Hey -

We are James and Cat, Usual story of dreaming about the big bike trip for a good 3 years after we started to do regular european excursions from the UK.

Well in Jan this year we had enough and 4 months later we where just about packed and on the road. We have been keeping a blog on our own website but i have a few days while a wait for our Indian Visa so i figure i will share it with you guys and then keep you up to date as we continue over the next 6 months or so.

I hope you guys enjoy our blog, if you have any questions or comments then do post as its great to hear from other bikers.

BLOGS 2,3,4 do not have any pictures as the sizes are off, there are some on our site, i apologise to those who like me need a picture to keep them going, i promise the is loads from there on so please read on!!!

Ride safe out there!!

Mr and Mrs Rixxy!!

Our Test Run Around England and towards the IOM TT!!

So we left London on Saturday 28th of May, headed up to see my parents in Boston Lincs. We got the bike loaded up and left, I took it pretty easy sitting around the 70 - 75 mph mark the whole way and with no traffic we made good time.

The bike looks pretty mad with all the stuff on as it’s a bike tall bike anyway, so with panniers and a top box plus all the extra bits its looks huge. Saying this it still handles pretty well, even though over 80 mph I get fairly bad wobbles from the front, also on left hand corners sometimes I notice a slight wobble when coming out the corner. So I’m going to mention this to KTM and get then fiddle with my front suspension, I was also thinking about dropping my forks through about 5mm as this will push the weight forward a bit. If anyone has any ideas then drop me an email (please don't i now have this sorted :-)!!




Sunday morning we left about 10am after a hearty breakfast (as always!) and headed towards the Peak District. We went through Bakewell and had a bakewell tart. Well, I had a tart, Cat didn’t like the look of them so she has carrot cake. We noticed a small sign saying classic motorcycle exhibition, so we decided to go in and check it out. It was great, there were about 50 bikes in total, some old Nortons, BSA's, a few of the first TT winners and lots of bike related memorabilia - we met the owner who amazingly owned all the bikes apart from 15 of them, and even more incredible they all worked and some of the 50-yr-old bikes were still able to go on the road each day!!!!!

We then started to look for a place to stay and chose Eden Tree House campsite in Castleton, for the sole reason that it was next to a pub :-) We then visited Speedwell Cavern, and old mining site, and queued up for over an hour to get inside. The people behind us were playing I Spy and Cat kept guessing the answers. It was very interesting as most of it was filled with water, so we had to get in boats in order to explore it. After the cavern we went for a small ride and on the way back to the campsite noticed a small festival at a pub, so we dropped the bike off and walked 2 miles back to it, so we deserved our big dinner!



That night it rained hard and we woke to everything getting wet. We chatted for a bit and tried to work out the best plan of action which we both agreed under normal circumstances would be to sit tight until the rained passed but as we only had 3 days to get to the TT and we wanted to do more exploring we decided to pack up and get moving rain or not. So we got the bike loaded, and in itself it was a great test for our packing system, as the only thing that stayed really wet was the tent.

We crossed into the Yorkshire dales, and came to a small but beautiful town called Grassington and decided we would stay in a B&B or pub to dry the tent out. We found an old pub right on the square that had a room, was pretty cheap and included breakfast. So we got the bike unloaded and dried our tent by hanging it between the light fittings and curtain rails, with a hair dryer.



The sun was out and the little village was quite busy, but we didn’t do a lot as it was about 7pm by the time we got ourselves sorted. We had a quick look around some of the shops in the square then had some food (the yummiest fish pie ever!) and went to sleep.

In the morning we went for a long walk through the fields and along the river. It was totally quiet as it was about 7am but the sun was shining and it was such a nice day. There were loads of baby lambs, baby rabbits, ducks with chicks it was just really nice, not to mention it was set with this beautiful river around this lovely town and gorgeous old mill.

We spent some time looking for fish in the river and Cat decided to have a couple of moments of madness - after trying to stroke a sheep she crapped herself as it baaa’d at her when she got too close, much to my laughter! And then she decided to run up the hillside and back!! Was very funny!!

Anyway, we had to get moving again, so the previous night we had text our ever faithful friends the Jetstreams (Chris and Julie) and they gave us a good route out and over to the Lake District.

We got on the road and straight away it was looking good and we headed over some amazingly beautiful roads that were wide enough for just one car. We reached the lakes and after a drive around Windemere Lake we settled on a B&B above a pub in Bowness. Really pretty town with cobblestone streets. We had a few cocktails and s and a yummy pasta dinner.



Next day we planned a route (this was the first map we had to buy) which took us to the north over the Kirkstone Pass, passed some more lakes and streams, and down the western/coastal side of the district. We visited Muncaster Castle which is apparently a very haunted castle, but we didn’t see any ghosts. The original family still live there, and they have really gorgeous gardens, and an owl sanctuary.

Blackpool was our stop for dinner but we were sorely disappointed. The lights/decorations in the town were pretty and it really is a big rollercoaster, but the fish and chips was RUBBISH! Poor service too. Blackpool was a bit pants, so we didn’t hang around for long, and drove on to Liverpool and the ferry.

We got a bit of bike madness on the way to Liverpool - the autocom had broken so we couldn’t speak to each other, and james’ phone died so he couldn’t even listen to music. But we made it. We arrived about 8pm, and there were loads of other bikers there already, even though the ferry didn’t leave until 3am!

We met a biker who had just arrived from New Zealand, following pretty much the same route as us, and he told us his stories and gave us some great tips. He scared us off Pakistan – said it’s ALL under police escort, driving 18 hour days, can’t even stop for water, and your escorts are all amped up with fingers on the trigger, so you can tell the danger is pretty imminent.



So we’ve discussed the option of freighting the bike from Dubai to Nepal and carrying on from there, which will probably even work out better, weather-wise, since Nepal was always going to be a “maybe” depending on the time of year we got to India.

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

The IOM TT

Well what can I say, the TT is literally madness. We arrived in Liverpool at about 9pm, our ferry was not until about 3am and there were already about 30 bikes in front of us, so we queued up and waited. I was looking round the other bikes, and Cat was bored, trying to get me to go for a walk/coffee, then I noticed a BMW F650 GS with a New Zealand number plate: on closer inspection he had ridden over here covering almost the exact same trip we are about to do. So when he came back to the bike we chatted for a good 2 hours, he gave us plenty of tips on places to stay and things to see and also said Pakistan was VERY dangerous and worth avoiding if possible.

When we were finally moved onto the ferry we noticed how many bikes there were, hundreds, the big KTM just about fitted in and they tied them down with ropes, I have never seen so many bikes in one space so packed together!!




Once we arrived in the island it was about 5am and not a lot was open so we decided to just go and explore: the island was beautiful and it’s the first thing we noticed. We didn’t really know where we were going but we could tell when we were on the TT course and when we weren’t by the crash barriers (or as they’re better known to us, bales of hay!!)


We eventually found ourselves going across the mountain course where it was one way and has no speed limit. We weren’t hammering it but we did have a bit of fun, it was quite funny to see the guy on the yellow 959 fireblade’s face as I come past him will a pillion and full luggage!!

We came down the other side of the course and decided to get some breakfast at a local caff, before heading to our hotel who luckily let us check in early for a sleep.

Later that day we got up and went up to the start/finish straight and pits. The great thing about the TT is that it’s all so open and you can walk around all the garages. We got to see lots of the bikes including Guy Martin’s, and of course I took a special interest in all the different fireblades and even got lucky and was showed around one of the Padgetts Honda bikes after I asked one of the guys a few questions about the exhaust hanger he had as I had not seen one like that before. It was great atmosphere, everyone was so friendly, a lot of the riders were signing stuff and some of the teams even had BBQs out and were just sitting around chatting.


