We arrived in Lima late in the day, about 6PM or so. We were coming from Cañón del Pato, and were dirty, tired and dreaming of a hot shower. A few days earlier, our new friend Dean, a Texan who’s…
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Thursday, 31 October 2013
Lima, or a bad start with a good ending
We arrived in Lima late in the day, about 6PM or so. We were coming from Cañón del Pato, and were dirty, tired and dreaming of a hot shower. A few days earlier, our new friend Dean, a Texan who’s…
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Last Stop Angkor Wat
“It is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all of the refinements which the human genius can conceive of.” -Antonio de Madalena, 1586...
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31st October, Opuwo, Namibia
I’m once again trying to write an entertaining blog post beneath the distracting cacophony of chirrups and tweets of the various beautiful birds fluttering around me. Needless to say we have now reached our penultimate country, Namibia, and as we expected, it is hot and a little less...
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Azeitão – Friends on the Road, Portugal 9/13
After a final look at Lisbon from the viewing area at the Christ monument, we headed south to the small community of Azeitão. Soares Periquito had seen my name in Overlander’s Handbook I had contributed to and had been following our blogs for over a year. He had repeatedly invited...
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Slowing down..
It looks like the heat, the beaches, the good food and the friendly people of Mexico have taught us a valuable lesson. The lesson that it is not the finish line that is important, but the journey itself. In the first seven months of our trip we drove almost 35.000 kilometers. Driving to Ushaia...
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Big trees and great friends
After our mad dash through Oregon we spent a day exploring Redwoods National Park in Northern California. I remember going there when I was little and I wondered if the trees would look as huge to me as they did when I was 10. They did! We stayed in the campground that was spread out...
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Pismo Beach
”There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.” – William Butler Yeats Pismo Beach was another town we almost didn’t stop in, but were so glad that we did! […]
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Ecuador 5 – Quito
22nd September – We arrive in Quito in good time to find somewhere to stay with secure parking. We try Hotel Inca suggested by another traveler but the dark and drab exterior continues inside…..like entering an Inca tomb. We are … Continue reading →
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Corrugations to Queensland
We were really happy, when we were finally back on the road when we had waited for our motorcycles for such a long time in Darwin. After a short detour through the Kakadu National Park, we went east on the corrugated dirt roads of the Savannah Way to Queensland – right through the famous...
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Riding the Pamir Highway – The Wakhan Valley – from Langar to Khorog
It was a struggle leaving Langar. After a night in a bed (=mattress on floor), I was more tired than usual. Not much energy either (soup and bread for dinner is not enough calories for a cycle-tourer, even after you wake in the night and eat a Snickers bar). So I lingered over breakfast and [...]
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Finally, a plan…
Okay, not so much a plan, but at least a step. We had a clear realization some time ago that there are two ways to tackle this financial problem that we’re all facing. The most common approach is to adopt the philosophy we’ve all been force-fed since youth. Get a...
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Eating and drinking our way through Oregon
Let me start out by saying I fell in LOVE with Oregon. Having not been there since I was a little girl my memories were of foggy beaches and sand dunes (well and The Goonies…). Now they are of craft beer, vineyards, waterfalls off sheer rock faces, epic food, stunning beaches and river...
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Northern Peru
We have made really quick tracks across northern Peru to arrive in Lima two nights ago. The drive from Huanchaco on the coast to the capital was still filled with a lot of desert and shantytowns, but also mountains and…
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Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Riding the Pamir Highway – Into Wakhan Valley – Murghab to Langar
I woke up in my dim unlit room in Murghab, went to the window and pulled back the curtains. White light blinded me. I blinked and rubbed my eyes and pressed my face to the window and watched my breath steam up the glass. Beyond, snow was falling gently and the world outside was all [...]
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American Adventurist – SoCal Mountain Rendezvous
“I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.” – Steve McQueen We planned on meeting up with Song of the Road in […]
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Lisbon #2, Portugal 9/13
I guess there’s no rest for the weary tourist. Our campsite on the dock near the Belém Ferry Terminal was only a few blocks from the National Carriage Museum. Our friend, Rod Hall, the notorious Class 4 Off-Road and now Production Class Race Driver, had recommended it. The Carriage...
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The push to California
When we were planning this trip, I had envisioned spending weeks in Washington kayaking the San Juan Islands and hiking in Cascade National Park. But the reality was that if we did not speed up our pace, we would end up spending 3-4 months in North America where we were over budget almost every...
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Monday, 28 October 2013
Through Heat and Broken Heart
The staff at Hotel Termas Marinas El Palasiet are excellent and the manager, Joaquin Farnos, is wonderfully friendly. We’re not sure if a security camera picked up the F650′s headstand in the parking lot, but shortly after we settle in the phone rings and on the other end...
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Overdosing on superlatives
La Paz, Bolivia by Paula We’ve been over-doing things recently, in the best possible way. What with our marathon journey south to meet my family – the Jollys – in Chile, and the ensuing five weeks of astounding sightseeing, travelling and general Jollity, we’re all out of...
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A Place of Dry Water
Africa, a continent of magic. Often referred to as the “Birthplace of Humanity”, it is a land that has drawn me back again and again. Of the many fascinating regions of this vast continent, one of the most compelling is … Continue reading →
A Place of Dry Water is a post...
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Monterey and Big Sur – Racetracks and Organic Farms
After the mountains of Yosemite it was time for us to head back to the coast. We put in a moderately long day of driving and ended up in […]
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Riding the Pamir Highway – The Cold Way – Sary Tash to Murghab
My legs and busting lungs screamed for a day off in Sary Tash (that’s what you get when you sit on a horse for a month). But the clear skies were too good to spend indoors. You never know when the winds will change and blow a dastardly-blizzardy-storm your way. When I finally decided I [...]
