Thursday, 28 February 2013

Estali to Matagalpa Nicaragua

Thanks to some local advice from Salvador who lives in Managua, but is currently riding from Cape Town to Egypt we headed off on the back roads thru the mountains to San Rafael del Norte, Jinotega, and to Matagalpa. This is a not to be missed ride...

Searching for Little Cowboy Gil

In Ecuador I bought a painting.  It was a messy chaotic scene.


what would you do if you couldn’t fail?

What would you do if money were no object?  How would you really like to spend your life?  What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?  I awoke the other morning to a video link that someone had sent me that really...

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Crossing the Canada – US border with a dog..

Today we crossed the border to the US with Dunya. We decided to cross the border at Niagara Falls. Firstly, because we also really wanted to see the Niagara Falls, but also because friends said that this might be a very easy border crossing becaus...

Leon Estali Nicaragua

Leon Nicaragua is just a short drive away for us since we needed to stop short last night with the dark and poor road conditions. We spent a few days there so we checked into a hostel and had a Tona to beat the heat. After two weeks in the company...

Return to Abbysinia

Bulletin: We have finally decided upon a name for our Land Rover. Tess, short for Temeraire. Named after the Turner painting of the old warship being dragged in for scrap at the end of its days, temeraire (where we get the word temerarious...

The Carretera Austral-Part 1

The Carretera Austral is a true overlanders dream; over 1200 kilometers (over 700 miles) of dirt road running through Chile’s southern region, where the land breaks off into hundreds of fjords and tiny islands, connecting Chile’s remotest region w...

Djemaa el Fna

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Baja California - beautiful but a bit brrrrr! — La Paz, Mexico




Antarctica Day 2: Half Moon and Deception Islands

Penguins and ice on Half Moon Island.


Start: Feb...

Adios Huanchaco!

One of my main goals before we left our apartmen...

La Carretera Austral, Chile

Nicaragua - Vulkane, Krater und Seen


Monday, 25 February 2013

Steak and naps

Entering Argentina has been an abrupt change. Toilets are somewhat reliably flushing. for the most part, power outlets work (though they annoyingly have different fittings). It is a very precious thing to go from a country with fewer amenities to ...

Laos – the north – heaven for motorcyclists

All Work and No Play

As the old proverb goes “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” (James Howell’s Proverbs in English, Italian, French and Spanish (1659)) It i...

Amazing Hartman’s Valley

If we thought it couldn’t get any better we came across the Hartman’s Valley. ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!

 

Hartmans Valley....need we say mor...
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Oaxaca workshop

We spent the week in Oaxaca de Juárez, usually known simply as Oaxaca. The city is quite nice, with lots of public space in the historic center, beautiful churches made of this distinctive green-tinged brick, and one of the most active zócalos we’ve ...

Antarctica: Almirante Brown Orne Island

Almirante View

Two Borders One Day

Sadly we had to leave our “home” in Salvador, because Fernandita we have to head south again. We left early for the border, but the lure of “the new road” led us off track for an epic ride thru the hills and left us 90 min behind schedule on our d...

Paved with Good Intentions

I realize that I talk about roads a lot in our blog, but when half our time is spent driving transporting our home from location to location, roads become a very important part of our everyday life.  Since leaving Alaska, …

Antarctica: Pleneau Island Torgersen Island

Striations in the Ice

Sunday, 24 February 2013

Too Much Fun in El Salvador

Now finally a trip to the beach. We spent an amazing day north of El Zonte. We had a cabana for shade. The sea here is like bath water. We enjoyed ceviche and sopa de mariscos. We also tried an El Salvador treat cheese puffs and salsa. There were...

Heli-Hiking Franz Josef Glacier – a Must Do!

As we worked our way from the East coast of South Island New Zealand to the West coast, our thoughts were on one thing. Getting to Franz Josef to do some heli-hiking on the Glacier. Check one off the bucket list.

FINLAND.......Pt III

 















Costa Rica

(By Alex, with Nattie’s help to wrap it up.  WARNING: LONG READ)


The solidly branded and well-oiled tourism machine that is Costa Rica astounds with its natural beauty, annoys with its good manners and impresses with its fine-tuned business...

Motorcycle Adventure; reflections of life on the road

If you’ve never had the opportunity to take career break and experience life on the road, it’s difficult to explain how it feels.  How do you put into words a motorcycle adven...

Friendly Oto-men

Tuesday 11th to Wednesday 12th December 2012.


<...

