david2goa
What's it all about?.... My name is David Edgell, I live in Loughborough, England. I am a regular traveler to India and have thought about riding there on a motorcycle for years. This trip is about many things, challenge, adventure, joy of motorcycle riding, travelling a path less trodden.... pursuing a dream.
I will be riding on a 2008 BMW 800gs. I bought this bike about 6 months ago. It's done 17000 miles. I've added a few sensible bits and pieces, but haven't felt obliged to add £1000's worth of Touratech! My bike has been looked over by Dave Vannin at Roy Pidcocks (My Local BMW dealer) He says I have nothing to worry about except Iran.
I plan to take a month to get to Goa, riding approximately 300 miles a day. Do I have a route mapped out with every stop planned in minute detail? No. My approach has been very simple.... Using Google maps I entered my home address and my destination. The route that Google offers traverses Afghanistan. I simply dragged the route line via Pakistan! Et voila!
The preparation for this trip is a significant part of the endeavour, getting the visas is mind bogglingly complicated. The ride to India is a 7000 mile journey travelling through Europe, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan............ Iran, Pakistan and India all require visas. My aim is to ride directly to India without stopping and therefore I have sought and collected all these visas in advance of the trip. Because visas have a shelf life and because the visa application process is serial, timing is everything. I have the visas, I have paid the RAC a ludicrous amount of money for a Carnet de Passage.
I leave on Saturday 15th September 2012! gulp!
Hi Dave, Mark Littlewood here from DMU days. Bit late but hope the trip went well, good to see you are still travelling and keeping well
ReplyDelete