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 !!