Buxted to the Sahara, first post.

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Please note: This blog has the latest posts at the bottom. (Read from top to bottom!)

20th December 2011
I’ve been bragging about my trip to the Sahara for a few years now, I’ve been telling my friends (and anyone else who would listen) that I would be going again in June of 2012. To be honest with you I’m not sure if I even believed it myself. Then last night I decided, in my infinite (and intoxicated) wisdom, to ask people to sponsor me with all proceeds going to the British Epilepsy Association. Within about ten minutes I’d been sponsored one hundred pounds and several people had told me how brave I was and had wished me the best of luck. All of a sudden it became apparent that I could not back down and now I’m in a state somewhere between nervous and mild terror.

I’ve ridden my Honda Transalp from England to the Sahara Desert before but I’m not sure if this makes it easier or more scary. I know that riding in France and Spain is easy, I know how to get through the Moroccan border, I know camping is fun and easy. However I also know that there are huge, horrible, black locust like things that jump into your hair that smell like the devil himself. I know that if I go anywhere near Fez I will be overtaken by three cars that will line up side by side in front of me and force me to pull over, at which point they will attempt to sell me drugs. Blasting away from them the moment they leave their cars is easy but quite scary. To be honest the thing I’m most worried about is a puncture, I just don’t know what to do, perhaps I should stab my tyre before I go and see if I can repair it! One comforting thought I keep on going back to is I found the Moroccan people lovely, polite, interesting and very helpful, I’m sure that if I get into any trouble there will usually be someone around to help out.

All that and I’m still nervous, riding a motorbike is quite a risky business at the best of times but, let’s face it, riding one that’s maintained by a computer programmer and completely overloaded with camping equipment six thousand miles when ones directional ability is likely to get you lost on the way to the bathroom does not have a guaranteed outcome! I remember the last time I went, I was about five miles from the beginning of my journey when I ran wide on a bend, I ended up flying onto the grass and just managed to stop my 300kg loaded up Transalp before hitting a tree. For the next twenty miles or so I continuously repeated “Richard you complete twat!”, by the time I’d got to Dover I’d made it into a little song, I even had a little dance routine worked out too! With a start like that what chance did I have getting all the way to the Sahara Desert?

25th December 2011
After spending the last five days worrying myself sick about the trip and basically running through all the disasters that are bound to happen to me I decided it was time to get cracking. Today is Christmas day and we have the in-laws here so I decided it was a fantastic time to take myself off to the shed to slowly compile copious volumes of generous lists. The first list details exactly what I need to take with me and where I’m going to stick it. I have five places on the bike that I can use to store things, the list below will be organised by these five places in an extremely anal fashion.

Left pannier

  • 2 water bottles fixed to the outside of the pannier
  • Camping knife, fork and spoon
  • Cup
  • Cooking container
  • Washing up liquid
  • Washing up cloth
  • Coleman Petrol Stove and funnel for filling
  • Coffee
  • Mini first aid kit (plasters, antibiotics, Germalene, Imodium!)
  • Toilet Paper
  • Syndol and Ibuprofen
  • Spray on chain lube

Right pannier

  • 2 water bottles fixed to the outside of the pannier
  • 1 litre of unleaded for the Coleman stove
  • Small light weight sleeping bag
  • Fleece sleeping bag liner for cold weather
  • Pink, girly blow up sleeping mat
  • Camping towel
  • Small net book computer
  • Mini tripod
  • More toilet paper!
  • Talcum powder (try sitting on a seat for 250 miles in leather trousers in the Sahara!)

Back seat and rear rack

  • Tent in its own compression bag
  • Ortlieb waterproof roll bag for clothes, etc

Under seat

  • Leatherman Wave multi tool
  • Allen key set
  • 12 volt cigarette lighter with extension tube to poke out in front of seat and into tank bag
  • Spanners for the rear wheel nut to allow me to adjust my chain tension

Tank bag

  • Camera Nikon D200 and 18-200 lens with 16GB card
  • Garmin Nuvi 3790t GPS and 12 volt charger with memory card containing up to date versions of France, Spain and Morocco
  • 12 volt camera charger
  • 12 volt mobile phone charger
  • Morocco PAYG sim card for phone
  • Map of Morocco
  • Detailed map of Quarzazate and the south
  • Block of wood that stops stand sinking into the floor
  • Lighter
  • Spare 16GB card for camera
  • LED Lenser torch

After compiling the above list I decided to brave the house to see if everyone was happy. After being given a substantial list of jobs and a roasting from my wife I decided it was time for another list.

