Our crew takes the first step.

11/10/14

It's 8 am on Saturday and it's time to head east toward the Aussie home of Moto GP, Philip Island. My first stop is Midland, about forty five minutes from home, where I'll meet up with the rest of my travelling mates for the trip. 

After two days of frantic preparation, the Guzzi is cram packed with gear, is serviced, has new tyres, and is ready to roll east toward Philip Island.

The plan was to leave Midland at 9 am and head to Kalgoorlie for the night. That's an easy 600 km ride for our first day, just to ease into the trip.

OK, now I have to explain something about this blog. There are certain people on this trip who do not wish their faces or names to be seen on the web. Apparently it's something to do with national security or such twaddle. I reckon they are just trying to avoid the Australian Taxation Office, or the Police, but we'll probably never know the real truth. 

With that in mind I'll tell you that our first hold up was Uncle R arriving at our rendezvous half an hour late. Not a good start.

Uncle D, Mark, Uncle G, your truly, Rex, and Uncle R.

We made the slow climb up the hill out of Midland and pointed our bikes toward Northam. Once we were past Northam the pace picked up and we were well and truly on our way.

Now I have to tell you, the ride to Kalgoorlie is 600 km, in a straight line, with absolutely nothing to see along the way. It's one of the most mind numbing rides you can do, especially if you've done it many times before, as we all have. When you throw in temperatures in the mid thirties, it's just plain hard work, and no fun at all. We kept telling each other that the payback will be the Moto GP, and a week riding fantastic roads in Tasmania.

A quick wee stop allowed us to realise how bloody hot it was, and also gave the flies a chance to annoy the hell out of us

at the same time.

After a few fuel stops and a leisurely lunch we pulled up at our Kalgoorlie digs around 4:30 pm. The distance and heat had taken their toll. We were all drained.

After a quick clean up we hit the hot spots in town planning to paint the place red on our first night away. After dinner it was time to hit a "Skimpy bar". It's time for an explanation. Kalgoorlie is a mining town and mining is the only reason it exists. Being a mining town means that most of the population is male, and businesses in town cater to male clientèle. One thing that bars do is employ barmaids to work the bar wearing "skimpy" outfits, lingerie, an so forth, hence the name skimpies.

After the second skimpy bar we all agreed that the sadly standard of skimpies has dropped dramatically since we were last here. 

We were all in fine form (NOT!) and very few beers were consumed (I managed one and a half) before we called it a night. I think we were all tucked up in bed by 9:30. That's probably a good thing because we have a big day tomorrow.

Will this set the standard for our staying power for the rest of the trip? I hope not.

The Aussie stage starts tomorrow morning.

10/10/14

Well, I'm off again.

A few of my mates had planned a trip to the Moto GP at Phillip Island next weekend. They've been pestering me to go along for the ride for weeks now, and I was really envious, but it just wasn't possible.

Or so I thought.

Late Wednesday we got some good news, and as a result I'm now able to roll my wheels 4,000 kilometres across this wide, brown land we call home. Phillip Island, here I come.

As you can imagine I had a lot to organise in two very short days. It's been pretty hectic around the Mykolajenko Hilton with just a few things to do like...

Find all my stuff I need to take with me.
Updating my Spot Tracker so Suzanne can keep tabs on me.
Updating the Sat Nav, so we can find our way around.
Get the bike serviced.
Get a new set of tyres fitted to the bike.
All the other stuff I haven't thought of yet...

Yesterday was spent on the phone and computer frantically trying to organise everything.

The number one priority was to get the bike serviced. Usually you need to book about two weeks in advance to get this done, so I was having a bit of trouble finding someone to do it. That was until I called Gavin Carlini at Mobile Motorcycle Medic. I've know Gav for nearly forty years (where did that time go Gav?) and his answer was "Sure Simon. I'll squeeze it in tomorrow afternoon for you". Awesome. I owe you Gav.

True to his word, Gave rolled up this afternoon. He's just left and my big Guzzi is purring like a kitten. If you live in Perth and need a bike serviced, you could do far worse than giving Gav a call on 0417 945 557. He has a very good rep in Perth.