We decided to go back to the hotel and then head for a couple of s before going to watch the evening practice. The first bar we came to was called Sam’s – very “blokey” as Cat called it! We planned to have one drink then move on but we met these 3 ozzy guys, really nice blokes – House, Gordon, and Nick (I think) they come over to the TT a fair bit and we started talking bikes, telling jokes and generally got on with them really well. They also told us about volunteering as Marshalls so we decided this was something which we wanted to do! We then headed up to the grandstand and soaked up the atmosphere, there was a lot of people there even for a practice and Cat decided to play guess the speeds, and was actually pretty good at it.

After the racing we walked along the Douglas promenade and to the Bushys tent, we grabbed a but it was pretty clear that it was not our scene, some people were totally hammered and pushing past you as they could hardly stand, then they started to do a wet T-shirt comp and as good as they are it was just far to messy and we weren’t enjoying ourselves, so we called it a night and head back to the hotel.

Friday we got up and went to meet a friend of mine Mian from London bikers. He had some bad luck - stuck the con rod through the bottom of his engine on his ZX9r, so he was a little stranded! We had some lunch and a couple of drinks before heading back early-ish as we had wanted to watch the racing at Creg ny Baa.


Creg ny Baa is a great place to watch the racing as it’s on a corner, and it has a pub onsite and 2 grandstands which for about £2 you can buy a ticket for. It was our first chance to see the bikes on the actually course and soak up some of the real atmosphere. We got a taxi up there so as we sat in the sun we had a few drinks and generally really enjoyed ourselves.


That evening we met with 2 of our other LB mates Mike and Carol at the Charlie Boreman talk. We were a little disappointed in it as they promised to talk about bits which we had not seen on the DVD’s, but it just seemed to cover old ground and I think it was a bit of a money spinner for Charlie.
At the end of it Cat felt really ill - we had been drinking for a few hours but she really did feel pretty sick and it didn’t seem to be the alcohol so we headed back to the hotel which was a shame as we were looking forward to a big night with Mike and Carol!

Saturday was the first day of racing – we watched some of it from the grandstand (going for Guy Martin, but he retired in the 5th lap), and then moved on to Creg ny Baa for the second race. It was a pretty long day – James had a snooze in the afternoon and then we went for a wander through town and had some fish and chips. The fish and chips was what we wanted from Blackpool! I think we ate it about 3 times in the week, it was that good.



Sunday we rode down to Peel on the west coast to meet Mike and Carol for lunch and to check out the festivities. One thing we enjoyed was a guy making wooden statues/ornaments with a chainsaw. We investigated the Peel Castle as well, then went for another blast around the course and mountain road. Completely forgot about the free marshalls dinner we were invited to!

So Monday we marshalled at Braddan Bridge, which was awesome fun! Unfortunately it was also the same day that one of the riders died in an accident, but we learnt so much about the TT and met some great people. Since we were newbies, our job was to stick in the background, and if needed, we would be called forward with the fire extinguisher (James) and the brush (Cat). No incidences on our corner thankfully – and the church ladies were lovely – free tea for the marshalls!



We had a lazy day on Tuesday, no racing. But the evening had the RAF Red Arrows air display over the bay, and then the motorbike stunts from the White Helmets (professional army team) and the Purple Helmets (bunch of old men in long brown trenchcoats without purple helmets). Both were really clever, but the old men were funny – the penultimate stunt being Wheelie Bin Racing!


It was raining on Wednesday which was a shame, as we had met Mike and Carol at their friend Denise’s house in Crosby, right on the course, at the point where the bikes go past at about 190mph! We were able to see a couple of bikes go past, and had a great lunch, but then they called off the races and postponed them to the next day.
Bugger as the next day was our ferry home, so the best we could do was listen on the radio. We did some last minute souvenir shopping, and bumped into our original aussie mates from the first day.


We had planned to meet up with some more LBers in Wales on Friday, but then found out James’ card had been cloned in London, and along with still having so much to get organised at home, we decided to pull out of that trip and head straight home.

So if you were tracking us on Spot, you would have seen us blast straight from Liverpool to London! (if you want to follow our future trips, save this link: SPOT Shared Page - it will be active from Monday 27 June)

Few more changes made to the bike, Garmin 660 bought, got rid of the back box and replaced it with a heavy duty bag for clothing, couple more bits of kit bought, and we’ll be ready to roll next Sunday!

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

So its Monday 20th June and we are now approaching the 48 hours until we leave milestone. The last few days have been a lot of fun and even more stress, the fact this is going ahead is now starting to really ring home as the house is empty, the bike is ready and we have most the paperwork ready to go.

Cat took Wenger to the airport today and he is now on his journey to Australia to be looked after by our good friends Tim and Nikki! – Thanks so much guys and please look after our little boy!!

Rob came over today, and we finished a couple of bits off on the bike and hard wired the Garmin in so we have constant power on the sat nav. We also fitted rear sets to the fireblade and she came back from the Dyno running 173 BHP.

Yesterday we had our leaving drinks and about 20 of our mates came out on a Sunday and joined us for a few too many drinks, I think there was a lot of hangovers at work today - to those that came thanks very much we had a great time, and for those who texted us and wished us luck thanks very much also.

So the bike looks great, Rob went over a few bits with me and I’m fairly confident that I’ve got a rough idea of what’s going on. Lets be honest - until things go wrong I’m never going to know what I can and cannot do. But as Rob said today, if I don’t hammer it around then it should be fine.
The fireblade is cleaned and packed away, I didn’t get all the bits I wanted done but I did get most of it done, and in doing so realized I’m never going to ride it on the road again - I love my sports bikes but think they are better suited to the track whichever country I end up in!

- On a side note I got my insurance renewal through the post today and they wanted £7760 – yep over 7k!! I did shop around and the cheapest quote I could get was about 1900!! Fully comp or £900 fire and theft!! -

We have Dan and Brenda staying with us at the moment, which is really nice. We went to Gaucho tonight, we weren’t going to go but then we decided last minute we might as well, the food as usual was excellent, shame I have such a massive hang over today!! They did also make me the best orange and lemonade I have ever had!! I saw Chris today (Zee Pony) he popped over to say hello, collect some paperwork and of course the tyre warmers!!!

Tuesday:

So the trip to the dump was more fun that Cat expected, and even though its one of the reasons I love her, she got over excited and in the rush she was in, tried to pull something from the box I was lifting and then managed to hit me in the face with the box!! Haha we laughed it off and she calmed down but was surprised she enjoyed going to the dump so much. – (I loved it! I guess you’re meant to dump it on the floor behind your van, but you can just throw things as far as you want, trying to get it on the top of the pile. So much fun!)

With the help of Dan James (thanks mate) and his patient girlfriend Brenda, we manned up and I took down the alarm and the CCTV. Much more simple than I expected, and lets be honest lads any time you get to go on the roof with a hammer, screw driver and other tools you cannot help but get cocky and feel very “working hero”. Dan and myself agreed we could add CCTV Installer, Roofer, and Fencer (after Dan fixed some trellis) to our ever growing CV of amazing skills!!

Then we packed the van for going to mum and dads, added 3 boxes to go into our OZ shipping lot, which we will drop off tomorrow, and we have now cleaned and pretty much emptied the house. So we ARE going - that’s right, months of planning, years of dreaming and we hit the roads from tomorrow. We get up early, drop off the boxes at the shipping place then Cat drives the van and I ride the KTM fully kitted up to mum and dads, we spend one night there then head over to Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting.

