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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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.
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love the egg idea - totally going to try that out this weekend... right... I managed to get two done this week.... GSPeter and Flyingdoctors recipes got done first because they looked the most straight forward when I did them... here's Flyingdoctors :-)
GSPeter will get edited tonight and then uploaded, then this weekend I'll do eggs and I've also ordered a rabbit from the butcher..... this is more fun than I thought it was going to be - keep those recipes coming guys!
and.... here's number three.... going to do the eggs over the weekend and the rabbit if the butcher gets one in - they get funny about you eating the local wild-life here.
Matt brilliant stuff! That's it! You will be our Deliah Smith at the next meet in Ripley! No way out! Looking also forward to the "How to cook in one pot" book!
On the road we found out that we craved just a simple dish with vegs only, without rice/beans/bread/potatoes....
So here is one with lots of vegs.
Ingredients:
A small bag of frozen mixed vegetables (containing a mix of peas/sweet corn/peppers etc...)
Eggs (2, 3 or 4 depending how hungry)
chilli sauce or spicy tomato ketchup
oil
mixed herbs
Pepper and salt
Let the vegs unfreeze (quantity for 2 people) , or put in the pot at slow heat with a bit of oil and herbs if you can't wait!
Beat the eggs in a bowl. Season the beaten eggs.
Add the eggs to the vegs in the pot (once the vegs are not frozen anymore!) and mix. Cook until the eggs are done. Add pepper and salt if necessary.
Eat with plenty of chilli sauce.
You can add chicken, if you want some meat.
Cheers,
And as I am dead bored at work, here is another one. Bread.
How many time is some countries we were craving just a decent piece of bread.
How to make bread without an oven? Here it my version.
Quantities are hard to tell because it depend on flour/heat but fear not, this is very simple. Honest!
Roughly here it is:
About 300gr Strong White Flour (or any sort of white flour you find - NOT the self raising ones though!))
a tea spoon of yeast
a tbs of sugar
a big pinch of salt
warm water (but not too hot you don't want to kill the bacteria!)
Oil (for the cooking)
Put some warm water in a small cup, with the yeast and some of the sugar. Leave it for 10 mins.
Meanwhile, put the flour in a pot. Add 1/2 a table spoon of salt and table spoon of sugar and mix. With a spoon make a dip in the middle of the mix.
Once the yeast mix aspect is a bit like foaming, mix and verse into the flour. Mix with a spoon.
Now keep mixing and keep adding warm water. Don't add to much water. End the mixing by hand. The texture should be like modelling clay (surely everyone has played with modelling paste like the stuff used for Wallace and Groomit!). Slightly sticky but not too much. Work the bread with your hands. Imagine it's your boss when you knock it down with your fists!
Don't worry if you put too much water, just add flour. If it is too dry, just add water. It is very simple!
Then let it rest in a warm place (in the sun for example) for 1h and a half (or 30 mins if you got fast yeast!).
The dough should have raised. If it did not raise t too much don't worry. Maybe it is just too cold. Let's continue.
With your hands work the dough down in the pot for few minutes. Then take a piece of the dough and work it into a flat bread with the palm of your hands. Repeat until all dough is in bits of flat bread. Let it prove for 15 or 20 mins.
Lit up your stove. If you have only a deep pot, put some oil at the bottom. Fry the flat bread on both sides until cooked. Repeat until all bread has been cooked.
There are millions of variations to this recipe. The choice of flour (why not mix white and brown - this is what I usually do!)
You can add mixed herbs to the flour before adding the water. Or mixed nuts, mixed seeds. Or why not cumin seeds and ground coriander? Olives? Sun dried tomatoes? Chillies?
Bread is wonderful to make, you can do anything you like with it!
By any means experiment and enjoy!!
And if you don't get it right I will do it for you at the next Ripley meet!
Hi matt, watching you struggle to cut the chicken breasts with a knife and chopping board could I suggest trying a pair of scissors. You can hold the chicken breast and just dice it over the pan. No more sand coated meat!
@Flyingdoctor - ahh very good tip - I was going to go with a larger knife :-) Any excuse to go poke around outdoor supply shops looking at big knifes!
