Happy Holidays
Sunday, 29th November, 2009
Posted by Simon & Todd through their supporters email
Happy Thanksgiving and all the best for the holidays. The last month has been a fantastic, albeit cold experience. Arriving in Montreal Airport we were met by Byron and Steve from Motorcycle Ride for Dad. It was only a matter of hours until our bikes got in and they were cleared, not a cheap way to ship, but efficient. The team from the Ride for Dad really got value out of the project, organizing media and getting publicity for their organization. We visited Ottowa, Kingston, Peterborough, Torronto and Niagara before heading into the USA. There was TV, Radio and Newspaper interviews all driven by fantastic supporters in Canada. http://www.riderightround.org/media.php
Change of Plans
We had to modify our trip through North America due to the coming winter which meant cutting the Canadian leg of the tour short and heading south. So far we have been through New York, Washington DC, Memphis, New Orleans, Silver City, Phoenix, Grand Canyon and now we are in Las Vegas. I have a plan for financing the remainder of the project! We will continue, laden with bags of cash, to California for the Movember Gala ball in Hollywood then down Baha, Mexico and south. We have been working hard contacting media here in the USA with the help of John, a mate from my touring days, with some success at promoting mens health and Movember. It is gaining popularity in the USA, but nowhere near as popular as in Australia.
Movember
(The Month F! ormerly Known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health around the world (website). RideRightRound has a (small) Movember team and we want all our supporters to join us, it's easy to do and you don't have to be a man to join the team, 'Mo Sistas', ladies that want to support movember can also join up and help our fight. It’s not too late to join the RideRightRound Movember team simply choose on of the following links, fill in the form choosing the 'join team' option and you will then be part of our fight against Prostate Cancer.
Join Movember Team Links
Australian: http://au.movember.com/register/4794
USA: http://us.movember.com/register/4802
Suprise!!
Friday, November 27th, 2009
Posted by Simon Buckley @ 06:17:14 PM
Todd wanted to carry the tools (which i carry on my bike) with his rationale being that he would be behind me and that if I broke down he would catch up. Reasonable, but I was going to be at least two days ahead of him so any issues would have seen me sitting on the side of the road for two days. either way, I wasn’t interested in debating the issue, I had to push on to see my family – my plan, drive through the Polish border into Germany and find somewhere to sleep. Todd had mentioned that the border was quite a gnarly one, and that it was prone to delay, so I wanted to get through it at night time when there was likely to be less traffic.
Heading off from where I left Todd was a great deal of roadworks, and I could see the road I wanted, but couldn’t get onto it. There were arrows and blocked lanes, holes and witches hats. The road was above me, but I couldn’t work out how to get on it. In my confusionIi pulled over to get a bit of perspective, and a Polish biker on an r1 pulled up to see if I was ok. He didn’t speak any English whatsoever, but when he realised I didn’t speak Polish or Russian he pulled out his phone to call a friend who did speak English to help translate. Once the issue was clear, he had me follow him about 3km up the road to a spot where I could turn around and get back onto the motorway, a wave and I was on my way. So typical of the riding community, in every country people are always so ready to lend a hand, regardless of where you are from, just because you have something in common.
A few hours later I hit the border. As it turns out, there was no longer any border control, and it was a typical EU border, unmanned booth and blue sign – Germany. Ok, I was feeling ok now, my exhaust was a little noisy but I was fine. I made it a bit of a ‘red bull run’, driving for a couple of hours, stopping for a red bull and to wire the empty can onto my failing exhaust then head off again. It was getting late, I was following signs for Berlin. I figured, “I’ll just get past Berlin and then stop for a sleep.”
I passed Berlin about 1am and started to see signs for Hamburg. There was no stopping me now, charged to the eyeballs with red bull, and motivated by the thought of the look on my mothers face when I turned up at my brothers place, unexpected and unannounced. my parents were also in Germany visiting my brother, his wife and little Emily, so it was a double double for me and the excitement alone was pushing me on.
The German motorway system, or autobahn, is fabled to have no speed limit and people tear along at 200 kmph plus, doing all kinds of crazy things. Although it isn’t quite true, Germans do drive fast. Special care must be taken to judge the speed of oncoming cars when you pull out to overtake because what seems like a long way off is right on your heels in no time at 150 kmph. This, coupled with the excitement of my impending surprise drove my muffler to the limits.
The klr doesn’t do any faster than 120 – 125 kmph, and at that speed, everything is under pressure, from the tyres to the rider, and there is a fair bit of action on the muffler, which was held together with a specially designed combination of coke and red bull cans, held on with fencing wire.
It was getting close to daybreak, and I wasn’t much further than 200km away, my eyes just about popping out of my head, and it sounded like I was riding a harley, when I gave in to the fact that red bull and excitement alone couldn’t keep me awake and I pulled over to take a power nap, laying down in all of my gear (helmet included) for a quick 15.
Two hours later I awoke to the morning sun, amazed at how comfortable a park bench in full riding gear could be when you were coming down from a red bull fuelled marathon ride.