We are pretty organized. Well, no, we are not really, but I’m sure we will be ok, I think. Haha god knows, we are both all over the place, to be honest I just want to get on the road and put all this planning behind us!! I must say I cannot believe how much stuff you buy and accumulate over the years, and how much money we all waste, I think you should all go and empty “that draw” you will be blown away at how much stuff you find. We had so much we didn’t use and things we didn’t need, keeping it “just in case it might come in handy one day”.


Wednesday

Today is the day we pack the final bits and essentially start our journey even if it is somewhat slow at first. The plan today is to head up to my mum and dads with the van (cat driving) and with the bike packed – me riding. Tomorrow we head over to Derby where we are going to the Horizons Unlimited meeting for 3 days, then Sunday we will have to pack and leave early to get down to London to meet our landlord and no doubt lose some of our deposit just cos they all sting you for no reason, then head down to Dover to meet some of our biker mates and my parents near a pub for a lunch . Then it’s a one way ticket outta here!

Are we fully prepared and ready to leave? Well, I think as much as you can be, there are lots of little things that need/should have been done but to be honest the list is endless and so we have cut our losses and we are off, so now the journey begins………. Watch this space.

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

Horizions Unlimited

Horizons unlimited – Well it was good, we definitely took some good knowledge away from it, but it was also a bit daunting. Many people gave us what they thought was great advice, but all of it was conflicting information!

There were hard core travelers who have been on the road for 10 years and live in 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of pants; there were Europe-only travelers who like filter coffee and a bacon sandwich every morning; there were people telling us don’t go here and watch out there; and others who said that’s a great place and its easy to get into china…. so really we came away realizing we just need to do this trip our own way and figure it out as we go along, I suppose we have an advantage in that way as we have no time limit!

We also met the most stereotypical Australian I have ever met! (For those who remember Full Frontal, think of “Poiter”) Lucky I have been to Oz and in the most part (like anywhere) the people are great, but this was guy so funny, typical ozzy bloke, telling me all poms are gutless and never haggle (anyone who knows me knows that’s crap), telling us that we got the wrong bike and we should be on a 250 cc or not on a fuel injected bike, then telling us we didn’t need a carnet we just needed to bride the border guards, then he told us we CAN get in china, he told Cat to hide money in her fanny, he was a millionaire and the government were all bastards… all this random stuff!

I just sat, lined a topic up and let him talk, because actually as much as disagreeing with someone like this is near impossible, you can learn a lot if you can filter out the bollocks. He did say he got through china and told us how to do it, he also said we could get my fireblade into Australia if we take it in as a track-only non registered bike. Cat nearly made the mistake of disagreeing with him (“why the **** would you go the Sharm el Sheikh? Bloody tourist trap!”) but thankfully he was obnoxious enough that everyone else in the bar area was listening in to him and starting to ask questions, so at that point we decided to slip away!!

Really nice bloke, but I think a nutter (in the good sense). He spoke some truths but tended to miss that fact that he’s been to 80 counties over 25 years, so what might seem second nature to him is the big unknown to us. He did say to “**** off” all you have read, and just get out there, travel as light as possible and just have fun. He also said to remember the world is corrupt and for the right price you can get in and out of countries on the borders, and decide weather or not you want you passport stamped. I love the idea of being that brave and we will definitely try to get into China, BUT I’m still going to get a carnet as we’re not experienced enough to take those kind of risks, not yet anyway!

We have re-packed again, and yes – we halved our clothing! We have both ditched our jeans and we have cut back to 3 pairs of everything, figuring if we wear everything twice that’s nearly a week. I have decided to leave the spare chain and sprockets at home and get them sent out to me when I need them. Its odd but looking at our stuff now I think we’re taking less stuff on this trip than we have on some of our other europe trips!

The travel plan has also changed slightly, we realized it would be ramadam when we get to morocco in August, so we are going to ride the 1500 miles straight there and do that before ramadam starts. Then head back into Spain and Europe.

Last night we had our last ever Papa John’s pizza (and chicken dippers, and garlic cheesesticks, and cheesecake for dessert), then settled down in our sleeping bags, on the roll mats on the floor – with the luxury of cushions for pillows!

Jen and Oli came round this morning to say goodbye, and soon we’re going to the Ace to meet some London Bikers who will ride down to dover with us. James’ family, including little baby Martin, will be meeting us at Junction 11 services of the M20 for some lunch and a final goodbye, then we ride onto the Eurotunnel train at 2:30pm.

Here we go!

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

So we go to the Ace and meet everyone, Bobby came over to ours first and went picture mad, and took lots of decent pics of us getting ready to leave (Thanks!). At the ace he took even more pictures and Guliano gave us a blow up world map!!

Soon it was already 11am and in typical Jetstream style Chris wanted to leave bang on the dot, so we lined up and I thought there were around 10 bikes joining us, but in fact at that stage is was 30!! Not all of them were coming as far as Dover and around 25 made it the whole distance………….just!



Even the run to dover was not without its issues!! Ginger (legend for forcing cars out of our way so we could filter, otherwise I think we would still be on the A406) broke his clutch lever off!! Guliano dumped his shaft drive in the outside lane of the M20 and Alex Gold lost a soft chain link!! Haha the most random ride I have ever had with LB and all before we properly set off!





My dad finally made it to Dover, only about an hour late, he didn’t take into consideration the traffic at the tunnel!! But sadly my Mum was not there as she had food poisoning. My sister, brother in law and their newborn baby also came. Then we got some food, took some photos, said our goodbyes to everyone, had a sing-along of Waltzing Matilda and then we headed off!

By the time we arrived in France we were both giddy and a bit excited and I think we felt a little sick with anticipation. We decided to just head down on the motorway for as far as possible and then camp. We got to just outside Dieppe, a beautiful little harbour town with some nice restaurants and small shops, we set up the tent and got some food before getting an early night.

The next day we got up early with the plan of really just hitting some motorway and getting some mileage under our belt – it might seem a shame to just blast through France, but we have been here 5 or 6 times before and we really want to hit Morocco before Ramadan!!



So about 5pm we came off the motorway and started to look for somewhere to camp. It was SOOOOOOO muggy, one electronic sign said it was 40 degrees, and we were both pouring sweat, dripping down my nose and onto the tank of the bike, to make things even more interesting there were storms all around us - we kept hitting wet roads but never met a storm. Lightning was everywhere and then suddenly everything in front of us was black and we were flanked by a beautiful rainbow - I knew if I didn’t stop we were going to get VERY VERY wet, and setting up a tent in the wet is no fun!

We found a field with a small wood, we rode in about 100 yards and then set the tent up in there. Accidently really we had an amazing view of the storms over the valley in front of our tent. It was so hot and muggy all we tried to do was cool down, so we sat and watched the storms pass around us and then tried our best to sleep but it was nearly impossible in that heat!!



In the morning we woke and it was still hot in the tent, we both stank - haha probably too much info but what can I say! Cat was pleased with her first night of “wild camping” - I think she expected us to be A – killed and eaten by spiders or B – killed and eaten by a crazy French farmer. As neither of these things happened, and after I had “de-spidered” the tent, she packed the bits up and we got the bike ready to go!



The plan for the day was to do about 150km on the Motorway before getting off and doing some B-roads and having a good trip through Bordeaux. I told the garmin to avoid motorways and it did that but it also took us through the centre of Bordeaux, bit non-descript to be honest but we were soon out the other side and into the beautiful Bordeaux countryside heading for the far eastern coastal road.

