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Snow at the Rail Station - Vladivostok

After a relaxing night in the Hotel we woke early with the intention of getting our package from DHL which included our Carnets (bike passports/permits required for entering Japan).. at the same time we would need to organise our ferry tickets for that night.. It was all going to be a HUGE rush but it was possible given that the Ferry was scheduled to leave at 10pm that night. First stop was breakfast then we went to the port to organise tickets.. The office said that it opened at 10am.. we waited there ringing the door bell until at least 10:30 before anyone was able to assist us.. Heather got the information first and ran down to me while I was trying to get a mobile top up card.. “helllllpppppp no ferrrryyyyyyyyy”.. Ferry Cancelled..  (more…)

Long Grass Riding - Russia

Shortly after arriving in Khabarovsk we found ourselves a hotel.. as we pulled up outside a fancy white Mercedes Benz drove into the drive way.. while Heather was getting prices for the hotel I waited with the bikes. One of the guys from the car introduced himself and asked us where we are headed to and where we have come from. He was visibly interested on he details and he went into the hotel. Shortly afterwards Heather came back and had decided that we would stay in the hotel. I then started to unpack the bikes of anything that was easily to steal…. (more…)

Beautiful Lake – Russia

After getting back into Russia for our third time it was time to fill up the bikes with newly cheaper fuel, get some lunch and enjoy the sunshine. Heather in hIt was freezing in the wind but out of the wind it was really nice and warm at around 15c. The only problem was that out of the wind we got attacked by these bloody midges, which hung around our faces like a swam of locusts. Heather was particularly keen on them.. That’s all I can say about that.. te he he.. ohhh okay you twisted my arm.. all she could think about was how she couldn’t handle two weeks of these bugs while we crossed the remainder of Russia…. ohh and there was at least two hundred and sixty seven tantrums… okay maybe only twenty.. (HL: whatever, James was the only one having wobblies).. After getting a fire going to keep the bugs away (HL: by sitting in the smoke) we relaxed for a few hours before making our way north. The warm weather was brilliant to take advantage of it we thought we would call it a day early and found a lake to camp by.. there was what looked like an unused rail road around the edge of the lake on the eastern side where people fished. Heather was setting up the tent and I was collecting some fire wood only to be disturbed by a huge mining bulldozer which clearly used the road to get back. We had to quickly unpack everything (HL: by throwing the tent in a ditch) and pushing the bikes up a small slope to be out of the way of the bulldozer, then moving them again as it was getting bigger as it approached .. it was all very exciting as it was night so just had massive lights on us, we hoped like hell that the guy wouldn’t be coming back any time soon.. especially while we slept in the tent.. (more…)

Mongolian Robotic Man – Mongolia

After sleeping in our plan to leave early from Ulaanbaatar was dashed. It turns out that this was a blessing in disguise given that it had snowed over night. We now found that leaving later meant the snow and ice could melt somewhat. It was bloody freezing. It took us around 2 hours to get packed up and we ended up having a nice breakfast and leaving around 10:30am.. The plan was to head to the border so that we could cross first thing Monday morning. After leaving Ulaanbaatar the feeling of relief was amazing after 14 days of frustration. However crossing the mountains to get out of the city went from freezing to freezing plus plus plus (that’s extra freezing).. the thermometer was reporting -2c with a strong cross wind making the ride particularly unpleasant.. at least once we crossed the mountains we had sunshine and warmth. (more…)

Our route Gobi - Mongolia

After getting Heathers bike fixed it was time to make our way to Ulaanbaatar. With our newly revitalized selves we headed off to the petrol station.. only to find that nowhere seemed to sell 92 octane fuel. There was no way we wanted to run our bikes on 80.. it would spell disaster… the BMW manuals say never put anything lower than 91 in.. so that’s what we had to find.. eventually we found THE only place that sold 92 in town.. we are pretty sure it was probably some dodgy fuel but at least we had our tanks full and it was time to head on. (more…)