we are back in blighty. (click here for last photo's)

Although our journey ended rather abruptly and fell short of our desired distance, the lessons learnt would have been the same regardless.

lesson 1 - When all else has crumbled around you, you have to rely on only yourself to sort shit out.

Lesson 2 - its when shit goes wrong, then and only then do you realize what your really made of. "Let the good times roll"

Lesson 3 - shut up and do it!

With my head in my hands....

After months of planning, our dream had been slowly taken from under our feet.
due to poor planning and orgainisation by the "League of Adventurists" we are left with only 5 days to drive the remaining 3700km to Asuncion. (which is pretty muich impossible in our little trikes) Now almost all but 15/63 teams have had to leave their underpowered sofa´s in the Lifan Grave yard in Puno. its a very sad sight to behold, each bike has been pimped an personalised only to be left for dead just 1300km from the start.

So i want to thank you all for your support and we´ll make this up to you by doing something equally dangerous and stupid in the next 12 months. Those of you who sponsored us, your money will still go to those to whom we pleadged. and we will make every effort to raise more money dispite this massive error by the powers that be.

More pics to follow when we find a decent computer..

L.

Correct Link for Justgiving site

Hi All,



I have just been made aware that the my justgiving link at the top of the blog is wrong. Im not sure if this has prevented anyone from donating or not?

lloyd seem´s to have got his link correct so i´ll put it down to Lloyds competitiveness! ;)



The above unfortunately is now somewhat academic because after spending from dawn till dusk yesterday in Puno trying to organise our export paperwork for our mototaxi into Bolivia. We finally had to come to the depressing realisation that our road trip was indeed over!


During this trip many things have conspired against us. We have spent only 5 days on the road and 8 days being delayed at the start and along the way by the beauracracy of actually taking ownership of the delayed bikes and then getting them insured and out of Peru.



We thought that the challenge of this trip was to get a moped towing a sofa with us and all our luggage across the Andes and 4000km from the start to finish within the 14 days allowed or longer (upto 3 months).

Unfortunately as challenging as this is proving with the poor machinery (yesterday the exhaust snapped off at the head)and steep dangerous roads, bandits(not actually seen any yet), the final kick in the nuts has made it impossible to complete or get close really.



Therefore the grim reality after thinking that we were finally ready to leave Puno with all neccessary docs last night to enter Bolivia, was that no one had bothered to find out that the bikes cant cross until monday due to them being classed as commerce and the border closes for the weekend to all but tourists.

This meant that any chance we had of making it to the end had gone and indeed to one of the drop off points along the way.
All we would achieve would be to drive into nomans land and have no way of getting to an airport to fly home in time for our connecting flights on the 13th from Paraguay.



We managed 1200km in 5 days of driving over the toughest part of the route. It doesnt look proportionate on the map because of the winding accents and decents of the Andes (70km decent zigzaging every 500m one night). We were capable of doing 300-400km a day on flatter geography driving 15 hours a day with just fuel stops, which would have put us in good sted had the bike survived and the borders been kind.

What went wrong...

The organisation called the Adventurists who have organised many other trips succesfully, totally messed this one up with the help of Honda. Honda decided at the last second to not deliver the bikes as contracted because they weren´t confident they could complete the trip and didnt want their name associated with failing the distance over such extreme terrain with so much publicity surrounding the event.

The Adventurists tried everything including suggesting debadging the bikes but alas they still said no. The obvious thing to do would have been to cancel the event, however they found an alternative my contacting ´Lefan´ for the bikes instead at late notice.´



This is where the problems started because the bikes turned up late and in stages with no one knowing how many and when the next batch would show. Also the paperwork for each bike was also turning up in drips and not necessarily for the proceeding bikes that had been delivered. This is why we started 3 days later than intended.



Secondly the bikes didnt arrive in time to legally assign them to the individual teams. Therefore as a quick fix, all the bikes were put in the directors name for speed and then rented to us. Unfortunately they didnt think this through because it meant that we could only leave and enter countries commercially, involving reams of paperwork and big hold ups at the borders while the bikes are weighed and the paperwork is passed down the lines for authority and back again.



The final straw being that as a "commercial vehicle", we cant take then across at the weekend and will likely spend a day crossing once there. Even with this there is no guarantee that the paperwork will be corrcet once we get there as it has been wrong twice before.

So of the 62 teams of 2 and 3 that set out, 12 were present last night for a meeting with the company to see if there was anything left to do. For the few people who have lots of time to complete it then it maybe possible (one guy has a return ticket next March).