Cat was giving me her usual running commentary of what crops seem to be growing and she was also enjoying seeing how much further along they were the further we got south, and discovering that sunflowers all face south. In fact most the farmers were out in the combines, something which Cat enjoyed seeing as she could not believe how big they were when she stood next to one at the Lincoln county show last week.


We hit some smaller towns and stopped for lunch. As usual the French waitress claimed to speak no English - lucky Cat’s French is very good now so we always get away with it, but we both agreed that the French are generally unhelpful and a bit moody. We then headed out onto the far east road which led down the east coast of Bordeaux - it was a lot of fun, good roads, beautiful countryside and good scenery.

Cat wanted to get to the sea and there were a few smaller roads that weren’t on the Sat Nav, so we got adventurous and rode down them until we came to an amazing campsite and our first view of a sandy beach. The weather was cloudy and grey, much cooler that the previous day and it was also very windy so we just had a quick look before moving along, but it would have been great to find this place yesterday when we were looking for a camp!
As we were feeling adventurous we decided to do an off-road track, not a long one, about 2kms. Well you can guess what happened - we fell off, 3 times, nothing massive, just the bike getting stuck, hitting loose sand and then going onto its side. It was hard work getting it out but by the end of it I was getting pretty good, we had to work as a team both picking our way though it and lifting the bike back up once it went over. It took us about 20 minutes to get through it but we did it and once we hit the road again we were both cheering. It was fun but it’s made us realize that we have shed a lot of luggage weight, if we want to go play in sand we need to be based somewhere and go out light for the day!

Once we got back on the roads, some of which were on the Sat nav and some weren’t, we followed a general southeasterly direction towards the Pyrenees with the intention of getting into Spain. We got to a town called Oloron It seemed pretty big, it smelt like chocolate (huge Lindt factory!) and we were hungry and tired so we decided to call it a night and stayed in a cheap B&B.



We went for a walk around the town and it was half pretty and picturesque and half a dump, lots of empty shops up for sale, and lots of kids riding around on 50cc scooters with no numberplates on. We could not find a good bar but we did find a good Pizza place, so we shared what turned out to be a dam good pizza and some chips before heading back and crashing out.

We woke after a well deserved rest as we didn’t sleep too well the night before due to the insane weather. We planned out a great route over the Pyrenees to Spain and put it into the sat nav, Cat had washed some clothes the night before and wanted to go to a laundrette to dry them but as I hate sitting around I insisted we just strap them to the bike and that they would dry. It wasn’t sunny, it was a bit cloudy but I figured it would work!


So off we went and as soon as we left the town we were on GREAT roads, massive bends, tight bends, sweeping bends and we were soon climbing up the mountain side. The only downside was the weather was getting rapidly worse and soon we were dealing with light rain, soaking roads and freezing fog!

As we reached the top visibility was down to about 6ft!! There were signs for Free Cows (not what I originally thought – imagine rocking into Spain with a cow tied to the back!) and we saw they had been on the road as there were cows pats but we hadn’t come across any yet.

As we got to the top there was a tunnel, I though yay blast though it making lots of noise (you know what I mean) - as I came hurtling out the other side there were about 20 cows by the road side, I nearly mooed my pants! Lucky none of them took much notice of the KellieTheMule and we sailed straight past, but I had a quiet word with myself whilst Cat had a rather louder one over the Autocom.

Soon we came to the French/Spain border, well we think we did, there was a massive building but there was no one in the car park and we could hardly see so we just carried on and started to make our way down the mountain in the fog! Straight away the roads improved a lot, Spain takes much better care of its roads than France does.



On about our 5th corner in I came round the corner and there was about 200 sheep and goats right on the apex of the turn all running across the road! Lucky I was taking it easy so we came to a quick stop and Cat took a couple of pictures. I couldn’t believe it, the road was challenging enough, add in the wetness, fog and poor visibility and then for a chuckle thrown in some animals crossing randomly now and again and all this before I had any breakfast or even a coffee!!

Luckily not long after this it started to brighten up and the further we came down into Spain the better the weather got until it was sunny and blue skies! We came to a small but pretty little town and decided to stop for brunch, which was some tapas and a really good coffee – another point – the French make rubbish coffee, the Spanish make far better coffee!! It was at this point I looked at the laundry I had put on the bike to “dry” – not only had it got MORE wet from the rain, it was also muddy from road spray. Needless to say, I did the washing that night, and we ended up having to throw away one pair of underwear because it stank of exhaust fumes!

The scenery around the mountains was beautiful and it stayed that way for a good 150kms. It was getting hot but dry hot so it was bearable once you were on the move.

We wanted to get to Tarragona, a small town south of Barcelona, to take a day off the bike, get some sun and plan the next 4 days worth of riding into morocco. As we had done some great riding we decided to mix it up between bits of the new Spanish motorway (again which the garmin had no idea about) and the Spanish A roads – both roads have great views and we can comfortably cruise at around 125kph average.

Soon we came into Tarragona, a bit bigger than we thought, so we headed through the town and up the coast a bit. Found a small cheap hostel 5 mins walk from the beach. Then we went straight out and had a few too many cocktails and sangria, and today we have just relaxed.

Cat loves spain mostly because it’s perfectly acceptable to sleep halfway through the day, and this is fine with me as I can catch up on some work and fill in my diary!!

Tomorrow we leave and head south to morocco, 3- 4 days riding along the Spanish costa

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Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

Rest Of Spain
The Rest of Spain...

Electricity crisis averted – we took pictures of the adapter we had borrowed to show to people in stores, and finally they understood what we wanted. Now everything has battery again!

We also bought a Camel Pack – very handy and also a great cheek muscle workout!

We left Tarragona bright and early and followed the coast south. We ended up in La Pinet, just south of Alicante, and stayed in Hostel Maruja. It was an amazing place - the front felt like something you see on a dodgy movie about mexico, (I think they do actually film movies there), then you walked through the bar and stepped straight onto the beach!! We were literally 3 meters from the edge of the water, so we decided to stay 2 nights.

Pretty expensive really at 54 euros a night BUT - and it’s a big but - the food and drinks where very cheap so actually it didn’t work out too bad. In fact a few s and 2 meals there a day was coming to about 30 euros!! I think it was £1.50 a pint!!

We spent 2 nights here and really did just relax. The first thing we did was strip off and head for the waves, then we had tapas, vino y cerveza, and then siesta of course! The next day was spent by the beach, listening to music and playing cards then went for a meal in the evening at a different restaurant further down the beach.

The local English nutter decided to talk to us, obviously very excited to speak to other English people because he just didn’t stop talking! He was nice and normal at first but all we wanted was a few s, a game of cards and an early night, but we didn’t end up eating until 10pm, and a brucie bonus, the food was way too salty! Cat thought she was being polite and patient, but I was waiting for her to tell him to go away! We’ve now come up with a plan to get out of similar situations in the future!



Then we got a fairly early night, but it was a muggy one again so neither of us slept that well, but we got up early and rode the 600kms to Algeciras. It a fairly nice town, we arrived here at 4pm, after a great ride down through the Sierra Nevada, all motorway but the mountains either side really take your breath away!! When we arrived we were very pleased to find a great hostel at 34 euros a night, ensuite, and then even more pleased to find a small tapas bar open where we had a great meal, and 4 glasses of sangria between us for 14 euros TOTAL!!!

Tomorrow at 11am we leave for morocco, Cat’s planned a route around the country with must-see sights, we will be taking it easy and staying a few days in each place, and no more massive mileage days for a little while!!! YAY!

