Riders: Gareth Morgan, Jo Morgan, Brendan Keogh, Bryan Wyness, Dave Wallace, Selywn Blinkhorne
Motorcycles: BMW F650 GS Dakar
Distance: 15,214km
Countries: Germany, Italy, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Krygzistan, China
Trip description: An epic motorcycle adventure on the famous Silk Road. That theme is “In the footsteps of Marco Polo” and sets a colorful historic backdrop to this traverse of Eurasia. Though the journey took Marco 24, we will attempt to cover the same ground in just 3 months.
The day has started bleakly – pouring rain and a falling temperature. Early start because we have 300kms of mud and gravel roads to cover before we get to the promised land – China! The pass is 3,572m so it’s going to get a lot colder. Two hours in, first puncture. Brendan’s a puncture-fixing fella […]
It started the night before. A squad of 12 of the national TV, radio and print press descended on our hotel and wanted us to give a press conference. The topic? Why are we doing this bike ride and why have we chosen a UNICEF project in Kyrgyzstan as the one we’d like to provide […]
After a long ride the previous day (9 June) from Tashkent (Uzbekistan) to Kara Balty (Kygzstan), via Kazakhstan for 8 hours, Dave and I headed off feeling pleased with ourselves to meet the other 4 riders who had ridden from Tashkent through Kyrgzstan. Yesterdays border crossings had been relatively straight forward apart from a query […]
As our readers and listeners will know this has not been a trip without its share of tummy troubles. They are ongoing and relate to the state of the food we eat (rotten meat in stews isn’t uncommon) and what utensils and any raw vegetables have been washed in. The sanitary conditions in the villages […]
We have our disabled bike back on the road again – thanks to a slowhorse courier from Germany and a superb effort by the team of Sanar Motors, the BMW car dealer in Tashkent. Those boys performed beyond the call of duty and helped our chief engineer Dave, who had been left behind in Tashkent […]
Gareths bike out of the blue developed a starting problem in Samarkhand and an earlier blog refers, so now an update. The fix involved Dave and I scouring the Samarkhand auto bazzar for a suitable part we found the perfect solution an ignition switch from a Volga salon which also incorporated a very substantial solenoid. […]
We have had problems with one of the bikes, so the group is now split. One pair of riders is on their way fron Tashkent (we hope) in catch-up mode while we have an easy day on the shores of Izzk Kul near the Russian border. we had a very cool swim this morning and […]
Hi Buddies, Boy I’m ugly and the bruising has proceeded down my neck topped by a bright yellow cheek and a red eye socket. Lucky what ever I hit didn’t get my eye. Vodka is great for pain (even if you have none) and you forget how ugly you look and think you are being […]
That’s right. Tashkent has been our “official” half way point where we service the bikes and where the 2 guys that are doing “half-Marco’s” actually swap on the bike they’re sharing. So Phil has just flown home, having done his half of the trip and Selwyn flies in and takes over that bike. But would […]
We are in Tashkent — very recently made a motorcycle-free city due to terrorist concerns. So we had to truck 5 of the bikes in for their half-way service from the police post on the outskirts of town. One bike was already on a truck that we had hired from 100km out, as we couldn’t […]