For us, unfortunately its over and our thoughts turn to all of you that have sponsored us and have been following our progression with so much entusiasm.
Personally im disappointed most because of all the support we have had in the last few weeks with lots more interest in our trip than i had imagined.
With the above in mind, Lloyd and I stamped our authority on the meeting by talking most loudly. The upshot being that they will allow us free entry into another simular or same rally in the next 12 months whereby we can give you the value for money we intended!


The adverturists have said they will issue an apology, taking responsibility for our failure to complete which i´ll post when i have it.

Despite al of this, we had an amazing 5 days of sights and sounds which i´ll don´t regret and will never forget. We also managed to come through some pretty desperate situations of dispair which have shown us that we are as good in an bad situation as we thought we were! ;)

We have lots of Vid and pics to show you and obvioulsy have 7 days left to get to Paraguay by bus and plane. Therefore expect to see some pics of the salt flats and Le paz etc before we go. Im sure Loyd will also have something to add.

Right, off to ritually burn the bike on film and then 8 hour bus to book to Le Paz.

M X

Break for the border

Its 7 am here and i have time to kill despite going out late last night. We are at 3800M and although we are climatised to a degree, breathing is a struggle and just standing up quickly or walking a flight of stairs can put you in the í just finished my first marathon´position.
Basically i wake myself up every morning at this altitude because i cant catch my breath laying down in any position. Every 7 breaths i get short and need to take a massive lung full to compensate. This is common to a few of us, maybe i should put the local cigs out hat im smoking!

We spent one night in Cusco and caught up with some friends like Philly Fireman John that we met the previous week and then set off to continue our mission to reach Bolivia.

The journey was 389km to Puno where lake Titikaka lives. We set off at midday and caught another American friend on the road. We managed 279km over 7 hours straight before the cold and dark got the better of us. Spent the night in a 3 bed hostel with outdoor toilet and shower and piece of A4 paper taped at one end to the ceiling as a light shade costing 2 quid each, it was the only place in town but served its purpose.

Finished the final 100km in 2.5 hours the next morning in glorious sunshine but still cold to arrive at Puno.

Lake Titikaka is the highest and largest lake in the world at 75km across. People live on the lake on man made read beds (see pics).

Fiesta day in Punto so we got drunk and are now waiting for a solution to the latest red tape issue to get our paperwork to allow us to cross to Bolivia. In truth its been a massive disaster and lots of peeps have abandoned ship because of the continued screw ups by the organisers to get everything sorted to allow us smooth passage.
19 People have so far droppped out through injury, mechanical fault or time pressures due to delayed start. We are now at the front with 6 others waiting to cross into Bolivia.

Hoping to be in Le Paz tonight if we jump through all of the hoops in time to allow us to do the 7 hour, 280km drive today.

M

who´s idea was this exactly?

Sorry for not keeping you fully up to date with our adventure, due to the nature of the task in hand we have no0t been able to find internet or simply havent had time.

The shock of how bad these machines are has only really just sunk in. in the last 3 days on Our maching alone, we have had, 2 punctures, 2 snapped chains, 5 missing spokes, 3 fuses blown, almost all the removable body work has been removed by the road itself and stewn to the wayside. (its not littering if you dont notice) Our bike cuts out every time you get to traffic light, over heats if you stop for longer than 6 minutes, but it loves riding at over 3500m above sea level. im told i will come to love this machine eventually. (its gonna have to make me plenty hot dinners and massages if he thinks he can win me over that easy!)

The terrain, wow, from Arizona desertscapes to snow covered mountains, we have pretty much covered every back ground i could have wished for, but i know there is more to come. In the valleys the heat is so hot its almost unbearable, until you climb (albeit very slowly) up into the hills where we both have to scramble for extra layers, that combined with the wind chill driving at 20kph really turns the sunburnt red nose blue. Our lips are almost falling off, they cant decide if they are burnt or frozen. thank god for blistex.

Perils in Peru

Hi all,

Ok well we have just arrived at cusco, 3 days after the start and 700km. That may not sound alot or it may but i assure you its epic!!

The mototaxi is rubbish, it has no power whatsoever and i now understand why we didnt even see hardly any in Lima´s city streets. We have climbed upto 15,000ft in these things and down again at speed of between -5 and 15mph.

in addition to being slow they are also unreliable. So far we have had 2 flats, one broken exhaust bracket, both side pannels fell off and the ´sofa´at the rear is now only held on by mine or lloyds weight after the screws fell out. We have snapped 2 chains and 10 spokes snapped in the front wheel causing the second puncture. Oh and the batttery stopped working...

