Australia to Hobbiton

Currently traveling around Australia and have a live travel report on Advrider at this moment, so catch the latest on this link for now: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/from-kangaroos-to-hobbiton.1261722/

TLH Tour

Canadian East Coast and Trans-Labrador Highway Tour.

Travel the magnificent Cabot Trail and then across many of Newfoundland's craziest trails to the Loneliest Highway on Earth the TLH

 

As your tour leader it is my main task to make this an enjoyable experience and one that you will remember forever as it will challenge each rider to learn new motorcycle skills far beyond what you may have thought was possible. I did setup this ride in such a way that both novice and rookie rider can gain more skills as our trip progresses.

 

For more info send e-mail to:

rtwc2c@gmail.com

 

After spending a few months of planning and taking into account all the possible options of which trails and or roads we could ride, it was finally time to head out to great my fellow co riders, Joe Enberg and Michael Fritz for the inaugural ride on July 4, 2015.

 

You can read Joe’s excellent trip report here:

http://advjoe.ca/epic/epic-east-coast-trans-labrador-adventure/

 

And Mike’s excellent trip report here: http://vstromamericas.com/author/freetobeme7777/

 

 

Trails on Newfoundland

Original ADVrider post of Ottawa, Inuvik, Tierra Del Fuego

For those of you that want to go to my original post as they happened on ADVrider follow this link: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=899014

Gear and Bike Revue

Gear and Bike Revue.

Now after having ridden some 52,000km across North, Central and South America this is my take on the following products.
 

Riding gear:

• Shark Evoline 2 helmet: it is a bit noisy and not light but has served well for this ride, what I do love is the fact that you can ride open face (that I did 95% of the time) or closed.

• Tour Master transition 2 jacket: was an older jacket that has worked very well. I did have to spray with tent spray on this trip several times for water resistance, and has good cooling options. Very strong jacket but not made to last for a RTW trip.

• Rev-It Cheyenne pants, not water resistant without the liner, but has served well, even in the hot weather. Well made but just hate to always zip the liner in and out while your standing along the side of the road.

• Triumph Tri-Tex boots, after some big rains and drying-up they started cracking while crossing the Canadian prairies. They never got better after no matter how much spray or crap I put on them, and was no longer water proof.

• Tour Master Dri-Mesh gloves, works good for a short while, and then go south, a bitch to put on or off when wet

• Old long leather cuff gloves, has served for over 40 years and are still my most used pair of gloves and are indispensable.

• Light leather jacket, was good for going out and can be worn under riding jacket when needed.

• Icebreaker under garments, had two sets and are the best I ever have had.

• Long sleeve base gear that can be worn over the under garments or just on it own (layering) and is a must to bring along.

• Rain gear, Hogg Toggs worked great and was easy to pull on over everything and could also be used as wind break. Did save my ass many times on this trip.

 

Camping Gear.

The hammock with mosquito netting was by far the best sleeping I have ever done, and with a light tarp to cover in the event of rain was great

Jetboil cooking system was fast and an excellent purchase, was also very surprised how little gas it used.

I do need to say that the camping gear was mostly used in Canada and USA and only once in Ecuador. The cost of lodging in Central and South America did not warrant the use anymore, and I ended up giving most of it away in Panama City.

The Bike.

· The Yamaha Super-Tenere was abused, dropped, slammed, covered in muck and it keeps on going. It will need a good cleaning, plus some overdue maintenance done to it, and I will get a new differential seal installed just for good measure. In my books a truly super bike.

· The Mitas E-70 Dakar tires that I had put on in San Diago, California made it all the way to the finish and now have 29,996 km's on them, and are tops.

· The Givi crash-bars and pannier brackets have lived through all of this with just some slight damage.

· The Pelican Cases have taken a beating and are still watertight.

· The Heated grips are by far the best extra thing you can have on this type of ride, was able to ride with just the summer gloves on through freezing cold conditions, what a comfort to have.

 

Back Home

Day 182, Dec 31, 2013

Made it safe and sound to Kingston, Ontario after some 25hrs of traveling with 12.5hrs of flying time, I was able to celebrated New Years eve with family.

I will be staying here for the next while sorting out some business matters and then back to Rockland/Ottawa to finish the books.

Its icy cold here and a real system shock for sure, after the hot 40c of Buenos Aires to minus 30c here, ouch.

I would like to wish everyone that followed along a very Happy New Year and may your dreams come true as it did for me, because without your support I would not have made it this far.

As I have said before an adventure like this will let you see nature and it's unbelievable beauty and will push your mental and physical ability to extremes that will go deep into your soul and after you think you have seen and felt it all it goes even further than that when meeting some of the most incredible people ever. I do believe that you have to live life to it's fullest so that you can feel what I have felt and so that you too will never have a regret.

A special heart felt thanks to all the ADVriders that opened there homes to me during this trip:

Sherpaguy in North Bay, Ontario

Albertabob in  Pincher Creek, Alberta
GISdood, in Prince George, BC
Yukon Jon in  Carmacks, Yukon
XB12R in Colombia Island, WA
dentedvw in Salt Lake City, Utah
HeadShrinker in  Kayenta, AZ
Cmnthead in  Las Tablas, Panama

And to those that I did meet and gave from there heart.

