Touring Ted

It’s too late now ! No going back.

We’ve spent plenty of money this month….

The ferry to Santander is booked, the ferry from Barcelona to Italy is booked and the ferry from Venice to Egypt is also booked. Thats £600 in ferries alone .. Ouch !

More good news is that my bank guarantee has been accepted for my Carnet de passage.  Within a few weeks we should have all the required paperwork and bookings. Wooo

I’ve also had to sell my other bike to help fund this trip. It’s a welcome boost to the travel fund but i was very sad to see her go 

Well, not much to report apart from that really. Just buying more and more spare parts and bits and pieces that we overlooked. When will the spending stop !!

6 weeks to go !!

Where does the time go !!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh

So, whats new with me and planning !  Not a lot really, or nothing really interesting enough to talk about. Just the usual routine of buying spare parts, fettling with the bike and trying to organise ferries, carnets, visas, inoculations etc… The list (and cost) just goes on and on.

I think the bike is 95% finished and ready to go.  Having such a small bike is a nightmare when it comes to finding space to put things. It’s a real challenge. It’s really looking like the real deal though.. A proper beefed up old rat lol.

With me things aren’t so good.  I hurt my knee over 2 months ago whilst playing football now and it’s still not healed. I’m being sent for an MRI scan as it should be better now.  Doctors and Physios are throwing ideas around of ruptured cartilage and sprained ligaments.  All I know is that it hurts most of the time and I still can’t even jog on it..  I really hope it sorts itself out in the next 10 weeks or I at least know what the problem is.

On a brighter note, I’m off to Cyprus next week for a wedding.. Looks like it’s going to be a scorcher so good practice for the Sahara .  I’ll have to be REALLY careful with my spending over there though. My travel fund is already less than I hoped and i’m running out of time to earn anything to add to it before I leave.. Why do people always get married at the most inappropiate times. Hows selfish ! lol
So… I have a bit of an idea of a time table for the trip.

1st September – take ferry from Portsmouth (UK) to Santander (Spain)

23rd September – Take ferry from Venice (Rome) to Alexandra (Egypt)

Thats it for now……..heheh.   Progress though isn’t it

Jeez ! Time is really flying.  If everything goes to plan I should be on the road the first week in September !  2010 that is !  Crikey, thats only just over three months time.

Me and Neil (my travel partner) took a long weekend ride around Wales with his friend Noel. It was great fun. We got to try out our travel bikes fully loaded and experiment with our luggage set up. As always, lessons were learnt and it really showed the importance of going for a few trial runs with the bikes before we hit the road properly.

As for the riding, the weather was fantastic. We spent four days idley cruising around the Welsh countryside.  Looking for places to wild camp, drinking tea in small villages and explore and in almost a “throwing darts at the map” type style that I really love.. .

We had  also arranged to meet the two New Zelanders for “Tea and Scones”. These are the guys we will be leaving Europe with and had originally decided to share the cost of a Libyan tour with .. They were very friendly and seemed pretty laid back about most things. Like most kiwis I have ever met in fact   I reckon we’re all going to have a lot of fun and mischief !

The ride home wasn’t as smooth going though. My bike kept breaking down on the motorway leading to more doubts in my head about the sensibilty of taking an unreliable, temperamental 400cc Enduro bike on a 16,000 miles overland trip…  We shall see !!  They say it’s the problems that make the adventure !

Well, predictably enough the route has changed again..  A new development in the Mediterranian Ferry system “should” open up a route directly from Venice (Italy) to Alexandra (Egypt). This will allow us to skip the beaurocracy and large costs incurred with trying to cross Libya and Tunisia.

The new plan is to take the ferry from Spain to Sardinia and then to Italy.. Ride south and pick up the boat from Venice into Egypt then head south down the east coast as first planned.  This should save us a couple of weeks and plenty of pound stiring enabling more frolics in the south and what I think of as “REAL AFRICA”.

Nothing is in stone yet so watch this space !!

The last month i’ve really spent a huge amont of cash on spare parts, riding and camping gear ! I thought I had all this stuff from South America until I realised id sold or given it away while on the road.  My bike, riding gear and sleeping bag was sold in Colombia, my tent abandomed in Buenos Aires, and having a different bike means I have had to buy a whole new bag of spare parts for the trip !  Buying 16,000 miles worth of spare parts in one go is very expensive.. TRUST ME !!

But….

I still havn’t sorted out my Carnet (An expensive, time consuming but compulsury document for import and customs of my bike in Africa).

I still havn’t got my passport translated into Arabic

I still havn’t got any travel insurance.

I still havn’t organised any malarials and jabs.

I still havn’t got my bike running reliably

I still need a load of bike spares

Oh, and i’m still walking with a limp and can’t really use my right knee !

