Hello,

My name is jon, I am an Englishman. In march 2018, I rode from Switzerland to Kazakhstan, 9000 miles over 33 days. It was the most extraordinary experience of my life. Now I plan, something bigger.

On 1st January 2020, I will leave on Stage #2 exploring the earth on my motorcycle. The journey is planned for 1000 days, over which I will ride 100,000 miles. Since i left the motorcycle deep in Kazakhstan, this will be the natural starting point in 2020. The plan goes ahead solo regardless, and now with just 550 days to go, but this is really to see if there is someone out there on my level mentally, who might like to join with me on this journey, which brings some advantages, some disadvantages. It would be pretty sweet to meet that riding companion, like Charlie & Ewan, but if not, so be it.

Thanks,

the website where pictures/videos will be is: www.ridethehorizon.com/s2

jon

Hello Jon,

Your trip sounds very exciting. Do you have a general route/direction you are taking?
Erica

This actually sounds fantastic!
I'm planning a RTW, starting 2020 or 2021 from France and west bound. I planned to join some friends going to Mongolia thru Russia by truck during the same period... I love your plan but can't make any promise yet, as I already have some friends to join and not sure what my GO time would be... Keep us posted!
Out of curiosity, what bike did you choose for that ?

The route:

I initially posted that I would likely start in Kazakhstan since Patricia, my current bike is out there lying in wait, in a barn deep in Kazakhstan for me. However I am almost certain that I will start here in the UK on another bike, this is for the sake of part of another trip plan within the 2020 plan, but all will become clear later.

There are several desires in mind, but here it is:

Starting from the Uk, quickly out across the tunnel into France & down through Portugal. Taking the ferry to Algeria. Straight into the desert on a loop south to explore southern Algerias beautiful red orange sand/rock formations. Into Tunisia. Back through the north of Algeria to Spain.

A good month or two in Morocco especially in the south towards the Merzouga desert & down into Western Sahara to Laayoune and possibly a great more countries down there, but not all the way down.

Back up and out, north to Denmark, and on the Ferry for a good long time exploring as much of the wild of Iceland as possible,

After a few months or so there, back to Scandinavia on a big loop clockwise to the top, Nordkapp etc and plenty of time in the wild.

A bit of Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine etc, or directly into Russia from the top near st Petersburg,

This is where as much time in Russia starts with a business visa for as long as possible in the country. It may also be necessary to exit, obtain a second business visa and return to complete this part. It’s going to be about 1-1.5 years in Russia.

Every route every track every river crossing, I have mapped out the whole of the possible Russia roads/tracks and intend to fully explore as much of it as possible & intend to use some of Walters mapping where there are no roads.

Before riding completely east to Magadan, I will go into Kazakhstan, swap bikes to get some more use out of Patricia. Down to the Ustyurt Plateau & as much of Kazakhstan as possible, then all of the Stans apart from Pakistan as I can’t cross into there. Bear in mind, I intend to spend a lengthy time living in the Wakkhan.

Once winter has passed & all the Uzbek, Tajik, etc has been covered the next challenge arises - after exploring Baikal, I will acquire a small boat, prepare it for living & & proceed to float from Baikal to the Arctic circle, 4000 Miles. I will have the bike onboard & experience the pure remote wilds of Russia, and hopefully encounter polar bear & icebergs at the extreme north. Here I will meet natives living in Tipis & hearding Reindeer. I will live among them for a time & ride the motorbike as far as possible, but may have to face a winter with them of minus 40/50 degrees.

Since there is no way back and no road, no airport, no infrastructure up there this is where Patricia will spend the rest of here days retired amongst the natives & probably will become a huge motorcycle ice cube or the engine will be butchered into some kind of primitive tool or heater or table saw. Atleast, something useful to the natives where there are no roads.

This here is providing one does not float too far out into the arctic sea, and or is rescued by a Russian ship captain with good eyesight.

Once having completed this stage of Russia & parting with dear Patricia bike, , it would then be to find some way south again back to Kazakhstan, where I could then get to bike #2 and continue the round the world next stop, more south central Russia and the mountains & across to Mongolia.