All of the above has happened to a brand spanking new motorbike that even now has only done 700km.

Now all of the above may suggest we have had an absolute nightmare. Well we have in parts but equally it has opened alot of doors to getting to know the Peruvians. The night before last we stopped to ask for oil late at night and ended up having a party thrown for us in the persons house where 30 people of 3 generations all descended on us for drinks, singing , booze and dancing..oh and frisbie in the street curtesy of Lloyd.
Leaving at around 10.30 pm tyo make the next town we broke down and whilst considering sleeping by the side of the road in our sleeping bags. lloyd spotted and photograthed a red back Tranchula within 1 meter of us on the road..... at that point we both dug deep and i miraculously discovered i had a fountain of knowledge about the internal combustion engine bestowed on me by my wonderful father as a teenager which i never new i had; on account of begrudgingly standing in our cold garage watching him renovate my first car.

The worst times for us are when the bike breaks down causing us to drive at night to reach a place to sleep. Generally we will have a breakdown that means we are driving almost blind down time dirt road with several 1000M drops inches away from the wheels. This is ok but then for the past two nights we have then broken down again with no spare parts or as last night, no tool to get the front wheel off.Yesterday we drove 15 hours which is only 3 more than any day.

People here are some of the best i have come across. every single person we pass on foot or in the car waves or hoots. When we breakdown we generally have more offers of help than we need. Last night at a desperate moment when again we were contemplating sleeping by the road and freezing. A lorry pulled up and changed our tyre for us using the spanner he had that we were missing. His wife and child dutyfully watched in the freezing cold while he spent the best part of an hour helping us out.

Aside from that, the Andes are an amazing sight to behold and the comntinously changing geoghaphy is mind blowing really. on hour we are driving through what looks simular to Arizonian dessert and the next we are surrounded glacier. one hour later and we could be in the peat bogs of Derbyshire.

Final thing i wanted to mention to lamly attempt to instill symapathy and aduration is that so far the group have suffered.... one lost taxi to the river over a 7 storey drop. One broken arm, one goudged head resulting in hospitalisation, one bail out by passanger due to panic of inpending death over side of mountail road, resulting in the taxi running him over suffering cuts and bruises plus total loss of confidence to ever get back in one again.

Its really dangerous and definitely the most dangerous thing i have ever done or will ever voluntarily do again....unless your reading mum , in which case its very safe and im having a lovely time. sent you a postcard! X

Almost gone (click here for photo´s)

Finally got it together today and should be leaving in the am. Spent the day with our newly allocated machine down at the sports field for testing and tweeking. Everyone apart from us were painting and decorating and waterproofing and oiling their bikes as we intended to.

However when we arrived it was hot and we had a beer and Lloyd had his Frisbee. So we played that all day and ended up with all the kids in there PE lesson joining in.

My moment today came when all the kids at my end dragged me off over the horizon and into their school through the back gates. I wasnt sure why but went along with it and found myself in the school playground with around 500 of them.

To cut a long story short they wanted to introduce me to their english teacher and upon meeting seemed pretty insistent that i kiss the poor embarresed girl on the cheek while they cheered...

Unfortunately they couldnt find her initialy so they broke into the locked classroom by one kid climbing through a missing window above the door and opening it for us. I was then pushed to the front and had a piece of chalk thrust into my hand together with an english kids learning book.

In for a penny...so started reading this book and they all went nuts in a way that suggested they had never heard an english person read before..... Lucky for me!!

Anyway, got some pictures of us all and so ended my epic Gorillas in the mist moment but wont forget it in a hurry.

Set off at dawn (4.30am) for 7 hour drive to first timy place we can stop on way to Cusco , around 3 days away..

Oh and didnt get around to buying a tent so could be interesting..

See ya

will we ever start? (click here for photos)

The delay now is down to the goverment in Lima not issueing the documents for the bikes.
the bikes are ready (although not mechanically sound), We are ready, but everyone else seems to be dragging the feet.

The organisers have tried bribing the authorities will unlimted cash, but they just dont seems to care. We are now amongst the last 20 teams not to have been allowed to leave.

its highly frustraighting and very costly just sitting around waiting go. we are living like tourists,but should be spending like migrants. we have now limited cash at our disposal and our worry now is can´t we afford to actually hang aroung. not that we have any options really. Our flights arnt untill the 13th Nov from the finish line, to Rio then 2 nights there until we fly back. we willhave yo use al our savings from here we fear, unless we get the go ahead in the 36 hours.