@Alexlebrit - yes you would have thought so - apparently the butcher can get hold of them easily enough but the demand isn't there any more as they're considered 'poor peoples food'. Silly really.
@debseed - anything that results in hot water for a brew is top of my list ;-) And welcome to HUBB!
@maria41 - fantastic! Bread on the road - top notch - I was going to give my very simple flat bread (flour, water, salt) a little go - but will try yours at the same time... veggie options... nice.... I've also got someone in the UK setting up some vegan options..... I promise I will try some vegan / veggie stuff....... possibly. Ripely... would love to... we'll have to see if I'm in the country this year - for a few years running now I've planned to come and then ended up on the other side of the world.... I'll make more of an effort next time!
rightio - I'm going to do a couple more of these on the weekend - but I've discovered a boat that comes into my home village selling muscles and oysters it's caught that morning... so I'm after your suggestions for a muscle recipe....!
Ok well the simplest mussel recipe is Moules Marinières, and it's one of my faves. It is a one pot thing, but you tend to need a big pot (and why aren't you off down the beach picking them yourself, I do). This is for two people.
Ingredients
0.8kg/2lb mussels,
1 garlic clove, finely chopped,
1 shallots (or a small onion), finely chopped,
8g/¼oz butter,
Parsley, thyme and bay leaves,
50ml/ 1½fl oz dry white wine or cider,
60ml/2fl oz double cream or crême fraiche,
Crusty bread, to serve,
Method
1. Wash the mussels under plenty of cold, running water. Discard any open ones that won't close when lightly squeezed.
2. Pull out the tough, fibrous beards protruding from between the tightly closed shells and then knock off any barnacles with a large knife. Give the mussels another quick rinse to remove any little pieces of shell.
3. Soften the garlic and shallots in the butter with the herbs, in a large pan big enough to take all the mussels - it should only be half full.
4. Add the mussels and wine or cider, turn up the heat, then cover and steam them open in their own juices for 3-4 minutes. Give the pan a good shake every now and then.
5. Add the cream and more chopped parsley and remove from the heat.
6. Spoon into two large warmed bowls and serve with lots of crusty bread.
But here's another fun one to try on the beach, and strictly speaking it's a no-pot recipe: Pine Charred Mussels with Garlic Bread. Again this is for two.
Ingredients
0.8kg/2lb mussels (or as many as you can pick off the rocks before the tide comes in),
2 garlic clove, finely chopped,
Butter, as much or as little as you like (remember your diet),
Parsley,
Crusty bread,
Pine log, split lengthways with your axe, to give one nice flat side,
Dry pine needles.
Dry grass.
Method
1. Wash the mussels in the sea. Discard any open ones that won't close when lightly squeezed.
2. Pull out the tough, fibrous beards protruding from between the tightly closed shells but don't worry about the barnacles. Give the mussels another quick rinse to remove any little pieces of shell.
3. Dig a small trench in the sand about the same size as your split log fill it with some dry grass and lay the log cut side up on the top.
4. Now the tricky part, lay out your mussels on the split log, beard side down in a herringbone pattern.
5. Cover them well with your pine needles, 3-4 inches is best.
6. Set light to the grass.
7. Mix the finely chopped garlic and the parsley into the butter and spread liberally on hunks of the bread, and toast over the fire.
8. When all the pine needles have burnt down the mussels should have opened up, pick out all the open ones and eat them straight out of the shell.
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!
What others say about HU...
"This site is the BIBLE for international bike travelers." Greg, Australia
"Thank you! The web site, The travels, The insight, The inspiration, Everything, just thanks." Colin, UK
"My friend and I are planning a trip from Singapore to England... We found (the HU) site invaluable as an aid to planning and have based a lot of our purchases (bikes, riding gear, etc.) on what we have learned from this site." Phil, Australia
"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA
"Your website is a mecca of valuable information and the (video) series is informative, entertaining, and inspiring!" Jennifer, Canada
"Your worldwide organisation and events are the Go To places to for all serious touring and aspiring touring bikers." Trevor, South Africa
"This is the answer to all my questions." Haydn, Australia
"Keep going the excellent work you are doing for Horizons Unlimited - I love it!" Thomas, Germany
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.
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