The new and updated route
So the route for our world-tour project has been changed. Why? Well, Hotstuff got her license, but it was a bit later than we had anticipated, mostly due to the horrible quality of her first school, and the long time it took to find a vacant spot in another. This did a few not wonderful things to our timeline, and subsequently Hotstuff never got in the training on city streets and gravelcource that we both agreed was needed.
Plains of Mongolia
One thing is just driving through Russia and surviving Mongolia .. funny how easy that sentence rolls out so easily..”just driving through Russia…”..another thing is enjoying the ride and the vastness that is mongolia. Very close to no infrastructure or roads. The ultimate adventure… Well, one day shortly after Hotstuff got her license she said jokingly “maybe we should just drive al over Europe instead of Russia and Mongolia? And then straight over to the Americas? And then we can do Russian and Mongolia the first summer after we return from our trip.. I thought about that for about 4 seconds. It made perfect sence. A little reseach and a new route was in place. Check it out below, map by map, month by month. Clicking on the maps brings up more detail. Try it 🙂
August 2014
August 2014
The adventure starts august 1st 2014, instead of mid june same year. By pushing the departure date by around 6 weeks we can focus on the wedding-aftermath, and not have to organize both the wedding and a 14 + month trip all at the same time. We’ll start in Stavanger and travel east towards Kolsrud in Sigdal, where we hope to revisit my Kolsrud farm and meet up with some great people. Thereafter we aim for Sweeden, and hopefully a new gravel cource for both Hotstuff and myself. From there we’ll swing by Denmark, and on to Hamburg, Germany for some lastminute but critical gear shopping. Other must-see places in Germay is Villa Lövenherz MC hotel, my home away from home (I wish) and Schwartswald. The last days of August will be spent in Split, Croatia.
Estimated traveldistance for August 2014 is 3550 km. You know it’ll get higher ’cause I always get a little lost. But that’s the name of the game. Coincidently also the name of the blog 😉
September 2014
September 2014
September 2014, we aim to take some kind of ferry from Split over to Ancona, Italy, and then travel the east coast of Italy, and again on a ferry over to Greece. After spending around 10 days in Greece we’ll head back to Italy via the same ferry, and ride the west-coast up to Rome, and then on to Genova.
Estimated traveldistance for September 2014 is 3500 km.
October 2014
October 2014
October will take us from Genova, Italy, to Malaga and Gibraltar in Spain. We’ll zig-zag through the alps and slowly make our way south-west. The distance traveled this month will not be significant, with goood reason. Sometime this month in Spain we have to get both bikes overhauled for the South and Middle America part of this trip. We also have to get tire-changes. I’ll order the tires sometime in September to be delivered to a predefined adress in Spain, and then change them myself. We also plan to do a significant amount of offroad playing and training in a area relatively close to Malaga. The better prepared we are for the Americas part, the more enjoyable and safer the trip will be. In October we also have to arrange for transport from Malaga, Spain, or Lisboa, Portugal,- and over to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We hope for cargo shipping, hopefully with us as passengers. The alternative is air freight. Faster but more expencive. And monkeys. Gotta visit the monkeys in Gibraltar 😀
Estimated traveldistance for October 2014 is 2700 km.
November & December 2014
Novermber & December 2014
South America. Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. Depending on transport from Spain, we’ll have somewhere between 5 and 8 weeks for this strech, Very excited. Hotstuff hates spiders, and Google claims that there are a few here. Google is clearly wrong. Move along, there is nothing to see here… On our trip south we hope to reach Cape Horn. Weather, mostly temprature, may be hard to deal with. On the other hand, we’re Norwegians. Last I rode to work on my F800GS themprature was around 5 deg. C. Can’t get much worse can it? Even though it is almost spitting distance to the South pole. If we dont get abducted by Penguins at Cape Horn, we’ll travel North on the west coast in Chile towards Bolivia. So, celebrating X-mas in Chile I suspect.
Estimated traveldistance for November and Desember will totalt minimum 8000 km.
January 2015
January 2015
In Bolivia we’re hoping to find a safe haven with friends that have emigrated & repatriated to Bolivia, La Paz. This will aslo be a logical place to have the bikes serviced and also plan the route ahead in some more detail. We’ll stay way clear of Colombia, and we need to get to Panama City. Only problem is that unless you are a native jungle-dweller or Bear Grylls there is just no way to pass through the Darién Gap. So we’ll ride to Esmeraldas, Ecuador and get on a boat for Panama City.
