Packing!

 It is the evening before the big day, and we’ve struck another headache: packing! We’ve both known that this will be a problem ever since Alessandra asked Heino if she could take her electric shaver for her legs!

Whichever way you look at it, we have a lot of stuff for just one bike. After using our bathroom scale, we realised that the bike with everything will weigh well over 400kg! This is made up of:

Big roll bag with camping stuff and miscellaneous: 20kg

Tank bag with tools: 10kg.

Side bags with clothes: 7 kg each.

Bike with full tank: 217 kg.

Heino: 95kg

Alessandra 55kg

We’ve already decided that once we are in Italy, we will review the luggage situation to evaluate what we can potentially get rid of.

This, of course, includes shedding a few personal kilograms as well!

1 day to go!

After more than two years of planning, the big day is finally here!

Alessandra still has to finish her last day of work, and Heino is running around for yet more “last minute essentials”! All that is left to do is the final checks tonight, load the bike tomorrow morning and around 7am we plan set off for Dover.

We are both a little surprised by the level of nervousness that we have, and it is finally dawning on us that this is much bigger than anything we’ve ever done before! But, we are extremely excited as well and we are also confident that our preparations were adequate.

A big thank you to everybody who left us a message and we hope to hear from you again. We will try our best to update this blog as often as possible!

Thanks to… Nigel.

Also known as: The Boyfriend!

Nigel is a friend of Heino’s from the Gardens Lawn Tennis Club in London, although it was after numerous games of darts that the friendship really blossomed! For those of you that now wonder why he is also known as the Boyfriend, well, after about the third night that Heino decided to rather play darts with Nigel than to spend time with Alessandra, she did start to become rather dubious about the whole situation, and a few accusations later Nigel was renamed to, yes, the Boyfriend!

Heino is greatly indebted to Nigel for kindly sacrificing quite a few nights to help Heino with the trip preparation by playing darts with him. Now, you might ask how on earth is playing darts preparing for an overland trip and here is the explanation:

1. You walk quite a bit playing darts, therefore it makes you quite fit!

2. It strengthens the throttle arm tremendously. Not only throwing the darts, but also lifting 500ml of thirst quenching energy drinks a few hundred times!

3. Darts require immense arithmetic skills. Therefore it was invaluable practice which will be useful when calculating fuel ranges and of course budgets!

Nigel also sacrificed 4 hours of his time on Saturday (whilst Bolton was playing!) to take Heino’s stuff to Dartford, for which we are really grateful!

The first obstacle: A “P” instead of a “D” !!!

Well, we all know that everything can’t always go right!

Upon inspection of our paperwork yesterday (I don’t know how Heino thought of checking this… must be the German blood!), we noticed that the Registration Document for our bike (i.e. the proof that the bike actually belongs to us!) has a different Chassis Number (sort of ID number for the bike) than what is actually on the bike. Yes, it is a P INSTEAD OF A D!

Now, this might not sound like much, but it means that a border official somewhere can accuse us of riding around on a stolen bike, which can result in a hefty fine/bribe, or worse, not being allowed into the country.

To add to this, that was also the number we supplied for our Carnet (passport of the bike), which means that we have two sets of documents that don’t match the number on the bike!

We anticipate that Tunisia and possibly Libya won’t be too much of a problem, but Egypt is renowned for being a nightmare country to take a vehicle into! Therefore, we can’t risk going into Egypt without a Registration Document not showing the right chassis number. It will take the relevant authorities here in England between two and four weeks to issue a new Registration Document with the right number!

After few minutes of panic we have decided to review our itinerary and time schedule to suit the new situation.

So, the plan is to still leave as planned on the 1st May, but to spend 5 days more in Italy before taking the ferry to Tunisia. We will then risk going into Tunisia with the faulty registration document, and hoping that we made it in, we will prolong our stay in Tunisia for about 2-3 days to give the people in England chance to get our new document ready. We will then DHL (courier) the new document out to Tunisia and hopefully have it before we enter Libya.

