Chasing the Dragon...

The train was good fun, although it did get a little monotonous after a while, especially not being able to talk to my companions in the carriage; however even if I had been able to, it seemed they were taking the opportunity to catch up on their sleep.

My companions on the train from Xiamen to Shanghai

The dining-car had been taken over as an impromptu HQ for the Chinese military, so the options for food were diminished to the bloke with the handcart full of instant noodles. Getting my grubby little mitts on any was another matter though. I think he must have been training for the Beijing Olympics, as by the time you knew he was coming, he'd blasted past at a great rate of knots, and you were forced to run up the train to catch him.

En-route to Shanghai from Xiamen

And thusly, after enduring a long and quite comfortable train journey if I were to be honest, I arrive in the bustling metropolis of Shanghai. Although it wasn't exactly 'bustling' when I showed up, what with it being about midnight n'all, I suppose it could bustle in it's sleep; but I didn't notice.

The glory that is Shanghai (image NOT approved by the Chinese Tourism Board), ok it was raining as well

Turns out Shanghai is quite cold at this time of year, what with it being substantially further north than Xiamen, and it being December (well duuuh); although I must admit it is turning out to be a welcome change from heat of previous months. It's quite a novelty to be able to see one's breath when walking the streets; although I could do without the throat tickling smog.

Shanghai, the up-market area

Have been taking in the sights (glimpsed through the ever-present haze), and trying to organise where I need to be to meet my ship.

This was some fellow's house, built entirely out of whatever he could find, and erected under the motorway.

Somewhere on the river is about as far as i've got so far, and it's a pretty long river. Hopefully I'll be able to narrow it down by the time we sail, as it's a long swim otherwise, and I don't really fancy the look of the water around here.

Bikes as far as the eye can see, outside the local metro station

Not having a lot of luck uploading photos, these are the only ones i've managed to get online at the moment:



Old meets new in China, old loses



Singapore at night, sponsored by DHL for some reason


Singapore at night


Gulangyu an island off the coast of Xiamen (also an island)


One of the many craft plying the waters between Xiamen and Gulangyu


This is the cheapest option for crossing the water to Gulangyu, row yourself
This is probably the last update before I board the ship for Italy (at least I HOPE I'll be boarding ths ship to Italy), so there will be a bit of a gap between now and the next update.

Six demon bag...

So after bidding a fond farewell to my friends in Perth and Australia itself, I was away to Singapore aboard a soaring metal bird. Arrived at 2am to discover that the mass transit system didn't begin running until 6am, so I spent most of the early hours lurking in the only open coffee shop in the arrivals hall.

After escaping the clutches of the airport, I took in the sights of Singapore (again); hardly felt like any time had passed since I was last stalking the ever so clean and tidy streets. Temperatures were high, and humidity was even higher; it was something like walking through a hot, damp sponge. Not particularly pleasant, trust me.

Returning to the airport on the last train of the night, meant that I was seven hours early for my flight, that's what you get for being stingy and not wanting to spend the extra on a taxi. It did give me plenty of time to practice yoga position in between two airport chairs, whilst trying to get a bit of sleep.

I turned out to be the only non-Asian person on the flight to Xiamen, which meant I ended up near the back of the queue for checking in as I lack the pointy elbows necessary to advance in the Asian queuing system. All checked in eventually though, and the airline even decided to have the safety briefing in English, which I felt was a little pointless.

Arriving in Xiamen I found myself a taxi driver who didn't understand a word of English, which complimented my lack of Mandarin skills quite nicely. We managed to understand each other for the essentials in the end though, and after a taxi ride through the city worthy of Grand Theft Auto. I stumbled out of the taxi and straight into bed. (Not literally though, his driving wasn't quite that bad!)

One sleeping beauty impression later, and I was off to explore Xiamen...which I've been doing for the last few days. No pictures at the moment I'm afraid, as we're not quite that advanced in this hostel. I'll upload some when I get to Shanghai.

Speaking of which, it's a mere 24 hours by train, leaving tonight at about 22:30 and arriving the next day at about the same time. I splashed out on a bed this time; I wasn't going to risk it, not after the buttock torturing experience of the long distance trains in Australia!

