no I am not joking. After many phone calls across the Atlantic, in between getting up at 3.00am to watch the World cup football matches... she arrived 48 hours late which wasn´t too bad.
I just missed Grant and Susan when I popped round to see them - maybe another time, another continent you two.
A huge state with thousands of miles to travel in, glaciers, mountains, forests and the occasional town.
Siobhan had her first experience of riding a fully-loaded BMW with two people on it, yes it´s heavy but it´s well-balanced.
First we headed south to Seaward for its annual 4th of July celebrations where the whole town parties, in fact the town was so full that we had trouble finding a space to camp in- every available bit of land is turned into camping areas, luckily some local bikers called us over and made room for our tent.
With lots of fond farewells to my fellow passengers, I left the ferry, riding in convoy with the other bikes heading south - there had been a lot of persuading to join the majority of them who were heading to America´s biggest bike rally, but I had to decline and said maybe another year.
Just after Seattle, disaster struck when part of my engine blew, I managed with a lot of luck and some help to get myself and Thelma to Mick Vallantine´s workshop- Seattle´s Independent BMW guy and a fellow Brit.
Thelma was finally ready, one last evening at the George and Dragon for me and I was off - following the coast through Washington and Oregon - stunning coastline and a road that was made for bikes. The forest fires were going full-swing but I managed to avoid them. I reached San Francisco where there was a warm welcome from my friends there, they had been following my travels avidly and now, Janet (my friend´s Mum) spoke up, she said she wanted a bit of adventure in her life and so I invited her to join me for the trip down into Mexico.
I was on my way to an airport again, as Maggie, who had crossed Africa with me was flying into Guatemala City from Ireland for a month of riding through Central America. She looked very relieved to see me waiting for her - the last she had heard I was still in California and partying a bit.
Leaving Guatemala we headed to Honduras and the beautifulCaribbean beaches where we sipped Pina Coladas and tried to remember the words to the Pina Colada song.
We spent a couple of days on the volcanic island of Ometepe, skinny-dipping in Lake Nicaragua under a full moon. And yes Lake Nicaragua being the only place in the world where freshwater sharks live... but as I said to Maggie, after the bloody bears in Alaska, nothing can frighten me.
The shipping from Panama, amazingly, went without a hitch and I even managed to clear Thelma through customs in one day, with help from Ralph and Maryanne (from Australia) who happened to be on their bike in Quito at the same time as me. Ricardo had a shock when he met me; apparently he was expecting me to be a bloke...
Peruvian Police - a 'take no prisoners' attitude to fines/bribes was what I had heard from the other bikers - all of whom had been stung. So here I was having been pulled over on my first day in the country for speeding (who me??), I put on my best charm school act and managed to get away with it - along the lines of 'aah senorita...' In fact despite getting stopped twice more in Peru I never had to pay a penny.
Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year wherever you will be spending it.
I am having a sunny Christmas down here in Santiago, Chile staying with friends and am planning to cook Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings. Having a hot Christmas is a bit of a culture shock as generally it tends to rain on Christmas Day where I come from.
I am attempting to catch up the last six months of travel for this site, though as the repairs to Thelma´s gearbox are taking longer than expected I don´t really have any excuses on that front. please be patient with me.
The month started with a welcome reunion with our second gear, Thelma and I had been coping without it since Quito - 4,000 miles and two months of travelling. I had quite got used to just kicking straight up into third gear but it had made the mud and dirt roads of Bolivia (never easy at the best of times) even more of a challenge.
On the road - Ruta Cuarenta or Route 40 as it is known in English, near El Chalten in southern Patagonia, Thelma clocked up her 100 000 miles today - a great moment and luckily I had bumped into Lance Wiggs (NZ on a 650GS) just 15 miles earlier and so he was able to witness and record the event.
Once I have worked out how to put the pics up I will do so.
Standing at the end of the Pan American Highway, complete with bottle of champagne in hand - many thanks to Carlo from Germany on his BMW R80 G/S, who was very patient about taking the photo in between me chatting to 80 tourists who had clustered around me; we eventually had to ask them to move out of sight for the photo
At last on 2nd February I arrived in Ushuaia - seven months and 18,259 miles after leaving Dead Horse.
It felt fantastic to finally get here- particularly as this is also the end of my fifth and final continent. The triumphant entry to the city was somewhat tempered by the fact that when I stopped at the first supermarket I saw to purchase the obligatory champagne, Thelma then refused to start and I had to be bump-started out of the carpark! Somehow a bit more fitting and apt as a reflection on my long, long journey.
Yes, a bit stuck as the simple (ish) engine stud helicoil job turned into a "Oooops, take a look at this rocker arm" - broken. So now I am trying to track down a replacement part here in Argentina.
Any ideas- please get in touch...
Meanwhile the cafe and bar culture of Cordoba is very appealing...
Finally Thelma was ready and I set off from Cordoba with just three and a half days to reach Sao Paulo - over 1500 miles away.
I was in such a rush as my sister and nephew are flying out to spend a month in Brazil with me.
I wasn´t taking the most direct route and went via Asuncion - a childhood board game had meant that I have dreamt about this exotic sounding city for many years.
Well, it was definitely exotic and VERY hot. I had a cold beer or two, stayed the night and then continued on my long ride to Brazil.
I have just had a fantastic month with my sister Abi and my nephew Claudio (aged 5 and my biggest fan). They arrived from England armed with family-sized bags of Salt and Vinegar Chipsticks and also 96 Jaffa Cakes (English biscuits) - a welcome taste from home.
So this BLOG entry is not about biking really as we took to the buses - it has made me appreciate travelling by bike all the more now -16 hours on a bus and I was pleading to be let off.
I was down to my final jaffa cake, I'd had four hours of Portuguese lessons (though the Brazillians still have a good snigger at my feeble attempts at their language), I had watched the Grand Prix on the telly - while quarter of a million locals trooped through the pouring rain to go and watch it in person at the course nearby and, most importantly Thelma´s gearbox seal was installed -
-- time to leave Sao Paulo