In hindsight this arrangement works out better as our friends in Tunis, Stefan and Anke, wouldn’t have been able to accommodate us if we took the ferry on the original date. So, this means that Heino and Stefan’s game of tennis is still on and Alessandra gets to stay a few extra days in her native Italy!

Rensche & Charles

Heino met Rensche and Charles in 2005 at a meeting in Southfields arranged through Horizons Unlimited for whoever was thinking of travelling through Africa. Charlie is from Namibia and Rensche from South Africa. They will be on the road next September. It was really great meeting them, and exchanging ideas and advice. Rensche finally has a bike that allows her to put her feet on the ground! After trying a BMW and other big bikes they decided to go for a smaller Honda 250 bike. You can follow their progress on their blog:

http://buyaikhaya.blogspot.com

Salisbury Plain

La piana di Salisbury è una vasta area incolta con differenti paesaggi, dal bosco a zone sassose e brulle, usata generalmente per esercitazioni militari. Alcune aree sono aperte al pubblico, ed è ben nota agli appassionati di motocross.

Zona ideale per vedere come va la moto su strade sterrate, e per esercitarsi con buche, sassi, sentierini e cosi via.

E il risultato? Guardate le foto di queste salite e discese…. all’ inizio ero un pò spaventata all’ idea di andare la sù… poi… bhe è stato anche divertente!

Look at this picture… it is us going up there…

 Once I overcame the initial scary feeling, it was even fun!

21 April, Trial Trip

TRIAL TRIP

Setting off on Saturday morning for a trial trip, the aim is to test our gear and our off-road riding skills.

Programme:

- Riding two up on not sealed roads

- Test Heino’s new motocross helmet with goggles

- Test the luggage

- Cook something with our MSR whisperlite stove with a multi fuel bottle (the idea is to use petrol; we have already tested the stove on a bench along the Thames!)

- Pitch the new tent, and check the storage space for luggage

- Teach Alessandra to ride the bike in case of emergency (that is a bit unrealistic!)

This short weekend trip should prove that everything is ok… because now it is a bit too late to change anything!

All going smoothly… so far!

With just over a week to go, everything seems to be going surprisingly well! We’ve received the Carnet, which is possibly the most important document we need apart from the passports!

Also, we have so far applied and received 3 visas.

The bike is running smoothly, new tires were fitted and now Alessandra just needs to finish work and then we are off!

Thanks to… Aiden (& Claudia)

These “thanks to” posts are a “series” to obviously thank everyone who helped or will help us during the trip preparation and during the trip.

Aiden and Claudia
Thank you for keeping all our stuff, books, clothes, furniture etc. in your garage!!

Alessandra’s room was cleared a few weeks ago. The last things from Heino’s flat will be moved a few days before leaving. This is another point that needs to be taken into consideration when planning a long trip: where to leave all your belongings. So Aiden and Claudia’s garage was a great solution!

Aiden is one of Heino’s best friends (and just for a bit of gossip or for everyone’s curiosity… we met each other trough Aiden and Claudia. Claudia is Alessandra’s ex colleague. We met in 2005 at Aiden’s leaving party).

Libya visa

There are a lot of debates between independent travellers about how to get a Libyan visa. We suppose that it might be possible to obtain it in Tunisia without any help from an agency, but it will for sure take time plus possible troubles at the border. No official source of information could confirm that you can travel without a guide in Libya, plus not being too keen on spending days between embassies in Tunisia, we have preferred to contact an agency. And these are their prices and contact details. We will let you know if it will turn out as a good agency (hopefully).
Sami El ghibani
Al-Muheet tours
info@almuheettours.net
sami@almuheettours.net Service fees 100US$ x 2 = 200US$
Visa fees 135US$ x 2 = 270US$
Guide fees 40dinarsx5 = 200dinars around 35 US$
excluding meals including his accommodation. The guide
can share meals with us and it is ok to camp.
Passport registration at the border fee 25 US$x2=50US$
Number plate and bike registration, Libyan carnet
Maximum 100US$ tbc at the border