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Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

Just reading your blog about Iran and the problem your 990 Adv. S had which I'm sure you have worked out is the fuel filter and as you put it "shitty"fuel. We have replaced our fuel filter a couple of times now on our adventure.... a bit of a faff... but although dear they are small to carry and until KTM design in a pre filter in the fuel filter that can be swapped in easily and cheaply its going to be one of three KTM Achilles Heals.
Also, most importantly, we filter all fuel going into our 990 Advs with the "Steve Thomas" filter which was made in Kenya ....and really makes a difference. Details in our Kenya Chapter of our diary.

Go well.....

Thanks,


We also fliter all the fuel aswell now before it goes into the tank, India seems to have pretty good stuff but who knows.

I will get it changed again once i get to Bangkok!

See you guys out there!

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

Introduction to India

The madness of India started at the border. We could tell we were getting close because there were so many people (and buses, lorries, rickshaws, bikes and cows) coming and going. We carried on ahead, expecting big long queues at the border posts. But all of sudden, above us was a great big “Welcome to India” sign. Had we left Nepal? Where was customs for Nepal?? Where was passport control??


We pull up and ask some casual guards our questions, he points me towards a quiet looking, run down building and says that is passport control and customs for Nepal is over there, pointing toward about 50 lorries lined up which I cannot see past. The truth is I could have just ridden in and no-one would have known or cared and let’s be honest we’re on the rumbling KTM so it’s not like we go very unnoticed, but maybe that helps give you an idea of just how busy it was.



Cat waits with the bike while I clear the Nepalese side pretty quickly thanks to the usual friendly Nepalese staff, who at the end say a simple bye bye from Nepal and good luck in India! I jump on the bike and we ride past the welcome to India sign, we are both looking for the India customs and passport office on a street with lots of shops, and thousands of people, vehicles and all the other things I listed before on a street no wider than Brick Lane in London. Then all of a sudden an Indian man jumps out and shouts PASSPORT CONTROL!!!! I jam the breaks on (I was only doing 10kph) and come to a stop and there it was, passport control for India: 4 guys sitting at a table with some stamps, on a busy crowded street. They reminded me of the telephone card sales guys you get outside some shops.

We sorted the passports with them and then I went over to another shop with a small sign that said “India Customs”. They are on lunch I was told, I asked how long and the guard shrugged his shoulders, then the door flung open and the senior looking guy signalled me to enter. I gave him the carnet and he told me to sit. They seemed to have finished lunch but they were sitting around having a chat, and in the process sorting my paperwork.

Lots of people kept banging at the door and once my carnet was done they let everyone in and what was a quiet room with 5 guys chatting became a room of 35 people all pushing and shoving and shouting over each other and I was glad to be leaving!!

Once we cleared everything I waded back to the bike past the crowd of about 50 people to get to Cat, we jumped on the bike and headed out. Things were crazy, so many people and not even 50 km from the border the traffic and roads were horrendous! It was getting late (about 3pm) and we wanted to hit Gorakhpur before dark but it wasn’t looking like it was going to happen. We pushed on, the roads were busy but we were excited to be in a new country and were noticing some BIG differences to Nepal.

We found the town as it was getting dark. The traffic was gridlocked, and I mean gridlocked: every conceivable bit of space was used bumper to bumper and both my panniers resting against other bikes or cars. I was having to use the panniers as battering rams to keep people from cutting me up. We had been caught out, we didn’t know where the hotels were and moving through the town was very slow, after asking people and riding around we finally found the main area and settled on what looked like a half decent hotel. (but it turned out it had lots of bugs, the free wifi didn’t work, and instead of the usual paper-thin walls, it actually had a grill/hole in the wall between ours and the next room. So we were pleasantly woken at 6am by our neighbour hocking and spitting, and I think even being sick. Nice.)





Tired, we went for a small walk, grabbed some dinner and went to sleep with the plan to leave early due to wanting to get out the town before the traffic starts.

In the morning we woke early as planned and went and tried to get some breakfast (tried, because the “included breakfast” hadn’t started yet), then saddled the bike up and left. To begin with it was easy going but it got worse and worse. We had a big day planned, around 470km, so I was keen not to waste time. We soon hit the “highway” and it was actually a half decent bit of road with a central reservation, but don’t be fooled into thinking a little bit of pavement, grass and concrete barriers mean anything over here!

It was early and quieter when we started and Cat decided she wanted to ride for a bit, so she hopped on and for about 50km she was pilot and I was co–pilot but traffic got busier and we started to hit towns so we swapped back. Around 8.30am things were getting very busy and the idiots were out to play (side note on idiots – the tv ads for bike tyres actually say “the roads are full of idiots”!): people overtaking each other and leaving you no room, and all manner of rickshaws, bikes, lorries and jeeps coming towards us when there is nothing wrong with their side of the road! At one stage I had a lorry to my right coming towards me, one pulled out towards me on my left, with a car in front going the same way and a guy behind me not wanting to slow down trying to overtake whilst heading straight towards the lorry on the right! It was ****ing crazy and we didn’t feel safe.

The whole place was an assassination on the senses and my natural road sense was freaking out. After 400km we realised we wouldn’t make our destination if the roads continued like this, so decided to get to a big city and “re-plan” as we could not do this bit of the trip with our usual happy-go-lucky-no-planning-turn-up-and-find-a-hotel attitude.

So we headed for Kanpur. Again the traffic was mental, no pavement so everything mixed together, again I was having to be a bully on the bike and make it known I would push the smaller bikes around if I needed to. We got stuck at a railway crossing and everyone surrounded us, there must have been 200 people around us, I could hardly see and the Indians are not like the Nepalese. It’s not in their culture to be polite: they like to touch and poke and grab and lift so you have to be strict or soon they are trying to climb on the bike with you. After about an hour of battling through town we found a good hotel with fast wifi so we could get on google maps.

We went for a walk and found a shopping mall, it was a medium sized mall but it was modern and was like being on oxford street, except for getting followed around by an ever-growing pack of Indians, but from time to time the security would come and they would all go away. Anyway this mall had a KFC and McDonalds, and we decided we deserved a treat, so Cat got KFC and I headed to Maccy D’s thinking about my Big Mac, then to my horror realised they serve no beef – NO BEEF IN MACCY D’s!!!! so I changed tactics and went back to KFC.

We ate our chicken then headed back to the hotel. We had decided we need to plan out our route more carefully and keep the mileage down to 250km a day but still give ourselves the whole day to get there, leaving bigger cities before 7.30am to avoid traffic. We also planned to use google to screenshot areas with hotels in each stopping point so we know the area we needed to be heading. This took us the whole day and we planned the first 50% (month and a half) step by step, fingers crossed tomorrow it pays off.

........

Well today was a different India! We got up early and set off and we were on the road by 7.30am, the town was starting to surface but was no busier than London would be at peak times (if London had wild cows). We got out the town pretty quickly as we knew what roads we needed. Soon the city was behind us and we were battling pot-holed roads with lorries - we still faced the same challenges with cars and lorries on the wrong side of the road but my pace slowed a lot and I was feeling a lot more laid back knowing I had, if needed, 10 hours to do the 272 km.

We stopped by the road side for breakfast and had a nice banana, some watermelon and some potato cake. Then got on the go again, and things were still very hectic but I felt I was managing a lot better. We were following our road plan, but after about 150km we found a tiny but great bit of road, signposted right to our destination Khajuraho, the home of the Karma Sutra temples. (Signposts are another of those mystical implementations of the west that India hasn’t quite adapted to yet.)

