Dealing with Disappointment…

The last few weeks have been tough…!! My determination has been severely tested, and I have had to do a little “mental re-grouping”…

Not only has the weather been less than perfect, but I have had to rethink my planned route, leaving out countries that I was very keen to ride in, and this has sent me on a bit of a “downer”…

The rejection of my application for a Russian visa was the first of a number of “bitter pills” I have had to swallow… Friends I met in Nordkapp and others I spoke to along the way, made dire predictions of what might happen to a solo rider on the rough and lawless roads of Russia…

Reaching Nordkapp was an emotional experience... A hard fought ride and a hollow celebration...

Still, I went ahead and applied for the visa… I did not want my desire to ride in at least 100 countries on my World Tour to be jeopardized…

After the “emotional high” of reaching Nordkapp, I needed something to challenge me again… To keep the adrenaline flowing, so to speak…!! I could not properly convey the emotions I felt on reaching the ‘Kapp…

If you think you felt what it was like for me from reading my posts on my two “Summits”, then to get an idea of how I really felt, you would have to double or even triple that… It was the pinnacle of my ride so far… Up there in the top ten of the proudest and happiest days of my life…!! Also the saddest and loneliest…

Since then, from a riding perspective, things have been a bit “mundane” to tell the truth… There have been a few rides that fanned the fires of adventure in me though… Riding the Transfagarasan in Romania and the technically challenging ride through the endless “twisty’s” of Northern Albania to get to Kosovo, certainly got my juices flowing again…

But, “Fairly straightforward and monotonous”, is how I would describe most of the rides since then… This has allowed my mind to wander off the task at hand, letting the things that still haunt me come sharply back into focus, blunting the determination and drive that took me right through East and North Africa, and up to Nordkapp…

Lousy weather I can deal with… I almost always tell myself that above the rain clouds I am riding under, the sun is always shining…!! And soon it will shine down on me again…!! In 2007/8, it rained on 52 of the 77 days it took me to ride through 10 countries in Southern Africa, so I am no stranger to riding in rain, and am better prepared for it now, than I was back then…!!

The snow that turned me back from my ride to Georgia, had come as a huge surprise to both myself and the locals folk of Bolu, who like me seemed amazed that the weather had changed so quickly from heavy rain to snow… My snap decision to turn back and head for the coast was the wrong one in hindsight, as bright sunny days returned to the eastern half of Turkey just two days later…!!

Then, while visiting Fetiye, more bad news…!! I had sent an email to the Automobile Association in South Africa, to confirm that I could take the Big Fella into Iran… Their reply was short and to the point…!!

“Unfortunately our club can no longer validate any of our Carnets for Iran or Iraq. The AIT and FIA (who head the Carnet system worldwide) have informed all clubs that if we validate our Carnets for Iran or Iraq we do so at our own risk.”

Needless to say, the AA are not about to take the risk…!!

I had by this time been concentrating (and worrying) about my ride through Pakistan, more than anything else, having already obtained my Iranian visa, and had heard many positive things about the friendliness of the Iranian people, and the beautiful desert landscapes that I would encounter there. Monica and Simon had told me that Iran had been one of their favourite countries to ride in, despite an incident with some soldiers when they mistakenly rode too close to a military outpost…!!

Just a week ago, a group of Dutch riders had been turned away from the Iranian border, because one of them had a problem with his Carnet du Passage… Another rider had decided to give Iran and Pakistan a miss, and is currently somewhere in Jordan, trying to figure how he can get his bike from there to India…

The infrastructure in Central Pakistan is in such a shambles since the devastating floods there, that had I been able to ride through Iran, I could face the very real possibility of getting stuck somewhere west of the Indus River… Recent attacks on fuel convoys in Quetta, a town in Pakistan I would have to reach without military protection in a single long days ride from the Iranian border, have also had me thinking about the wisdom of riding through this troubled country…

Maybe we should go into Vietnam under cover of dust and darkness, hidden in the back of a truck...!!

The disappointment of losing out on riding through these two countries (where I no doubt would have blundered into some form of excitement…!) has been tempered with a bit of good news at last…

Progress is being made with regards to getting a “Special Permit” to ride in Myanmar (formerly Burma), and this would open up Laos and Cambodia to us…!! My good friend Borge Leth has introduced me to a team of guys in Myanmar who are confident of arranging safe passage for the Big Fella and I…

Vietnam at this stage remains adamant that the beast of a BMW cannot be ridden on its roads, and the use of a bit of masking tape to try and convince them that the Big Fella is only a 200cc, might not work…!!

So, while our planets largest continent might only yield little more than a dozen countries whose flags will adorn my panniers, I am sure it will still prove to be an interesting and adventurous ride…!! Getting over the disappointment of falling short of the 100 country mark, will still bother me for awhile… It was one of the pillars that I had built my RTW journey on…

I keep telling myself that getting to ride on six continents in one long continuous ride is already a feat that few people get the opportunity and privilege to achieve, and the number of countries they take to do it in, is secondary…

But I still have that “stone in my shoe” feeling about it not cracking the “100”…!! I think I must begin hatching a cunning plan or three…

In the mean time, I will need to think about flying the Big Fella from either Jordan or Syria, or taking a ferry back into Europe and flying from there to either Lahore in Pakistan, which is east of the flood ravaged areas, or to Kathmandu in Nepal…

The main criterion is a direct flight that both bike and I can be on… There are too many stories of riders waiting weeks to be reunited with their bikes, which were either left off flights or sent to the wrong destination…!! But that is a problem I will deal with in November…

I am back in Istanbul and using all the charm I could muster, managed to get my Indian visa in just one day… Yup, handed the forms in early this morning and at 5.00pm I had the vital stamp in my passport…!!

Cleared to ride in India...!!

And of course, there are always things to make me smile… My hotel in Istanbul has the following sign in every room…

Bet you've never seen a hotel sign like this one...!! Gotta love it...!!

I have also had a few minor problems with the bike… I have a minor oil leak, which while not very serious at this stage, might well get worse as time goes by…

I sent a mail to BMW describing my problem and am more than delighted to announce that tomorrow I take delivery of a few parts that Auto Alpina in Boksburg, South Africa, have very kindly provided me with. Auto Alpina was where I bought the Big Fella almost three and a half years ago…

Hard to believe that together, we have traveled almost 90 000 km, and that we now find ourselves here in Asia…!! The villain of my early days on the road, my Ohlin’s rear shock, (now repaired), will also be on the same flight… Delivered personally, along with my spares, by a close friend from home…

I will be flying back down to the coast to have a week or so of “navel contemplation”… Try and catch the last few rays of the retreating Northern Summer… And then the Big Fella and I are off to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and the deserts of the Middle East…

I leave you with this song, “If Today Was Your Last Day”, by Nickelback…

I often listen to it to remind myself how fortunate I am, and how determined and focused I must remain if I am to succeed in my journey around the world… Click on the title below, then sit back and listen to the words that roll around in my head…

If Today Was Your Last Day…

©GBWT 2010