So.. Things right on track then !!  Here cometh the madness !

Africa is still very much GO GO GO !!

Although, I like to think of myself as experienced in this “lark”, Africa really is a pain to plan..   In comparison, South America was pretty simple. There are no wars, all borders are open and all paperwork is straight forward and done at the border.

Now planning a route to Cape Town is rather like walking over thin ice.  You have to be careful where you tread.  Neil and myself had originally planned to take a route from Spain into Morocco and head accross the north coast to Egypt, but it seems that you can’t cross into Algeria !! Great !!     So, then we planned to take the ferry from Italy into Tunisia and into Libya..

Libya is a royal pain in the ass.  You are required to be “invited” into the country by a tour operator, get all visas up front and then be escorted accross the country by a guide !! Not only is this not really in the true spirit of adventurous travel, it’s blooming expensive. We had an idea to skip Libya by taking the “East entry” into Egypt. Riding through Turkey, down into Syria, Israel and then into Egypt !    That plan was soon scuppered too due to an Israeli passport stamp making you “The devil” in the eyes of many other countries and it prevents you from entering any muslim countries.  That really doesn’t help when we need to pass through Sudan on the way south..

SOOO, it looks like we’re back to going through Libya which just may have turned into a blessing in disguise. We have found two Kiwis (New Zealanders) who are looking to do the same trip at the same time. We may be able to share costs through Libya which would really help our limited budget.

Well, today I am at home nursing an injured knee.  I think I have torn my ACL ligagment playing football yesterday. I had to be carried off the park and I still can’t put any weight on it…   The timing couldn’t be worse as in 6 days, I am off on a trip around Wales with Neil and also to meet up with these Kiwis.   Although me and Neil talk frequently, we havn’t spent a lot of time together so a little “Broback Bromance” in Wales is required to afirm travel bonds, talk through Ideas and generally get a feel for each other (ooo errr).

The plan is still to leave in mid September 2010.  I am skrimping, saving and selling pretty much everything I own.  I need about £8000 for this trip and by the time “escape day” gets around, I think i’ll be lucky to have £6000.  It looks like the credit cards may have to be brought out of retirement for the flight and shipping home.   I learned a harsh lesson in South America !! Money seeps away like water over Iguazo falls if you really don’t keep track of it.  I bought far too many beers and stayed in too many pricey hotels and it really hurt my travel fund.  Thankfully, Neil is as frugal as I am so I hope we can keep spending to a real minimum..

Mind made up, plans formed, promises made, bikes been prepped and savings account filling.

It’s official.  A few months ago I made my mind up to ride from here in the U.K to Capetown, South Africa.

It’s a trip i’ve been thinking about since I got back from South America in May 2008.  I’ve been motivated and managed to clear my debts (mostly) and buy and prepare the bike which will be my faithful steed.

As you all know, Africa is pretty wild and can be very dangerous.  Sure, i’m nervous and a little scared but I think that’s just fear of the unknown.  I was “bricking it” thinking of going around South America. While sketchy at times, my fears were unfounded and i discovered nothing but the friendliest people and the most breathtaking of scenery.

I think peoples opinion of Africa is mostly of war, famine and corruption with the odd Safari park and a bit of sand in the North.   I can say this because it’s an  ignorant opinion I had myself until I started travelling and opening my mind to the world a little.

In fact, its probable the most beautiful, rich , ancient and interesting and diverse continent on the planet.  Full of nature, history, a huge variety of culture and languages.  Huge moutain ranges with wild waterfalls to arid deserts and miles of open plain and grasslands.  I can’t even start to tell you what I’ve learnt about Africa with only a little research !

So it’s on this virtue that I believe the riches has to offer me in terms of culture, wildlife , diversity of landscapes and counties FAR offsets any risk of Kidnap and violence.

June 2007, Ripley Derbyshire – HU meeting !    Thats where I bumped into Neil Gonzalez. He had the same bike as me with a tank I was looking for and that got us chatting.  Plus, I wanted to know where he bought his comedy wig (turned out it was his real hair… ooops )  

We got chatting about travelling and realised that we were both in the same boat.  We have travelled a fair bit ourselves but were looking for a travel buddy to do a longer, crazy and more adventurous trip.  Since we couldnt afford a BBC camera crew, the SAS, a medical team, aspare parts backup trucks and fresh laundered silk undies everyday to look good for the media , we decided that we could hook up and think of a trip together.

While generally talking crap about ourselves, bikes, the world via the internet, we talked over riding through Eastern Europe for a while but mutually decided that it was far too easy and not much of a challenge for our 400c Enduro bikes, so Africa became the plan..

