Sunday, January 28, 2007

Moving Out


I moved out of my flat today and into the master double en suite of a nice little B&B in Tunbridge Wells and spread all my gear out. Its even got a garage/workshop for the bike! My new tenants seem to have settled in my flat - all good.

Monday, January 15, 2007

First Post

Well its 4 weeks till the big off, so time to get this blog up and running. I plan to update it every week or so, or when the local technology permits.

I suppose i should start with the plan:

Leave London 12th Feb ish

Ferry to Spain. Drop in on Shane (an old work buddy who's started a family and a donkey farm in the Basque lands) then a few days ride to Dads in Alhurin el Grande, Andalucia. The journey should be a good test for the fully laden bike and and at Dads i'll have the oportunity to fix any glitches/work on the bike in the warm med sunshine rather than the front yard of a london terrace house.

Ferry to Morroco. Then head over the Atlas Mountains, via Fez, to the dessert area in the east of the country. Here i can try out the bike on rough semi desert pistes in relatively populated areas before hitting the Sahara proper further south. I'll generally be heading south to Mauritania.

Mauri is where the sahara will start for me. The pistes deteriorate and i'll ditch the current tyres and put on the off road knobly tyres. Hopefully these will last till Togo where i am told there is a decent bike shop. I plan to head east after crossing the border almost following some train tracks that head out to an iron ore mine. I won't be going there but to the desert towns of Chinguitti and Atar.

I haven't planned to much detail after this but the following countries should see my grubby face:
Mali (incl Timbuctu)
Burkin Faso
Togo (give the bike a service)
Benin
Nigeria
Cameroon
Gabon
Congo
Democratic of Congo
Angola
Namibia
South Africa