But first, some more “News from the Road”…

Trevor gets Big Red up close to that place where they do all the singing...

Jumping for joy...!! Chenty celebrates another milestone on their World Tour...

My good friends Trevor and Chenty, have made it across southern Australia and reached Sydney…!!

They have ridden from Perth, across the Nullabor Plains to Adelaide and from there on to Melbourne, where they met up with our friend Mark Baldock, who we first met in Chiang Mai, and then again in Phnom Penh, Cambodia…

Mark took them for an amazing ride down the Great Ocean Road, and I am looking forward to joining him to do the same later this year, that is if he can stay home long enough to wait for me…!!

"You don't seem to be sweating as much as when we rode together, Trev...!!"

While on their ride, they have enjoyed “wonderful” weather in sunny Australia, as you can see from the picture here…!! Almost as nice as the weather here in Bali…!!

You might remember my two Polish friends I met in Wadi Halfa, in the Sudan (Quick note to self: Remember never to set foot there again…!!)… Both were on matching GS 1200’s just like the Big Fella, and were the first bikers I had come across at that stage of my journey…

They were on their way down to Cape Town from Cairo, but on the Hell Road to Moyale, Ken fell and broke his leg so badly, he had to be airlifted back to Australia to get patched up, or rather “bolted together”…

His riding buddy, Dariuz Oskroba, Poland’s Premier Baker, went back to Poland after storing their bikes at Jungle Junction in Nairobi… I spent a few days with Dariuz whilst in Poland… (Another quick note to self: Do not under any circumstances try to match Dariuz in a Polish Vodka Drinking Competition…!!)

I am delighted to report that in March, the Polish Pranksters were back in Nairobi and managed to complete their trip down to Cape Town without further mishap…!! Well done, Guys, belated congratulations…!!

Their bikes are back in Australia at this time, and I understand they are preparing to ship them to South America in the near future and ride the Trans-American Highway, all the way to Alaska… There is a good chance that our paths will cross again, and hopefully under better conditions that we experienced in Wadi Halfa…!!

Memories from Wadi Halfa... Dariuz and Ken, two fellow GS 1200 riders, heading for Cape Town... May 2010.

Morgan Parker, who we met in Laos and rode with us in Cambodia, has reached the finish line of his Hong Kong to Brisbane ride… His 100 day, 10 country tour of China, South East Asia, and Australia was a huge success for the 10 charities he sponsored, and I look forward to meeting up with him in a few months time…

Well done, Morgan…!! Good luck with your next ride through India…. You’re going to need it Buddy…!!

Michel's bike is prepared for it's long journey to South America...

Michel and Kate at their favourite Italian Restaurant in The Hague...

Meanwhile, back in Amsterdam…

Michel Jongens, the guy I spent time with in Holland, and had ridden from there to Kathmandu in 2009 on his GS 1200, has now completed the planning for the next stage of his own tour…

His bike is on it’s way to French Guyana in South America, from where he will begin an epic tour of South America, attempting to visit every country on that continent… We are hoping to meet up in Chile in November, and make the dash to Ushuaia together… From there we will track north up to Colombia together if our agendas and time restraints match…

Michel and I share an amazing number of similarities, and were born only a few days apart…. To relive the memorable time I spent with him in Amsterdam, you can click here…

You will have noticed all of the above riders have chosen BMW 1200’s to ride around the world on… They are normal (well fairly…!!) well balanced folk who made the right choice of bike to make long distance inter-continental rides on….

Willi poses alongside his"little Silver Pony" somewhere in Vietnam...

The "lightly loaded" scooter Willi is punishing through South East Asia... I think the elephants had better be the ones to keep a look out...!!

But there is always an exception to the rule… A man who HAD a 1200 GS, and rode through half a dozen countries with me, and then inexplicably, exchanged it for a bloody scooter…!!

Yes of course, I’m talking about Willi Hoover, and no “News from the Road” would be complete without referring to him…!!

He had completed his ride through Vietnam and is now back in Bangkok, planning his next move no doubt…!! I await news of his next destination with bated breath…!!

His latest mail began with the usual greeting and contained nuggets of advice that had to make me smile:

“Hola Gyp…!!  Cast off some of your junk and make room for the girl so you can ride off into the sunset together…!!”

Willi discovers a load to match his own in Cambodia...!!

The Little Silver Pony has been exchanged for a Little Red Pony...!! With similar "load-bearing capacity", as you can see...!!

Regarding the “cast off some junk” comment, Willi, I have just the three words for you; “Pot, Kettle, Black” …

He went on to tell me how he has bought and sold some bikes while in Vietnam “to pass the time”…!! Never a dull moment with Willi…!!

“Willi, old friend, get back to Colombia, and onto the 1150 GS you have there, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll let you ride with us…!! But under no circumstances are you to ever mention the word “scooter”, or the phrase “let’s stop for something to eat and drink”… Ha…!!”

To all my friends out on the road or about to begin another adventure on their bikes, Good Luck to all of you, and I hope we can meet up somewhere on our planet again…!!

GB

Ubud, Bali

©GBWT 2011