Dreaming of a motorcycle trip to distant climes? This section will help you to plan your trip, whether it's to the next state, country or all the way around the world! Start here!
The Achievable Dream 5-part series - the definitive video guide for planning your motorcycle adventure. Get Ready! covers planning, paperwork, medical and many other topics! "Inspirational and Awesome!" See the trailer here!
You could just get on a plane with your credit card and passport and buy or rent everything you need when you get there. That includes the bike, riding gear, etc. etc.
Gear Up! is a 2-DVD set, 6 hours! Which bike is right for me? How do I prepare the bike? What stuff do I need - riding gear, clothing, camping gear, first aid kit, tires, maps and GPS? What don't I need? How do I pack it all in? Lots of opinions from over 150 travellers! "will save you a fortune!"See the trailer here!
So you've done it - got inspired, planned your trip, packed your stuff and you're on the road! This section is about staying healthy, happy and secure on your motorcycle adventure. And crossing borders, war zones or oceans!
On the Road! is 5.5 hours of the tips and advice you need to cross borders, break down language barriers, overcome culture shock, ship the bike and deal with breakdowns and emergencies."Just makes me want to pack up and go!" See the trailer here!
Tire Changing!Grant demystifies the black art of Tire Changing and Repair to help you STAY on the road! "Very informative and practical." See the trailer here!
With an HU blog, you'll get a lot more readers than in some obscure corner of the web, it's all set to go, no setup required, and it's free! Start your Travel Story Blog right now!
800+ HU Communities in over 115 countries! People who want to meet travellers - yes that's YOU - and can provide local assistance, and may be your new best friends!
Make a DifferenceTips on fundraising or donating time and energy to a cause.
After the big trip - Was the trip the best - or worst - thing you ever did?
Resources and Links
Horizons Unlimited Presents!
Ladies on the Loose! For the first time ever, a motorcycle travel DVD made for women, by women! These intrepid women share their tips to help you plan your own motorcycle adventure. They also answer the women-only questions, and entertain you with amazing tales from the road! Presented by Lois Pryce, veteran solo traveller through South America and Africa and author of 'Lois on the Loose', and 'Red Tape and White Knuckles.'
"It has me all fired up to go out on my own adventure!" See the trailer here!
Meet people who don't think you're crazy for wanting to ride your bike to South America or across Asia! They will encourage you, share their experiences and advice on how to do it!
We're not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown a hobby into a full time job and a labour of love.
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T-shirts Cotton or synth sweat-wicking t-shirts with the cool Horizons Unlimited graphic on the front and a snappy slogan (changing every year) on the back.
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World Map Sticker for PanniersShow your route on your panniers. Great conversation starter when you meet people on the road!
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Videos - Watch and Learn!
Horizons Unlimited presents!
Achievable Dream The definitive guide to planning your motorcycle adventure! This insanely ambitious 2-year project has produced an informative and entertaining 5-part, 18 hour video series. "The ultimate round the world rider's how-to!" MCN UK.
"The series is 'free' because the tips and advice will save much more than you spend on buying the DVD's."
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The HUBB PUBChat forum - no useful content required!
BUT the basic rules of polite and civil conduct which everyone agreed to when signing up for the HUBB, will still apply, though moderation will be a LITTLE looser than elsewhere on the HUBB.
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"El Azizia took the record for highest temperature ever recorded on Sept. 13, 1922, when a thermometer on a weather station hit a whopping 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), thanks to southerly winds blowing in hot air from over the Sahara Desert. The sweltering temperature displaced the previous record holder of 134 F, measured at the Furnace Creek weather station in Death Valley on July 10, 1913."
We also know that:
"The single highest land skin temperature recorded in any year of the study was found in the Lut Desert in 2005 and measured a stunning 159.3 F (70.7 C). Lut had the highest surface temperature in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009 as well."
But that would be wishful thinking, so if you qualify by El Azizia standards, let's begin the conversation with anything related to topics considered relevant by HU standards and monitors.
thanks
Eat, Drink, and please post here if you can... xfiltate
Hottest under the collar I've ever been was also from wind blowing off the Sahara. Aug 1978 in southern Morocco the campsite thermometer was registering 125F and it's the only day I've ever had to give up riding through heat. Even in T shirts and shorts it was unbearably hot.
I spent the afternoon sitting under a bridge, feet dangling in the river and reading Wuthering Heights (it's always pissing down and freezing in that book!).
So... what do we all think of Wuthering Heights? Better than Jane Eyre? People get very worked up over these things so keep it civil please.
Well I remember one particularly hot day riding in southern France where, stopping only to empty my pockets, I jumped in the river Tarn wearing all my riding gear including my helmet. The latter was a really bad idea, bit like being water boarded by the CIA. (joke)
Not really keen on the Brontës. But I was rather blown away by this audio of Bunny Sigler's 'Let the Good Times Roll' set to a video clip of the 1943 film 'Stormy Weather' (you can just make out Cab Calloway as conductor in the background)
__________________ "For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)
posted by Tim Cullis
Tim, you were right as usual, Mather's quote was "nothing like altitude, not attitude as I thought. This might be a life changing event for me.
