Send us an Email

Chapter 4: Georgia

… Then a long burst of automatic gunfire. “SHIT!!” We froze about thirty metres from the cars and tried to decide what to do. Quickly I decided that if they were firing at us we would be dead by now, and if we were to turn and ride off they might think we had something to hide; and then we would be an easy target. So we rode up to the cars shouting “Kargi? Kargi?” (“Good? OK?” in Georgian: thankfully Georgie had written out a few local phrases). The guys with shooters all looked as surprised as we were…

 

Chapter 17: Travelling 35,000kms on a Broken Engine

… An hour later the engine was opened up “there you go mate, helicoil that”. But rather than getting out a box of delicate, precision-made helicoils and cutters, he got out a power drill, a box of huge brass inserts (threaded tubes) and tatty cutters. He thought that I was going to let him play ‘Driller Killer’ with my bike, but he was wrong and ‘politely’ I told him so…

(later that month)...Somehow the valve clearance had opened up to a massive 6mm, and would not adjust down. The rocker shaft had bent a lot and wasn’t keen to sit back where it should have been. What I didn’t realise was that the rocker shaft had actually broken at the end where it was bolted down, and it was now only wedged in place.

 

Chapter 7: Uzbekistan

… Now back to those dancing girls. What a sparkle in their eyes when they recognised Simon again. More dollars they thought, but our hostess distinctly ordered Simon not to give any more handouts…

… In the far corner, very carefully, my hostess and a couple of other women started laying out the quilts one on top of another. There were great discussions as to the best order in which to place them and on picking the correct ones. Finally, it dawned on me what I was being privileged to watch. I witnessed them literally building the matrimonial bed!

 

Chapter 11: Mongolia

… yurt-bloke showed us how the locals do breakfast. He cut a thick slice of the yak cheese and then spooned on the clotted cream, as we would prepare a slice of bread and jam. One slice each, it was very good; the cheese was light and not very cheesy and the clotted cream was thick and sweet.

We repaid the lesson by putting some jam and the clotted cream on fresh, sweet bread we had just baked: Mongolian cream teas. We all approved and came back for more.