Allright, so we keep changing the initial plan due to security reasons, due to weather, due to money and due to time… Anyway, this should be the “final” idea, at least this is the one where we will base our visas on:
There are still some tricky parts on the route such as Afghanistan (but shorten), Iran, Iraq and the south of Turkey along the Syrian border. But we’ll see en route what the security issues are and (try to) adapt accordingly.
In the meantime the double entry visa for us and the bikes for Kazachstan are fixed, later this week we should have also the double entry visas for Tajikistan and the GBAO permits (to ride the piste along the Afghan border and be able to cross into Afghanistan from Tajikistan) . The Russian humanitarian multi entry visa is also in the making, so this should be ok in a week or two or so.
The bikes are almost completely ready to go for the big adventure. Just need to change the tires the week before we’ll leave for new ones (already delivered). We’re also “testing” everything now in the weekends, and some problems need to be fixed, as one strap for a bag melt down due to heat from the exhaust.
Another thing that happened in the meantime, actually yesterday evening, is that I fractured my small toe… I kid you not! So it’s taped and I can’t walk normally and I hope its fixed or at least better by the time we’ll leave. Leaving with a fractured toe would be another add-on for this adventure…
We also decided on the electronics department of our gear. So the photo camera will be the small one: Canon Powershot G12; the videocamera will be the Canon Legria HF G10 and two Contour Roam camera’s for on the helmets and bikes. A tripod and RF remote for the G12 and of course my trusted MacBoor Air.
So this brings us to the blog: we’ll keep you updated throughout the blog of course with English texts and pictures, but this time no video on the road as I will be making a complete DVD film of the entire 5-6 months trip once we’re back. Sorry for that but we are pretty convinced that it should be worthwhile to wait for the DVD to come out to enjoy an evening going around the world with us…
