“Incredible Delays”, more like it…!!

Day three of my wait to get the bike cleared, and still no concrete info on when that might happen…!!

My new International Drivers Licence apparently passed the scrutiny of the Customs officer late yesterday afternoon… This is the very first country in which I have been asked to produce this licence, and told that my South African licence was “unacceptable”…!!

Judging by the way people drive in this country, I hope the South African authorities do not accept Indian Drivers Licences, and if they have been, I now have a theory about the high death toll on our roads…!!

True to form, by the time my Carnet was released, the offices where the next step takes place were closed…!! Cue Day Three…

Kris was hopeful that by lunch time today, the crate would be delivered to their offices so that I could begin getting the Big Fella re-assembled and on the road… In effect this means that I am unable to move around and need to wait for the phone call that will confirm his hopes were not misplaced…!!

Arno arrives back in Holland...

In the mean time, I have been able to check on the various riders I have met, and find out how they are doing…

Arno, the guy whose bike never arrived in Nepal, is back home in Holland…

After flying to Amman, he collected his bike and headed north to ride through Syria and in to Turkey, determined to ride all the way home… The Syrian border officials had other ideas however…

They discovered a small sticker on his passport, which proved he had entered Israel, and refused to allow him entry…!! I had seen this little sticker on the back cover of my own passport, and removed it before I re-entered Jordan…

Poor guy had to ride all the way back through Jordan and into Egypt, where he managed to take a ferry from Alexandria to Venice, and ride on from there…!!

Glad you completed your ride in one piece Arno, and hope getting “back to normal life” is not too stressful…!!

Having bought a scooter on arrival in Thailand, Willi is still pottering around in South East Asia, having managed to collect a few more bags on his way, as the photograph below clearly shows…!!

He is currently in Vietnam and by all accounts having a great time…!!

"Mind those elephants, Willi...!! They're looking for all that food you have in the pantry strapped to the back of your scooter...!!"

With a bit of luck, we may meet up in Cambodia in a few weeks time, where I am sure he will want to foist some of his excess baggage on me again…!!

Crowds gather to gawk at the Wilson's bike after they finally get it cleared through Customs...

My Canadian friends whom I met in Palmyra, flew their BMW to Mumbai in southern India, and have a full month of riding to do here before they get to Nepal…

After some delays with flights, and a few hassles of their own with Indian Customs, Trevor and Chenty eventually managed to get their bike and were last seen heading from Mumbai to Goa…!!

We had hoped to hook up somewhere in India, but with only ten days left on my visa, chances of this are slim…!!

Depending on how things go in Nepal, I might hang around in Kathmandu and see them there…

Take it easy in Kamikaze-land, guys…!!

Bryn Kewley, who somehow managed to get his bike across the Iranian border, and then spent time in Pakistan, has arrived in Delhi…!!

I am unable to meet with him until I have my own bike cleared and in condition to ride, and by then he may have already left…!! He is also thinking of heading to Nepal to fly his bike home to the U.K., so we might still hook up somewhere along the trail…

I may be destined to make this long ride around the world on my own…!! I have spent more than 95% of the distance I have covered to date, riding solo, and it would seem that this trend is set to continue…!!

When I left South Africa almost a year ago, I firmly believed that I would find many other long distance riders along the way, but to date, the roads I have taken seem to have kept me apart from them, if indeed there are that many out there…!!

It is now well after lunch, and still no word on the Big Fella…!!

If my heels get any cooler, I’m afraid they might freeze up altogether…!!

©GBWT 2011