Dreaming of a motorcycle trip to distant climes? This section will help you to plan your trip, whether it's to the next state, country or all the way around the world! Start here!
The Achievable Dream 5-part series - the definitive video guide for planning your motorcycle adventure. Get Ready! covers planning, paperwork, medical and many other topics! "Inspirational and Awesome!" See the trailer here!
You could just get on a plane with your credit card and passport and buy or rent everything you need when you get there. That includes the bike, riding gear, etc. etc.
Gear Up! is a 2-DVD set, 6 hours! Which bike is right for me? How do I prepare the bike? What stuff do I need - riding gear, clothing, camping gear, first aid kit, tires, maps and GPS? What don't I need? How do I pack it all in? Lots of opinions from over 150 travellers! "will save you a fortune!"See the trailer here!
So you've done it - got inspired, planned your trip, packed your stuff and you're on the road! This section is about staying healthy, happy and secure on your motorcycle adventure. And crossing borders, war zones or oceans!
On the Road! is 5.5 hours of the tips and advice you need to cross borders, break down language barriers, overcome culture shock, ship the bike and deal with breakdowns and emergencies."Just makes me want to pack up and go!" See the trailer here!
Tire Changing!Grant demystifies the black art of Tire Changing and Repair to help you STAY on the road! "Very informative and practical." See the trailer here!
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800+ HU Communities in over 115 countries! People who want to meet travellers - yes that's YOU - and can provide local assistance, and may be your new best friends!
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After the big trip - Was the trip the best - or worst - thing you ever did?
Resources and Links
Horizons Unlimited Presents!
Ladies on the Loose! For the first time ever, a motorcycle travel DVD made for women, by women! These intrepid women share their tips to help you plan your own motorcycle adventure. They also answer the women-only questions, and entertain you with amazing tales from the road! Presented by Lois Pryce, veteran solo traveller through South America and Africa and author of 'Lois on the Loose', and 'Red Tape and White Knuckles.'
"It has me all fired up to go out on my own adventure!" See the trailer here!
Meet people who don't think you're crazy for wanting to ride your bike to South America or across Asia! They will encourage you, share their experiences and advice on how to do it!
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Videos - Watch and Learn!
Horizons Unlimited presents!
Achievable Dream The definitive guide to planning your motorcycle adventure! This insanely ambitious 2-year project has produced an informative and entertaining 5-part, 18 hour video series. "The ultimate round the world rider's how-to!" MCN UK.
"The series is 'free' because the tips and advice will save much more than you spend on buying the DVD's."
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Great post. I love your humour! We will always have pillow gate. Hi from near Avignon. Sara
Hi Sara!
Nice to hear from you!
My leg ist good again and I travelled Portugal and Spain in September.
Getting serious with my travel to Asia!
Greez to Tony!!
Are you moving up north?
You know there is always a bed and some food for you at my house!!
Sorry for the off topic
I love your report and enjoy it very much. Always a safe ride to you!
Herbert
P.S.: sorry, I mistook you for Terry and Sara, who helped me when I had a broken leg in the Rif / Marocco.
But whenever yo cross South west Germany, you´re welcomed too ;-)
Just a quick update with some thoughts from the road: We're still on our march northwards through the fjordlands of the west coast of Norway. And it's still raining. We've only had one day of sun in the last week. The "Come Visit Norway" green fjords/blue sky travel brochure is falling apart like wet tissue paper at the bottom of my tankbag.
The scenery is gorgeous. If only it wasn't so wet!
Even though the pictures don't show it, there is quite a lot of traffic on the roads in Norway, even though we've made a decision to stay off the main interior highway. Most of the license plates we see are Norwegian. We've not seen a lot of Norwegian travelers on our journeys, but now we know that they do travel, but they just like to spend all of their high-value Krones inside their own country. I guess everywhere else outside of Norway is just too cheap for them!
There's only a short window of summer that Norwegians are able to enjoy warm weather and despite the rain, there are a lot of motorcyclists on the road braving the inclement weather. My waterproof gloves are starting to lose their waterproofing, but I'm glad I have large handguard spoilers so my gloves don't get too wet when they're hiding behind them. However, when another motorcyclist rides past us and waves, I experience a brief anti-social twinge because lifting my left hand from behind the handguard means exposing it to the rain and getting it wet...
