The next morning after breakfast I head out to look for an ATM and am accosted by a ticket tout who offers me a flight to see the lines. Not only that but there is another couple booked on the flight, so I get the co-pilots seat; how could I refuse?

Now who would have thought in their wildest dreams that they would be personaly serenaded by an opera tenor performing 'O sole mio' in a busy street, in a little Peruvian desert town?

I thought to myself that since the camping gear was off the bike anyway I might as well camp until morning, when along the track there came a battered old car. Three young men got out and each showed me their identity cards. ‘But why?’ I asked. ‘It is very, very dangerous here,’ the leader said, ‘many robbers and guns, you must not stay here, it is not safe.....

There were police and army clearing away the old men from their normal seats around the war memorial and cordoning it off. Trumpets sounded, the Presidential Guard marched onto the terrace of the Presidential Palace and a military band struck up. Lancers rode their chargers slowly in from both side of the plaza and formed up in front of the Palace.

So we’re off, Curtis and Janet, Roger and Linda, Fred and I, heading out through the early morning rush hour in Bogotá. In the middle of an underpass my bike cuts out leaving me stuck in the middle lane of traffic while I watched my companions weaving through the traffic ahead of me.

Leaving San Diego behind, we headed into the mountains and south to the coast. A KLR kept us company for a while, and I found out why Fred’s nickname is ‘Fast Freddie’. I was soon one lorry and three cars behind them, but when we were stopped by road works I attempted to rejoin them. Unfortunately the lorry that was behind them was slowly inching forward anticipating the signal to move off, and I was so preoccupied with the rapidly closing gap that I caught the empty pannier frame of the KLR with my pannier and slowly fell over sideways at about 1mph.

It is Christmas Eve and I had walked out for something to eat. Walking back down on the right hand side of the road, there are stray dogs, pot holed side streets and youths letting of firecrackers and rockets in the streets. I meet the young hotel owner on the roof garden, well it will be a garden one day he says, and ask him if the gun at his hip is really necessary. He replies that it certainly is, as the right hand side of the street is extremely dangerous and on no account should I walk down there!!

Hi all,
Some problems with my email address have meant that you did get my last notification. As I am not at home, Virgin have dumped my account so I am now using a Yahoo.co.uk account with the same name. Many thanks to Grant for letting me know about this.
Anyway if you go to the Horizons Unlimited site and go to Travellers Tales you will not only find my latest entry 'Maya Ruins and the Winter Solstice' but lots of other interesting stories as well. By co-incidence I had lunch with a HUBber from Lima today!

Strange things happened to me again during an important time in the pagan year, plus I get to see those fantastic Maya Ruins that I had only seen in books.

Sitting in my hotel room in Panama, waiting to fly to South America, I have had time to catch up with my blog a little. Trouble is my bike has developed a leak in the radiator and the shipper has informed me that I will have to pay duty on my bike when it arrives in Quito, Peru. Great, but I'm flying to Bogota in Columbia!!!

Second chapter posted today, but it only brings me up to November 17th my final day in the USA!

Spending a couple of weeks with my twin brother Norman was like a refreshing holiday for me. We toured south west Texas and east New Mexico in a hired 4x4. I had not realized how much harder it is to tour by motorcycle until this point. Many of the things we take for granted in the UK and Europe are not available elsewhere in the world, like just pulling off the road for instance, try doing that when there is a 6 inch drop off onto loose gravel at the road edge!

Ok, so I'm really in Belize at the moment, but here is part of my journey when I crossed into USA. At this rate I'll be home long before I finish this blog!!!!
Anyway Merry Christmas to all my readers, I'm sorry that the lack of comms in the last few weeks has meant I could not reply to all your emails, most of which I have just received.
Tomorrow I start for Guatemala, but hope to be online again in the New Year, don't hold your breath though!

From Timmins to Jasper

Having crashed in Newfoundland, and again in Nova Scotia, I now stood in South Porcupine, Ontario; beside my bike looking at the wrecked rear wheel axle

Can I really continue with a broken collarbone, or are my doubts going win? Do I have enough guts to travel on after this second crash, and what if another major obstacle crops up/

Leaving Newfoundland for the perils of Nova Scotia
Still no photos, but stay with me they are yet to come.

Newfoundland greets me and spits me out!!
Sorry no photos this time.

Finally get to ride on the first leg of my journey

The booking-in clerk at Heathrow asked me to place both of my bags on the conveyor. I knew they were overweight and fished for my wallet. He looked at me and asked me to take one case off, printed a label, wrapped it around the handle, gave it a shove to make it disappear into the Heathrow Machine.

Take 2....I need to check that my new (2nd hand) pannier system plus all the other stuff, works ok. So what better than a 2000km round trip to Germany for the weekend?

With only 70 days left before departure I need to concentrate on the 'show stoppers' now and the 'wish list' later.

Well for better or Wurtz, I cannot cross the boarder where I planned.

The Route; Part 1; Stage 3; From The Artic Circle to The US Border

The Route; Part 1; Stage 2; Trans-Canada.
Crossing the Continent

Seems that due to my inexperience with the software, I held back a couple of episodes, instead of releasing them. So here you go........more stuff about pain.

Details of The Proposed Route: Trans-Canada; USA, Central America; South America; Australasia, Asia, Eastern Europe, Scandanavia, Western Europe.

'Then it beginsa, I get those needles and pinsa'

The Searchers: 60's Hit Record

What sort of lip gloss should I pack?

Camping equipment appears to me very much a matter of 50% personal choice and 50% common sense.

Which bike? One of the most vexed questions for newbie travellers, which bike?

5 Continents to cross, 29 Countries to navigate and I'm not sure how I got here. Yes I am actually, it was that train journey to Avignon in December 2005.