Hot on the heels of my round Australia duology - Brisbane to Broome and Broome to Brisbane, I have embarked on the big one - round the world.

Two years of planning including countless hours gleaning information from HU, I head off on my adventure. My trusty 2006 1200GSA - Ziggy, who (who?) taught me a thing or two about riding on the Australia trip, is primed and ready.

I flew Ziggy from Brisbane to LA where I'll be making my way across Arizona and New Mexico to visit some friends in Austin Texas. From there I'll head into Mexico where I'll spend two months before catching the Stahlratte to Cuba for three weeks. On my return to Mexico, there is nothing else organised, but the plan is to visit all Central American countries, head east across the top of Sth America through the Guyanas, down the coast of Brazil to Rio, then figure out the rest from there.

I plan to fly from Buenos Aires to Cape Town where I'll work out the route through Africa. Once in Europe, well I have to get home of course, so if I'm not sick of it yet, I'll be riding. But can I stop once I get back to Australia? I'm getting ahead of myself!

I have a blog (see the signature) where I'll be doing a longer version of the writing of the journey, and a Facebook page where I'll be posting stuff as well. I'll be posting photos here.

Follow me on my journey and make comments along the way. It makes a difference to know people are following.

A couple of photos of Joshua Tree National Park in California where I camped last night...bbbbrrrrrrrrrr

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

Congratulations for doing this - I ride the same bike so will be following along
Camping already - and looks like you are not carrying huge amounts of stuff - I'm afraid I am the opposite - alway want to take everything!
Good luck and have fun

Thanks Rob. The gear has taken a long time to work out. Started really heavy with everything, got it down to really minimal, then 'added a few bits' so not as lean as I would like, but see what does and doesn't get uses along the way and see if I can lighten up even more.

PN

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

G'day...enjoyed your Northern Australia write up. I lived north of Cairns 74-79 so brought back memories. Now that you are in the US, give some thought to Utah (HWY #12, Moab - Jeep week in late March is fun!, etc.) Also, have you ruled out coming north to Canada. You are a bit early for the hjigh alpine of the Great Divide route, but there's lots of adventure to be had thisaway! PM me if I can help with more info, place to stay etc....

Stephen
Red Deer Alberta

Thanks Stephen. You hit on one of the dilemmas of 'round the world' - which countries do you miss and still see as many countries as possible? One of my reference materials was Chris Scott's book Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, where he defines the 'Adventure Motorcycle Zone (AMZ)'. The zone excludes North America, Australia and Western Europe, mostly based on expense of travelling in those countries and probably a little to do with cultural differences and challenges in the other countries.

So in planning I have deliberately focused on the AMZ to enable my travels to last as long as possible. I can travel for twice as long in the AMZ. I happen to have friends living in the southern US so that's on the radar and is also an obvious take-off point to Mexico and beyond. So unfortunately Canada and further north into the US is ruled out at the moment.

Thanks for following!!

PN

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

Bear with me while I get a methodology happening for telling a story through photos. Travelling on your own makes it a bit of a challenge so there are a lot of selfies.

On arrival to LA, I pulled Ziggy out of the crate and rode into the first rain of the year in the dark.


So visited the usual suspects - Hollywood Boulevard





This really exists!


Of course, the sign


The view


Random Harley riders named Wayne


HU LA Community member Vincenzo

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

I have already posted photos of Joshua Tree National Park, but on the way I rode through Desert Hot Springs



Camping at Joshua Tree


Leaving Joshua Tree National Park


and heading to Phoenix, Arizona where I met up with other Aussies who were starting and finishing big trips. Bevan (riding) lives here and Glen in the sidecar has just finished a 14mth trip through Canada and the US and is heading back to Australia.


Glen and Leanne on their Triumph Tiger 800 prepping for USA/Canada/Alaska


The workshop


I stayed with these guys for a couple of nights and can't thank them enough for their hospitality.

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

Glen and Leanne and I went for a ride in the hills north of Phoenix to visit a couple of towns called Jerome and Sedona.

The road to Jerome wound into the mountains and was a brilliant ride of wide winding roads with switchbacks and sweeping curves against a backdrop of mountain views in the distance. There were few places to stop and photograph unfortunately






Jerome township






Sedona


At Sedona, Glen and Leanne took a turnoff to loop back to Phoenix and I continued on to Flagstaff, then to Williams where I stayed the night on Route 66 before heading to the Grand Canyon the following day.

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW