Mr and Mrs Three Dawg's South American Adventure

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Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Messages
619
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298
Location
Inverness, Scotland
Bike
BMW R1100GS
As you may know, me and Mrs Three Dawg have taken a few trips abroad with the long suffering 1997 1100GS, fllying or shipping the bike to some interesting destinations south of the equator. This is because we are very busy during our summer, and because we both hate the Scottish winter. This time we decided to try South America as neither of us had been there and we could be sure of some spectacular scenery and a decent amount of gravel roads, which I really enjoy riding. Much planning took place over the preceeding year to make the most of our six weeks, along with some prep for the bike, including refitting my 'Africa' spring for the rear shock and fixing the gear position indicator and a full service.  Not much really, but my 1997 1100GS is a reliable old girl.  I should have replaced the electrical connector for my Garmin - this would come back to irritate me later.

Shipping the bike from Inverness is a bit of a mission - van to London, then plane to Santiago.  Happily The Bike Bus in Aberdeen and Motofreight in Feltham are easy to deal with and take care of everything. 

Off she goes, again...

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We work on the basis that we can do about 300km a day even on gravel without having to push too hard, and it seemed like a route from Santiago in Chile north to the Atacama Desert, then into Bolivia to the Uyuni Salt Flats then down Argentina's famous Ruta 40 to Patagonia and back up to Santiago would be do-able. We were joined on the ride by my mate from the world of Laverda, Rob, and his missus Nicky. They're noobs at this adventure riding lark, but were fully kitted out with a nice 1200 Triple Black. All good to go then at the beginning of November, 15 hours on a 787 to Chile's capital, Santiago. Where the sun is warm and the people are mellow.

Well we nearly didn't make the starting gate - fog at Inveness had grounded everything for most of the day, but fortunately things were beginning to move a bit by the time we arrived at the airport.  Wouild have been bad news if we had to leave the next day - the bike was already in Santiago and the next flight was two days later.

Fog, receding.

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Once safely on board Boeing's finest (?)  from LHR, Mrs 3D seemed happy enough ready for the longest non-stop flight BA operate.

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Did I say l say mellow?  You may remember that back in late 2019 (we were due to arrive on November 1st) Chile was having a fair bit of civil unrest.  So to wind up our travelling companions I mocked up a couple of scenarios.

Tourist Couple in Santiago

GS war zone

Well it amused me anyway. :biggrin:
 
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