It’s coming close

Today is the last day at the office for me – I’m saying goodbye to my colleagues and I hope to see everyone back in September.

And it’s just little over two weeks to go before Paul and I head off east. We have already done a lot of preparations, from planning the route to preparing the bikes. To give an impression of some stuff we have done so far:

  • Arranged visa’s for Russia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Tadjikistan and Azerbeidjan. The rest is either visa-free or can be done at the border.
  • Figuring out insurance and other formalities for the countries we will be visiting
  • Got inoculations: Hepatitis A, B, Yellow fever, japanese encephalitis, rabies
  • Got medication against malaria, height sickness etc
  • Spoken to a host of people who have done similar trips about the do’s and don’ts – where to go , what route to take, what to prepare, what to bring and what to leave at home. Thanks Wolfgang, Marco, Peet!
  • Countless hours of reading up on ride reports to prepare for local circumstances
  • Countless hours of debating what tools to take and what to leave
  • Together with Olivier from the Motorzaak prepared the bikes – Olivier let us do the work so we got quite familiar with the bikes
  • Installed extra USB charging facilities on the bikes
  • Prepared off-line and on-line maps, navigation, compass
  • Arranged for tyres to be ordered in Russia so we can change them before going into Mongolia
  • Training: Medical + first aid, more bike mechanics like plugging tires
  • Training: Off-road driving with those heavy bikes
  • Built this website
  • Figure out how to make movies with a GoPro and a drone (stay tuned!)
  • Arranged for transport of the bikes back from Vladivostok to Hamburg
  • Prepared laptops with information, maps, e-books, navigation software
  • Trying to learn some Russian

And many many things more…

New photo by Erik Dooper / Google Photos
New photo by Erik Dooper / Google Photos
New photo by Erik Dooper / Google Photos

 

 

 

6 antwoorden op “It’s coming close”

  1. Mooie reis in het verschiet. Vele bekende landen en voor mij een grotendeels bekende route. Ik hoop dit te kunnen volgen!

    Als je een beetje verstandig rijdt, kun je in principe de hele reis met 1 setje banden doen. Mijn voorband zit er na 27.000 km nog steeds op. De achterband is vervangen na 20.300 km terwijl daar nog voor 3.000 km profiel op zat.

    Veel plezier en geniet volop!

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