I am writing to share a story of travelling and connecting that was all facilitated by participation on the Hubb!

Myself and my partner (Rory) set off in April 2023 to ride our 125cc motorcycles from London to Kazakhstan. Prior to departing, we found out that the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan was closed, potentially a massive spanner in the works as we wanted to avoid Russia and couldn't enter Iran! We turned to the Hubb to connect with other travelers and hear how they planned to overcome this closure. That is when we met Stuart Ringer!

Stuart was planning for his own trip out to Kazakhstan and back to the UK to raise money for the UK charity Mental Health Motorbike. Stuart was going to face the same problem at the Georgian/Azerbaijani border. We connected on the Hubb, then moved our conversation to Whatsapp. We ended up leaving the UK on the exact same date (April 15, 2023) but Stuart quickly pulled ahead of us and stayed a few weeks ahead of us throughout our journey, so we never met in person on the road. That said, Stuart would regularly provide updates on what we should expect to encounter as we travelled further east. We even briefly moved his bike off the Caspian Sea Ferry and into Azerbaijan on his behalf as he was stuck in Kazakhstan on his way back to the UK.

Now we are all back in the UK and FINALLY met in person in June 2024. Rory and I followed in Stuart's motorbike trail from London to Almaty, and it was great to connect over some food and drink and share our riding tales.

Pictured: Us meeting in London June 2024 and photos of all of us riding the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan!

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