Fingers crossed we wil be able to leave today, but every day we are promised it will happen and it just falls through. we are littreally in limbo.

the up side is, the other ralliers are pretty cool, the beers is cheap and the locals are just fantastic. the town is somewhat lackluster though and mark is threatening suiside if we have to wait here till tuesday for our documents.

the powers that be are suing Honda for all cost incurred including ours, although that doesnt even start to really cover anyones cost. We´ll just have to see.

We have had many reports from the lucky 45 teams who have left already of many accidents, the most worrying was that of 2 young Scottish girls who drove their bike off a cliff, into a river, luckly they got thrown clear but the bike toppled 7 stories in to a revine and sank without trace in to the river below. they have lost everything, everything except their passpots which they happend to stow in their pockets.

And at our meeting last night, the organisers received a text from one of our fixers to say that his staff who are helping out with the paperwork had been in a horric helecopter accident and all onboard had died when the pilot lost control over the Andes. Is this a message from god maybe???

its 11.30 here now, we will find out at 2pm if we will be in the lucky few who may get to leave today.

Hi,

Spent today with a sore head from the local mould wine type drink signing autographs for local kids at the sportsground where all the bikes are kept until they are ready to leave. Apparently we were on TV here so the 80 kids that were there doing sport just mobbed the 10 or so of us with paper and pens...I waited 36 years for that moment, was over it after about 10 though!
Played football the rest of the day against a bunch of kids that challenged us and murdered them surprisingly although i havent seen Peru in the world cup now i come to think of it.

Showing my age but have to say the children here are much happier and more appreciative of much less than at home. They were genuinely loving the fact that they had a biro scribble on a scrap piece of paper from us even though they hadnt seen me personally before and probably hadnt seen the news either...

Didnt get the green light we wanted to set off from the authorities so spent the day playing football with the local kids and giving them lifts around the ground i the mototaxis...

Hopefully we will be on the way tomorrow

Mark

Its been 8 days since we left and finally after 5 flights, a day on the train and one on the bus; a few nights out drinking; a days white water rapiding and a day at Machu Picchu, we have arrived in Hunkayo for the start of the´race´with one day to spare (or so i thought when i wrote this on my BB).
Arrived to official welcome from major and received gifts on stage in the main square of old note pad and biro from representative of local community. Then had hilariously amateur and lethal fireworks display that maimed several of the locals.... had to be seen to be believed.

Will spend the day attempting to modify the ´brand new´bikes with bits of the local market to make then actually work.

Major probs with the bikes after inital test drive on a local football pitch were:

1.) they dont steer...i managed to crash one into a goal post on an empty pitch while traveling at walking speed.
2.)They tip over very easily.....even lloyds mass didnt keep the back wheel down on a gently slow left turn.
3.) they dont reallly start and then stall very quickly afterwards which will be fun at traffic lights amongst other drivers here.
4.) the suspension is so hard that the bolts rattled loose in 10 mins on flat grass.

5.) they are fast enough for the handling and braking capability but painfully slow...top speed 30mph.

Reason for the above is that 3 peruvian mechanics put 61 bikes together from scratch in 48 hours flat!!!


We have been advised that we are likely average 20 mph at best inc minor breakdowns. We have approx 14 days to travel 2500 miles.
Therefore if we drive 9 hours everyday then we will make it...Doable i reckon although unlikely to be in any shape to ever drive or maybe even walk again!

Honestly, i´d rather be tackling this journey with one rollerskate than this 3 wheeled bag of bolts!!

Saying all of that, im looking forward to a massive serving of tragic comedy when 60 mototaxi´s are abandoned not 30 mins outside of Huancayo when it finally gets off the ground.......in which case it looks like i´l be doing the bloody marathon next year:(

Stuck in Peru

We have been held up by the poor organisation of the Adventurists. the only thing had to sort was the bikes to be ready at the start, and they arnt. we are now a week behind schedual. and the bikes them selves are not great, infact they are so poor that we are seriously worried we wont make it out of the town let alone the country.

it wasnt ment to this frustraighting, we have waised so much of our money hovering in Huancayo waiting that we probably will not have enough cash to see us through.

all the teams are tearing their hair out, no one knows exactly whats going on and when exactly we leave. all this is down to HONDA. (mofo´s) NEVER BUY A HONDA. they told us that they couldnt guarntee thet bikes would make it. so they pulled out. Now we have inferiour bike that we know won´t make it.


the future is bleak....
(as is the weather)

Almost there....

