Recent content by Desert Boy

Hi Crow After a lot of deliberation, I decided that I need a minimum of 350 km of fuel capacity on board before embarking on a trip. For this reason I imported a Rally Raid EVO 2 kit from the UK. This gives me toal capacity of 22 litres; more than enough. Now, in extreme cases I can carry an...

Outside every town or village the burial area was a significant spot Horses form an important part of the mountain way of life. Horses are milked, the milk left to ferment and the product is enjoyed at leisure At one point, close to the Chinese border we came across an old trading post...

Our daily routine would start soon after breakfast and we would get on the road at around 8h30. Fuel is readily available as neighbouring Kazakhstan is a big oil producer. Fuel was also included in the tour cost. There were plenty of things to see along the way. The old "Centrally controlled"...

The package included all meals and accommodation. There was two types of accommodation - hotels and home stays. The hotels were somewhat disappointing as they were essentially relics of the old Soviet system; not much focus on quality. The photo below shows the hotel's façade that faces a...

Guide and back up car driver A good lesson that we learnt on the first day was "how to keep the group together". We managed to lose one guy in the first big town that we went through. It took a few hours and many kilometres to find him. After that, we kept strictly to the rule that the second...

My riding buddies were all from Switzerland, bar one and myself. After more than 30 years in Namibia, I can make myself understood in German on a conversational level, but Swiss German - it's a mystery! Those guys speak a totally different language which is seriously difficult to follow...

After a brief sleep at the hotel we headed over to the premises of the Muz Too company to choose our bikes. They operate with Yamaha XT 600s and argue that they are "bullet proof" and are easily maintained having neither fancy electronics or fuel injection. No computer analysis is needed to...

Kyrgyzstan is one of the republics of the former USSR that gained its independence in 1990 with the demise of the Soviet Union. Together with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan it makes up what is referred to as "Central Asia". Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in...

My route from Budapest to Osh, Kyrgyzstan was via a very wet Istanbul. My flight landed at the Istanbul Sabiha airport, which is on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. I had to transfer by taxi to the Istanbul International airport, on the European side for a late night flight to Osh. Due to the...

The week in Hungary was sandwiched between the UK Honda ride and the Asian ride in Kyrgyzstan. There were no bikes involved in this part of the trip, only "sensible" touring with a hired car and a friendly daughter. We went to the extreme West of the country, on the border with Austria and...

I have arrived back in Namibia, safe and sound after a wonderful trip. Our original plan, after the English leg, was to spend a week in Turkey, SCUBA diving with my daughter at a small Mediterranean town called Bodrum. Most of you will well know that Bodrum has featured recently as a MAJOR kick...

I am staying with my brother's family in Surrey and we're doing daily rides from his business premises in Guildford. After two days of riding the 1973 K3 750 Four is running without skipping a beat. It's in great shape for bike that's more than 40 years old. We're sticking to minor roads...

In the departure lounge at OR Tambo. Ride starts tomorrow. Bring on the 750 Four.

My brother's business is called "2 Wheels Miklos". Its contact details and address are accessible through the website (link above). They are next to the A3 just South West of Guildford. I'm sure they would be very pleased to see bikers from Southern Africa even though their focus is mainly...

I'm going with a Swiss Company based in Osh - Muz Too. They have quite a number of tours and trips in and around the "Stans".