Estimated traveldistance for January 2015 is 3400 km.
February 2015
February 2015
February will take us mostly along the Pan American Highway through Central America. We’ll visit all the small countries that very few people have heard of, and even fewer have been to. There are some skepticism in planning HQ regarding Mexico, so we will find some kind of transport, by sea or by land, from Belize to Miami, FL, USA.
Estimated traveldistance for February 2015 is 3700 km.
March 2015
March 2015
March we’ll ride along the Gulf Coast from Miami, through the Everglades, and head up to Dallas, TX for another safe haven and a serious bike overhaul. The punishment the bikes will have recieved at this point means that well to everything from oilchange to break pads and everything in between. March still may give us some winter-surpises. So we’ll stay in Dallas waiting a littlebit for the weather. This will by far be the shortest strech, but we’ll hopefully make the most of it barring icy roads, and enjoy the South Texas backcountry.
Estimated traveldistance for March 2015 is 225000 km.
April & May 2015
April & May 2015
April and May 2015 we’ll head to LA on the west coast, and from there head north on the very famous HighWay 1 up to Sanfransisco. From there we’ll og incountry to the Nevada Saltflats. There will be no land speed record attempt, but I am very curious of the wide open flats. From there we’ll head North to Seattle. We plan on two monts to account for King Winter to withdraw.
Estimated traveldistance for April & May 2015 is 6500 m.
June 2015
June 2015
June takes us north up up and away to Inuvik in the very north of Canada. We’ll travel on the infamous Dempster Highway, wich is more of a very long gravel trek. Oh be still my heart! Due to the cold Canadian weather (at least waaay up north) we plan to arrive at Inuvuk at the very end of June.
Estimated traveldistance for June 2015 is 3900 km.
July 2015
July 2015
July we’ll head back South. Mostly ’cause there’s no more going north. End of the line as they say. The Dempster HW is the only road for a while, but we’ll head south-east through Edmonton, Calgary into the US again towards Montana. Highlights of this strech is amongst others, (but without forgetting Dempster HW going South) Waterton Lakes nasjonalpark and the Princ of Wales Hotel (Canada), and Great Falls Montana- (USA).
Estimated traveldistance for July 2015 is 4100 km.
August 2015
August 2015
August is the final strech. We are turning our front-wheels towards home. But, going there will take us through som amazing places. Amongst these Chicago, Washington D.C. and finally New York. From NY we’ll find transportation be it by air or by sea back to Europe, and then finally Norway.
Estimated traveldistance for August 2015 is 3700 km.
July and August 2016
July & August 2016
MONGOLIA, – Another adventure, but not too far in the future I think 😉
Maybe one day..
Maybe one day, when all my other adventures are done?
Long overdue post – Hotstuff got her MC license!
Oh my, this is long over due!
Mid october was a milestone for the world-traveling Project. Hotstuff aka Tonje finally got her motorcycle license! Woho!
Those of you who have followed this blog know that we had a fantastic 14 day motorcycle trip in late august / early september. With no license we drove around with huge L signs stiched to our yellow reflective outer vests, helmet intercoms and each our bike. Yes, Hotstuff did buy hers at the same time I got mine in may 2013. 🙂 5 months later she had license in hand.
The process was a long and drawnout thing, much to be blamed on the fairly inept and uninspired first driving school. And switching Schools mid-season is not very easy due to lack of local qualified teachers. Some time early next year she and I will post a proper blog regarding the school that actually worked, but for now, thank you so much Peder at Skagen Trafikkskole, Stavanger. We are greatly impressed with the level of service, professionalism and standard! Lucky are those that choose, and can find a vacant spot, for their MC licence at this school 🙂
Imagine the happiness of actually stripping the L-sign from our driving gear and then hitting the streets! 😀
Fall has been very busy, almost too much so. But now things are back to normal, and more frequent post will be forthcoming. Some about new mechanical dispositions and a bit trial and error, but also an important update on some major route-changes.
Stay tuned.
Ride what little there is left of the season and be safe.
Gorilladays 