I hit town after shooting off on a mystery turnoff in Hamburg (road works again), and a quick stop to check a map in a road house. Rimming with excitement again, I pulled into town with the directions on repeat in my head “exit 23, first left, right to the end and then right.” I ended up a street on the wrong side of the bridge when I chanced upon a couple getting ready for a weekend ride, packing their BMW. I asked if they could point me in the right direction, and in true motorcycle solidarity the actually had me follow them right to the door. I’ll. never cease to be amazed at just how awesome people can be sometimes.
So there I was, parked outside the building on the street. I assumed that they must have heard me coming in, because by now the muffler on my bike sounded like the engine brake on a mac truck, but like a kid who had just found where his mum hid the easter eggs I pushed the buzzer. I knew it was the right place because it had their names on the bell. After a few seconds I pushed it again. By this time I was convinced they were all sitting up there looking out the window “shhh, shhh, don’t laugh” playing the funniest joke in the world. Nothing. I guess it was about 9am by this time, they were probably out for breakfast and a stroll with the baby. That’s where they were.
I don’t know much about babies, but I am sure they had to come home before too long for feeding or changing or some other baby thing. Alas no family. My phone isn’t working anymore (was wondering when they would cut it off, haven’t seen a bill yet and I have been away from australia 5 months!). I hadn’t any euros yet either, so I had to find the bank, get some change (which means coffee), work out how to use the phone, and then found out where they were. Surprise – I am standing out the front of your place and you are 300km away in Berlin. I rode overnight from Brest in Belarus (where we were turned around at the border but an apt place to lay ones head) through to Warsaw (where i left Todd) and past Berlin Lubeck overnight – 1100km. Freaking suprises!! All was not lost, the lady in the shop downstairs has a spare key, so after I proved my identity by calling my brother and Karoline on the shop phone at least I was able to get in and have a snooze in the warmth!
So, here i am, halfway around the world. Made it without any major mishaps or dilemmas, no bribes in Russia, only one fine at the Belarus Border for not having a valid visa ($26 USD) and no murders. After a bit of a sleep I thought I had better get to work:
~ Contact friends in europe whom have said i can stay and organise a route through beerfest at Munich to Cadiz in Spain and back up through France to the UK. Put some time frames around it.
~ Work out details, costs and any issues with getting to Morocco.
~ Contact motorcycling clubs along the route and let them know what we are doing, why and when (thus working on the local angle to give local press more imputus to get involved).
~ Make contact with prostate cancer orgs and give them details of the route with timeframes and associated motorcycling clubs (assuming they get back to me) in order for them to work on mobilising a PR plan of some sort in plenty of time, again from a local perspective.
Not a holiday – a project.
Back in The (U.S.S) R
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Posted by Simon Buckley @ 03:38:08 AM
It was about 25km from the Mongolian side of the border to the Russian. Beautiful ride, and at the point the road maintenance turned to the Russians there was a well built sealed road. Back to civilization!
On arrival at the Russian post we were ushered into a small portable office next to a water pit. You never really know what to expect when this happens, but inevitably it is some kind of tax or insurance payment. As it turns out, this was a safety chemical spray, and for $20 usd we got all of the gremlins sprayed off our bikes. It took the guy 15 seconds, and they were happy to let me go, I was hoping it would be a good old ‘get that mud off’ Aussie customs style, alas – he just wet the mud and sent me on my way into the big bad customs and immigration yard.
Greeted by a skinny fella in a green uniform and massive hat, we were directed around the border post with maximum efficiency. I had heard many stories about Russian borders, and in none of them had I heard the words efficiency and order. Much less friendly and helpful. The Russians were amazing, got us through the border without fuss or bother, no bribes and lots of smiles. An hour and we were on our way!
Not far into Russia and the scenery changed dramatically. there were trees and rivers. We decided to push on through to Kosh Agash where there was fuel and beds, only 150 km or so. We were wrecked, but the idea of a bed was awesome.
A few laps of town and we found the ‘hotel’. They had just built a flat out the back with a hot shower. What more could you ask for after two weeks riding through Mongolia! It was late, dark and cold by the time we were settled, and although Todd was keen to head down the road to the only café/restaurant in town, I was keen to get some fresh veggies into me, so we headed to the shop across the road, picked up some food and a bottle of vodka, ate the food, forgot the vodka and hit the sack.
We were greeted in the morning by a the usual ‘you are crazy’ by russian locals, took some photos, and hit the road. We had 6000km to make it to Moscow to our next break, and we were keen to get some km under our belts, raw butts and all. Next stop Novosibirsk.
We didn’t make it all the way to Novosibirsk, stopping about 45 mins away at a highway hotel. We stopped to get a feed at a road stop, and ate the most expensive Russian roadside meal to that point, the hairy Russian mumma saw us coming, but we were too tired and hungry to complain, so just chalked it up. At the overpriced street rip off, we were lucky to meet Mark and Natalya from Novosibirsk, who invited us for a ‘little drink’ and chat.
They both spent a great deal of time making phone calls and working to sort out getting a bike shop to take a look at our Mongolian damaged bikes. Mark was involved in the motorcycle community in Novosibirsk, and invited us to spend a couple of days with them. It was another case of having to say no to a great opportunity to get an insiders view, another case of Russians being extremely friendly and welcoming, and further, another example of the ‘whirlwind’ nature of the trip, which takes its toll from time to time.
