Hi,

I'm a Texan who has been working in London. It looks like my contract will be complete on July 1st. I have a bike here, a 650 Dakar and I started thinking that maybe I'll just ride it home.

Is there sufficient time from now to the middle of July (the earliest my lease ends) to plan for a trip through Europe and Russia? Everything that I've heard is that you need a year or so before hand for such a trip. I did buy the Achievable Dream DVD but all the info in it just seemed pretty general. I'm not worried about getting around the US. I've been all over the states.

I don't think I'll need a carnet for countries I am planning on visiting. I will need to get visas for Russia and Mongolia. Places I would like to visit are: Czech Republic, Sweden, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. From there head down to Mongolia and then back to Russia to Vladivostok and then somehow get to North America. I've read that you can take a ferry to South Korea or Japan and then fly to the states. Or there may even be a way to fly directly to Los Angeles starting in July. So maybe I'll need a carnet for S. Korea/or Japan.

I've talked with a clinic about what shots are needed. I am not looking forward to getting stuck by a needle all those time. One of my worries is the weather. If I leave on July 14th and I take 20 days or so to get to Russia, spend a coupe of days in St. Petes and then head down to check out Red Square for a day. I'm also figuring on spending a couple of weeks or so in Mongolia. That means traveling across Siberia around in September. Hopefully it won't be too cold. I got snowed on last weekend riding around the English countryside and hated it.

But this is a perfect time for me to take a trip like this. I don't have a job lined up so I don't really have to be anywhere at a certain time but that may change in the future. I already have the bike and and camping gear. It sounds like a no brainer. I just don't want to be too optimistic and not really plan this thing through. I tend not to worry too much about details and it has cost me in the past. I'm planning a trip to Moroco in May as sort of a shake down trip.

_Kris