As any of you who have met me in real life (admittedly, only a handful of you) will know, the only reason I got into this off roading / adventure malarkey was because I want to travel overland to the Indian Himalaya. It's something I've wanted to do since since reading a series of articles in Bike magazine about 10 years ago (where Damon I'Anson rode an XT600 to the highest road possible).

Well, after several years of dreaming, several years of badgering the family into letting me go, several years of falling off on green lanes, a year or so of working on my boss to let me have the time off and a few months of getting a bike ready, getting the paper work ready, and getting me ready... I'm setting off in a couple of weeks. April 20th to be precise.

I've set up a website for my trip (don't laugh, it's the first one I've ever done) where I'll be posting photos, updates and tweets and there will be a live map using a Spot tracker. Take a look http://faroffplaces.net/ I'm not looking to change career, I won't be writing a book, making a film or trying to sell you anything, I just want to see if I can do it. And along the way I'll be keeping friends and family up to date with what I'm doing and where I am.

There isn't a lot on the site at the moment - some of my thoughts on the route (which is subject to change on a daily basis) and a few pages of planning for my own benefit - but it will expand over the next week or so and over the two months of the trip.

Most of my time and energy has been focused on getting the bike ready and the paperwork sorted. I'm still not 100% ready (will I ever be?) but today has seen a couple of big milestones where 'red' boxes on my planning have turned 'green' because my Pakistan visa has been approved (they said it would be 3 days, it took 6 weeks!), and the bike has had a service ready for the trip (big thumbs up to Gaz, Chris and Mal(?) at Adventure Bike Warehouse).

Feel free to share advice, experience (if you have any for the countries I'm visiting) and general positivity. If, however, you want to knock my musical tastes, my diet or my plans - please, keep it to your self

Dave