T - Our ride today was a grand total of 216kms. Nice and short in comparison to what we have been doing. So we took off out of town feeling excited to have an easy day. But first we needed to grab some oil so our girls could have a fresh day too.

The owner of the Lubri-centre was super friendly and refused to take any money from us for the oil. Wow. What a lovely gesture! He then kickstarted a flood of offer for us to have free drinks and chats with another customer. People really are very kind in the world, regardless of what the media tries to tell us.

C - What an incredible way to start the day!





T - We trundled along the highway and dropped our speed from 70km/hr back down to 60. No need to rush now as the end was near and we didn't want to flog our bikes to death. We figure we have maybe around 1-2000 kms left here in South America and a few weeks before our bikes will be flying out so time to dial it back a bit!

We have been stopping every 100 kms to check and top up Rosies oil as she is no longer leaking it but definately using a fair bit now, and our first stop happened to be a gorgeous little pull out on the edge of a fast flowing muddy creek. So we sat and chilled out and had our lunch and swung our legs off the bank for a while. It was really quite a nice way to spend some time.







C - It was really lovely to go back to our slow style of riding. We have definitely been caught up in the push south and then push north to get out of the cold weather. Its nice to have a reset and start the slow travel again. The weather is not going to get any warmer now, but the days are bright and clear, despite being a bit chilly (we are averaging around 13 degrees celsius day time temps now).

T - We eventually dragged our asses back onto the bikes and continued on. We found a nice town to stop in but seemingly all the hotels and campgrounds are all closed and locked up for the low season, so we pressed on another 15kms to the town of Lobos.





C - We found a hotel in Lobos and had a short wander around the town. Its a pretty little town, about 100kms outside of Buenos Aires.





T - We are going to have another day off the bikes tomorrow and spend some time walking around the town and planning the Uruguay ride. We are finding it hard to be motivated to ride at the moment and need to get our mojo back!

C - We have been on the road now for 16 months and we are both feeling a little tired. Its interesting how we experience these high and low points in our energy levels during our travels. Wandering aimlessly is great when there is a vague direction to go in, but now I think things are a bit too vague. Heading to Uruguay is a great start - but we still need to make a firm decision about where to next! What makes us feel excited and which decision makes the best use of funds and will allow us to travel for as long as possible?

Anyone have a crystal ball?

T - We decided to hold off on our posts for a few days as we both felt that we were being a little negative because of how we have been feeling. We really dont want to drag down the tone of our posts!

So we had a few very short riding days to try to slow down our pace a little as well. We had a few things to discuss between us and the biggest of them all was what is next. We have been riding quite aimlessly the last week or two not knowing what we should do or what direction we should head in. We had a couple of air freight quotes come in from Buenos Aires for heading to the US, Canada and back to Australia.



C - Since we hit Vancouver in April last year, we have had a riding goal - to reach Alaska and then ride south, south, south until we hit Tierra del Fuego. Then head north until we hit Buenos Aires. These destinations seemed so far away, even when we got to Tierra del Fuego, Buenos Aires still seemed a long way away. So, we did not really give much thought to where next. Sure, we dreamed out loud about possibilities, but we really had no idea what we might do once in Buenos Aires.

T - Our hearts wanted to go north, to continue on our journey forever, neither of us want to end this trip, we are still excited to see more of the US and Canada, but we also want to ride Europe, the Middle East and Asia yet. One thing we both have noticed is that we have stopped feeling excited and awed by the countries we pass through and we had said way back during our planning stages that if we ever stopped feeling that way then we would stop, reset, rest and start again. We are in no rush and still have no end date in mind.







C - We came to the conclusion that we needed to assess our excitement levels about each destination and then look at how financially "efficient" these choices were, given we have a set budget for the Americas leg (neither of us want to go above our budget because we always want to have a comfortable amount in savings for whatever may come in the future). Every way we looked at it, one destination made the most sense - financially and for "resetting" our travel mojo.