“Do it now, while you’re young enough to bounce and heal”  was pretty much the logic behind it all

So, we have decided on a September 2010 departure date.   The route so far (but liable to change at anytime lol)  is :

Uk – Spain – Sardinia – Italy – Greece – Turkey – Syria – Jordan – Egypt – Sudan – Ethipia – Kenya – Tanzania – Milawi – Zambia – Namibia – South Africa.

Easy huh.. Should take about 4-5 months  !
So hear we go ! The blog is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

Europe = Too easy !!!!!!

F**K it…… Let’s ride THROUGH Europe to Africa.  While we’re there, might as well head all the way south to Capetown 

I’ve just been introduced to what seems a great website for travelling on a budget.

http://www.helpexchange.net/

Loads of places to go and chill out for free in exchange for mucking in with some labour…. A few hours a day working in the sunshine in the countryside is a small price to pay for your sanity. Plus, I really want to polish up on my Spanish and get back into the “traveller” social group.  My kind of people !!

I think i’ll go mad if I stay in the UK.  Living in my mums spare room for the next 18 months to save for a £10,000 trip to ride to Capetown seems psychologically impossible at the moment. ..  Off setting the Africa trip may not be such a bad idea… I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I might as well sit out the recession in the sunshine and come back and save some decent money for the Africa trip when things are more settled..

I start a new job (Stil at Sony) this week. It might help with the boredom for a while but if not, I think ill be out of here by the end of September.

Other news…I’ve gone and got myself another bike.  A bright yellow Suzuki DRZ400 trail bike.  I got it for Africa but as that seems to be on hold for a while, I dont know whether to keep it or not.. I will probably have to sell one bike to fund this winters escapade but which one ???????????????

Since returning to the shores of Merry old England in May 2008, I’ve had nothing but a desire to travel more and more. If anything, I want to get away even more than before I set off for South America.

Travelling (and especially on motorcycle) is such a fantastic life changing experience it is something that I think I will always have to do. I’ve met so many fantastic people and experienced things that I only dreamt of and I’ve barely scraped the surface of planet Earth.

I’ve been hatching up a few hair braining ideas since my return since last May whilst still paying for my last trip ! I ended up spending about £10,000 in South America and I only budgeted for £5,000. The £2500 trip to Antartica and my lack of planning for beer and hotels really hit the credit card hard. So, the last year has been spent paying off that extra £5000 and saving enough to buy my current steed… A 1999 battered Africa Twin that has already been to South Africa and back (so hopefully she knows the way lol)..

Soooooo !! The saving starts now.  And now the eternal question  ! WHERE ????????????????????????

I’m toying with the idea of riding from the UK to Capetown then back to to Argentina and upto Colombia again (visiting the west coast of South America which I missed) OR maybe riding to Australia…

Watch this space 

After Angel falls, it was a few days ride to the Colombian border. The roads were very good and once again took us through beatiful landscapes, jungle and twisty moutain passes. Our only downer was the Venezuelian checkpoints. They were mostly very hostile with the military police demanding to see all our papers and checking everything. To me it just seemed an excuse to bully about rich weterners about or just out of total boredom (probably the latter). Saying that, we were never asked for a bribe or physically threatened so onwards we pressed.

A few LONG days later we made it to the Colombian border. Venezuela gave us our final sour taste by demanding an “Exit fee”, AKA bribe before they would stamp our exit visas and let us leave the country. I dont want people to think I didnt enjoy Venezuela but it has the potential to be so much better if they would just chill out a little.

Within 15 minutes we were happy and smiling again. Its a fantastic feeling to get through a border and see all the wlcome signs.. I always let off a “Woooo Hoooo” everytime I see the first sign..

It was fantastic to be in Colombia. The difference was like black and white with relation the the officials. The guards had big smiles and welcomed us in. They offered us drinks and gave us directions to the customs office (unusually it wasnt at the border and a couple of miles in the city near an airport). We had to go to customs to declare our bikes and obtain our tempory import visas for the bikes which WOULD be checked at guard points on the roads. A bit of a pain but necessery.

So off we went into the madness and jumble of the city following signs to the airport. On arrival at the airport the gateman told us that the customs was infact not at the airport but in the town AHHHHHH !!  Luckily, and in true Colombian hospitality style , a random bloke in a car insisted that he show us the way

After all the faffing about with the usual customs photocopying and form filling Sean and myself decided to head for Bogota and home leaving Criste to head north to the coast. This is after we were grabbed by a local guy on a bike who insisted we come to his small B&B for free drinks and even offered to put us up for free. We were all quite eager to press on so unfortunatley had to decline his invitation but it all made us feel very welcome in what is such a wonderful and unfairly critisised country.