David Jeffrey in Eagle Plains, North West Territory

Steve & Wendy in Nanaimo, BC
Mark Kraft in  Pasco, WA
Steve & Sylvia Scholte, Mountain Home, Idaho
Dave & Julie, in Moab Utah
Tim & Kari Page in San Diego, California
Dan & Nancy in Playa del Coco, Costa Rica.
Oscar & Family in Rio Grande, Argentina

I cannot thank all of you enough, because you helped make this ride possible.

 

Wandering through Buenos Aires

Day 175, Dec 24, to Day 181, Dec 30, 2013

In Buenos Aires they did close all museums and shops for the Dec 24 and 25 Christmas Holidays. They don't celebrate this at all, so this made for long hours talking with other travellers here at the hostel. Two girls from Australia were robbed a few days earlier (Tiffany and Lucy) and they were still a bit dazed from there experience. Lucy had her purse stolen that had everything in it so she needed to go to the Embassy for en emergency Passport. Luckily she was able to get one and did turn this experience into a positive one as to not have everything in one place. We also talked about our travels and we had a really great Christmas dinner that was organized by Hostel Ostinatto.

 

 

 

 

To sum a few things up.

The ride was 51,833 km's or 32,395 miles long and did take me through 18 country’s during 171 days.

52.084km’s if you add the Kingston to Ottawa mileage.
This set of tires has 29,996 km's (18,747 mi) on them and are still in one piece with zero flats (go Mitas).










Day 178, Dec 27, 2013, 32km

Finally was able to head down to the airport and get the biked wrapped for shipping, after waiting for 3 hours with another couple from Germany we were called to the cargo hall, where our bikes were weighed and then put onto a skid that they had made for us.

Did not have much time before customs would close so we had to hurry. I decided not to remove the front wheel for time sake and I just hope that this will not be to costly in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 179, Dec 28, 2013

Walked to some of the Museums and Monasteries today but just could not get very excited about any of them, the heat outside and even inside these places is sucking the life out of everything, did buy 2 ltr's of water and your still thirsty. Buenos Aires is having it's worst heat wave ever and no end in sight.

 

The famous Obelisk on 9 de Julio and Corrientes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 180, Dec 29, 2013

 

Did go back to the markets and just wandered around with water bottles at hand, its 40c and sat down at every opportunity I could get.

Can't get much sleep with temps inside around 38c, all you can do is sweat and drink more. Here is a link to a local paper about the heat:

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/148522/heat-wave-red-alert-continues-for-6th-day-in-buenos-aires-

 

Day 181, Dec 30, 2013

Headed downtown to Navicon for the final payment for the bike and it works out to the following:

Volume weight 397 Kg times 3.40 per Kg     US$1,349.80

Navicon packaging and handling charges       US$   325.00

Agent fee?                                                        US$     60.00

Storage fee                                                       US$     57.00

Airport tax                                                      US $   140.50

Undocumented handling fee?                        US $    54.08

Sub total                                                         US$ 1,986.38

Sub total times official bank exchange of 6.5 = $12,911.47 pesos

 

Did get Blue dollar exchange for pesos @ 9.75 and only paid US$1,324.25 for shipping after changing dollars for pesos

Plus US$ 100.00 for Dakarmotos for there involvement.

Making a grand total for the whole thing US $1,424.25

Was surprised about the volume weight even after not removing the front wheel.

 

 

Shipping in Buenos Aires

Day 173, Dec 22, 2013

Lazy Sunday walking the markets that go on forever, taking in coffee, beer, ice cream breaks and having a juicy steak dinner, man this is hard. Buenos Aires is just so very European, can't believe I'm not walking some streets back in Amsterdam or Paris.

Forgot to put my SD memory card in the camera, so it gave me only one shot on internal, so here it is, will get more, next time.

 

 

Day 174, Dec 23, 2013, 42km

Headed to Navicon and found out that they will only work with Sandra from DakarMotors when it comes to Motorcycles, because Sandra gives them all the work they want you to go to them first.

Apparently they have a mutual agreement and they would not bend from this. So headed to DakarMotors and paid $100 for there involvement to arrange with Navicon when the bike could be dropped off. With all the Holidays and Aduana only working short hours I have to wait till Friday before my bike will be packaged and customs cleared. Then on Monday they will let me know how much the shipping will cost and I will need to pay this at Navicon, anyway welcome to the merry-go-round.

Something you should know about shipping is the dimensional weight.

The dimensional weight of a shipment is a calculation that reflects its density. Dimensional weight is calculated by multiplying the length x height x width and dividing by 166 lb (if multiplied in inches) or by 6,000 kg (if multiplied in centimeters).

"Size counts" formula in common use:

 

Length x Width x Height in cm. divided by 6 = weight in KG.

Example. 225 x 100 x 115 = 2587.5 cm3 divided by 6 = 431kg

Weight times KG price gives you the airline shipping charge.

Hope this helps some of you still out there.

Was able to book a flight for myself on December 31, New Years Eve to Toronto, leaving 8 am to Bogota and then to Toronto arriving 9:40 pm, this will be the Champagne flight I guess.

Have another week to hang around here and see all the sites; just don't know how much of this I can take.