London England-Europe-Russia-America. 26 countries, 19661 riding miles.


England, Wales, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, Japan, North America (19 States, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virgina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York) Ireland.
9882 miles (flights/ferries as the crow flies) TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED 29543 Miles/47545 Kilometers

Trip Schedule

Ace Cafe, Stonebridge, London 7pm Mon 21st April-Send off with Riders Digest magazine. http://www.theridersdigest.co.uk/distribution.html
Official start-St. Teresas Hospice, Darlington, Co. Durham 11am Wed 23rd April St Georges Day.
Farleigh Hospice, Chelmsford, Essex 1pm Tues 29th April.
Dover, P&O ferry, 10am Thurs 1st May.
Europe 1 month.
Trabzon, Turkey to Sochi, Russia Tues 3rd June. 90 day visa.
Zarubino, Russia to Sok Cho Korea Mon 28th July.
Incheon, Korea to Seattle USA, via Tokyo, Japan Fri 15th Aug.
JFK New York to Gatwick UK, via Dublin, Ireland Wed 24th Sept
Official finish-Farleigh and St.Teresas Hospices dates TBA.


Many thanks to our sponsors!

I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this trip possible.


CitySprint www.citysprint.co.uk/
The Riders Digest www.theridersdigest.co.uk/

A special thankyou to Frank and Liz at http://www.triumph-online.co.uk/ for such generosity. They gave us almost all the spares and tools we needed to keep the bikes running across Russia, just because they were proud of two British guys wanting to ride two British bikes around the world.

A big thankyou to Graham at http://www.bykebitz.co.uk/ for the Airhawk seat cushion. Without a doubt the most comfortable bike seat I've ever had. Much more comfortable than a gel seat!
Thanks to David Gath at http://www.motohaus.com/ for the Ventura headlight guard. It saved my headlight on many occasions on the Amur Highway.
Thanks to http://www.wemoto.com/ for the brake pads.
Thanks to Rick and everyone at Casade Moto Classics, Beaverton, Oregon, for helping me at such short notice. http://www.cascademoto.com/

Thankyou to everyone who has given their time and effort to ensure the trip went smoothly.
It's the small companies who really make the world go round.

Thankyou Mark & Lee for ensuring we had a good send off, Roman for the tyres in Volgograd, Mikail & the Iron Tigers for the use of their shop, Phil & Dot for their friendship & inspiration, Wendy for shipping the bikes from Korea (& buying me dinner 3 nights in a row) Mike & Jo for keeping me sane in Korea, David Janos for amazing hospitality, advice, collecting my bike from Seattle & taking me sailing! Stan Hellmann for showing me the best of Oregon, Greg for air freighting the bike home & of course Geoff, for helping me realise my dream.

Monday 11 August 2008

Maybe it is a small world after all


It's very difficult finding anywhere cheap to stay at this time of year, but in Seoul we managed to book four days in the Namsan Guest house. Geoff will be leaving for a tour around Asia after two nights and I will be staying in Korea. Geoff almost convinced me to go to Hong Kong, even finding out flights etc. for me but to be honest, as a first time traveller, I really don't have the confidence to go there alone. If I survive the rest of this trip, then I think I will have the experience and confidence to travel further. Australia has always been somewhere I've wanted to go, so if I'm lucky enough to have an opportunity, I will see Hong Kong then.

Talking of Australia, I bumped into Mike and Jo, the Australian couple we'd met in Vladivostok. In a city the size of Seoul, this was an amazing coincidence. They had ridden around the coast, then shipped their BMW 1150 GS home, and in the meantime like me, were killing time here. They fly home Tuesday the 12th so that gives us plenty of time to have some beers first!

Geoff left early on Thursday the 7th. I was sad to see him leave but he was looking forward to travelling around Asia. I wish him well. He is braver than me and I look forward to hearing his adventures!

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