I really really really wish that I hadnt lost the pictures of the ride south to Bogota because it was simply stunning. Riding the Colombian andes at over 10,000 feet in the mist of the jungle moutains was one of the most memerable rides of my life. The people are verging on indiginous and their lives are very basic. What I didnt really plan on was the cold at 10,000 feet. We were bloody freezing and glad when the altitude dropped as quickly as it rose.

A few days earlier I had received an invite from a fellow scouse biker (Mick) who has an apartment in Bogota. Mick spends 10 months of the year in Colombia and 2 in the UK, working when he feels like it.  He kindly invited myself and Sean to come and stay with him while we sorted out out shipping and flights back to the UK. It was really nice to roll into Bogota knowing a friendly face and some local knowledge was on the horizon.

Over the next few days, Mick made us feel like Royalty and even he even bought my bike off me to replace his well used and abused KLR. I was a little sad about leaving my bike behind but it saved me the huge hassel and cost of shipping it home.. At least she will be used in South America for many years to come !

After I booked my flights I made sure I made the most out of Bogota with the little money I had left. We went clubbing in downtown, enjoyed the fantastic resturants and basically chilled out with some locals…. Bogota is not what I imagined it at all. Big expensive shopping malls, classy resturants and nice museams. Thorwn into the mix is samba, dancing and friendly happy faces…. I loved Colombia and my biggest regret is not having enough time to explore it properly.

Writing this blog has been fun and I hope its helped to inspire a few people to just getting out there and doing it. If I can do it, ANYONE can….  You will meet so many wondrous, kind and selfless people that it will totally shake your own perspectives on western life. You will meet many other travellers, with and without motorcycle, who will happily share your experiences with you (and your beer). I can almost guarantee that you will make friendships on the road that will last a lifetime.

What I learned about travelling is that you really cant plan anything and I’m glad that I didn’t really plan much at all. You have to remain very elastic as nothing ever really goes how you plan it. In my opinion, I had much more fun that way too.

Its pretty sad writing the last post on this South American blog and thats probably why I’ve waited 6 weeks after getting home to do it.  But ALAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,  the trials and tribulations of touring Ted will continue…

I’ve just started planning my next trip. At the moment im still undecided but I think its more than likely going to be a huge long trip to South Africa. First crossing western and eastern Europe and down the side of Africa (not sure which one yet)… Its going to probably be 2 years off with my current dire financial situation but hold onto your hats, knowing me its going to be more adventure packed than this one was

Until then….. Chau !

Im sorry that its been so long since my last post but i’ve been crazy busy and actually back home and working in the UK.

Be it at that… ill write of my final weeks in South America. In true Ted style, i lost my memory card with 90% of my Colombia photos on so ill just do my best..

From my last post, I was travelling through Venezuela with the Americans Sean and Christi. Myself and Sean had been playing with the Idea of taking a microlight to the world famous Angel falls. What many people dont know is that you cant simply driver or ride to the falls. They are in the middle of the bloody rainforest’s and even the closest town is somewhere you have to fly to.

So myself and Sean (Christi opted out so she could scrub her knickers), decided to head to the airport and charter a flight and day trip to the falls. We rode to the small airfield of Ciuidad Bolivar, fought our way though the hoards of people selling flights and agreed a price with the most reputable (ok the cheapest) operator there.

We paid our money in cash (A friggin pain in Venezuela where the cash machines don’t work) and agreed to be picked up the next day from our hostel in town..

We spent the night getting pretty dam drunk and listening to the Beatles on my MP3 player, completely forgetting that we had to take a microlight over the jungle in the early hours.

As promised the van picked us up and took us to the airport. We were immediately loaded into a little plane and away on our 1 hour flight to Caniema (the closest Jungle settlement to the falls)

We touched down after a choppy and pretty frightening flight. It probably only felt so bad because we were hungover and trying not the throw up !!

 WOW, what a beautiful place. Caniema (spelled wrong), was just stunning. A huge lake surrounded by waterfalls and lake side shacks. Its probably only here for tourists but it doesnt take away from its beauty. If this place wasn’t only accessible by light plane, im sure there would be a Mcdonalds and Hilton hotel here !

After hanging about for a few hours visiting the smaller falls, it was time to take a second plane and do our “flyby” through the deep jungle and past the face of Angel falls.  We were so excited and for good reason. The fly out into the Jungle is just phenomenal. Countless miles of beautiful open rain-forest, mountains, rivers and wildlife. We were jaw dropped for the whole flight and though life couldn’t get better until the pilot (crazy old dude who had watched too many Battle of Britain films) took us over the falls. We took photos and the pilot banked, rolled and dived his way over the rainforest trying to get us a good shot. I barely held onto my lunch when my memory card filled up.

 These photos REALLY don’t do Angel falls justice. They are 1 kilometre high and the water is barely a mist when it reaches the bottom. A life time experience !