Number two necessity was some new shoes for the bike. I recently had a set of Pirellis fitted to my Triumph Speed Triple, and loved them, so I thought I'd give them a go on the Guzzi. Pirelli came to the party with a set of Pirelli Scorpion Trail tyres to suit the Guzzi and Pete at Tyres for bikes slipped them on for me. The boys at Tyres For Bikes are awesome. No sooner had I rolled the bike into the shop, they rolled it back out with two shiny new tyres. They were really quick, and at the moment time is running out fast. You can check out Tyres For Bikes at: www.tyresforbikes.com.au

The last thing to do is to pack all the necessities for the trip on the bike. Right now the lounge room floor is covered with everything from socks and jocks to a tent and sleeping gear. It's actually not looking to bad and should all fit on the bike fairly easily, so I'm not stressing...yet.

(Update: OK, it's 8:30 pm and I haven't put a single solitary thing on the bike yet, and I can't find my sleeping bag. Now I'm starting to stress.)

Tomorrow morning we head of towards our first overnight stop in Kalgoorlie. The next day we'll make our way to Border Village on the Western Australian, South Australian border. Yes my European friends that's two days riding and nearly 1,500 kilometres (pretty much in a straight line), and we're still in Western Australia! Another three days will see us roll over the San Remo bridge and onto Phillip Island for the GP.

Even better news is that on Monday after the GP we'll jump on a ferry down to Tasmania for seven days of heavenly, winding road riding in one of the most beautiful places I've been. I've driven around Tassie, but I've never ridden there.

I'm really looking forward to it.

My first photo of the Guzzi when I got it.

There will be plenty more to follow over the next few weeks.

Our bike is heading for a new home.

31/7/13

After a little holiday and a rest in Wales, our mighty BMW has been sold and is heading off on a sea voyage to it's new owner Max, who lives in Paraguay. The bike is very lucky and has had a nice comfortable, and safe, custom crate built for the trip.

Strapped down safe and sound...

...then wrapped up...

...the box is built...

...and sealed up for the trip.

I owe a huge thank you to my mates Leigh, Aidan, and Erin (you remember them from our side trip to Cartagena in Spain) for all their efforts in taking care of the logistics at the Wales end. It was no simple thing to make all this happen, so thank you gentlemen. The pints are on me next time we meet. Yes, I know it will be very expensive.

I'm not sure how long it will be before the BM will roll it's wheels on South American soil but I'm sure it's looking forward to stretching it's legs again. Max plans to ride the BM to Brazil next year for the World Cup. I'm still very sad that we couldn't bring the bike home, but I'm glad it's going to a new owner who will use it as intended. Enjoy "your" new bike Max, I know you'll take good care of it.

I'm also pretty happy that I now have my first contact in South America as touring there is still on my bucket list. We will meet up and ride together one day Max.☺

At home things are pretty quiet. I've spent the last three weeks filling in for a friend at a bike shop while he was on holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe I should get back into retail? I'm still looking for a full time job. A few things have been offered but I don't think it's fair to an employer to just take on a role as a fill in until I find the job I really want.

In the meantime I'm getting sooky, reading about the Moto Clube Faro concentracion last week, and catching up on moto friend's blogs who are still travelling, and enjoying the amazing weather in Europe.

I really do miss being on the road.

The adventure is over and we're home.

Friday 24/5/13

After losing a day in the air we touched down in Perth at about one am on Friday morning. Usually it takes a long time to clear customs and immigration. As we'd been to so many countries during our trip we ticked yes to just about every box on the entry cards declaring we had plant material, we'd visited farms, had medication, and so on. We were expecting a long delay in completing all the formalities of arrival in Australia.

It took all of about ten minutes before we walked out the front door of Perth Airport. Yahoo! That was a real bonus. Suzanne's sister Kathy drew the short straw and picked us up, which was lucky as we couldn't have paid for a taxi if we had to get one.

It felt very strange walking up to our front door.

We were given a normal but sedate greeting from our old dog Milo, while Vader just barked at us and wouldn't come near us. After about ten minutes I think Milo remembered who we were and went a bit crazy. After another teen minutes Vader did the same. Jasmine the cat did the normal cat thing and just looked at us as if to say "Oh, have you been away?"

We'll see Paige in the morning.

So, that's about it for our epic adventure...but, planning is already under way for the next trip.

The top of Alaska to the bottom of South America?