Mabrouk* to Morocco

Maintaining the Sanity

The Cordillera Blanca is the highest mountain range outside of the Himalayas.  There are 16 peaks over 6000 meters including Peru’s highest, the mighty Hauscaràn.  Seeing as we like to hit the trail as often as possible we had looked forward to th...

Antarctica: Peltier Channel Port Lockroy

After getting back from our night out camping we were pretty glad that the morning excursion was put back to a very sociable 11am. This gave us some time to relax and catch up on our sleep.


Saturday, 23 February 2013

Behind the scenes

During the trip we received a lot of questions through the site on the detail of the organisation of the trip.  How did we handle visas?  Detail of the car, which gear, how did we choose our route, and so on.  To keep the blog interesting to most,...

El Chalten – More early mornings!

El  Chalten with its rugged Andean setting  really is the trekking capital of Patagonia.  It is situated within Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and is a superb place to explore.  It only has roughly 500 permanent residents and during the summer months ...

Marienfluss Valley

Well we thought this was pretty spectacular!!!

 

Marienfluss Valley.....

Wasting time…

We just passed our 20 day mark outside the bus since dropping it off at the mechanic.  Not exactly what we planned when we packed the trader joe’s bag for a weekend trip, but we’re making it work.  We’ve now been in 4 d...

Landed in Montreal..

We landed in Montreal! The flight with Dunya was incredibly easy and also the arrival in Montreal was very smooth. We just had to go through declarations because of the dog and had to pay a few dollars for her to be accepted in Canada. All we need...

Etosha

As I said we have seen some pretty darm impressive game in Africa thus far, but we knew we were at Etosha out of season and the game would be very spread out. We still saw A male Lion and two Lionesses digging into a Gemsbok right on the side of the ...

The Dreaded Van Zyl’s Pass

After much planning we finally went down it. 3.5 Hours later and 11km down we were at the bottom

 

IMG_0247

Honduras in 5 hours and 10 minutes

image

Back to School

After recovering from being sick and crazy tuk tuk rid...

Seventh Continent Here we Come

A chinstrap penguin.Start: January 30, Ushuaia, Argentina
Finish:

Viva La Republica De El Salavdore

image

The Long and Dusty Road

Four months was always an ambitious timetable for a trip as long as ours, and with a bit too much fun, and a bit too much customs admin behind us, we were sitting a bit too far north with a bit...

Ugandan Discussions


The officials on the border gave us a pretty easy ride into Uganda (each border seems to have got easier as we’ve headed further south) and didn’t even bother to lo...

Short stop in Rwanda


We’d heard that everyone in Rwanda is terribly polite and this proved to be the case.  The first people we met after the border were these lovely students who came ...

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia

Awassa - Ethiopia

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Ups and downs

Sogamoso, Colombia

As we came over the mountain pass we just couldn’t believe...

Corridinha estilo Rocky na Filadélfia

Você pode não ser o fã número 1 de Hollywood mas já se imaginou dentro de uma cena qualquer, de um filme qualquer. Seja com um carro veloz e furioso ou com uma carta  que termina com P.S. Eu te amo.  E quando falamos de Filadélfia, ...

Epupa Falls

Stunning Epupa falls…..this should be on every itinerary!!!

Epupa Falls

Camping Marinero’s web site

We stayed several days in this spot in Puerto Escondido. We liked the place a lot, very simple, super close to the beach, and cheap. I actually liked it so much that I offered Victor, the owner, to make a website for him. And here it is:

Glacier Perito Moreno

In the southern sector of this great Parque Nacional Los Glaciers is the spectacular sight of Glaciar Perito Moreno. It really is a white giant with its 5 kilometre front which rises 60 metres above the water .

San Francisco

As our departure date gets closer, we made a quick trip to San Francisco to pick up Gary’s special 6-month visa for the EU/Schengen countries at the Swiss Consulate. It has been our tradition, whenever we go to San Francisco, to buy a fresh crab at F...

One Gigantic Circle

We are back in Montevideo after almost 5 months and 20 000kms. We are staying at the same hostel, Impecable, and I remember the last time I sat in the seat. We were waiting for the Land Rover to arrive and I was nervous, excited and slightly hung ove...

Joya de Ceren

We visited the Joya de Cera archeological site. It is known as the Pompeii of Central America. The site was covered in volcanic mud and ash at least 14 times, beginning around 260 A.D, with the last recorded around 600 A.D. It was discovered by ac...

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

” UnBelizeable ! “

After driving thousands of miles through Mexico on both coast and through the middle of the county we were excited to get into out first Central American country, Belize.  After checking out of Mexico and crossing the bridge into Belize we felt a ...