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Seasons change
Oh how time flies… We tried to take some time to relax and enjoy ourselves after the big push to open the gallery at the beginning of the month, but in reality the month has just flown by in front of our eyes. And with it, fall seems to have …
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One Dolla Chia
In Cambodia’s west-central jungles lie the ruins of an ancient Khmer kingdom, at the center of which sits the impressive site of Angkor Wat. There are innumerable ruins of palaces, temples, and royal buildings immediately surrounding Angkor Wat, but it was an outpost an hour off to the...
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Toll roads Mexico
As we said it before, the weight and slow steering of Panda are not made for cities. Which is why we decided to drive mainly on the tollroads in Mexico, especially around the large cities in the center of the mainland. We took the tollroads from Mazatlan to Tepic, and then from Morelia to...
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How To: GPS Mapping
In 2008, we were in Paris, France attending Blizzard Entertainment’s World Wide Invitational. After the event, we rented a car to tour southern Spain. A few days before we left for Spain, we were in a giant electronics store, where we saw several Garmin GPS units. They...
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Bikeless in Miami
Friday we rode the last 3 miles from our hotel to the shipping agents, after a couple of hours sorting out the paperwork we said goodbye to or bikes and to most of our stuff. We then got a taxi to the nearest shopping mall to buy some civilian clothes …
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Sunday, 27 October 2013
Ecuador 4 – The Oriente – Puyo, Tena, Misahualli, San Rafael Falls, Volcan Reventador and Papallacta.
18th September – We leave Pequeno Paraiso today and would really recommend this friendly and relaxing place to other overland travellers. We go east from Banos, descending slowly through a lush landscape and the Rio Pastaza canyon to Puyo at … Continue reading →
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Along Lake Kariba
October 7-12, 2013 Our next major stop was Mana Pools, another of Zimbabwe’s national parks. The most common descriptors applied to Mana are ‘wild’ and ‘the real bush’, which means that campsites are not fenced and common sense is not enforced. You can leap out of...
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Namibian Nomads
Our arrival in Namibia was inauspicious. Having taken the off road track from near Gunmare in Botswana (quite a bold move in wet season), we bumped and swerved our way to the small shack which marked the border. A brief view of register revealed no Bri…
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Santa Marta
Next we really wanted to visit Santa Marta, because of its historic significance. It was founded in 1525 by a Spanish conquistador, and it is the oldest existing city in Colombia and it was the first Spanish settlement in Colombia, … Continue reading →
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Lisbon #1, Portugal 9/13
Leaving Cabo da Roca, we headed west to Lisbon, the Capital of Portugal. With a population of 580,000, this City has endured numerous Kings & Rulers battling it out over whose God or Prophet or Savior was the best. The kings were raking in the gold and other treasures from the many...
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Saturday, 26 October 2013
Our Escape From Cartagena, Colombia
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The peep-hole in the door of our hotel room wasn’t especially usefulAfter 7 days cooped up in our air-conditioned hotel room, eating homemade microwave quiche for dinner and drinking way too much aguardiente, we finally got the truck from the port and …
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Friday, 25 October 2013
The land of a thousand hills
Day: 193 KLMS: 29,601 In the last week we have experienced the most intense emotions from the opposite ends of the scale. From the heart-wrenching stories of the Rwandan genocide to the exhilaration of coming face to face with the mountain gorillas of Uganda, It’s been one hell of a week....
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Yosemite National Park is Epic
After a great day scoping out San Francisco, we figured it would be a good idea to head out to Yosemite (remember, that random guy told us the National Parks […]
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The Devil Drives a Corolla
As we drove off the scales I could see it…real roads! I could almost taste that sweet dirty pavement. Just one last person/police officer to…
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Time for R&R
While we were in Augrabies, we realised that we were both exhausted. Physically exhausted and mentally exhausted. We had planned to continue onto a 4 days offroad trail along the Orange River, but when the reports we read talked about corrugations on the roads (just had 4 days of that in...
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SYRIA part II
On the border Decision had been made – we decided to cross Syria via Kasab. The first thing we heard from the first guy we met on the Syrian border was: “Welcome to Syria and ohhh…. how do they say..God bless you”… The welcome part was not really...
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Securing the Rig – Part 2
As mentioned in my earlier post, Securing the Rig (where I talked about window security film), we did a couple other things to help improve the security of our vehicle. Reading other travel blogs, we found that a common way to gain entry is the feared “screw driver attack.”...
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San Francisco in 6 Hours for $13.98
It’s probably obvious that we’re on a budget. We also want to experience as much as we can on this said budget. This is how we did it in San […]
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Ecuador 3 – The Central Highlands – Riobamba, Parque Nacional Sangay, Banos, Ambato and Reserva Faunistica Chimborazo.
9th September – In Riobamba, Hostal Oasis allows us secure parking in their garden area but not camping, so we take a room. We drive to Parque Nacional Sangay, another wonderful, remote wilderness containing 3 of Ecuador’s mighty volcanoes – … Continue reading →
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Druk druk druk in Afrika
‘Happy birthday to you’-zingend komt de hele keukenploeg met een taart vol kaarsjes aanlopen. Het opschrift is bijna goed doorgekomen, op een r na: ‘Hiepedepiep Felice 3 jaar.’ Het is dierendag, 4 oktober, en Felice zit helemaal te glunderen in … Lees verder →
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Osh and Up to the Roof of the World in Photos
Having lingered long enough in Bishkek while arranging onward visas, I took a bus straight to Osh. From there, it would be back on the bike. In at the deep end – unfit after a 6-week break while horse-riding, I knew the legs would suffer with the endless uphill towards the Pamir Mountains,...
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