Saturday, May 31, 2003  

Off we head

Well it is Saturday morning. I did not leave yesterday for a number of reasons:

1 being an aching mouth from the dentist,
2 being the drugs I had to take for #1
3 Had a lot of packing to do!

I am in starbucks now as my internet at home is now disabled and this is the only way to post from now on (thank god for starbucks!) All that is left is for me to fedex a couple of boxes to a safe place then I hit the road! I wish I could describe my emotions in detail at the moment (apart from being zonked out on these drugs) but it is so difficult as they are range through so many degrees. From elation as to what lies ahead to nervous in hoping nothing major is going to go wrong (like a stolen bike!) to sadness for leaving many a good friend behind . . .for the time being anyway.

Last night I shaved my head in a little ritual I haven't done since I left hong kong. Cleansing of the sould sort of thing. Also means that I don't get helmet hair! ;-) Well I'm outta here, will post from the next starbucks I come across.

joi gin ngo pang yao.

posted by Shaun; | 7:23 PM

Position Report Added

So everybody can see where we have been and where our last position was, I have added the Position Report Page to the right menu.


You will see that both groups are now of about equal distance from the meeting point in Prince George. It will be interesting to see if the time predictions will be accurate to ensure both parties reach this point at the same time.

posted by Shaun; | 7:47 AM

Busted flat in Winnipeg (with apologies to Janis Joplin)

Finally had a chance to slow down and update the blog. So the itinerary so far:

We've gone about 1800 miles and are in Winnipeg. We left from Winooski Friday afternoon (May 23) and managed to make it past Ottowa by nightfall. Henning's friends, Colin and Brandon have been accompanying us in Colin's car which was a big help as not everything fit in the bags on the first try. We camped out in the Gatineau park that night and it turned out that my old boy scout tent no longer has all of its poles. Oh well, it was a beautiful night and I'm not made of sugar.

It started to rain just after we left, so a cold and wet ride for a few hours until we got ahead of the front. Made it into the Reserve Faunique in western Quebec, and set up our tents with a couple of hours to spare before the front caught up to us. Discovered a major problem at that time, namely no beer. So off Colin went to find some. About three hours later, we were starting to wonder whether he decided to abandon us. Henning and I were just about to mount up in search of him when he finally arrived. Turns out we were in the middle of nowhere. We had a chance to meet some of the other campers, and they brought us some freshly caught Pike that they had fried up. Mmmm, fried fish. It was still raining a bit when we got up, so we decided to get a hotel and only went about 150 miles to Rouyn-Noranda. I managed to get a new tent at Canadian Tire, and a few other odds and ends. We also stumbled upon a Karaoke place, so I had to perform a few favorites for my fans. No Chef (South Park) unfortunately.

Monday was a good riding day, we did about 475 miles. Near Cochrane, ON we were flagged down by a telephone worker who pointed out a large black bear hanging out in a field on the side of the road. As soon as I find a place with the right drivers to upload the pics, I'll share them with you. We made it to LongLac, ON and found a municipal campsite for Monday night. We saw a spectacular northern light show that night. We we're literallly right underneath it. amazing to see the curtain directly above and sometimes even a little to the south.

On Tues. we took a dirt road from Route 11 to Terrace Bay on Lake Superior, about 80 miles. Then through Thunder Bay and on to Ignace, where it started to rain again. If anyone is interested in Moose hunting, I strongly recommend that stretch of road. We saw a good half dozen, the bulls are starting to grow their antlers again and one bull in particular already has an impressive rack. I had worried that the Trans-Canada was going to be a boring superhighway, but it's actually mostly a two lane road that winds through all the towns. Not that there are too many of them. By Ignace I was starting to worry about my tires which have been wearing much faster than I had hoped. Must be all the gear. So a quick call to Winnipeg BMW and they orderedm a new set. Couldn't get the TKC-80s that I wanted, and will have to settle for a more street oriented tire until we get to Anchorage. As it turned out, Henning discovered a gash in his tire, good thing these have tubes. So he's got get a new set as well.