El Tunco Finca Lecha

Hearing that there were some German riders in El Tunco we all went out to meet Katja and Jens. It was great to hear some of their stories from the last 2 years. We enjoyed a few beers and some oysters at sunset. When we got “home” Fernanda had mad...

For Sale: 1997 Toyota 4Runner in Buenos Aires


1997 4 runner 4 sale

Sad News

Monday, 18 February 2013

Honduras to Nicaragua

Buenas dias amigos! Greetings from the Pacific rim of fire in Nicaragua, where sticky rice comes wrapped in banana leaves and quality rum costs $5 a litre. We are currently resting our bones in Casa de Olas (House of Waves), a hostel at San Juan Del ...

Colored Pollitos to Bubbling Water

Los Baños del Inca

We started our day in Cajamarca in the same way Inca emperor Atahualpa did nearly 500 years earlier – in the soothing waters of the natural thermal springs that grace this area of the Northern Peruvian highlands.  Known today as Los Baños del Inca...

FINLAND.......Pt II.

Dear Santa....






Puerto Vallarta – Almost Like Coming Home

Some places call to you, fill a place in your soul, and make you feel like you’ve come home; sometimes even if it’s the first time you’ve been there. I’ve had several of those experiences over the years; Vernazza, Italy on the Cinque Terre, Istanbul,...

Sunday, 17 February 2013

El Salvador/Honduras - Alles halb so wild


Putt.. Putt… Putting North

Heading North from Dar, the PPE made light work of the well travelled and nicely tarred Dar-Arusha road. Although we had planned on staying further up the Swahili coast at Pangani, we settled on Lushoto, in the

Friday, 15 February 2013

A Milestone Day

Today was big for three reasons:



  1. We went as far south as we are going to for the trip.  We have now turned around and are heading north again.

  2. We simply had a very special day riding

  3. We did full on legitimate lane sp...

A Milestone Day

Today was big for three reasons:



  1. We went as far south as we are going to for the trip.  We have now turned around and are heading north again.

  2. We simply had a very special day riding

  3. We did full on legitimate lane sp...

stop the madness…

Things are getting a bit out of control.  We should really get better at twiddling our fingers and sitting quietly.  Maybe we should watch more movies to keep from talking or play more cribbage.  Sadly, we didn’t pack t...

Chile Wifi Phone Report: Not Too Shabby

Chile Service ProvidersThis article is part of our

Scarecrow Farm

After leaving El Molino in Puerto Octay we thought we would be at Rancho Espantapajaros farm and restaurant for a couple of days to finalising fixing the clutch before heading south to at least our second antipodean point before the month was out....

Driving to the top of the volcano

Mario, Daniel, Orvar, and I rode up to the San Salvador volcano. Mario is pointing to the crater he has at his coffee finca on the slopes of the volcano. We hiked to the crater rim in the Parque Nacional El Boqueron. The crater is very steep and t...

The Guifiti Challenge

The bottle looked innocent enough, merely herbs floating in a clear liquid.  Taking four shots in a row should be as easy.  Not easy when the four shots are part of the Guifiti Challenge at the Skid Row Bar. Guifiti …

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Uncovering Dakar

Hotel SouSoum, Dakar


After the tranquillity of Djidjack, Dakar was bound to be a bit of a culture shock.  In fact, it wasn’t that bad.  Once we tuned in to its own unique rhythm, it ...

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Chile Budget Recap

This article is part of our Budget an...

Looking ahead

Our quick 4 day trip north to explore while our bus got a quick four day head retooling has turned out slightly different than we had imagined it.  


Our four days has already become 10 and we know we wont see the...

Looking ahead

Our quick 4 day trip north to explore while our bus got a quick four day head retooling has turned out slightly different than we had imagined it.  


Our four days has already become 10 and we know we wont see the...

Looking ahead

Our quick 4 day trip north to explore while our bus got a quick four day head retooling has turned out slightly different than we had imagined it.  


Our four days has already become 10 and we know we wont see the...

Looking ahead

Our quick 4 day trip north to explore while our bus got a quick four day head retooling has turned out slightly different than we had imagined it.  


Our four days has already become 10 and we know we wont see the...

Honesty and Integrity (of doors)

Rudely awakened by the burning sun, we pressed on. We watched the kilometres slide past, the landscape intermittently punctuated by ancient pyramids. Even with a solid road it took three full days to cross the desert, North to South. We arrived in...

5 Things I Look Forward To In The US…

I had never really thought of going on holiday in the US. Somehow it always felt that the US was not exotic enough for a vacation. Now that we are actually going there and even spending several months, there are of course many things I look forwar...