I'm finding it quite good fun being "in at the deep end", both culturally and linguistically. Don't have a clue what the hell is going on most of the time, and people on electric bicycles keep trying to flatten me. Eating is an interesting exercise, and I've been following the mantra of "if it looks good, I'll eat it". So far it's stood me in good stead, although I rarely have a clue about what it is I'm eating, until after the event. Nothing illness inducing so far though, just eat where the locals eat.

Stay tuned for pictures, bring on the iron horse!

Planes, trains and floaty metal things...

First up, apologies those few valiant souls that read this blog, for the lack of updates just recently; i've been doing some of that...erm, what's it called...horrible stuff...work, yes that's it! so there has been little to report.

My time in Australia is finally drawing to a close, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the people I've met along the way for their help, support and friendship. The expedition round Australia wouldn't have been the same without you.

I'd also like to offer my gratitude to those who helped support MSF during my motorcycle adventure, and also to mention that the donation page is still open for those that wish to contribute to the good works done by MSF.

What's going on then? Well, let me fill you in... Expiring visas and a bank account that echos worryingly when you yell into it, means that the time has finally come for me to start the journey "home".

So, how does one get back to the UK from Australia? Direct flight I hear you say? Nay, not for me I cry! Sensible option that, but as I think i've mentioned before, I don't really do sensible any more.

So to that end, I present my route home: (or at least to Italy, from there it's anyones guess as to how I'll get back to the UK)

Click the map for an easier to read version. Basically it's a flying cigar tube to Singapore (again), then on to Xiamen in China. With any luck from there I'll be catching a train for the 25 hour journey north to Shanghai. Once in Shanghai I intend to run around like a headless chicken, in an attempt to find which berth, and at which port my transport to Italy has docked at; the MV Al Fujairah:

The MV Al Fujairah, or Gosling II as I like to call her

Now speed is clearly not the realm in which this beast resides, at 216m long, 32m wide and weighing in at 45,470 tonnes, you can safely say I won't be setting any speed records for the trip from Shanghai to Italy; in fact, it's scheduled to take 24 days. (give or take a few due to weather, diversions and /or miscellaneous pirate activity)

24 days at sea...all I want for Christmas is calm seas; you hear me Mother Nature?! Calm dammit!

I'll be keeping this blog updated as often as possible, much like before; although I'd imagine the posts will be less to do with motorcycles and more of the nautical variety. I've got my fingers crossed that the vessel will be crewed entirely by good looking women, although I think that's probably a bit of a long shot.

The only depressing thing about this whole exercise, is the fact that I've had to sell Gosling One in order to be able to even remotely fund the trip back. A plus point is that she's going to a good home, and will continue to bounce around all over Australia. (Cue the Born Free music, and some sniffling from the audience)

Cast off all lines ya scallywags!

All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Just a short update to show that Gosling One scrubs up quite nicely when she's not being hammered around the outback. I'm a different kettle of fish entirely, it'd take more than a wash to get me looking respectable.


Gosling One in her normal condition


All dressed up and nowhere to go


It's unnatural I tells ya, she's not designed to be this clean!



Right, I'm off for a shower...or seven.

Bring the noise!

You can view five videos over at the Arse About Face channel (http://www.youtube.com/arseaboutfacedotcom), but I quite like this one; so you can view it directly below:



The blog update proper is just below this entry:

Seven days in the sun...

Leaving Alice Springs with my lovely new tyres, I was faced with the problem of what to do with my old ones which wern't quite completely worn out (and that I was to be charged silly-money to get rid of). It goes against the grain to throw things away that are still perfectly usable, so, to that end I created a 'tyre cache'.


Gosling one, wielding an extra set of tyres

Any fellow motorcycle travellers or people near Alice Springs, this one is for you. There is a Bridgestone Trailwing TW41 21" front tyre, 65% worn and a Dunlop D605 4.60-17" rear tyre, 80% worn buried at these coordinates: S23deg 49' 21.8" E133deg 28' 25.7", opposite the turn-off for 'Glen Helen' at the base of a large tree. Hopefully someone will be able to use them for something, they just wern't quite up to getting me all the way back to Perth. Which was certainly proven by the state of my new D605 on arrival in Western Australia.


