Sunday, March 28, 2010

‘...’ indeed!


So here we go again then. It’s all Ian Reed’s fault. You see, once I’d settled back into ‘normal life’ after finally coming home he went and bought me the ‘Adventure Motorcycling Handbook’ which is widely regarded as THE biking bible and a source of inspiration and information to fellow er, adventurers? As my old roomie Scott from last years RTW reckons ‘adventure before dementia.’ Damn right. So, fast forward ten weeks and here I am in my cabin onboard a P&O ferry to Bilbao, Spain and from there it’s 99.999% land to Cape Town. The intended route once in Africa is too long winded to write right now (I can’t remember) but suffice to say it’s through the Western Sahara and a west side route all the way to the cape and maybe 16,000 miles, I’m still not sure. This route is reckoned to be as about as challenging as they come especially from April-October when the monsoon (read MUD) seasons hit hard deep in the jungle in places such as Gabon, the Congo and Angola. Oh did I mention that I’ll be riding until early June? Hmmm...
So what this time then? A group? Solo? More unexpected Trance clubs? Bike?
Well no group but only solo for 3,000 miles or so. BJ had indicated that he was in but eventually he was out. That led me to email a Danish guy named ‘Mick’ who I was aware was about to leave on a similar trip as I hoped to do in a similar time. As it turns out he was leaving that very night (eight days ago) with a Greek guy who was only going as far as Gambia. One swift reply later and it was agreed that I’d remove my finger from inside something and follow Scott’s thought. The plan is that Mick will then wait for me in Gambia with cold beers at the ready (I like him already) and on we’ll go. Fast forward eight days to now and here I am, absolutely shattered, 96% prepared and making a first entry to the continuation of my RTW trip. There’s no WIFI though so it’s on a word document for now. There will be much of this though as I’ll be mostly camping out there. Sorry about the pictures by the way but there wasn’t really much else to photo, for now. Oh well here’s to a couple of days R&R at sea...
Oh yeah... Trance? I’m thinking no way but there was one in Mongolia so who knows?
And my bike? It’s ‘Des’ again of course! He’s feeling fine but this time he’s carrying more weight due to all the spare parts/extra camp stuff/medicine/worry. Still not sure about the racket he makes or the wind turbulence though?!?
I need sleep.
I really do.
X

1 comment:

  1. Good to see your writing this again... keep it up Colonel. Be safe!

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