As usual, these adventures don't 'just happen' - an awful lot of planning and structure is needed to ensure that everything goes smoothly and safely. In no particular order, the following people have been instrumental in making the Europe 2014 leg of our world tour possible:
- Wives, partners, girlfriends (but not all 3 in the same room), kids, and extended families for putting up with the time away and our endless crap,
- Ivan Smoljko from Bikes Abroad for getting our bikes from anywhere to anywhere else,
- Kim Britton at Kim Britton Kawasaki for bike crates as required,
- Judy at AdventureMoto and Petra at MotorradGarage for unbreakable kit,
- Chris at CC Moto Mechanics, Perth for servicing the bikes, and
- Melody Pia for her extraordinary organisational support
Monday 11 November 2013
It's on again ...
The next adventure in the round-the-world adventures of Ty, Tony and Gaz will kick off in March 2014 - sadly without Ty on this leg. He has been 'grounded' with the birth of a new baby, and will experience this one (without sleep) from the couch.
We will be joined by three other riders, two of whom have joined us for past adventures. Dave Moore (Taurus Homes) and Gavin Ball (Star3 Media Group) will be joining us in London, having previously ridden along the Himalayas with us in 2010, and through northern Luzon in the Philippines in 2012. Also joining the group is James Salmon, resident in France, and riding up to London then in a circuitous route back home.
As usual, the bikes leave for their adventure a month or so before the riders, this time being shipped from Perth Australia to Southampton in the United Kingdom. The bikes will enjoy a brief stopover in Singapore as the cargo needs to be transhipped. Total travel time is 39 days if all goes well. We are using Bikes Abroad again for our freight forwarding requirements as Ivan and his team have never let us down in the past.
The still-in-draft plan involves collecting the bikes from the freight forwarder's depot near Heathrow, then crossing the Eurotunnel into France. From there we plan a long loop encompassing Ghent, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Vrsic Pass, Venice, Stelvio Pass, Mont Blanc, Milan, Monaco, Carcassonne, Perpignan, Andorra, Pyrenees, the finishing in Carcassonne.
Accommodation will be to our usual high standards, involving a roof wherever possible but settling for a reasonably flat piece of land otherwise. The same applies for our culinary pursuits; which will likely be focused on roadside cafes, supermarkets, and occasional roadkill. :-)
The bike preparation has been a little more thorough than usual for this trip as they will not be coming home with us. Instead the bikes will be billeted with James until we fly back to pick them up and continue our journey to the southern tip of Africa. The pain of separation from the KLR was so great that I have since purchased another one and Gaz is currently on the lookout. They sure aren't the fastest or most beautiful bike on the planet, but the old mules are pretty much indestructible and it is easy to get attached to them.
We will be joined by three other riders, two of whom have joined us for past adventures. Dave Moore (Taurus Homes) and Gavin Ball (Star3 Media Group) will be joining us in London, having previously ridden along the Himalayas with us in 2010, and through northern Luzon in the Philippines in 2012. Also joining the group is James Salmon, resident in France, and riding up to London then in a circuitous route back home.
As usual, the bikes leave for their adventure a month or so before the riders, this time being shipped from Perth Australia to Southampton in the United Kingdom. The bikes will enjoy a brief stopover in Singapore as the cargo needs to be transhipped. Total travel time is 39 days if all goes well. We are using Bikes Abroad again for our freight forwarding requirements as Ivan and his team have never let us down in the past.
The still-in-draft plan involves collecting the bikes from the freight forwarder's depot near Heathrow, then crossing the Eurotunnel into France. From there we plan a long loop encompassing Ghent, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Vrsic Pass, Venice, Stelvio Pass, Mont Blanc, Milan, Monaco, Carcassonne, Perpignan, Andorra, Pyrenees, the finishing in Carcassonne.
Accommodation will be to our usual high standards, involving a roof wherever possible but settling for a reasonably flat piece of land otherwise. The same applies for our culinary pursuits; which will likely be focused on roadside cafes, supermarkets, and occasional roadkill. :-)
The bike preparation has been a little more thorough than usual for this trip as they will not be coming home with us. Instead the bikes will be billeted with James until we fly back to pick them up and continue our journey to the southern tip of Africa. The pain of separation from the KLR was so great that I have since purchased another one and Gaz is currently on the lookout. They sure aren't the fastest or most beautiful bike on the planet, but the old mules are pretty much indestructible and it is easy to get attached to them.
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