We rode around the town looking for a hotel. We could see it was a touristy place and there were quite a few touts about, but after looking at about 10 places we found a good place that was up to our standard and fitted our price range (£5 a night). We settled in but as we had planned things so well we decided to go look at the temples that afternoon as it was only 1.30pm.
The temples are absolutely jaw dropping, the workmanship and detail was amazing and I was blown away! We went into the Western group of temples, I think there are other ones but these are the main. They are all set within walking distance around a lush green garden, and as the sun started to lower it made them go a beautiful orange colour and this just added to the atmosphere even more. At the base of each temple, you just take your shoes off and you can climb up to look closely at the engravings, or make a prayer. I hope from the pictures you can get an idea of just how good this place was and it is definitely up there with my favourite historical sites that I have been to.
So three days in India has already brought us the mad roads, great roads, crazy cities and complete non-common-sense of other road users; being followed by curious Indians; Cat practising her big-bike riding in the most dangerous (road-wise) country yet; some beautiful historical temples; and a complete senses overload of sights, sounds and smells as we drive through villages, beautiful and sometimes filthy countryside Our next mission..... Tiger Hunting!

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

Eye of the Tiger

We had originally planned to stay two nights at the Khajuraho temples, but we figured being a day ahead was only a good thing so decided to move on the following morning, plus if needed it gave us an extra day at the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve. The ride to Bandhavgarh was supposed to be 300km but it ended up being 450km, this is a little down to maps not being correct and a little down to Cat “having a good idea” half way there so we ended up going a lot further than needed.






We’re starting to notice two types of roads: fantastic bit of beautiful road that puts a smile on your face as you waltz along at 100kph, or busy pot holed dusty roads with a fair amount of traffic and lots of lorries and buses! We saw today how bad these roads are from a danger point of view - we photographed 4 smashed up trucks which had all had either head on or rear end collisions. That’s 4 separate incidents on 120km stretch of road!!! This said I do feel a lot safer after having a few days to get used to it, and (bar the shadows cast from the trees over the road which hide pot holes in the afternoon and has therefore put a small dent in my front wheel) I’m a lot more comfortable than when I first started.






We arrived at the Bandhagarh tiger reserve and expected a fairly big place with lots of tourists, kind of like Chitwan in Nepal, but instead we were greeted with a small dusty town with a couple of shops and fruit sellers, no independent bars or restaurants, and about 10 hotels/resorts. Again the searching began and again we found a place for under £5 a night. We booked in and went straight away to see a “tour agent” to book our trip in the reserve for the morning. This is when we met an Israeli guy called Yaron, he is a professional photographer and had been out 8 times already and seen only glimpses of tigers twice. He was looking for other people to travel with him in the jeep to keep the costs down, and he was keen to go to the second area which was much cheaper. So after a chat we agreed to meet him and his driver at 6.00am the next morning.

It was an early and cold start but the driver turned up 5 minutes early which I actually like, we went straight off and sorted the permits and were soon in the park. Now, I like my nature, bird, deer and everything else and I soon came to realise why this was a “tiger hunt”, because they only ever wanted to stop very briefly to see anything else! But to be honest I cannot complain as after about an hour we got to see a huge male tiger! Not only did we see him in the bushes, but he walked onto the track in front of us. He wandered around the jeeps for a bit, then headed into the long grass. Our driver was very good – he drove around to try to cut the tiger’s path from the other side, and then we got another good 20 minutes show.

It’s something else to see one of these in the wild, and I feel very lucky to have been able to do it let alone see one on our first outing. They are big and powerful and they look every bit the big cat you imagine. When you go to the zoo you get a good idea of the animal but it’s just not the fit healthy strong beast you see in the wild! We were very pleased and so was Yaron who said we were very lucky and to be honest we are often very lucky like that. Pleased with our success, we decided we would move on the following day so again we got another day in the bag to stay somewhere else.

This time we headed to Kanha, another national park and tiger reserve but it was supposed to be one of the more beautiful ones. It was about a 350km day, again on some roads which I would have happily been riding my fireblade, and some which were dust, rocks and pot holes with trucks passing past us. It was a total mixed bag!! Cat rode in the morning and did the first 40km until the road started to get a bit more complicated and we hit a big town, but she did learn some cow-manoeuvring. (I actually really enjoy riding, but I’m happy to let James do most of it! From my little experiences, I have developed such a great respect for his skills, reading of the road, and control of the bike even when i’m moving around on the back!).

I hit a cow with my pannier at one point, there was a big group of cows and I was making my way through when one stepped backwards and got a bit of a clump on its leg. I didn’t stop as it was not that hard and the cow seemed fine. Some of the roads today were really nice, we are discovering that a lot of the “State Highways” are better maintained than the National Highways, which are very hit and miss, more miss really!!

We arrived in a Kanha and found two towns near the park gates, Khatiya and Mocha. We rode around for 1 and a half hours looking at hotels but we could not find anything for less than 1000 rupees a night (£12) which is not huge amount but it is for India especially when we are trying to get by on less than £40 a day between us including fuel and accommodation (and managing to, so far!). Anyway just as we picked a place another English guy came over and started chatting with me while Cat was sorting our room. I thought he was another guest but it turned out he lives here. His name was Steve, and he and his wife Elaine spend the winters here and summer in the UK.




We chatted for a bit and he asked where we had been etc and then he invited us to stay with him at his place down the road. I was keen and Cat came back just as he was about to go (he didn’t want the hotel to cotton on to him stealing customers!) and got a brief introduction. I told her his offer, but she was tired and dusty and just wanted to settle plus she had some laundry to do and didn’t want to feel like she was taking the piss. So I quickly unpacked the bike and then went to meet Steve and explain the situation. He was fine with it and said he understood and invited me back to his place for a cup of tea so I went.

Their place is beautiful, I also met Steve’s wife and we had a good chat for over an hour. He is a big fan of the tigers and that’s why they got a place out here, and by the time I left had planned to go back there tomorrow for a cuppa tea in the morning with Cat in tow. Once I got back to the hotel Cat was a little worried as I was out for over an hour and it was now dark, but she had got chatting to an English couple from Bristol and an American couple from Utah.

We and the English couple then decided to go for a bite to eat round the corner at a vegetarian restaurant (most of India is vegetarian, to my mates who just raised an eyebrow). It was a nice evening and we sat and chatted, they had been travelling in Africa for 7 months and were now in India for 3 months. Africa sounds very interesting and possibly the only place more backwards and crazy than here. We ordered some food and Cat’s “Indian food translation” list which she was given in Nepal from a fellow traveller proved to be very handy, and the food itself wasn’t bad especially when you think 4 of us ate for £6 total!!!

The next day we woke early, got some food inside us and chatted with the really friendly Americans before we headed off to meet Steve and Elaine. The plan was to pop round and have a cup of tea but we ended up having a fantastic day in their company. We chatted about work among other things and found out Steve used to run a successful company in England and that he had retired (kind of) about 10 years ago.

We met his security and helpers and in the early afternoon decided to go for a jungle walk along some of Steve’s favourite routes. It was really nice to be out in nature and taking in some of the amazing views. We did see lots of birds, some deer and the mighty kingfisher and India roller (please google this bird to understand just how beautiful it is, especially in flight). We had some river crossings thrown in and it was just a very pleasant day and great to hang out with other English people and have some relative normality.

After the jungle walk Elaine invited us to stay for dinner and cooked a great butter chicken. It was really good and again we chatted more and found about a lot about some of the electrical restrictions which they have to adhere to and how if the local government feel they use too much they can just walk in and take electrical items from their house, even though they pay their bills in full and on time!! We also found out about poachers and how it’s still a problem and that the park is now a lot harder to get into as well as a lot more expensive and it’s having a bit of a negative effect on tourism, which apparently, is what the authorities WANT! It was a very insightful day and finished with us taking a tour of a new resort close by that had a great restaurant where we had a .