My Ortlieb bag will contain:

  • 12 pairs of boxer shorts
  • 12 pairs of socks
  • 10 tee-shirts
  • My beloved blue jumper that I’ve had since I was 8 (I call this jumper my lovey)
  • Another roll of toilet paper (you can never have enough toilet paper!)
  • Toilet bag containing:
  •       toothbrush
  •       toothpaste
  •       soap
  •       deodorant
  •       shampoo
  • 2 good books
  • 2 pairs of baggy light weight trousers
  • 1 white shirt for my I’m feeling fat days

26th December 2011
You’ll notice that I’m taking my Garmin Nuvi 3970t. This is a top of the range GPS unit designed for cars; it’s not vibration or waterproof so it may not be the best choice, however I can’t seem to find up to date mapping for my old GPSMAP 278c. I have found a rather Heath Robinson contraption for £22 that I can use to bolt the device to my motorbike that is completely watertight. I am currently updating the entire European continent to the latest Garmin mapping and once this is compete I will then download and install the latest Garmin mapping for Morocco. When I went a few years ago I took my Garmin GPSMAP 278c which is an incredibly tough device. It  that was on my bike when I stupidly cart wheeled it down the road in Ibiza. Both myself and the GPS came flying off and hit the ground hard. I clipped it back on and continued my journey with my poor bike needing some surgery, the GPS was fine! I already have a rough route in my head which consists of leaving Buxted and riding to Newhaven, from there I will cross to Dieppe and then head south, keeping to the east of Paris until I get to the Pyrenees Mountains, I will cross these and head south to Algeciras. Accommodation in France and Spain will be either camp sites or rough camping. From here I will cross to Ceuta on the African continent. Ceuta is Spanish owned territory so I then need to cross into Morocco. From there I will get motorcycle insurance and head west to Tangier where I pick up the toll road and head south to Marrakesh. Once at Marrakesh I will secure the bike in an Ibis hotel, take a day off and browse around the souks. The following day I will head over the High Atlas Mountains to Quarzazate. This is where it turns from a road trip to an adventure. I’m not sure of the order from this point onwards but I want to visit the dunes at Erg Chebbi, Mhamid and lots of joining dirt roads. I also want to ride through the Tizi n Test pass again which was awesome! Then, time permitting, I would like to head south further into the Western Sahara.

Anyway, real life is calling. More soon.

Buxted to Morocco, the route.

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30th December 2011
Today I have been a busy little bee creating a route for my trip. The trip is all about Morocco so I’m going to try to get through France and Spain as quickly and easily as possible.

I will cross from Dover to Calais and head for Reims, from there I will head for Dijon and on to Lyon, Nimes then Perpignan. Then it will be over the Pyrenees and South all the way down the East coast of Spain. I would imagine I’ll pop in to Alicante but when I get there I’ll wonder why as I will feel terribly old watching all those youngsters bopping away until way past nine-thirty!

From this point I’ll head for Algeciras and keep my eyes open for somewhere to purchase a ferry ticket. The ferry I will take will go from Algeciras to Ceuta. Ceuta is on the African Continent but is Spanish territory so I’ll then have to cross into Morocco. My first move once getting into Morocco will be to try to get insurance for my motorbike. Once I have the insurance it’s 360 miles of numb bum to Marrakesh.

I will take the motorway from the North of Morocco all the way down the Marrakesh. Once in Marrakesh I will drop the leathers, don the flip flops and spend a day getting lost in the souks and sitting in the Djemma el-Fna square drinking Coke and relaxing.

The next day will be spent travelling over the High Atlas Mountains to Quarzazate. These roads are superb, beautifully smooth tarmac winding its way over the High Atlas Mountain range. The following day I’ll head Eastward on the N9, then switch onto the N12 and head for Erg Chebbi which has some of the best and most scenic sand dunes in the region. I’ll then head back along the N12, then head South on the N9 towards Mhamid. At Mhamid the road stops but I’ll try to continue for as far as I can before the bike completely sinks into the dry sand!

Once I’ve got the above under my belt I’ll follow some of the dirt tracks and see where I end up, I’ll do this for a week and this is the part I’m really looking forward to. There are some amazing places down in the South of Morocco and I have an urge to spend the night in the middle of nowhere, just me, my bike and the Sahara Desert. From here I will head back to Marrakesh and spend a day with my beautiful wife who will meet me there. Then it’s ‘home James and don’t spare the horses’.