But I'm Canadian and it's only cold water, so I wave politely and get my left hand all soggy. Dammit.
Oh, and I think my right boot is also starting to leak.
The Hardanger Bridge is kind of unique because it's the only tunnel-to-tunnel bridge
in the world, both ends of the bridge lead to a tunnel!
The geography afjords us plenty of opportunity to cross small bodies of water. The last few days have taken their toll (literally and figuratively) on us via ferries, bridges and tunnels. Some of these tunnels are quite long, ranging from 3kms to over 10kms! At every tunnel entrance, there is a sign that tells you how long the tunnel is that you're entering. Whenever I see a sign that reads, "6,184 meters", I smile because it gives us a bit of respite from the falling rain, and most times the air in the tunnel is nice and warm. On the longer tunnels, I stick my left glove out in the airflow to try to dry it out.
Oncoming cars that pass us must wonder what I'm doing. But I don't care. My glove is wet, deal with it.
What the heck is this?
At one end of the Hardanger Bridge is the Valavik Tunnel which is 7.5 kms long. It's so long that there is actually a funky traffic roundabout with disco-blue lighting in the middle with exits that will take you to different parts of the country. Imagine taking the wrong exit? It'll be like digging a hole to China and then breaking above ground to find yourself in Mexico! Damn!
Another roundabout
But 7.5 kms is nothing for a tunnel in Norway. Just a bit further north, we enter the Lærdal Tunnel and before we enter, I read the sign, "24.5 km" Sweet!? That's a lot of glove-drying time. When tunnels are really long, you also wonder what kind of weather you're going to get on the other side because often the mountains that they're tunneling under stop the clouds and precipitation from getting to the other side, or vice versa.
As we get deeper into the Lærdal Tunnel, we approach these huge caverns, also lit up like a discotheque. It turns out that the tunnel is so long that every 6 kms there is a large space to give travelers a visual break from tunnel vision (literally!) And also, if you realize you're tunneling to Mexico instead of China, there's space to turn a vehicle around and go back.
All that's needed now are huge speakers to pump techno music into these caves. And seedy teenagers in the corners peddling E.
My glove is almost dry as we exit the Lærdal Tunnel and... the weather is dry on the other side of the tunnel! Of course it is, after riding for so long underground we're probably in a different time zone as well!
China? Mexico? Nope, still Norway, however still doesn't look anything like in the travel brochures...
"It's Norway or the highway!" Glad we are staying off the main interior highway.
When the road climbs higher, it's so cold that ice forms on the lakes up here!
Turf houses provide good insulation and you can grow potatoes, turnips and carrots in the attic
Okay bye, Iceland, we have to continue on.
Back to the lush greenlands at sea level
In North America, kids open up lemonade stands and sell lemonade for 5 cents.
In Norway, kids open up fruit stands and sell cherries for... €7 ($11 CDN). Yikes.
We're traveling through a region that produces most of Norway's fruit in the summertime. It's akin to the Niagara Region in Canada. This particular area yields 80% of the cherries for the country and everything we've read about them say that these particular Morello dark-red cherries are supposed to be most awesome, and we're here at the peak time in the season as well. Neda loves cherries and fruits and this was on her bucket list for Norway. But looking at the price tag, we had to walk back over to the bikes and have a huddle to decide if we wanted to spend $11 on a carton of cherries...
So... we're not actually buying these cherries to eat. We're going to put them in a glass case and showcase them in the living room of wherever we decide to move to.
Who are we kidding, those cherries disappeared before our butts got back on the bike. They were good. Not sure if they were $11 good, but they were good.
Updating the blog in our "campsite" in Moskog, our tent just outside and the cottages in the background
There is nobody tenting in the rain when we arrive in Moskog. Everyone has rented little warm and dry cottages in the campsite, but they are four times more expensive than a tent site (which is expensive to begin with!) So when we head into the washroom/kitchen building that the tenters can use, we realize that absolutely nobody comes in here because they all have their own private washrooms and kitchens in their cottages.
So we totally set up inside the communal kitchen just like it was our own living room. We now have our own dry and warm private cottage for a quarter of the cost!
Another rainy day ahead of us. This is not awesome at all. We're continuing our northwards march through the fjords.
