"So have you got a new job lined up yet?"
"No I'm planning on taking a year out"
"Oh cool what are you doing?"
"I'm going to Australia"
"That's awesome, have you booked your flight yet?"
"No, I'm going to ride there"
"You what!?"
"I'm going to ride there on my bike"
"You realise there's quite a lot of water in the way?"
"Yes I know, I'll put my bike on a ferry"
"Are you crazy?"
"Probably, but life would be boring otherwise..."
I'll be honest I've lost count of the number of times I've had this conversation in the past couple of months. The look on peoples faces when I explain what I'm planning never fails to amuse me. But it also strangely reassures me that I'm doing something right. At the risk of getting all serious and philosophical, life is too short for the mundane and if it doesn't excite you you're wasting your time. "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all"
Once people have got their head around the idea or riding a motorcycle across multiple continents the topic of conversation invariably turns to the route. I've always been a fan of keeping my options open and just going where the road takes me, but in order to actually reach Australia a rough route, taking in some of the things I wanted to see along the way, would be required.
Having already travelled extensively round Europe, and given the relative ease of doing so (insert Brexit joke here...), I decided to take a fairly direct route, South East towards Turkey and the gateway to Asia, across the Bosphorus. However I've always listed the Croatian coastline as one of my favourite places and so a small detour to include this, as well as the Greek mainland (which I have never visited) seemed logical.
From Istanbul I would leave Europe behind and the real adventure would begin! I had hoped to cross Iran, if anything just to prove wrong all the people who told me it was dangerous, but unfortunately it was not to be. Rather inconsiderately someone stole an oil tanker, stirring up political tensions and making it rather tricky to get a visa. Not to mention a ridiculous rule about not allowing bikes over 250cc into the country... An alternative was required and after many hours spent researching and poring over the latest navigational aids (a childrens atlas and google maps) I decided to instead head North, through Georgia and into Azerbaijan.
From here I will cross the Caspian Sea into the land of the Stans! Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are up next before a quick dash across China (much bureaucracy and a requirement for guides makes time spent in China with your own vehicle an expensive endeavour). Heading South I will enter Pakistan before crossing India to Calcutta. Due to more bureaucracy making it very expensive to bring your own vehicle into both Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand I will then ship the bike straight across to Malaysia to explore the many islands of South East Asia. After island hopping my way across Indonesia I will eventually have to cross the big wet bit and will load my bike onto a ferry for the final leg to Darwin, Australia.
The plan once I get there is still very much TBC, but it will almost certainly involve surfing, spiders and a visit to my Auntie Sandy down in Fremantle on the West Coast.
So that's the plan, but as we know, no plan survives first contact, and so this is very much subject to change. If anyone has any recommendations on places to see or even wants me to stop and visit them along the way then please let me know. Just don't tell me not to go somewhere because it's too dangerous, this only encourages me...
See you on the road.
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