Which brings us to today (Thursday). Hope to have the tires on by this afternoon, and we'll spend tonight in Winnipeg again, and hit the road in the morning.

I know many of you won't believe this, but I've actually been getting up around 8-9 a.m. on a regular basis on this trip. I know its unhealthy to get up that early, but its a risk I have to take. We'll try to update more often. We've met some nice folks along the way, and we're starting to get our patter down regarding the bikes and the trip. I'm thinking we should pre-print a FAQ sheet to hand out when we're in a hurry. Pumping gas etc. seems to take twice as long, but that's cool, now that we're international motorcycle travellers. Hey Canada counts as a foreign country.

posted by matt; | 10:09 PM

Contact

Henning and Matt called me yesterday whilst I was running some errands. They are both in Winnipeg and holing up for the night. We chatted some and discussed logistics - it seems as they are going to be there for a touch to enable to make some repairs on their bikes. Not to sure as to what the repairs are but apparently there is a chunk out of hennings rear tire and matt's front tire is 'shredded'. Not entirely sure as to what extent this is, but certainly does not sound like good news at all.


Looks like they are about halfway to our meeting point in Prince George, CA on the 5th

I visited the dentist and GP for a final checkup before I leave tomorrow to make sure everything is in working order before it breaks someplace where it can't be fixed. Both Dr's were of professional caliber with the GP giving me excellent advise on the health problems we may come across whilst on the trip and how to best be prepared with drugs to take. Very worth while trip. Apart from the dentist seeing a wisdom tooth that was easier to pull than fix a cavity. This makes me somewhat squeamish as I have never had such a procedure done and still have to nightmares as an adult - one is losing a tooth and the other is going to the playboy mansion with the cast of baywatch - oh wait that's the other dream ;-)

Matt and Henning will attempt to find an internet cafe today to update everybody with tales of chivalry and daring as well as photos.

1 more day before I leave. .

posted by Shaun; | 8:55 PM

Sightings

First contact with Henning and Matt in over a week and some speculation. They are in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Here is audio (ok this is getting anal but I have nothing else interesting to do at 11pm)

That's all I know for now - oh and the fact I leave in two days!!! groan - if ever ;-)

posted by Shaun; | 9:11 AM

The Big Blue

Watched a DVD on Sat with my flatmates called The Big Blue which is one of my favs since Hong Kong. Once again I was blown away by the cinematography of the movie, but this time around watching the movie I sensed a bit touch of excitement from the locations that were involved.

The movie is primarily shot in the Med and whilst watching it, I started to imagine the places that we are going to be visiting within the next so many months - maybe and hopefully many of them like the scenes from the movie which show barren landscapes surrounded by deep blue seas. Something remarkable about that image to me. It's amazing that we sometimes get so caught up in our daily lives that we forget that there are places out there like that.

Here's some pictures that Juliet has sent me - a friend of Hennings and now I friend of mine.

posted by Shaun; | 8:43 PM

Oceano

Too tired to say much but much to say. Will leave to tomorrow mostly. Flew to Oceano today -with good friend Sean. Taught him some basic flying skills and he picked it all up amazingly well. Once there we rented some ATV on the dunes (non-blue) and slowly learnt how to best dispose of ourselves in interesting ways. I have also attached photos of our death valley trip not too long ago which least to say, was an experience in itself.

posted by Shaun; | 10:44 AM

Position Report - From Hennings Dad

Hi!
Heike called Matt's mother this morning to see if she had heard
anything from the missing duo + two beer haulers in an auto.

She said Matt had called to get some phone numbers last night.
Thus, she and we now know they are alive, wet and cold (GOOD
on all counts!).

So wet and cold that they had to put up in a Comfort Inn to dry out
and warm up!! (Tough living!)

Position Report: They are in the far western part of Northern Quebec.

Will keep you posted, and please do the same for us!

Best,
Northern folks and dawg

posted by Shaun; | 6:31 PM