OverlandSphere » JamesandCat

Bye Bye Nepal Its been Fantastic.

JamesandCat — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:45:32 +0000

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Is It Possible To Find an 18inch Rear Tyre for a 1000cc Bike in India

JamesandCat — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:39:09 +0000

Lumbini Birthplace of Buddha and Chitwan National Park BYE BYE Nepal

JamesandCat — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:56:09 +0000

After our offroad adventure we were pretty tired and decided to just chill out and relax for a few days. We found out Big Tom was heading to Pokhara to meet us and hang out for a couple of days and he turned up the next afternoon with his mum on the back of his BMW. We all chatted and…

The Uncharted Road To Muktinath altitude 3800m

JamesandCat — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:59:06 +0000

In the morning after breakfast we headed to the permit office in Damside. On our way we stopped to ask for some directions and another couple of people came over to chat this time it was an English guy who had just got here and he was planning to spend a few months in Nepal and India. We also had…

Pokhara Nepal

JamesandCat — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 03:25:44 +0000

So we rode from Kathmandu to Pokhara yesterday on the road which is supposed to be one of the worst in the country and since the average road isnt great you can imagine it was a little fun. It did take us 9 hours to get here but this included 3 stops and it taking an hour to get out…

Kathmandu Diwali and Some Exploring

JamesandCat — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:14:13 +0000

So the bike arrived as scheduled and we went down to the Cargo area of the airport in the afternoon but we were told it would not be ready until the following day. We did meet a young guy who was trying to help us out who said we needed to go to the main airport area first to get…

Nepal First Few Days in Kathmandu

JamesandCat — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:43:28 +0000

We arrived after a fantastic view out of our plane window of the Himalayan mountains poking through the clouds. It was a hell of a site and got us both pretty excited The airport was one of the smallest I have ever seen but it was pretty well organised except that the ATM upstairs didnt work so Cat had to…

Dubai

JamesandCat — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 08:00:16 +0000

Dubai has been great. Very relaxing. The first thing we did was take the bike to KTM. I say the first thing we went the following day after arriving. We also washed all our clothes properly for the first time for over a month including our bike gear. I was so overjoyed that for the first time in my life…

Iran

JamesandCat — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:31:03 +0000

After two days of rest we made our way to the Iran border Cat in full longsleeves and headscarf and under her bike gear. As we got close near Mount Ararat we saw another biker so I decided to pull over and see if he was ok. He was but he was just stopping to take some photos. His name…

Charity Ride to Tbilisi

JamesandCat — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 05:10:41 +0000

So the next morning we woke up and left Istanbul in 2 groups as the 3 BMW riders had to collect their bikes from the service and were going to catch us up. We rode out of Istanbul as 4 bikes and it was nice to be part of a group straight away stopping for a healthy Burger King breakfast…

Istanbul Turkey

JamesandCat — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:05:31 +0000

Istanbul We arrive in Istanbul to Spormoto the KTM dealer and importer for Turkey at about 6am and it doesnt open until 9am so we have to wait around. While we are there I put the front end back on the bike and Cat does some of her diary. At about 9.30 a guy turns up and opens the shop.…

South West Turkey The Accident

JamesandCat — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:14:39 +0000

After about 200km we came to the TurkeyBulgaria border. We got no special treatment this time and we did find things to be a little backward. You would queue up get to the front then be told you need to buy a visa at a different window so you would do that queue up again to get the stamp get…

Romania and Bulgaria Greatest road in the world

JamesandCat — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:13:43 +0000

Romania So with a plan to head towards Romania and see the Bears cave and Draculas Castle we made our way out of Hungary. The road out was fairly uninteresting a mix of good and bad tarmac but the funny thing is well it showed me how oblivious Cat was As we went along the highway every now and again…

Prague and Budapest

JamesandCat — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:02:23 +0000

Prague and Budapest In the morning we loaded up and headed to Prague pretty uneventful apart from we had someone pull out of a side turning very fast right in front of us it happened so quick I didnt even get angry but I realised if I was 2 seconds earlier there would have been no way he would have…

Moto GP Brno

JamesandCat — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:04:27 +0000

Once we arrived in Brno we found the Radka campsite which we had booked in advance but it was a little sloped so we went to others to see if they had space but all of them were full too we went back to Radka and found some flatish space. Its turned out to be great as there is a…

Ukraine Romania Hungary

JamesandCat — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:51:14 +0000

Ukraine Well to say the least its an interesting place. The roads are TERRIBLE and VERY dangerous not for any other reason than they are appalling and they lure you into a false sense of security by being great for over for 10 km then suddenly mid corner they run out and become wacky paving or just a hole group…

