Long Way Up

…The man in the picture will be about 300 days older to be precise! Although it can wait until my next blog entry as due to the usual preparations for my trips I don’t really have much to take a picture of. Unless anyone’s interested in seeing my kit organised in only a way that I know all over the floor, or my super (meaning very, not great) short haircut. So here we go again then…
RTW11 had to be on really, ever since BJ and I rode the long, cold, partly lunar, desolate road up to the very top of Alaska. The map (If I could get it to work) would show like something on ‘The Crystal Maze’ where Peter, 25, accounts assistant, from Milton Keynes has the task of joining the red electrical circuit from points A to B to release the crystal. Or it does to me anyway. This time though, unlike Peter, I have a little more than 2 minutes 30 seconds. Two and a half months actually…
But before I get too far into this time that’s about to tick, what’s the deal? Well, motorcycle wise big bad ‘Des’ did indeed have a serious engine problem after all. All repaired under warranty (with thanks to Kiran and Sam at West London Yamaha) it turned out that it was a damaged crank shaft that he sustained somewhere in Gabon. Some amazement was shown at how he managed to soldier on the 8,000 miles it took to finally get him to the bike hospital for life saving surgery. This trip should (he says…) be a little easier on rider and bike as the off roading promises to be minimal. Riding Des on nice tarmac is a bit like Brian Blessed donning a tutu and performing Swan Lake and so during the latter months of 2010 a suitable replacement was located and purchased. It was an old school BMW K100RS which is far nicer to ride up the Pan American Highway. Think John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, retro, super smooth and dressed immaculately in white too. However, as the days went by and the departure day neared I couldn’t help but look at the pair of them and think that perhaps my K bike was a bit too tidy for the trip. So for that reason simple reason, it’s me and Des again. The only change to him is that I’ve reinstalled his exhaust baffles, as despite him killing a few people by heart attack in some of the far flung places where we’ve ridden with his monstrous flamed backfire, he really does give me ear ache truth be told.
As for the route well…basically it’s Buenos Aires, down to Tierra del Fuego (woolly hat packed), locate fellow African survivor ‘Danish Mick’ in Santiago (beers), and then head up to New York as time allows. With good old BJ again doing the hokey cokey for the months leading up to the big off I’d been in touch with Dave Allen (no not him, shame) who was planning to copy my African trip but had strangely decided against it after I’d given him an idea of what to expect(!?) Having turned right at San Fransisco and ridden to Buenos Aires after we met in Russia during my RTW09 he’s already ridden my third leg (erm) Still, keen to explore he’ll be at the starting point with me but heading north and may well see me further up the road in South America’s poorest country Bolivia’s capital, La Paz. He said it’s not so bad there, but then he is a South Londoner… STOP PRESS…STOP PRESS…Like a wasted alcoholic that’s somehow found his way home from a very late night BJ has (it seems finally) found not only his house on the estate but the right key for his door. Miraculous!!! So it looks like I’d better pack my swimming shorts then…