Africa top to bottom?

Who knows?

Where ever it is though, you can be sure it will be the Wrong Way Round. I'll be updating the blog every couple of weeks or so as I build my Suzuki DR750 Adventure bike. There is a Horizons Unlimited in Perth in October, so I have a deadline to have this up and running.

For more info on the Horizons Unlimited meeting in Perth, go here: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/events/perth-2013

I went outside to clean my Suzuki a year ago before we left.

It ended up like this, with everything sand blasted ready for a ground up rebuild.

Maybe I'll see you back here in a few weeks time...☺

We're heading home.

Wednesday 22/5/13

Right. Back to the job at hand, cramming everything into these boxes. A few hours later four suitcases were packed and four boxes were chock a block and taped shut. We were ready to go.

We'd said goodbye to Carla early this morning when she left for work. Now it was Barbara and Phil's turn. Like I've written many times before, I hate this part. Barbara, thank you for allowing us to take over your home and fill it with our stuff. Thank you Carla for giving up your bed to us. Lastly, thank you Phil, for providing humorous entertainment while we were stressing about everything.

It was time to go.

We dropped the boxes off at the freight depot and made tracks for the airport. We had heaps of time because we left early to avoid the risk of getting caught in peak hour traffic.

After dropping of the hire car we found ourselves a little cafe in the airport and ordered some food and a drink. As I said, we had plenty of time so we had a few drinks. When it was time to leave we presented our credit card to pay the bill...and it was declined. How's that for cutting it fine? Our card was over the limit and finally declined in the very last hours of our trip. What were we going to do? Our other card, that had plenty of credit had been cancelled due to the Bangkok hacking, and we had no cash. I thought we might be able to get some money out of an ATM, but after three tries at different machines came away empty handed. Oh dear. We couldn't even do the washing up as we had to board our plane. Then I remembered I still had some cash from Montenegro that I hadn't changed. Our bill was forty nine pounds and after changing my cash, I had fifty one pounds and a few coins. Whew! Suzanne was relieved to see me walk back into he cafe smiling.

No duty free shopping for us though. We are now officially skint, with two hefty credit card bills. It will be time to pay the piper when we get home.

We walked onto our Emirates A380, the first time we'd been in one, and it was very nice. Comfy seats and lots of leg room, even in cattle class. Our seven hour trip might not be so bad. The take off was interesting. There was none of this get pushed back into your seat stuff. It was more of a lumber down the runway for ages, then gently lift off. I guess there is a hell of a lot of weight to get off the ground with these things. The in seat entertainment system was full of new release movies and got a thorough workout and the meals were deluxe. Emirates do it so well. Thank you.

Thursday 23/5/13

The pilot put the A380 on the ground in Dubai in what was probably one of the smoothest landings I've ever experienced. Then we sat at the airport for a couple of hours, not even able to buy a drink. Luckily I managed to "find" the password for British Airways WiFi to keep me entertained.

Time seemed to pass very quickly and we were soon on our A777 and in the air. We'll be home in about ten hours and I'm looking forward to seeing our daughter Paige, and our dogs.

Our adventure is nearly over.

Only four days left.

Hitchin and our exit preparations.

Sunday 19/5/13

We had heaps of work to do to prepare for our trip home. We now had all the gear from the bike, and our original suitcases that we bought with us at the beginning of the trip. There was way too much stuff to fit into the suitcases so we have to freight some stuff home.

It all got a bit too hard, so we went shopping instead. We popped down to the local shop to buy a little bit of food and there was a fair happening in the park across the road. We ended up buying a couple of bags of lego blocks to add to our excess baggage. 

We also spent a bit of time looking at the Ferret Rescue Centre's ferrets. We actually learnt a bit while we were there. The ferrets were great, but I don't think our dogs would get on very well with one if we took one home.

Back home we sorted through our piles of stuff and decided we would need four boxes sent home. If there was any space left over Carla could pack some of her gear in there. Everything has to be perfectly clean to go back to Australia, so the rest of the day was spent scrubbing and cleaning things like helmets, boots, riding gear, and luggage. There wasn't a bug anywhere on our gear by the time we'd finished.

Once that was done, the order was placed with Voovit,a freight company that delivers boxes to you, then picks them up when you've packed, then delivers them at the other end. We should have boxes to pack tomorrow...