Cab certainly scaled the heights with Minnie the moocher a la Blues Brothers 1980.
backofbeyond, what was your best take away from each book? I would really like to know, before I comment.
xfiltrate Eat, Drink and it's "altitude"not attitude.
The bit from Jayne Eyre is easy and may well have resonance with the topic in hand:
"A ridge of lighted heath, alive, glancing, devouring, would have been a meet emblem of my mind when I accused and menaced Mrs. Reed:
the same ridge, black and blasted after the flames are dead, would have represented as meetly my subsequent condition, when half-an-hour's silence and reflection had shown me the madness of my conduct, and the dreariness of my hated and hating position."
I remind myself of that passage whenever things get heated for no real reason. It's very easy to get caught up in the flames and not realise the black and blasted damage that's going to be the inevitable result.
Wuthering Heights is a bit more difficult, mainly because so much of it works below the surface. It impacts at a subconscious level - if you've had the life experiences to resonate with it (and not everybody does). To go much further would mean delving into topics that I'm reluctant to discuss on an open motorcycle forum but some of the most emotionally laden prose I've ever read has come from the pages of Wuthering Heights.
I know it's often dismissed as "VicChickLit" but I think that's a mistake. It's only when I had to try and produce similar "from the depths of the soul" passages in a book I wrote five or six years ago that I came to understand how sublime Emily Bronte's abilities were. Jane Eyre is good but Wuthering Heights is as good as it gets - all IMHO of course.
The hottest place I have ever experienced was Parker AZ. It is between Yuma and Death Valley. Our son worked there so we went to visit in August. Stupid is tattooed on our head. It was 128 F at 3 pm, down to 100 by 9 pm. Never never never again--son has since moved.
backofbeyond - sort of caught me off guard this time....
If you mean victorian woman's literature than I agree with you. What is amazing is the depth and breath of Emily and Charlotte's works, these two brilliant writers, coming from similar environments yet perceiving life so differently and then crafting those perceptions into reality for millions to share. These works were written, by women, as men, for humanity.
I am not sure, but I think Wuthering Heights was published after Emily's death and if so was so in keeping with her inner reflection.
Charlotte was by some accounts, gifted with a more worldly point of view. This is exhibited in Jane Eyre.
So we sort of have inside out with the two. A phenomenon that occurs while reading Wuthering Heights.
I sensed an underlying covertness to Jane Eyre, that I just could not shake.
To wit Charlotte wrote justifying her and her sisters use of men's noms de plume:
"Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because — without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine" – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise."
"Biographical Notice of Ellis And Acton Bell", from the preface to the 1910 edition of *Wuthering Heights.
*Emily's only novel.
Understanding the above quote, only gives greater measure to two very talented and disciplined women. I will have to re read both to give any meaningful comment. This might take a while, but I will do it this year, I read them both half a century or more ago.
Meanwhile, I would like to learn about the book/s you have written. And, advise you to take heart...that my writings often pale in comparison with great writings, so don't give up, just write, write, write.
FYI rosa del desierto, is a literary agent. - PhD is Spanish Lit She is also an author who published two books on the works of Spanish civil war poet, Antonio Machado.
I will ask her about Emily and Charlotte, and their literary differences.
See what she says... xfiltrate
Eat, Drink and Write
The hottest ever recorded temperature in the history in the Universe was inside my tent in Southern Sudan in mid August.
I could have boiled a couple egg in my underpants..
I probably did....
After an hour or two of literally fighting for survival, I ended up sleeping on the sand with the Scorpion's and face chewing wild dogs as it was 2c cooler.
I visited Antalya once for a vacation in august. It was the hottest weather I have ever encountered. Thermometers all around the city were showing 50-55 C (122-131 F). It was insane. I have never seen anything like it, you literally couldn't walk on the street for more than a min under the sun.
Have YOU ever wondered who has ridden around the world? We did too - and now here's thelist of Circumnavigators!
Check it out now, and add your information if we didn't find you.
Virginia: April 24-27 Queensland is back! May 2-5 Ecuador June 13-15 Germany Summer: May 29-June 1 CanWest: July 10-13 Switzerland: Date TBC Ecuador: Date TBC Romania: Date TBC Austria: Sept. 11-14 California: September 18-21 France: September 19-21 Germany Autumn: Oct 30-Nov 2
Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.
Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
What others say about HU...
"This site is the BIBLE for international bike travelers." Greg, Australia
"Thank you! The web site, The travels, The insight, The inspiration, Everything, just thanks." Colin, UK
"My friend and I are planning a trip from Singapore to England... We found (the HU) site invaluable as an aid to planning and have based a lot of our purchases (bikes, riding gear, etc.) on what we have learned from this site." Phil, Australia
"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA
"Your website is a mecca of valuable information and the (video) series is informative, entertaining, and inspiring!" Jennifer, Canada
"Your worldwide organisation and events are the Go To places to for all serious touring and aspiring touring bikers." Trevor, South Africa
"This is the answer to all my questions." Haydn, Australia
"Keep going the excellent work you are doing for Horizons Unlimited - I love it!" Thomas, Germany
Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.