The tyres are buried at the base of this tree

Anyway, back to business. I made my way down from Alice Springs over towards Ayers Rock (Uluru), because it's apparantly an offense punishable by 50 lashes to not go and see 'the rock' when you visit Australia. I have to admit to being a little underwhelmed at first glance, I actually found Mount Conner (just down the road) a lot more visually impressive from a distance. It's hard not to be a little in awe of Uluru when you get up close though, it's sheer size in the middle of an otherwise fairly empty landscape, makes you stop and stare. That is until the millions of flies that are also on a holiday to Uluru find you, then you rapidly continue walking.


Some big rock thingy I found in the desert


Uluru, not even remotely like Uhura from Star Trek

A note to prospective visitors: it is definately not advisable to walk around the base of Uluru at midday, in motorcycle trousers. To say it was a little warm would be an understatement. The controversial question of "to climb or not to climb?" was answered for me, as the route to the top was closed due to predicted temperatures in excess of 36deg C. I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have done it anyway, it looked like bloody hard work!


Flies en-mass

From there I proceeded over to the other geologically knobbly feature of the area, the Olgas. This was also where I would join the eastern end of the Great Central "Road", which would take me through the centre of Australia over to the west. Of course mother nature (as always) had been watching, plotting and biding her time, so by the time I started out on the sandy track into the interior of Australia, the wind was blowing as hard as it could.


The Olgas (Desert + additional knobbly bits)

Normally this isn't more than a minor annoyance, however as the track was made up almost entirely of sand, and the surrounding landscape was predominantly desert; so the gusting wind was whipping up some evil sand storms. The photos don't do them justice, but it was almost a complete 'whiteout' at various points along the track; with me being unable to slow down as I needed to keep the speed reasonably high to be able to navigate the deep sand on the track.


A small sandstorm on the Great Central Road (couldn't photograph the big ones)


A small sandstorm on the Great Central Road (couldn't photograph the big ones)

Luckily, by the time I got about 200km along the route, the wind died down a gale-force or two and things became a little less heart-attack inducing. It was quite nice to be able to relax a little bit and not have to worry about crashing into stationary camels, road-trains, pyramids, egyptologists and other desert-related road hazards in the near zero visability.


One humped roadblocks

Speaking of camels, to say there were a few would definately be an understatement. Luckily they seemed to display slightly more road sense than your average cow, sheep or kangaroo. They've definately mastered the art of the "dirty look" too; being able to stare you down with an expression that suggests they are thoroughly offended by your presence, and would quite appreciate it if you effed-off as soon as possible.


This bunch have got the hump (ahaha!)

So after about three days of being looked down at by camels, fighting against the elements, getting ripped off for fuel and generally having a grand old time sliding about; I attained the western end of Great Central Road, by arriving at the town of Laverton. Pretty much the only other traffic on the track up to this point had been four trucks hauling mine equipment, and man were they ever big.


Size isn't everything, but I wasn't going to press the point with this chap

From here, the logical choice would have been to head straight for Perth; however I never made any claims about my grasp of logic, and besides, I had unfinished business to attend to. Up to that point I had visited four of my five targets: the most northerly, easterly, southerly and central points of mainland Australia. People with a good memory will remember that my inital attempt on "Steep Point", the most westerly spot; ended in me wussing out after getting continually bogged down trying to cross the dunes.


En-route to Steep Point


This is what you have to ride through to reach Steep Point

This time however, I was not to be put off so easily. After stripping the bike of every bit of unecessary weight, I had another crack at it. It was basically 40km (80km round trip) of riding through, up, along and over various series of sand dunes. Luckily for me, it would appear that my time round Australia had given me a bit more of a grasp on the off-road skills required than I had last time (and possibly less weight too), so it actually turned out to be quite good fun once I got into the swing of things. I'd also like to mention that there were no bike droppages at all on that day. (Which would make it a rarity I should think)


Steep Point: Most westerly spot of mainland Australia

With the westerly point attained, I now had the complete collectors set of Australian extremities! Unfortunately that also meant that I had to return to Perth, an easy couple of days ride to the south. Unfortunate because that would mark the end of the expedition, and I have to admit to being in no rush whatsoever to stop. I made the most of the time I had left, and was suitably grumpy when packing up my last campsite.


Not a happy camper, last campsite of the trip

Whilst I wasn't pleased to be finishing, that's not to say there wasn't a certain sense of accomplishment. After all, the grand total was 44,347km or 27,556 miles around Australia. Not bad, even if I do say so myself.