The following day we had decided to do an afternoon safari. Steve had come up to our hotel as we were chatting with the two Americans Tom and Nancy, and everyone got introduced and got along so we all decided to share a driver and gypsy jeep, and thanks to Steve’s local knowledge he got us a very good deal indeed. So we all met about 2.30pm and went on our evening tiger search. We didn’t see a tiger this time but the park itself was very pretty and we did see some beautiful owls and deer, and we came close to seeing what the guides though was a leopard as the monkeys were sending out lots of warning calls, but it was thick grass and trees and we simply could not see what was moving around and making these monkeys so upset.




After the safari we went to Steve and Elaine’s again and had a cup to tea and some biscuits (it was heaven to have some original twix and Cadbury biscuits!). We all chatted for a couple of hours before me and Cat headed off early as we planned to be on the road the following day by 7am taking advantage of the cool weather. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the vegetarian restaurant next door, the food was really yummy and then we hit the sack.

The following day we woke early as planned but as we were not in a city with lots of traffic, there was not the urgency we expected, so we decided to eat breakfast at our hotel. As we packed the bike, we drew the usual crowd and I moved it round to the front of the hotel in view of our breakfast table. Tom and Nancy joined us and we exchanged details and will go see them if (or when) we do our American trip. We ate breakfast looking at maps and then the owner of the hotel gave us better directions – very detailed and he even wrote it in English and Hinid. It meant the first 7km would be muddy road, but would save us nearly 100km! We left waving goodbye to everyone who had gathered and bit the dust road!! There were 2 river crossings and the road was quite sandy but it was nice ride. We rode through small villages until we got to the state highway, then followed it all the way, easily, to Raipur.

Our hotel for the night was just a halfway point, as we were heading for the Chitrakote waterfalls, still another 300km away. We found a nice hotel, actually the nicest standard we’ve had so far with very friendly and English-speaking reception staff, so we gladly checked in and bedded down for the night, again with the aim of an early start.

Thinking back over our day’s riding, I was pleased with the journey, the better quality of tarmac, and I had a smile on my face, thinking that maybe I was finally getting into the rhythm of India.

__________________
Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com

So our journey into India continues south – we are heading for Jagdalpur to see the 300m wide Chitrakote waterfalls which is called the Niagara of India. After an early morning start, we stopped about 10am to have a fizzy drink and take a rest, as usual we attracted a small crowd but not a brave one so it wasn’t too much of a hassle.

The roads were good fun, but a little dangerous in places due to switchbacks climbing up and down a hillside, and there was one period where we hit a few pot holes but nothing for more than 5km at a time. Then we crossed a railway bridge with about 90km to go and there was a small speed bump which I slowed for, but as I got on the throttle again the bike felt odd, and I mentioned to Cat that we must have some smooth but uneven tarmac underneath us but she didn’t really notice.

I came to a lorry and pulled out fairly far back to get a good view, nothing was coming so I beeped my horn for 30 seconds making sure he knew I was coming before pulling past. As I got on the power though I knew something big was wrong as the bike felt all over the place, but fully committed I got past the lorry before coming to a gentle rolling stop.

Bugger, I thought, puncture, and sure enough the rear tyre was just about flat. No problem I thought as I had a spare inner tube, so we got off the bike and took all the gear off. Having never removed a tyre at the roadside before I was a little worried but the worry soon got worse as I saw the 2.5 inch gash in the side of the tyre. Well either way the wheel and tyres needed to come off so we got to work,

I pretty much got it totally off, and got the inner tube out but could not quite get the last bit of tyre off and by this point we had attracted about 30 “helpers” - in the middle of the nowhere may I add!! Seeing I needed help, one guy offered to run me to a tyre man in the next village so I jumped on his moped and off we went. These tyre guys (bloke in tiny hut with worn tyres, a few tubes and some levers) are everywhere in India, as you don’t change a tyre until you need to, which is not until it gives out!! This old guy appeared and looked at me like I was an idiot but he was impressed I had done, in rough translation, “the hard bit.” He just pushed it back on the rim and then fully loosened the opposite side before pulling it off with one hand.......................... man I thought I was doing so well!!

He looked at the tyre and shook his head, no good he said, no good. I explained I had no choice and needed a temporary fix, and he looked at it a minute before lining it with wheel liner and giving it to me, saying go slow.............. go very very slow. We jumped on the moped after paying the guy 30 rupees and headed back to the KTM. There was Cat with a still growing audience with cars parked on both sides of the road next to bikes and tuk-tuks and lots of people.... you would have thought there was a medium sized car-boot going on, not just two idiots from London on a battered bike!!

I put the bike back together as a few more people turned up before re-loading and heading off. It’s an amazing thing in India, as there are so many good people here who will genuinely help you expecting nothing in return; this said there are double that number of shitters here as well who want to make a quick buck off you, and 10 times that and possibly the most annoying category who just want to stand there with phones and cameras filming and often totally invading your space. I feel especially sorry for Cat who often gets perved at to a level where in England you’d be sporting a black eye, whilst here I have to be more understanding/flattered but it’s very difficult for her!!

So we limped the bike those 90km to Jagdalpur. I took it easy and we checked often to see if the tyre got worse but it didn’t. Once in Jagdalpur we found the place we were looking for (Hotel Rainbow) pretty quickly as it was not a very big city: much to my annoyance as I knew we had no chance of finding a tyre. I was tired and irritated and I was annoyed as I knew this would happen and wanted to carry spare tyres with us, but decided against it after talking it through with Cat who was insistent we could easily get it sent out if needed (obviously not thinking about Indian customs!)

But now we are in India, we both know this is never going to happen! India is a lot more messed up than we expected (organisationally/logistically/common-sensibly) - no matter how much we had read or talked with other people who had been here, we had not been expecting it to be as mental as it is. I was pissed off as it’s at this point that I knew no matter how optimistic I wanted to be, that if I had trouble finding tyres in Turkey and Dubai then I had no chance in India. The good news was our hotel had a bar so we made a beeline to discuss our options and just take a break from it all.

In the morning after breakfast, we headed into the town to look for tyres, or any other way of sorting the problem. We discussed about 100 different options but found no tyres and went back to the hotel no better off than we left. What we did discover was that Jagdalpur was too small of a town to get us any help so we needed to head back to Raipur. So the next morning we headed down to the market area to get a truck sorted.

It’s amazing in a city where most things are so backward that it’s so easy to get a truck to take you and your load 300 miles. I looked for a newish not beaten to death truck to take the bike to Raipur, and in less than 5 minutes we had 2 guys and a truck at our hotel helping us load our things for the 3rd time on this journey. They were going to take us to Raipur which is a 600km (round, for them) journey for about £40. Bike loaded and ready to roll we hit the highway, Cat in the front with the driver, and me and the helper in the back with the bike, much to the amusement of most of the passers-by.

It was actually a pleasant way to spend the day (bumping around ignored). I sat watching the world go by listening to my ipod or reading when the road was not too bad. Some people would catch the truck up and ask me questions about what was wrong and around 3pm we stopped for a quick bike to eat at the same place we had stopped at on the way down.

We made it into Raipur in rush hour, the usual hustle between cars, 4x4’s, bikes, tuk-tuk’s, cows, goats, people and everything else was mental. We slowly made our way through with the typical interest from jaw dropped locals, and we were with 1km of the hotel we had stayed at before when the police told us we could not take a truck any further. Clearly other vehicles were going that way, and pissed off, I said we are going that way, he said you cannot, I said you don’t understand we are going down that road, we have been driving all day and where we need to be is just 1000 meters that way and if you don’t let me go that way with a truck we will park here, unload the tuck completely blocking the street and you will have to help me push the bike 1000 meters. Luckily he could tell I was just about serious enough to do it, so with a shake of his head he waved us though.