Having skipped through Rio and Sao Paula in a day, we flew another 5 hours to Lima, Peru.
Finally got a good nights sleep and starting to feel only as lethargic as home.
Will stay 2 nights here and sample some local food Ceviche before flying again to Cusco (home to Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail).

Due to our race being delayed by the organisers, we have time to do a day white water rafting and a day scaling Machu Picchu...so every cloud from above!

The natives and medical leaflets in the hostel suggest best way to Cusco is ´slowly´, so by bus or train over 10 hours and to avoid drinking inorder to avoid altitude sickness and death. The altitude is 3000M above so needs a little respect aparently.

Rather than take that advice and the mind bendingly boring bus ride, we have opted for the 1 hour flight. Hoping to cheat nature and slip through unscaved. Worst case is not being able to breath and being very sick so will see what occurs!

On Monday we will take either a 36 hour bus to the start or 2 flights back on ourselves to get to the race. Im again opting for the second option. From there we have a day to climatise to the 4000M while testing out taxi´s before the start on the 28th..

This is our Mototaxi.

It was ment to be honda 125, but Honda have pulled out causing a massive problem. So we have sourced new bikes, the bad news is that we are going to be delayed starting. the new start date is now the 28th not the 25th =(

which leaves us 3 extra days hanging around in Lima. Ho-hum..

NEVER TRUST HONDA !

day 2 & 3

ok, where to start. Rio was cool if not scary, we landed very very early in the morning and got driven to what looked like the favelas but turned out to be a pretty sweet hostel
Did Ipanima and Copacobana the next morning got burnt within hours even through the clouds.

Met some cool kids who i said i mention, Kate and Laura was great to meet you both and good luck with the rest of your travels. look us up if you get bored sunning in Copacobana.

bumped in the one and only David Dowling, who told us how he shot down a helecopter over Rio the night before, i thought he was lying until i saw the news the next day. NICE ONE DAVIE


Sau Paulo was a blurr, we arrived checked into a formula 1 hotel (cos we had to) and walked for hours around trying to find a party(exactly what the guide books say not to do. but nothing. not a sausage. Was up and at em this morning with a 5am flight to Lima where i write this from now. found a champion hostel in the best district, really cheap, very clean and oddly but satisifingly served us Coca leaves with our breakfast. not that i could taste it by this time...

A big thanks and hello to Raul an Ximon who mark a I sat next to on the plane (respectivly). Raul thanks for the advice. Call us for a beer boys.l

3 days to the off!!!

Day 1 London to Rio - by mark

Hi everyone, felt it necessary to get into this blogging business early if there was to be any chance of getting into a habit.

The flight was ok and made more exciting by the fact that it was the scariest flight 3 of us have been on; one being the steward I spoke who pointed 2ft up the wall with his hand whilst showing me where his feet were.

The oxygen masks dropped because of how violent the turbulence was and when it calmed down the passenger infront of me was kind enough to pass me my salad in a bowl back. Unfortunately he couldn't help with my wine which was dripping onto my head from the ceiling nor Lloyd chocolate pudding from either his lap or the lady in fronts hair. Lloyd and I watched In amazement as the stewardess with the alcohol trolley rose above the seats leaving only her jaw on the floor.
Luckily we had the comforting words of a Brazilian 737 pilot who happened to be sitting next to us, "if our seat belts hadn't been on then we would have crashed head first into the ceiling...

Mark

Tm Minus 1 hour

we are the airport. Our good friend HHelena has helped us massively by getting us invited the BA lounge, so we both scoffing our very last sandwiches for the 26 days washed down naturally with lashings of beer and wine!!

love you Helena

Rio here we come!!
next blog from South America.


L&M

How slow do these things go? (Click here)

This kinda sets the standard i think. slow, noisy and not very water tight!

(Click on the title for the Video)

Packing

With no fewer than 28 micro climates on route, packing is proving difficult.

"just how cold does it get at 5000 Meters above sea level?"

I'm off to M&S for thermals

5 days to go

We are now fully immunized, although we are yet to actually get our yellow fever cards stamped yet.

Our international driving licenses are stamped an correct.

Our 15 flights to get us to the start line are booked. (as well as the 15 back.)

Our Spanish learning's have fallen by the wayside but Our thinking is we'll have more of adventure if we don't learn any of the language.

Our map purchases have not yet been purchased. (mainly due to the same reason as above.(although some might blame poor planning))

We have rucksacks, weather proofs, thermals, hammock and every drug known to man to combat everything the jungle has to throw at us.

now we just need to know where we actually start from......