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

There we were… back in Nam

Having left Botswana on such a high, it would certainly be hard for Etosha to try and beat it. However we always know that kind of attitude will always create disappointment.

Having arrived in Namibia certainly feels very different in terms of Afr...

Motorider Touratech El Salvador

We had a great experience at Motorider in San Salvador. Mario Lecha has an amazing shop and team of mechanics. They fit us in at very short notice even though the shop was very busy. He also had the synthetic oil Daniel wanted and that we had been...

Ready for Battle


The Masai warriors of south western Kenya are famous for their ability to go from a deep sleep to battle ready in a matter of seconds. Since this is a trait I am always claiming I share with the Masai, it was pretty essen...

Apsunga and Ilopongo

We were down and out for a few days with 1 sick team member, but now we are back to full force. We spent 2 days at a nice hotel in Santa Ana while Daniel was ill. We planned to meet up with Mario and the other riders from the Touratech rally at Ap...

FOR SALE – BMW R1150GS ADVENTURE (2003/04)

The classic GSA.


Great looking bike in average condition.


Partial Service History, Silver, 2 months Mot, 2 months Tax. Brand new rear tyre. New rear top box. Various touratech extras. Comes with black BMW touring panniers. Has marks ...

Delivery of Panda to port of Antwerp..

Last week we delivered Panda to the port of Antwerp in order to be shipped to Baltimore. It was a very easy and straightforward process.


We followed the instructions given by Seabridge. The vehicle ha...

Antarctica: Camping on the Continent

One of the optional extras on our Antarctic adventure was to spend a night camping on the mainland of the Antarctic continent. We couldn’t pass this up, even if Sarah had reservations of how cold it might be.


We had a choice of whether to c...

Monday, 11 February 2013

12 days in Torres del Paine National Park.

Well the long awaited visit to Torres del Paine National Park had arrived and let me tell you it didn’t disappoint. What a wonderful park to visit for mainly scenery but also for wildlife such as guanacos, huemules, foxes, condors, flamingoes, swans,...

The beach

Some photos from the beach in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.

FINLAND..........Pt I.

WARNING!!.

Heading for the El Salvador Border

Setting out from Antigua at 11 am Daniel, Orvar, and I rode thru the capital towards Cuilapa and south to the border town of Pedro de Alvarado. On the way we were stopped waiting almost an hour at a construction zone. We met a nice couple Shimon a...

Chile to Argentina at Chile Chico: Border Crossing

chile-argentina-flagThis article is part of our

Chile to Argentina at San Sebastian: Border Crossing

chile-argentina-flag


This article is part of our

Argentina to Chile at Avanzada Monte Aymond: Border Crossing

argentina-chile-flag


This article is part of our

Antarctica: Half Moon Island and Deception Island

Antarctic mountains

Antarctica: Boarding, Sailing and The Great Wall

We had arranged to travel  to Antarctica on an 11 day trip (that gives 5 days in Antarctica) booked with Quark Expeditions on the ship Sea Spirit. In order to book it we had contacted Daniela at Ushuaia Tourismo (

Sprint to the End of the World

Ever since the start of the trip we’ve been undecided about whether to go to Antarctica or not. The heart said yes but the head said it was a lot of money. Well when we were in El Calafate a fellow overlander, Mike the Biker, who had just got back...

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Merhaba

Saturday 8th to Monday 10th December 201...

People of the Clouds

The persistent fog was all around us.  It had completely enveloped the mountain landscape, stealthily hiding the thousand-foot sheer drops and allowing our location on this craggy peak to be forgotten.  Originally we were hoping for the dense clou...

Friday, 8 February 2013

Karma comes first

We went into this week with a simple master plan.  It was foolproof, except for all the ways we could see it going wrong.


We would drop the bus off at the mechanic and head north a bit to explore an area that we ...

Yucatan and Chiapas — San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico




Bolivia

Right from our very first day in Bolivia, there were many surprises. Our lack of research strikes again. We crossed the border from Puno near Copacabana on the edge of Lago Titicaca. The Bolivian side of the lake was clean, the water was clear, an...

Road trip to the Quiche

GuateRider organized a road trip from Antigua up to the Quiche area of Guatemala. We had an international team from Guatemala, El Salvador, Germany, Canada, and Australia. We met up with Megan in Antigua riding her Kawasaki from Edmonton. Frank fr...

