I'm new around these parts, from the UK originally but working out in the US for a few years. I've done some tame motorcycle touring in Europe and the US, but like the idea of a proper adventure at some point in the future.

My pipe dream idea is this... when my job here finishes and it's time to go back to the UK... why not ride home on the bike! The vague route I'm thinking of is: Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. Then fly the bike and myself to Cape Town, South Africa. Then up the East side of Africa to Egypt, and hopefully ferry the bike to somewhere in Europe from there. Then through Europe, up to John o' Groats in Scotland.

Now the exact details of that will obviously change a lot as I plan it. I'll be here for at least 3 years, so I have plenty of time to work things out and get prepared. Political situations and suchlike can change a lot in 3 years, so obviously I'm flexible on the exact route.

But here's my question - can I do a trip like that in 5 months?

I'll only have a maximum of 6 months available, so I thought that aiming for 5 would be a good idea to give myself an extra month in case something goes wrong. Looking at the mileage, I think that would mean an average of 150-200 mile days which seems possible to me. I've ridden nearly 1000 miles in a day before, so I don't mind doing a few ultra-high mileage days along the way where roads allow for it to buy myself extra rest days.

I also don't mind sticking to paved roads wherever possible. I know for a lot of you guys, the idea of adventure riding is heading off road as much as possible... but I'm not so into that personally. I know there will be stretches of that route that are unpaved roads, but I imagine I could do at least 3/4 of it on roads that are paved to some degree.

So I'd love to hear the opinions of some more seasoned travellers about all this... oh, and, I realize I'm mad contemplating this as my first trip outside of Western Europe/North America

5 months????? If you're superman and everything goes perfect and you plan every detail and those details work perfectly and you never stop and nothing goes wrong and you ride all night every night, probably even....not likely, possible on paper....barely.

How about Prudoe Bay to Ushuaia in 5 months? Still not going to see or do anything but doable IMO.

Yeah, having researched this a bit more, I now realize it's a little unrealistic

I'm used to planning mileage days based on Europe/North America, so 300-400 mile day averages. I now realize that only a fraction of that is possible when going further afield due to border crossing delays and other things like that, as well as the quality of the roads.

New plan is to just do the American bit of that trip. I know some people would still take a year to do South America, but I don't have the luxury of getting enough time off work to do that... so having to blast past some things worth seeing in order to keep to schedule will be the price I have to pay for not losing my job unfortunately! I don't mind doing a few very high-mileage days along the way where road networks allow.

I guess worst case scenario, if I run out of time I just head to the nearest large port and try to ship my bike home from there, right?