T - So we decided that for now it was best, for us mentally, to stick with our original plan, which was to ship back to Australia once we had reached Buenos Aires. So that is what we have decided to do. We intended to ship home around xmas this year, so we go home a little early. Rosie is in dire need of some loving and for us it will be easier to strip her down and fix her up good and proper while we are stopped for a bit. Her engine is almost cactus, her wiring is shot, and she rattles from her nose to her bum.







So while this isnt our prefered plan it is our new plan. We will be doing a bit of an excursion once we hit Oz and we will continue to post up as we are quite excited to show off our beautiful homeland too.

C - We are also excited to see family and friends in Australia and explore more of our own beautifully weird country. I am feeling excited about all the possibilities for travel in Australia (avoiding the rest of the southern hemisphere winter being one of them!).





T - So we apologise for any negativity that may have come across in our blog. We try to keep it honest with how we feel, but also realise no one wants to listen to two twits whinge on and on all day! Thanks to you all for following us on our journey!

Next up though is Uruguay! Which we know nothing about!

Kick back, relax a while guys, reset the mojo & we of the not currently travelling types, will wait patiently to catch up with your trip

__________________
My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

T & C, congrats on making B.A.
I found Buenos Aires to be one of the most FUN and most interesting cities I've lived in. So much to do there ... if you only look round for it. Tango anyone?


For me, BA made most USA cities look like provincial hick town backwaters ... and that includes Los Angeles ... where I grew up.

In BA you can find a great art, film and music scene going on.

I know I mentioned Uruguay a few posts back as a possible departure point ... but surely you've sourced more info to make that decision? What did you find?

Other thing I was curious about was your bikes ... surly you won't do a Lois On The Loose move of shipping junked bikes half way round the world at GREAT Expense?

I'm thinking air freight cost would pay for new bikes ... and in better shape mechanically?

Old guy advice: Never, ever grow emotionally attached to a bike .. any bike. It's made on an assembly line in Japan with thousands of others exactly the same. Let them go. Be Happy!

I would sell them off, leave them. Lots more in Oz or other bikes where ever you end up after you go back to Oz. Just a thought.

Top marks, we done patagonia and TDF in the summer and that was hard enough, respect, enjoy and look forward to the next part of the adventure

Gino & Fiona

Looks like T & C have abandon HUBB and this report. Fans can catch up with them on ADV Rider. Turns out they DID fly both bikes back to Oz, arrived safely and they're touring round the out back now. They must really love those little Hondas! $$$$$$$$$$$$

Total cost to ship both Bikes back home? $7000 USD :help smilie:

All the best to you both! Thanks for putting in the hard work of putting this report up here and elsewhere for ALL of us to enjoy.

I've been waiting patiently for the report, but nothing
$7000 would have bought a good shovel & a few labourers too
I will now go & look them up elsewhere. Thanks for the headsup mollydog

__________________
My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

Could have bought 2 brand new ones back in Oz.

Related to this ... posting up NeW topic on becoming attached to your motorbike. The UPS and DOWNS of this, why it happens, good/bad or ...???

I do hope our heroes will start another ride report once back on the road with the much loved Posties.

Hello Chantelle and Todd, We met on the Great Central Road and now are home, how did your journey back to Albany go? I must say you had covered the worst of the road when we met and some of the road near the NT boarder was very ordinary as you told us it would be. I read your last blog and it did bring back some memories especially the rubbish around Caleta Olivia. Please send me an e-mail. Anthony

I know some think we just up and abandoned the ride report here. And to an extent I guess we did. Towards the end of this trip I (Todd) was very tired. I was trying to maintain ride updates across several different platforms and in the end some started to slip behind. By the time I got home all I wanted to do was have a break and reset. I was pretty shagged.

Its a pretty weak excuse, but never did I intend to stop posting. We loved writing the blog. We just spread ourselves a little too thin and we did bow a little to some pressure to make more videos, more updates more photos and to travel further and further south.

Lessons learnt!

We sure did ship the bikes back home. We could'nt bear to part with the bikes. Yes it cost a small fortune. But it was worth it.

I just wanted to say a huge thanks to all who followed us along on our journey. You guys deserved better than for me to stop posting.