We ride by so much water from the fjords at sea level, to the lakes at the tops of the passes
where snow still lies unmelted even in the middle of summer
The conditions are gross and I can't help imagine how beautiful it would look if it was sunny
Neda tackling the serpentine mountain passes, up and over the fingers of land that reach out to the North Sea
Rivulets of rain and meltwater create waterfalls, small and large, all around us
We approach our first sightseeing spot of the day - Geirangerfjord!
The Geirangerfjord is another one of Norway's most visited tourist sights. People from all around the world come in to see a picture-perfect example of Norway's fjords: snow capped mountains and steep cliff walls leading into a harbour that can be seen from all the roads above. Then a slow descent through multiple switchbacks to finally hit the gift store at the quaint village at the bottom.
Selfie overlooking Geirangerfjord
Guess who we ran into at Geirangerfjord? Dan and Sara! I knew we'd see them again!
There is a visitor centre in Geiranger right at the harbour of the fjord. Huge cruise ships come in and purge their bowels, dumping their load of tourists out into the town and then just as quickly swallow them up only to defecate them back out again at the next popular destination on the brochures.
Which brings us to lunch.
We are not allowed to eat our own food inside the visitor centre, so while the rich Norwegians order their $10 coffees and $20 pieces of pie, we break out the groceries which we've been lugging since Sweden and huddle outside in the cold and wet to prepare our budget lunch. We flaunt our yummy cucumber and mustard sandwiches through the glass at the Norwegians inside! It looks like our cheap Swedish supplies are running low and we're going to have to replenish them at a Norwegian grocery store soon. Now is a good time to apply for a bank loan.
Each cruise ship carries 2000-3000 people. There must be tens of thousands of people coming in everyday on these cruise ships!
Leaving Geirangerfjord on a staircase of roads, we can see the harbour from the other side
Just north of Geirangerfjord we take a ferry to get to Linge instead of going the long way around the harbour
Hey this ferry's almost empty! And the sun is slowly peeking out from behind the clouds!
We're taking a lot of ferries to hop between all these fingers of land out in the western coast. It depends on the length, but on average we're paying about 50 krones per bike each ferry crossing, so about $8 CDN each and we're taking at least two ferries a day at the pace that we're going.
At another town further north, we gas up and watch more tourists unloading
You know, for a country that made its fortunes in oil, gasoline prices are pretty high here. The price at the pumps is about $2.50 CDN a liter (I think that's $7.25 USD a gallon). Someone's pocketing some krones here... As we are draining our wallets at the pump, a cruise ship couple approaches us and starts a conversation. They recognized our Ontario license plates because they're from Canada as well! Funny, we are meeting the most Canadians in Norway.
The visitor centre at Trollstigen
We are just crossing off all the tourist sites on the brochure today! Trollstigen is a picturesque mountain road, its steep switchbacks giving a great view of the valley below as you descend past the rushing waters of several large waterfalls. There are many mountain climbs in Norway over the fjords, but the Trollstigen is the most prettiest.
The name Trollstigen means The Troll's Path in English
In Norwegian fairytales, trolls turn to stone in the sunlight and in the dark they spring to life to scare little children.
We walk down to the overlook to get a good idea of the kind of road that we're going to be traveling down
Sweet! Can't wait to ride this!!!
We're lucky to catch a break as the sun has come out just when we hit the Trollstigen. The mists cling mysteriously to the sides of the steep valley walls as we descend and many motorcyclists go up and down a few times, almost all of them still clad in their rainsuits, just like us! The Trollstigen doesn't disappoint, I love riding so close to the waterfalls and sometimes right through the mists as they hit the rocks below. Here's some onboard footage from the Sena Prism camera, see for yourself:
Whew, what a road! Like most of the motorists here we did go up and down a couple of times!
Our campsite for the night just outside of Andalsnes
The rain is off and on as we reach our campsite. This time there is no cosy kitchen/washroom building that we can take over and we have to wait for the sprinkles to subside before we can put up our tent. Although we're enjoying these terrific rides up and down and over the fjords, it's cold, it's wet, my boots are leaking and everything is so oppresively expensive. I'm sure it'll pass.
Have YOU ever wondered who has ridden around the world? We did too - and now here's thelist of Circumnavigators!
Check it out now, and add your information if we didn't find you.
Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.
Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
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Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.
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