If I have enough time I might decide to head South into Western Sahara which is the state to the South of Morocco but the last time I did this I got frustrated with the endless police/army checkpoints, there are forms I can take that make these checkpoints quicker and easier but they’re still a pain in the backside.

I’ve now got my GPS updated for all of Europe and Morocco and have purchased paper maps by Michelin and Reise Know-How, which is laminated so will not fall apart if it gets more than 10 minutes use!

Anyway, more soon.

The rear of the bike.

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2nd January 2012
Happy New Year! Today I learnt how to grease my chain (thank you YouTube!). After riding over 25,000 miles on a combination of Honda Transalp, Suzuki GSX-R 750 and an Aprilia RSV1000R I have found that I have been incorrectly greasing my chain. I’ve been spraying the grease on the outside of the chain but the centrifugal force just flings the grease off the chain, what I should have been doing was spraying the grease onto the inside of the chain. This way the centrifugal force forces the grease into the joints of the chain. So, with this in mind I decided to remove the rear wheel and take a look at the front and rear sprockets. I replaced the sprockets only about 2500 miles ago with third party ones and wear was clearly visible. Luckily I had a brand new set here consisting of genuine Honda sprockets and a heavy duty Honda chain so I have fitted them. From now on I’m sticking to genuine Honda parts. The chain was a complete nightmare as I needed to join the two ends, there are tools available specifically for this purpose but needless to say I didn’t have any of them so I just smashed the living daylights out of the link until it fitted together perfectly. Once I had joined the two ends of the chain together I realised that I should have removed a link as now it’s at maximum adjustment. When I realised that I would need to break the chain and re-join it I thought “be patient Richard”. My next thought was that I would rather pay an expert to do it properly, this task has now been added to my list of items for Honda to deal with!

Whilst the back wheel was off I decided to remove the rear swing arm and I’m glad I did. The bearings were surrounded by grit and dirt so everything was cleaned and greased, I also replaced the rear brake pads as they had been in there for quite some time and were worn. It’s all back together and now the backend is completely ready for my trip. I know I just made it sound like putting the rear end back together was easy as I’m such a professional but the reality was not quite as simple! It took me about half an hour to get the rear axle back through the swing arm and the wheel, however trying to align the axle was a complete nightmare. When I finally got it through I just sat back and smiled, it wasn’t that bad. Then I realised that I had forgotten to include the rear brake calliper. Bollocks! After spending the next two hours getting the axle out and replacing it with the calliper in place I made a decision to go slower, which in turn would make the job easier and certainly faster! I’ve learnt from that mistake!

More soon.

Two and a half months to go..

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The last time I checked the calendar I still had five months to go before leaving England for the Morocco. Now it’s only two and a half months away. I have a sneaky suspicion that when I wake up tomorrow morning I’ll only have a week to go and I’m so far away from being ready.

I’ve just gotten back from north Cyprus which was a bit of an eye opener. I thought I loved the dirt tracks but actually I’ve found that my perception has changed somewhat and they are now a pain in the arse! We hired a little Peugeot car which was ‘interesting’ to say the least. If you closed the boot too hard the lights fell out and you could feel the steering rack moving under your feet which was far from confidence instilling. On top of that it was a right bugger to get into reverse. Whilst trying to park outside our hotel I failed big time and ended up with a long queue of cars waiting impatiently to get past. In the end I had to get out and let Flowie do it! It was incredibly satisfying to hear all the swearing and crunching noises coming from the gearbox after Flowie had laughed at me!

Having just completely dissed our ‘trusty’ steed we drove it over some tracks that I think were there only for goats and it just kept on going though there were more lights illuminated on the dashboard when we gave it back that when we picked it up including one that said STOP NOW! I remember the Land Rover catch line was ‘The Best Four By Four By Far’. This little steed I called ‘The Best Four By Four Bar Two’ and it really was! So, with all that in mind now I’m starting to wonder if I should be going on the dirt tracks or whether I should be sticking to the roads. I think I’ll just get there and see what happens.

So, am I excited? Nope, shitting myself to be completely honest. It’s not really about the trip but more about taking the financial hit that this trip will inevitably cause. I think I may need to become a drug dealer upon my return so I can afford to do things like eat!

Anyway I know two and a half months is a long time and I really can’t be bothered get anything done today, there’s always tomorrow or perhaps even the next day.