One Bloke, One Bike, 52,000 miles. Ish.

White Dove Transport Show, Sunday 9th August

2009-08-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

This sunday, I was entered into the White dove transport show in bordon, surrey. Which meant I packed up the bike, rode down early and pretended I was leaving. It was just like how I can imagine the actual day of leaving will be, heavily laden, in a bit of a rush but with nothing to hurry for and struggling with all that extra weight on the bike. On the way I did have a spectacular wheelie, just trying to pull away from the lights as my dumb donkey turned into some sort of snorting stallion, a transformation done only by the rider's fault. The show itself was really just what the doctor ordered as it was lovely and relaxed. In the morning I had a little interest from people, but it was at noon, when Chris, one of the organisers interviewed me over the P.A system. It felt fine, as long as I was looking at him, but he said "give him a round of applause" and I turned to see quite a lot of people standing there.
Ther first person to ask questions was a lovely German girl who loved this sort of thing. Her enthusiasm picked me up straight away and we were chatting for a long time. She had ridden her bike from Germany to England with nothing, not even knowing the language. But after a while she picked it up and ended up with a job, somewhere to live and a new language, new friends a whole new life.
A lot of people at that show thought that I was brave (many said insane too) but I think that this girl is. At least I can move on from place to place, with my portable hotel, but to decide to settle somewhere for good requires a lot of courage.
Her other half works for JAM Sport, a motorcross and trials specialist. The guy said there were interested so I'll head over there this week and have a chat.
After more questions, there was a woman called Jenny I think, Who had worked as cabin crew back in the60's or 70's and had been to most of the places I am going and was fascinating to talk to. She will be in South Africa only a couple of months ahead of me though, I will still be in North Africa.
Some more news on the planning side is that it's looking like I may have to cross from spain straight to algeria, bypassing morocco altogether. Hopefully next week I can get up to the Royal Geographical Society and find out. I will try and update this more often too, thanks,
Nick

2009-07-25T03:23:00.000-07:00

After last week's photo shoot and Simon using a few contacts, it would seem the local paper(s) are interested in writing a little bit about me and having a few photos. So, I have no idea what to say or what to do about it, I guess I'll just try to do a little more than grunt back at her questions, but not bore her to death. Feels a bit odd to be honest, this whole outside interest. But if it all goes well I guess I'll get used to it. As soon as i know what it is going to look like, I'll post it on here so we can all look at it and not laugh. Maybe a little. Monday I'm speaking to the nice people at Touratech again, and finalizing my order for a couple of panniers and some big maps of Africa, so i can investigate where to go in a little more detail(and so I won't get lost when I'm there). Again I'll put up some pictures of the panniers when I have them. It is still not looking good about getting through from Morocco to Algeria, they certainly know how to hold a grudge. The border is still closed and has been since 2003 I think. Maybe even as early as 1994. Something to do with someone blaming someone else for an 'incident'. Now I know that people can cross the border and many do it illegally as the price of Diesel and Petrol is almost half price in Algeria, so you have people crossing the border, filling up and coming back to Morocco to sell the fuel to make a profit. As wrong as it sounds, I am severly tempted to go that way and try and sneak through, but there is the threat of pretty dire consequences. On the plus side though, it would make for a fantastic route, crossing the entire North Coast of Africa, instead of Tunisia, Libya and then Egypt. I think I will play it safe and cross from Italy over to Tunisia. But if the border opens between now and Christmas, then I'll cross from Spain. Something to keep an eye on.

A quick thank you.

2009-07-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

It is Sunday and yesterday morning a friend and neighbour of mine, Simon Taylor took a load of promotional shots for this and the forthcoming website. As you can probably see from the little photo at the side of this thing, I was trying desparately hard not to look like a kid in a sweet shop and show my big toothy grin as I was on my bike with loads of rough ground, gravel, mud and puddles. Obviously I had a good play too. So these shots are to be used for trying to plug what I am doing, hopefully just to make the logistics of doing something like this a little easier. So thank you Simon, you can reach him at www.Phooto.co.uk.

The Beginning...

2009-07-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Right. Here we go. This is the first post then. I should probably do a little explaining about what I'm trying to achieve here. I plan to circumnavigate the world and go a little further than just a straight line around the equator. First I feel I should explain why, I will get on to the route a little later on. This idea came strangely easy. It did not come as a whiff, or just a hint of something bigger. I never had to think about it. It came to me fully conceived, prepared even, all I had to to was to grab it and take a big fat bite. When I looked back and thought why this idea would come to me it's all pretty logical. All the places in the world I really wanted to see (see? i mean experience. You can see the world in 48 hours from the comfort of British Airways.) could be connected together, mostly by a little squiggly line across a map. So how would I go about seeing/experiencing them? I would need transport. Now I couldn't ride a motorbike until early 2009. I only obtained my Bike licence, so that I could do this. A Bike suited me fine, small enough to be able to lug about, pull out of ditches, pack into a crate to ship across seas, easy to repair, cheap to run and after all it would only have to carry me and my extremely large packed lunch. So then as promised, the route. From my house, turn left... through France and Spain, crossing to Morocco from southern Spain. Then around the north coast of Africa through Algeria and Libya, over to Egypt and from there south through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and then to Cape Town in South Africa. From there I travel overseas to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Heading north west, travel through Colombia and onto Central America, covering Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico and crossing into the US at El Paso. Then I ride up the West coast of America to San Francisco. I fly with the bike to Singapore for the final leg and the long, long ride home. from Singapore to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, (hopefully, if possible) Burma or Myanmar to be correct. This will take me into Bangladesh and to a country at the top of the list. India. Travelling north through Kathmandu in Nepal and into China. I then head west in an almost straight line, through Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and into the Ukraine. Through Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium to cross the English channel at Calais and Arrive in Dover a while later. I say a while as i have no idea how long this will take me. The feeling that perhaps the urge to come home will disappear is very much at the forefront of my mind. Of course I will return home, but whether that is permanently or not, I could never say. At the weekend I will be posting some photos on here so you can see me before I leave. This will be updated as often as I can throughout the coming months up until the leaving date, somewhere in early January, I'm waiting to see what a couple of friends who are riding to Ghana in January are doing. It would be nice to have a little company to Marrakesh. More of me soon, thanks.