Mission accomplished!

So now I'm back in Perth, editing together a few video clips which I will post on completion, and hopefully earning enough cash to fund the start of my journey "home".

Thanks to all those that supported MSF during this adventure, we finally reached the fundraising goal! Thanks of course to everyone that supported me too; before, during and after. You know who you are.

A few more additional pictures to tide you over: (Click any for a larger version, as above)


Bloody mix up with the valet parking!


Last sunset of the trip


Thorny Devil (down by the front tyre), possibly the coolest lizard ever


Coolest...lizard...ever


Puncture repair kit on standby


Godzilla!


Nature at work: this waspy thing stung, then flew off with, that grey spider. Good job too, the bugger was lurking near my tent!


The traditional outback 'skimpies' establishment. With any luck Kat and Sam are women.


Colourful handlebar decorations


This parrot developed a relationship with itself in my mirror


My rally driving career gets off to a bad start


Part of the Great Central Road


To hell with your rules man, I'll park at 70 degrees, I'm a rebel me!

Who the #$*! is Alice?

I have no excuse for my tardiness in updating this blog; or rather I have many excuses, none of which will pass muster.

The run from Melbourne through to Adelaide went very well, with me retracing my tyre treads from the first run around Australia. That's right folks, once all the way around this very large country has been completed. Hooray! Now I just have to get back over to Perth...cake of piece.


View from the Great Ocean Road, near Johanna Beach

As I mentioned, everything was trouble free for the most part, until that is the clutch cable snapped near Adelaide. Coincidence that it happened so soon after being in the mechanics? Perhaps, but I take solace in blaming them anyway. So I had a few days of cooling my heels near Adelaide. Once again, many thanks to the friends of mine, who valiantly put up with me watching all their DVDs and drinking all their tea.


Clutching hold of nothing


Once said cable had been replaced, I headed north, up through the Flinders Ranges National Park, before joining the start of the Oodnadatta Track at Maree. Temperatures are now well above the maximum level for wearing clothes, although social etiquette demands that I continue wearing at least some. Bloody prudes.




The Oodnadatta Track, not all of it...just a bit

Anyway, the run up the Oodnadatta Track was pretty interesting, sand and gravel for the most part, following the route of the old railway. This meant there were plenty of railway related sights to be had, the railway siding at Curdimurka providing a nice shelter from the desert nights.


Camping it up at Curdimurka siding




The dead center of Australia, thought it warranted a cheesy picture

The end of the Oodnadatta Track at Marla, saw me rejoin the highway for a spell, heading North. Called in at the very centre of Australia, near the Aboriginal community of Finke; also the home of the Finke Desert Race, although I was a little early (about 7 months) to actually enter officially, but it didn't stop me having a go anyway. :-D


Hot work this racing in the desert malarky...what, you're supposed to use a vehicle? Ohhhh.
So now I find myself in the tourist haven of Alice Springs, a small touch of 'civilisation' in an otherwise very deserty, desert region. Re-shod the bike with new tyres yesterday and am taking today as an 'off' day, to catch up on things like sleeping and eating. From Alice I will be heading over to Ayers Rock (Uluru) tomorrow, then down the Great Central Road through the desert, over to Western Australia.

Best desert fatigues all round, and don't forget the sun-tan lotion!

On another note, cheers to 'Trailbike Adventure' magazine over here in Oz, who kindly printed an email I sent them, any minute now the charitable donations will be pouring in...aaany minute now....I can feel it. There was also a mention in "Australian Roadrider' magazine, and '2Wheels' mag, although I've yet to be able to grab hold of a copy of those. But thanks to them too!



Trailbike Adventure Mag


Lake Eyre South, off the Oodnadatta Track: Salty


Transport options through the desert have improved somewhat since I was last here


One of many 'dust devils'


Protest art in the desert, or drunken plane parking; take your pick


Approaching the Flinders, honestly they're over there somewhere


Has anyone actually every seen a happy looking camel? I certainly haven't


Curdimurka siding on the Oodnadatta Track


Curdimurka siding on the Oodnadatta Track


In the pine forests of South Australia, having a tea break


Sand sand and more sand


One of the Finke locals checking out Gosling One