...then we fly out on Wednesday night.

Monday 20/5/13

We found out that Voovit's box delivery is due one business day after the order is placed, so they'll be here tomorrow. After the boxes are packed we may have to drop them off at the depot. We don't really want to leave four large, heavy boxes in Carla and Barbara's house.

With a bit of time up our sleeves the cleaning continued. 

I can understand Aussie quarantine wanting to inspect stuff entering Australia. You wouldn't believe how many bugs were on my helmet. I took the visor, peak, vent covers and so on off the helmet and found bees, flies, and all sorts of critters in there. What a mess. After removing the Aussie flag stickers that were peeling on the edges (I can't believe how hard it is to buy a decent Aussie flag sticker that will stay on and not fade in a week.) I gave the helmets a really good scrub. At least our helmets will fly (no pun intended) through quarantine.

Now I have to do the same with our our riding gear, boots, gloves, and camping gear. 

In the evening we went to a pub and surprised a friend for her birthday. Heather let us stay with her for a few nights very early in the trip and was a bit disappointed when we told her wouldn't be able to make the pub for her birthday. She certainly had a sparkle in her eye when we walked up behind her and said "Happy birthday."

Heather with a drink, and a specimen bottle.

How much trouble is there here?

Suzanne, Zoe, Heather, and Jo.

Paul, Heather and I.

It was good to catch up with our pommy crew for a goodbye drink before we left.

Tuesday 21/5/13

Our Voovit boxes arrived around 9am and the game of Tetris packing began.

Voovit. Great idea and heaps cheaper than post.

Can we fit it all in?

Check out the box in the foreground.

What do we need to take home with us in our suitcases? What do we send home in the boxes? What don't we need for a few months? Once we had a rough idea we started stacking stuff in the boxes. After a few hours of this brain numbing torture our friend Jo arrived, and we went to the pub for some welcome stress relief.

When we returned home the boxes were shoved to one side and we just chilled while Carla slaved away in the kitchen creating another great feed.

A few drinks finished off the night and Jo headed home. Saying goodbye to friends really is the worst part of this trip. We've met so many fantastic people on this trip and knowing we probably won't ever see them again is a real downer.

Tomorrow we head for Heathrow and Emirates will fly us home to our "normal" lives again.

Goodbye to our BMW. 

It's been wonderful knowing you.

Saturday 18/5/13

We picked up the rent a rocket hire car this morning and loaded it up with all our gear. I don't know how we fitted it all on the bike because we filled the car right up. Even discounting our riding gear, there was a lot of stuff crammed into it.

Our bike will live with Leigh and Annmarie in Wales until someone gives it a new home. It was a horrible feeling driving away from Wales knowing that we had ridden our bike for the last time. I really wish we could take it home.

Leigh and Annmarie's grand daughter was here so Suzanne broke out the face painting kit and made Amiah very happy with a quick splash of colour.

What a surprise, Amiah wanted a butterfly design.

The sun was shining so it was off to the beach for the dogs to have a swim. What a great beach. At one point we counted twenty dogs there. There were tennis balls going everywhere.

Floyd the torpedo.

Leo scaring the fish.

Back at the house it was time to say goodbye to the Jacksons. Thank you so much for your hospitality guys. Have a great time in Turkey on your holiday and hopefully we'll catch up again somewhere down the road.

I hate goodbyes, and this one was as bad as any.

See ya Floyd. See ya Leo.

We were into the hire car and on the road. Hitchin here we come. The little Astra made good time, but it felt very strange driving a car again. Not really claustrophobic, but definitely closed in, and we couldn't see much at all. We didn't realise just how much better the view is from the seat of a bike until we rode one for a long time, then climbed back into a car.

A few hour later we pulled into Carla-Jayne and her mum Barbara's driveway. We'd stayed here earlier on out trip for a few days. It was nice to catch up with them again and Carla gave up her bed for us during our stay. Then she whipped up a tasty dinner that filled our empty stomachs.

Barbara and Phil. Cheeky Phil is always good for a laugh.

We're really close to the end of our trip now. But we are happy. Carla is visiting Australia later this year, so we can returning the accommodation favour when she's Down Under. 

I have a feeling it will be a fun time while she's in Oz.