We pulled up outside our old hotel and the security guards helped us unload, while reception who speak perfect English asked what was wrong and said they were sad to hear of our problems but welcomed us back and as returning customers they gave us 20% off.

The following 2 days were spent throwing around the 100 or so ideas to fix this situation, as you do. We looked at second hand bikes, Enfields to start with but the running issues and high second hand cost made it not worthwhile. We were considering 2 pulsars, or something similar, if we had to wait for a tyre so we could continue travelling around. It would be so simple if India didn’t have that silly 2-month rule, then I could just fly into Kathmandu, pick up my spare set, and fly back – problem solved in a matter of days!

Anyway, we met a nice Indian one day whilst I was falling out with a tuk-tuk driver who had agreed to take us somewhere for a fee and then 600 meters up the road pulled over to demand 5 times more money, that old chestnut. He really had rattled my cage as I had enough stuff going on and for the first time in a while I had decided that if he had the cheek to get out of the tuk-tuk I was going to really fall out with him - he was a nasty piece of shit swearing at me when we got out as I refused to pay the extra money, then he followed yelling at us before pulling across us and knocking Cat with the side of the tuk-tuk. I was well and truly over it and this twat had got me on the wrong day, he was about to cop a hiding just so I could take some stress out on someone, even Cat wasn’t going to stop me, I think that shows what a ***** this guy was (that and the fact that clumping people is not something I take a great pleasure in doing!) Then another voice started yelling at this guy and having even more of a go at him than I was: he got off his moped and walked towards him and with that this guy seemed to panic and ride off, seeing that we were starting to get some support from locals. The local came over and introduced himself as Deepak.

Deepak was great, he asked us what we were doing and then he parked his moped and demanded to help us out even though we told him we would figure it out. Soon he was waving down tuk-tuks with us and coming along, and refusing to pay more than the local price (which is a 6th of the best bargained tourist price!), he even paid for the first 2 and wouldn’t take money off me. We told him about what had happened and what ideas we were throwing around and we told him we needed to find out how much stuff was so we could consider all our options. We had also had bad news that the tyres in Nepal COULD get couriered over but there was a very high chance they would get stuck in India customs or lost in the post. As the shipper in Nepal said “they will definitely make it, no problem, but you might be finished and in Australia by then.”

The market was open so we headed down to look at second hand bikes. Deepak was translating for us and helping get us an idea of what was a good deal and bad. We could purchase two 3-year-old 150cc Pulsars for about 70,000 rupees (£900) which was a good deal as we could sell them 2 months later for near enough even money as we were getting a 10,000 rupee discount per bike for taking 2. This was the first bit of good news, our India trip wasn’t totally over as we could leave the KTM somewhere, ride around on these for 2 months, come back and get the KTM put on a truck and then head out back to Nepal.

We left it there for now, to see what other options cropped up. Sunday we went for a bit of a walk, where we got followed so much we jumped in a tuk-tuk and headed for the biggest mall in Raipur, which was rubbish, so we grabbed a coffee and icecream and read our books but soon we had about 10 guys sat nearby staring at Cat and making her uncomfortable. So we left and hid away in our hotel, while I posted online looking for travellers who might be coming from Nepal to India who could bring my tyres. In the evening we treated ourselves as Cat found out there was a Dominos pizza so we ordered that but nicely our hotel insisted they send a waiter to go get it for us as they were quiet.

Monday rolls round and I’m getting replies from adverts I placed offering various ideas. Steve from Kanha rang just about everyone he knew to see if he could find tyres, he was confident to begin with but was having no luck. I also rang KTM in Pune who were useless (I don’t want this to effect KTM who have been generally good: it’s an India thing) and I also rang about 5 other people who promised to get back to me: 4 of them didn’t and the other said no luck.

We headed down stairs to take the wheel off, with the aim of taking it around the bike/tyre shops in Raipur. The security from our hotel came over and got the idea of what we were hoping to do, then the manager and a few business men also came and 1 guy spoke English. He said his brother was a tyres dealer, that my tyre could get a good temporary repair and they could get me a new tyre from Bombay. I left him making the calls, and then the hotel insisted I take a driver, helper and their 4x4 which they did for free just to help us out and we drove all around the city visiting mechanics.

We tried many places with no luck – the biggest tyre we could find in 18 inch was 120 and I needed 150! We came to a tiny shack, with very helpful nice guys there, and they said that the tyre should not be repaired at it was too badly damaged. But he insisted he had a customer who had 130x80 or 140x80 tyres and dug out an old worn one to show me. We had been to every big fancy looking tyre dealer and this guy who was covered in oil and dirt knew more than all of them!

With a small smile I shrugged my shoulders and said where??? He gave my driver (sounds more posh than it was) directions to a tyre guy nearby who he said would help us. We turned up to another smart but slightly smaller tyre shop where a smartly dressed big shouldered Indian (I think he was sikh as he wore a turban) and he smiled as I went over to the counter and explained what we wanted.

Straight away he said this will not be easy as of the 18inch rim. But he sent his assistant to dig around and they came out with a 120x80 (the same as we had been offered 10 minutes before by the guy we met in our hotel whose brother could get it from Bombay for 5000 rupees) – and when I asked how much he said 2900 rupees. I told him that’s 2100 cheaper than Bombay, but he laughed and said “no it’s not but I’m just fair and not after your money!” with a big smile.

Then he said let’s search and see if we can find better, as this is not the best for your bike but makes a good backup if we need and I will make sure we don’t sell it to anyone in the meantime. Then he rang about 10 people before saying ok, I may have a tyre, it’s bigger let’s go look, so we all jumped in the 4x4 and he gave directions to the guys from the hotel who were still helping me out. When we got there he told me to stay in the car, otherwise it would cost a lot more. He went into what looked like a grocery store that had a few tyres, some batteries, spray paints, and spare parts: I would never have found this place on my own! He waved me over and had found a 130x90. It was a much bigger tyre and he said we would be very lucky to find anything bigger and the price was 2400 rupees, the cheapest yet!!! I said I needed to see if this was the best we could do and the guy said I love travel and have a lot of respect for you as a traveller on a bike, so pay for this, we will still look for bigger and if something turns up we will swap them over.

The deal was done. But just before I paid I saw a big-looking tyre across the road, on one last hope I though I’d better check but the guy said no it’s a Chinese tyre, I said so? and he said “in India we say Chinese is not good quality,” and I said “that’s funny cause in England we say the same thing about Indian tyres!” Both big men got the joke and laughed out loud and said oh no now its 3000 rupees! Finally I had found two very easy going decent people who were helping me out AND got my jokes! Anyway the Chinese tyre was only 15 inch even though it was a 150x80, so I bought the first tyre and the drivers took it to be fitted while I had a coffee with the friendly sikh guy from the tyre shop. We sat and chatted and I found out where he had travelled and we compared notes.

Later in the evening after I fitted the wheel back onto the bike, myself and Cat went back with the rumbling KTM to both the fitter and the guy who helped me find the tyre. I let them both take pictures on the bike and it drew a big crowd to both workshops. So the good news is we are back on the road, but we are not going to Goa as it’s too far from other towns and from Nepal, so instead we are going to head north as there are lots of bigger cities around and we are close to the border of Nepal should we have any more tyres issues.

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Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com