Southern Peru

Sorry to disappoint everyone, but we didn’t go to Machu Picchu. If we were to have gone there, it might look something like

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Hostels Rock

Many of you reading this are over the age of 27. Why is this important you ask, well of late Gaila and I have been trying hostels to save money. I think the average age is about 22 to 25 but who knows. Haven’t really asked, just observing. But...

A Traveler’s Fantasy

Most long term travelers have in the back of their minds a fantasy of a place that they imagine they could find themselves getting stuck in.  These fantasy scenarios often include opening up a hostel or some other small business to sustain a lifes...

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Huatulco, Oaxaca

Oh what a difference 50km makes…  We have been touring the beaches of Oaxaca and loved every one of them, but as we prepared for our VW work and pending departure from mexico…we saw another side of things.  The bus is n...

A month in Dar.. and counting..

We made a hurried return back to Dar just in time for Christmas.. and lo and behold.. we’re still here. What was meant to be a week in town catching up with friends turned into six. Nevertheless – Christine and I are planning our escape for the en...

Monday, 4 February 2013

Chetumal, Mexico! We can see Belize from our own backyard.

Things were getting pretty excited again as we prepared to make our first border crossing into Central America. Leaving Mexico behind and going to Belize. Checking our paper work, passport, vehicle docs and so on, there was a little anxiety in the...

Tulum, a Mayan city on the Sea.

The Mayan city of  Tulum stands 80 miles south and 700 years away of Cancun. But the contrast between the two can be measured in more than just distance and time. Cancun is a string of large resort hotels which did not exist p...

Sheena in the Sky with Diamonds

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Guatemala - Über Antigua zum Lago Atitlan


Guatever…Don’t believe the hype!

images

Off the beaten path in Cancun.

Yes, there is such a place. Not far away from all the tourist traps, high rise buildings, traffic congestion and cruise port, you’ll find El Meco.


What’s at the end of the Yucatan?

Today I continue to hear the song over and over again in my head, as we left Chichen Itza and headed on over to Cancun. ” On the road again, like a band of Gypsies we go down the highway” I hear it as if Willie Nelson was sitting on my shoulder. T...

The Road to Khartoum

It was with nervous excitement that we made our way from the village of Wadi Halfa, Sudan’s northern frontier town to the port, although we had come to the conclusion that this was a rather grand title for what was in fact a single jetty and crumb...

Back on the Road...

The Highest Honda Cub in the world…. Ever

The Highest Honda Cub in the World.!!! After a 5 day expedition to Ojos de Salado Chile Team Honda Vs The World reaches 5706m!! The under resourced, ill equipped and barely prepared team succeeded in riding, pushing and wrestling the Honda up moun...

Tuk Tuk Extraordinaire

I saw my first tuk tuk in Guatemala, bombing down the ...

Surviving the Holidays Abroad

There’s absolutely nowhere we’d rather be than with our families during the holidays.  One of the hardest times to be away from home for us is the week between Christmas and New Years.  No matter how much fun we’re having, no matter how much of a ...

Land Rover Defender Buying Guide

This is specifically aimed for those buying Land Rover Defenders, but certain points are applicable to other vehicles. It is skewed towards those buying a Defender for an overland expedition, but is applicable to all potential buyers.


Top t...

Choosing Your Overlanding Vehicle

Vehicle selection for overlanding is the biggest decision you will make, bar your route, as it will affect your life every day of your trip. The options are described below.


Toyota Land Cruiser


Hugely widespread in every European/Afr...

Overland Equipment Vehicle Preperation

Knowledge


You don’t need to be a mechanic to go overlanding! However you do need to be vaguely familiar with you vehicle. The most important things are preparation and maintenance.


-          Do as much of the vehicle preparation you...

Saturday, 2 February 2013

The Banana Republic

  Honduras smells like sweet, sugary smoke.  Miles upon miles of banana plantations and sugar cane fields stretch across the eastern Caribbean coast rimmed by mountains densely carpeted with jungle.  Honduras is green.  A haze blankets the fields and...

Inside or outside?

Campement Djidjack, Palmarin, Senegal,


Playa San Augustine, Mexico

We’ve begun (very slowly) moving south again.  And it isn’t a choice we take lightly.  We have spent a lot of time at airports in the last few days, especially for people on a road trip.  Apparently visiting aduana (cus...

Friday, 1 February 2013

Le début de la fin / The beginning of the end

Things Heat Up in Baños

From the jungle we continued west through the town of Baños, a touristy spot where the activities are dune buggy rentals and bungee jumping.  Not necessarily the things we go out of our way to pursue but we had half a day to burn and figured the h...

Chichen Itza !

240

@TEDxBucharest 2012