The Stats

Countries visited: 16
Continents: 2

North America

Central America

South America

Days taken: 298
Cost: I really don’t want to know


Mileage:
Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay: 30403km unlike the 17,848km it says on the sign at the end of Ruta 3
Total trip distance: 40161km

Bike stats:
Punctures: None (I have to include this because Mike had three)
Tyres worn out: 5 (A bit of a sore point with Mike, he went through 10)
How many times did I actually change my own tyre: None (Mike, 3 puncture repairs, 3 of his own and 2 of mine – well I’d hardly want to break a fingernail now, would I!)
Oil used: too much
Clutch changes: 1 – And this was after being explicitly advised to ‘Whatever you do, look after your clutch!’
Chain broken: 2 (Both before I bought the tool to fix it)
Chain and sprocket changes: 3 (It took me 2 to learn how to look after them better)
Break downs: Um, no comment (Damn that carburettor and chain)

Bad accidents: 1
Times I dropped my bike: Um, several
Times my bike blew over: 4 (The wind was quite strong in some places)
Times I had to pick up my bike by myself: none mostly thanks to Mike and a little to the machismo of Latin America

Road kill tally (Seen but not created by us - except for Larry the Lamb of course):

1. Dogs – hundreds



2. Cats – not so many



3. Lambs - 1



4. Llamas – 12



5. Horses – strangely, at least 9



6. People – 1



7. Unidentifiable – numerous

Best riding days:

1. Riding Ruta 39 crossing from Argentina to the Caraterra Austral, Chile.



2. Feeling like Che Guvera on the road from Uyuni to Potosi in Boliva. (Although no plans to start a revolution)



3. Riding the Dalton Highway back down from Prudhoe Bay (although this was technically at night time).

Strange how all of these were dirt roads, and I supposedly hated riding on dirt roads.

Best moments:

1. Uncrating our bikes in Buenos Aires.



2. Being served breakfast in bed or rather, in our sleeping bags in our tent, by the hostel owner in Hotel Argentino, Rio Grande. (It’s the little things)



3. Reaching the ‘road’ after two days of riding through a gravel pit that is the south west of Bolivia.



4. Reaching Deadhorse, Alaska in one piece. Job done.

Worst days:

1. Having to ride bruised and battered, on Ruta 40, in the wind, after my accident.



2. Waiting 4 weeks for a god damn boat from Colombia to Panama, only to spend the first two days very seasick.



3. Saying goodbye to Mike in Vancouver.



4. Leaving my bike at the warehouse in Vancouver.

Lessons learnt:

1. In the thinking of Karl Bushby, (The Goliath Expedition http://blog.goliath.mail2web.com/ ) ‘For every one person that will do their best to disrupt your day, there are thousands of complete strangers that will go out of their way to make it better.’



2. Nothing is ever as difficult as you’d imagined it to be.



3. Never take no for an answer – Unless of course that’s what you want the answer to be! i.e. Do you think it will rain today?

And on a final note:
NO, the inspiration for this trip was NOT ‘The Long Way Round’ or ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ but rather my own lust for travel and ‘Jupiter’s Travels’ by Ted Simon.