Jo and Dave’s bikes both need some proper repair work or they could be in trouble. The team are on the hunt for a bunch of Russian welders but what’s the chance of them out here? Jo also seems to be collecting a few animal body parts for good luck from the locals. Spooky! Breaking […]
After a day of enormous roadworks and riding through more mud and slosh, Gareth pulls out his business card and a Russian shopkeeper goes ballistic! Also Jo’s got the responsibility of finding somewhere dry for the night but that task is turning into an absolute nightmare. Back on the road or at least river to […]
Gareth, Jo and Dave get up at dawn so they can make the Ferry that will take them across a huge river called the Aldan. But through the dust and 8k’s into today’s ride they come face to face with a terrible tragedy. A horribly sad sight that will stay with them all for the […]
315 kms to Khandyga and the team is caught up in huge roadworks that cause the bikes grief. Jo gets almost to the end of the day and has a crushing accident!. And a Russian woman takes control and leads Gareth and Dave by the hand to sort them out. 315 kms to Khandyga, 2 river […]
40 kms south of Susuman and Gareth’s premonition of a huge bear encounter comes true much to his dismay. The team have to search high and low for accommodation after hotel or Gastronista had no vacancies. Thankfully a very basic establishment looking out over the M56 is found. No comforts of home here but a […]
The road is the community – as it is in much of the developing world and Madagascar is no exception. Villages proliferate along the fringe of the bitumen, and there are folks walking all day long it seems, between town and country. Heading away from the main arterial, the foot traffic thins out a bit, […]
After a disturbed night lying in a bed of sweat trying to get some shuteye in Miandrivazo, Madagascar’s hottest location, deep in the interior, but not high enough to mitigate the oppressive heat that sends the locals scurrying into the shade for a good part of the day, it is dawn at last. All the […]
We’re down at Morondava. We’ve come down from the 1400 metres of Madagascar’s central highland and tonight are on the west coast at Morondava. It’s a hell of a lot hotter and we’ve sweated to get here – all to arrive at the world famous “Avenue of the Baobabs” – those crazy trees that look […]
As Smokie’s song “Living Next Door to Alice” goes, any lass with that name can surprise you. 160 kms south of Antananivro is Antsribe, a spa town the Norwegians “discovered”. But we’re not too caring about that, just getting used to these bikes and navigating the outskirts of Madagascar’s capital so we can get to […]
Flying across Madagascar I feel already I’ve been conned – the landscape is parched and treeless, with each valley heavily terraced and the sure signs of rice paddies a giveaway to what’s happening below. As we are on final approach into Antananivro airport we see our first tarsealed road but no vehicles. Thoughts of the […]
