Nothing is as expected continued...

Before I came on this trip, I was worried that having not driven a motorbike for nearly ten years that I might be a little crazy to go on such a long adventure. That I would end up letting down my co-adventurer Neil, no matter how much he reassured me. My other main fear was my bike being unreliable and me not having brought the right spares or tools. When the clutch went in Romania (definitely a learning experience), it was not me or the bike that ended up being the real problem but the red tape. As Dan Burns always says “Control the controllable”.

I was also expecting to spend a fair amount of time thinking about Thoughtworks and what type of role / work I would do on my return. For once in my life I think I have been able to not think about work at all. No dreams about coding, no crazy ideas about operating systems etc. Most of the time I have been thinking about my 3 ladies (Becki and our 2 cats; Fatty and Freaky) and our home.

“It’s unbelievable”

This has become another of our key phrases on this trip. So what has been?

• The hospitality in Romania and central asia. People with the least giving the most. One chap in Romania giving us money for petrol as all the banks where closed and absolutely refusing to take it back no matter how much we tried.
• The scenery in Kyrgystan and Tajikistan. The Pamir highway was like being on mars as you will see as soon as I can upload the pics.

Things that were not so good…

• The traffic police in Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia are to be avoided at all costs unless you have a some US dollars you need to get rid of.
• Russian beer appears to be a very effective laxative!!!
• 45 degrees celsius on the bike at 50mph!!! Ands it’s said to be low 50s in Turkmenistan where we are off to next.