Poland

JamesandCat — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:46:48 +0000

The following morning we headed east towards Poland. The roads became a bit rougher as we entered Poland but not really bad since I am writing this from Ukraine and these are truly bad roads We headed pretty much south through Poland and found a campsite in Jelenia Gora and were very happy to pay only a quarter of the…

Berlin

JamesandCat — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:43:25 +0000

Wow what a place a great city very cool and so much modern history. Yesterday we did the hoponhopoff bus tour it was a great way to get round the whole city and see some of the main sites and the guide was pretty ok alternating between German and English. We got to see the Berlin Wall where its still…

The Road to Berlin 2 Animal Stories

JamesandCat — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:44:14 +0000

So the last week or so has not been as fullon exciting like Morocco but we have done some amazing rides been over 5 passes in the alps and crossed into 5 countries We basically sped through Italy to a camp in the Dolomites then took it easy going off motorway and following the squiggly roads through the Alps. We…

The Ship That SUCKED

JamesandCat — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:52:14 +0000

The Ship That Sucked So we decided to get the ferry from Morocco to Italy. I know the hardcore biker out there will be saying its not really a bike trip if we get the ferry when we can ride well were not trying to break any records were on holiday and using the bike to get around So we…

Essaouira

JamesandCat — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 07:46:00 +0000

Essaouira After Morocco we headed for Essaouira The ride was pretty uneventful as it was just 200km of motorway. The one thing we did see a lot of was big lorries that were massively overloaded so overloaded its worrying Yet as if this is not enough danger they then have 4 5 6 or more guys sitting on the top…

Marrakech

JamesandCat — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:18:18 +0000

Marrakech From Tinghir we crossed the Altas Mountains heading for Marrakech. We werent sure what to expect as Fes had really put us off big cities. The ride over was great it was about 200km of flat roads then just before the mountains we got pulled over by the police I thought I could have been speeding but I was…

Tinghir Dades Valley and Todra Gorge

JamesandCat — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:05:47 +0000

The only downside of the ride to Tinghir was getting ripped off royally at our lunch stop. Not much in major terms we paid about 16313 when it should have been 1636 but thats still double and the guy was just a slimy bastard spoke perfect English asked us about our trip really friendly and then BAM Double the price…

Fes It was a bit of a dump.

JamesandCat — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:49:48 +0000

After Chefchaouen we headed over towards Fes Moroccos oldest city and it used to be the capital. It was a fantastic ride the roads were great we had awesome mountain views then forest then desert. We drove througb Ketama and weed literally does grow by the side of the road We took lots of photos but we honestly got bored…

The Karma Cockroach.

JamesandCat — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:16:17 +0000

This story has three characters The Wife a petite Australian who doesnt like creepy crawlies The Husband a big tough guy who will take on anything and the Cockroach on steroids at a massive 3.5 inches who believes in Karma. The Cockroach made himself known to the Wife late one night when she went for a midnight pee. Hello Wife…

Into Morocco and Chefchaouen

JamesandCat — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:23:28 +0000

Into Morocco and Chefchaouen WOW what a culture shock maybe its because we have only been on the road a week or maybe no amount of time would prepare you for it. After being waved through the Spanish border the whole scene changes Everyones cutting in on everyone else its very hard to see whos officially working and whos not…

Rest Of Spain

JamesandCat — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:42:33 +0000

Electricity crisis averted – we took pictures of the adapter we had borrowed to show to people in stores, and finally they understood what we wanted. Now everything has battery again! We also bought a Camel Pack – very handy and also a great cheek muscle workout! We left Tarragona bright and early and followed the coast south.…

And theyre off . Through France into Spain to Tarragona.

JamesandCat — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:57:17 +0000

So we go to the Ace and meet everyone, Bobby came over to ours first and went picture mad, and took lots of decent pics of us getting ready to leave (Thanks!). At the ace he took even more pictures and Guliano gave us a blow up world map!! Soon it was already 11am and in typical Jetstream style…

Horizions Unlimited

JamesandCat — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:43:35 +0000

Horizons unlimited Well it was ok we definitely took some good knowledge away from it but it was also a bit daunting. Many people gave us what they thought was great advice but all of it was conflicting information There were hard core travelers who have been on the road for 10 years and live in 1 tshirt and 1…

Getting ready to leave packing and more packing

JamesandCat — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:50:30 +0000

So its Monday 20th June and we are now approaching the 48 hours until we leave milestone. The last few days have been a lot of fun and even more stress the fact this is going ahead is now starting to really ring home as the house is empty the bike is ready and we have most the paperwork ready…