That’s a wrap for us, Linda and I are home safe and sound.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words and support over the last 5 1/2 months, it’s really been very much appreciated.

A big thank you to Paul Oxborough from Mental Health Motorbike here in the UK, a charity we have been proud to be associated with throughout the trip. Black Dog Ride were the cause we supported in Australia and they are two very similar charities, both doing great work to promote good mental health.

One of the reasons for us going on an adventure like this was to help Linda get over the death of her parents, so good mental health has been at the forefront of our minds while we’ve been away. Paul has always been there with supportive emails and we look forward to continuing to work with the charity now we are home.

Travelling through Germany, we were due to stay in the historic town of Potsdam and made a small detour to Berlin and to the house where Linda was born and lived for the first 4 years of her life. This was quite an emotional moment for her and a nice memory of her Mum & Dad.

The trip will definitely have an effect on me too I’m sure, but I don’t know how yet. One result I would like to see is for me to be less driven to achieve/do things and to be able to relax a bit more. I would like to sleep in when I want to sleep in, have days away when I want days away and maybe have a glass of wine or two watching an old black & white film of an afternoon, bliss!

I’m sure events, people we’ve met and places we’ve visited will occur to us over the next few months and we will post again when they do.

So that’s it, thanks again everyone,
​
Lobo & Linda (in Wales)
#blackdogride
#mentalhealthmotorbike

Richard and Jude’s travels….

After the vigorous shaking and lots of dust on the road to the Uzbekistan/ Kazakhstan border I checked the bike over for any loose bolts and damage and gave the air filter a clean before getting on our way to Aktau where we would put the bike on a ferry to Azerbaijan. The bikes battery had shown a sign of future failure and I hoped it would last until I could get a replacement.

We had put a tracking device on the bike and watched it as it headed out across the Caspian Sea towards Baku /Alat where it moored for a couple of days waiting for some strong winds to subside. Meanwhile Jude and I had flown to Baku and enjoyed a couple of days exploring this European styled city with its impressive mix of modern and ancient architecture, thousands of cats and another cuisine to try until we saw the bike moving towards the port for docking and unloading.

We were reunited with the bike after the usual customs formalities at the port and rode out of the port gate but the battery failed after much stopping and starting during the customs checks. A kindly gent jump started us and I found a bike repair shop to ride to in hope of getting a replacement. The Gods were with us and after a bit of phoning around Samir the shop owner found one and had it sent over and we were on our way again in double quick time.

The following day we left Baku and enjoyed time exploring a village in the Azerbaijan mountains near the Georgian border, the bike glad of a new battery and premium fuel after the scarcity in Uzbekistan where most vehicles run on Propane/Natural gas.

Next stop Georgia.
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Richard and Jude.
#blackdogride #mentalhealthmotorbike

Lobo and Linda's travels continued...

At 35,000kms through 25 countries, we knew we’d be covering some big distances on this trip. Coming from the UK and specifically Wales, it can sometimes be hard to appreciate the scale and distances involved when riding in other countries, especially the likes of Australia and China!

To cross Australia from Sydney to Perth was 6000kms and we’d allowed, and took, 19 days. In Indonesia, travelling up from Bali, through Java and Sumatra was 3000kms and took us 15 days – if you’ve ever ridden/driven there, you’ll know why, Java is the most populous island on earth with a population of 150 million! Thailand at 2400kms was 11 days and included the Mae Hong Son Loop, which has to be one of the best riding roads in the world.

China was 8,250kms but that included a detour to Everest Base Camp and Tibet, the crossing took 27 long riding days! After leaving China in snow, we zipped through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 13 days. Turkey is huge country but on this occasion we just tracked the northern coast on the Black Sea, with a few excursions inland.

After China, we needed to head directly home for personal reasons, but we definitely got a taste of the places we would definitely return to in the future.

Now we can appreciate how small scale the countries that make up Europe are and that includes the UK. On Saturday alone we were in 4 different countries: we had breakfast in Romania, crossed the border into Hungary and headed north into Slovakia (S). Our hotel that evening was on the northern border, and after dinner, we walked through a nearby forest to emerge into Poland (P)!

*Lobo’s tip of the day*. If you do have a long days riding ahead of you and you get invited to join a party in Romania, try to avoid any indeterminate, clear drinks served out of plastic bottles written on with marker pen! It might also be better not to finish the evening off with 52% Prune Liqueur!
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Cheers all.
Lobo & Linda
#mentalhealthmotorbike
#blackdogride