JUST ANOTHER ‘ROUND THE WORLD JOURNEY

Is the HUBB the seed or the fuel? I think that for most of us it’s the fuel. We learn of the HUBBs existence once the thirst for information has formed and slack our need at the forum font of textual adventure and possibly the best Q & A sphere on the planet. For me this is no different.


But everyone has their own seed. A sentence or phrase, a chance meeting, a documentary, it comes in a variety of genres. Mine was a chance meeting in Turkey with a couple of German overlanders in 2003. I can’t remember their names only that they were riding Africa Twins and that they had journeyed from my own homeland, Australia. At that time, I was riding around Europe and Turkey by bicycle doing 3 month stints at a time. The concept of one continuous trail from A to B by motorbike seemed amazing to my 27 year old mind. The seed had been sown. But, as many on this forum would attest to, this seed needs nurturing and time, maybe this is what baffled my younger self!


Skip forward to today, ten years, 10kgs and baldness later and here I sit, joyfully about to reap the fruit of that seed sown so long ago. The plan is to ride from my home that I just sold in Cairns down to Brisbane. Ship the bike to Peru, learn Spanish while travelling for a year in South America before heading up through Central America and into the North. Gently meander towards the east coast before another freighting to Europe. Walk the Camino De Santiago De Compostella, mosey on through France, Germany, Austria, Italy and into the Baltics before once again revisiting Turkey. Hopefully skip across to Egypt, Israel and Jordan before making our way through Iran, some of the Stans, China and through the Karakoum Pass and into Pakistan. Another visit to India then into Kathmandu before the flight to Bangkok where we hope to island hop to East Timor and the final flight home to Oz.


We will take three years to do this, well, that’s what I am telling my parents. In reality it could be more or it could be less but so many people seem to need to assign temporal duration to these things! I will be volunteering around 50% of the time, couch surfing, teaching English, learning Spanish, camping, bushwalking and just basically taking my time. I have sold my house, my business, my car and most of all my belongings apart from the sentimental stuff, lets see how far this can take us?
And I say us as my wife has decided to join me for this adventure. It was either that or get a divorce, there’s no way she would let me go without her! So, to be honest, it’s our adventure but with me doing the piloting! By the way, her name is Carlie!


We are riding a 650 V-Strom bought especially for this trip. Research done, wallet checked, researched again and then we have what we feel kicks the goals to get the job done, her name is ‘Zora’. There is a pile more info on the bike and us at our blog site rtwbymotorbike.blogspot.com.au



So here I sit, in Brisbane after the official ‘shake-down run’. Testing the gear, the bike, myself and the quality of along coastal Queensland, Australia, now crossing “i’s” and dotting “t’s” organising the first shipment to Peru where the real journey begins. So far so good, but the best it definitely yet to come, join us for the ride!


From the road – Mark and Carlie

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Mark and Carlie - a three year jaunt around the third rock.
www.rtwbymotorbike.blogspot.com.au