A thorough time exploring Mongolia.a good long time. I want to see it all, and explore the Gobi desert. When winter approaches I will then buy a yurt, a wood burning stove & a camel, keep my bike in the yurt and live out through the winter of minus 40 staying in Mongolia as the bike simply will not run / impossible to ride like that. I will take to riding my camel during this time & getting to know the natives. Alternatively, I would set up the yurt in the middle of lake baikal whilst it is frozen & live on the frozen lake.


Once spring comes around it’s back into Russia for the road of bones & exploring Siberia all the way, and back down to Vladivostok.

Then ferry to Korea, Explore
Ferry to Taiwan, Explore
Keep bike at friends in Taiwan for a while while I fly to China and explore. Since it’s problematic bringing a bike to China, I will buy a bicycle there instead and cycle Tibet and explore.

Once bike arrives at Taiwan explore, ship to Vietnam, and ride to Halong bay.
There I will temporarily convert the bike into a motorbike boat and ride/boat around Halong bay beautiful islands.

Convert back to motorbike and down to the rest Thailand, Laos, Cambodia etc.

From there I’d like to go across Burma to Bangladesh and head for India. A thorough long time in India & down to Sri Lanka, fly to Maldives, back to the bike, Nepal, and back to south east Asia to continue to Indonesia, Borneo and the islands.

From Jakarta my plan goes a bit vague, but hopefully Papua New Guinea, Australia, send bike on a flight to Argentina & some time on Tahiti island, before crossing myself.

South America.
Then it gets a bit interested/alternative where probably many would not be mentally prepared for this.
Ride into Peru and to the source of the Amazon. Once found follow downstream to a point where it’s big enough to float a board find a boat and put motorbike in boat. Pack supplies and start floating down the Amazon.

Here I would continue the full length of the Amazon river out to the ocean, but the plan is to stop deep in the jungle once at Columbia. Here I intend to meet the remote naked tribe & befriend them. I will befriend them and live naked deep in the jungle in a treehouse that I will build myself & spend much time here. After some time, I will depart to find very large trees that have fallen & I will hue out two of them (hopefully with the help of my tribesman) into tree canoes. I will then join the two with bamboos or similar and craft a tree canoe catermaran to upgrade my original boat. Then I will say goodbye to my jungle friends and continue to goat further deep in central amazonas region on my hand crafted motorbike tree canoe catermaran. I will meet many a tribe & see amazing animals, Black jaguars and Jesus lizards and I will sleep in the trees of the jungle under the stars with the apes in a tree hammock trying to overcome the night paranoia with all the insect and animal sounds going off in the night. I will live freely as a wild man of the jungle for quite some time & it will be the time of my life.
Eventually I will float out to sea and will have completed the Amazon. Here I would like to keep my tree canoe as a souvenir, and further explore Brazil where there is civilisation. Then I will proceed to take the bike on a boat to North America and explore the land & eventually Canada, Alaska.

That would be the end of the 2020 3+ years, and back home to the uk.

After this I will plan to do a full explore of Africa & any countries I have missed.

The bike in Kazakhstan is a quite standard Honda with off road tyres.
The bike I will use for the round the world uses a 700 engine and frame as a base but different forks and suspension and larger front wheel and the rest I am building up in a friends garage into a custom bike exactly how I want it to be, to best carry the luggage I will need and will be better suited to other offroad riding.

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www.ridethehorizon.com

Numer6_0, let us keep in contact, & come the time you are welcome to join me/it would be a pleasure to join in on the ride, atleast in part if our routes do not coincide. Good to hear from you

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www.ridethehorizon.com

if I see right you ride honda nc750s - good bike with great, torquey engine.
I have nc750x in my stable which is a bit bigger but same guts, very capable.
Anyway unique choice for travel bike, good luck.

There's a possibility of meeting up once you come to the Americas. I am going to teach in honduras for a few more years and plan to take some time off after to ride around. I'm planning to loop down to Argentina and then ride back up to the USA
.

You had me until the part about the "apes" in South America. Oh, and riding downstream from the Amazon's source until you can find a boat. And those friendly, nekkid tribes. The camel. The yurt on a frozen lake. Et cetera.

Stay in touch!

Mark