Back from Australia

And back to our preparations. But having just driven a hire car over 1500 miles in Australia, it is beginning to dawn on me how far the Nordkapp trip is going to be. It's not long now and getting quite excited but apprehensive too. Whilst in Australia, I drove the Great Alpine Road from the south coast to Wadonga. It is a sensational road passing the highest point at a ski resort on Mount Hotham. In a hotel lobby, I picked up a brochure promoting various routes through the mountains for motorcyclists. It is an excellent mini guide for touring and even gave a few safety tips as well as listing good cafes and biker-friendly places to stay. Included in the guide was a detour route off the main highway for riders travelling from Sydney to Philip Island ( the famous Australian racing circuit). Stunning roads in a real biker-friendly country. Might have to go back there some day!

The Challenges of Blogging and other news

I am writing this in Bangkok on route to Australia for business. To access my blog, I have to log on and give a password etc etc. Rather challengingly, the instructions are all in Thai. Anyway, I guessed and made it into my blog so here I am. Bangkok is not providing me with any climate training for the Arctic - its 36 degrees here today. I think I will go and sit near the air conditioning vent - that might help.

By the way, after our chilly adventure on the last bank holiday, Tim has indeed bought a new jacket. Panniers arrived for our bikes from a German manufacturer and the guys at MKS set about fitting them. Seems that parts are missing so being air-freighted in. Glad we didn't leave that to the last minute. The lesson is - plan and act early as enough things to deal with will go wrong later anyway....ha ha ha

Arctic Training in May....in Yorkshire

Don't you just love bank holiday weather?! We thought we'd have a nice ride out on bank holiday Monday but instead found ourselves having a training exercise for our trip. We set off on a chilly morning expecting it to get better during the day. But we ended up crossing the North York Moors in an icy hail storm with the temperature plummeting to just 3 degrees. Fortunately, as the weather is often unpredictable (particularly on bank holidays), we were in waterproofs and not leathers so it turned out that we in fact tested the gear we might be wearing to the Nordkapp. I think Tim might be treating himself to a new jacket!

On the same day, about 100 miles south of the Nordkapp, it was snowing! Oh dear! Perhaps we should be going to Africa.