Rick in eXile...

Greetings folks!

Bumped into Yosi yesterday in Guildford on his return from France. He insisted I come aboard...

I am new to Beemers and have a 3 month old Adventure which has the dubious distinction of having snapped the timing chain in the outside lane of the M1 after just 354 miles. I'm pretty impressed though, the second engine made it to the first service without a hitch

The purpose of this rant is to make you aware of my forthcoming trip in order that I might get benefit from any feedback along the way. I have spent a career (i.e inbetween travels) in corporate IT and the multi-national company that I worked for went spectacularly bust last year and I vowed that I would never again wear a pin-striped suit and tie or let Blair and Brown dictate my lifestyle. So it's time to get the GPS out and head for sunnier climes.

The plan is a trip from Morocco, anti-clockwise round Africa to Tanzania and then a boat to India, Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Oz, NZ and, if I still have the urge, South America. I've reckoned on this taking up to 2 months... or was it years? I'm starting out with a guy I met last month doing the BMW welsh off-roading thing (..if you've never been off-road you MUST try it - infinitely more fun than British roads) who has a similar ambition and we plan to hit Calais on 27/10/03.

Any final preparation tips and advice (e.g. what not to pack) will be gratefully received

If any one fancies joining us or hooking up beforehand, you will be most welcome..

Rick

Hi Rick,
Welcome to the madhouse, If you do a search for Karl he's just about finished an African tour of some achievement, as for meself im off to south america in nov 03, im in London aswell if you want to meet up one Sunday go over the bikes give me a shout. If you dont mind me asking how much was your carnet?
regards
jose

Carnets... ahem!!

Hi Jose!

Yup, was reading Karl's exploits with interest yesterday - must get hold of him. And thanks for the invitation, I'm running out of Sundays but will definitely try and sort something out

Apart from taking a big hit on the stock market and getting clamped outside a friend's flat (despite the visitor's permit), my other cause for despair this week was the after doing the old calculation for the cost of the carnet. Of the 3 options, the only viable one for me is to take the '10% insurance with 50% refund'. With India on the list it was going to be 5 x 9 grand x 10%... I have decided to proceed on an Africa only basis in case I don't make it in any further and as I'm not going to Egypt (x5) it will will work out at 2 x £9K x 10%. (I prefer to view it that way rather than calculate the bottom line..)

BMW's GS Adventure brochure got me juiced up over South America. Would definitely do South over North if I had to make a choice.

This weekend I'm considering spraying the ally-boxes a less conspicuous colour and then I'm doing a 4 day first aid course which, hopefully, won't come in too handy...

...at last!

Well, the judge (...not Judge) gave me 6 pts/£250 and wished me a sincere bon voyage. I've only had to wait since 7th July.

When asked if I wanted to comment before the court considered banning me for doing 107mph (empty dual carriageway - followed by an unmarked Omega) I stated that 4 months twiddling my thumbs in order to keep my licence intact for my RTW trip meant I had already served an effective ban

So the licence came thru the mail and I'm off on Tuesday. The milkman and window-cleaner's services have been terminated. One more trial pack, decide which half to leave behind and hello Morocco, Christmas in Casablanca

You fatties all go easy on the mince-pies...

Rick