12060 miles overall

The route we took was logged by our GPS units and here is an overlay onto Google Earth Map

You can now really appreciate what we have all done

If i was now to ride across America which is only 75 Deg on the map,then i would have ridden around the world

Hmmm?

The Trans Continental that runs East to West across the USA via gravel roads, would be perfect for the GS

Great Wall 4th July

Not having a bike now and flight not until Tuesday, there is only one thing to do and that is the tourist bit for the last couple of days.
Cannot believe i have just said that as it only seems a short while ago that we started off in London and now it is finished.
OK off we go to the great wall which is over two hours away by coach even though the thing is at least 4500 miles long and it goes slow. I would have liked to have ridden the bike to the wall as the roads are good and twisty and a photo of the bike with the wall in the background would have been excellent. Just have to remember that this is the first trip and tweeks will be made for people doing it next year. I know that this can be seen from space so as we get near it is instantly obvioujs


The wall we are seeing is not the usual tourist bit and therefore means it is quiet, there is even an official sign saying it is not open to the public but his does not deter the people from the local village


Access is across the dam and then up the side of the hill not to the tower you can see in the picture but the next one. The temperature is over 40 Deg C again so it is going to be hard work.
This climbs really quickly and ther are sections where there are no stops but the floor slopes. I am sure their is a very good reason military wise for this but it makes for sweaty walking. You can see it in the picture with me in it and the wall follows the contour of the mountains. Our guide for the day calls it the biggest Tomb ever for all the people who died and are incarcerated into the structure of the wall




Time to get back to the coach for the aircon and we also have a show to see tonight called “Cheng YE, the story of Kung Fu”. Very similar to the series of “kung fu” on the TV years ago with David Carradine, of the training of the Shaolin Monks
It combines the martial art with a story and art and dance. IT was brilliant and very entertaining and the fighting choreography was just superb.
No picture allowed but i did get a few sneaky shots and some of the peformners after the performance. The Chinese do tour this show so if you get a chance , you must go and see it.




Busy day but very worthwhile so what will tomorrow bring?

12060 miles overall

Bon Voyage Bike 3rd July

Time for the bike and myself to part company as it has to be loaded into a container and spend four weeks getting back to the UK.
Everything rearranged in bags and panniers so cold gear and camping gear is on the bike therefore minimising the weight of the two bags to fly home with. Well that is the plan so we will find out
Back to BMW Beijing to collect our bikes which they have stored overnight for us and we then head off to Tianjin Port.
Expressway all the way and we do not care if we have had permission or not and there is a confrontation at the last toll gate as they question how we got on and that motorcycles are not allowed. Our guide explains that trucks at 10 mph are more of a problem than us travelling at 70 mph. Ok we pay 50 Yuan each. Sorted
It is chaos entering the docks and lorries are backed for a long way and we decide to go up the pavement and along and wait for our escort into the container yard, who is in a car.

Then finally to the yard where the panniers must be left unlocked and all numbers of the bikes recorded.
This seems really strange to be parting company after so much time of riding and maintaining her. This was on a daily basis and now to leave it to our Chinese agency to ensure she leaves China is a bit unsettling, but it must be done.



We will see if the Chinese Bike group flag is still in place when i collect her from London in a few weeks but she has been brilliant in transporting me over 12000 miles through the most extreme weather and terrain you could possibly imagine.
PLEASE TAKE CARE OF HER!!!
So we have a coach to take us to Tianjin railway station were we will catch a high speed train (CRH3 EMU) back to Beijing.
They leave every 20 minutes and will only take 30 minutes to cover the distance that had took us 2 hours to do that morning as it i will do 200 mph (320 kph). Very smooth, very comfy and very quick



Back at the hotel we have a group meeting to be given “The T-Shirt” which has to be earnt by completing the trip along with some stickers for the bikes. The Chinese characters’ say Silk Road, London - Beijing


Then off for our final group meal at very celebrated restaurant called the DaDong Peking Duck restaurant. No guesses for what they cook there but it is done differently to normal restaurants. The duck is baked in a wood burning oven for 45 minutes while being hung vertically.
There are no pictures here as i did not want to have a camera on me that could be lost when i will have had a few drinks
All i can say is the duck is the best i have ever had and Kim Lee from The BMW Beijing, demonstrated the correct way to wrap duck with chop sticks. The key is not to over fill.
It was then on to another area around a lake with bars to really celebrate our achievements.
Finally Kevin could let his hair down with the relief of getting us all here in one piece and the burden of responsibility had been lifted. So at 3:30 in the morning we “Quietly” returned to the hotel to sleep.

12060 miles – Tianjin, China

Finally Beijing 2nd July

Earlier start than normal as packing has to be done but not like it has been done for the last 78 days.
Clothes to come home and then the bike related stuff to stay with the bike. This will mean tha the camping gear bag will be put in the clothes pannier, therefore, the riding gear goes in the camping bag.
Bingo two bags to come home.

Looks like a bomb has hit it but there is organisation in there really
The local bike group has arranged for us to travel down the motorway as one of the riders brother, is the manager of that section of the motorway.


So we are led form the hotel and will we be allowed on the motorway, which will really speed up our travel time to Beijing.
Up to the barrier we go and there is police there as well.

No problem off we go and it is nice to get up to a proper speed but the silly driving still continues with trucks in the outside lane so undertaking is the order of the day.
Three sets of tolls we slip through easily as the barriers do not go all the way across the lane
The final toll at ring road 5we pull over to wait for someone from BMW Beijing to show us the way in.
Traffic police are not happy as although we have permission to use the motorway they wish us to pay a toll. So we say how much and it is the very expensive amount of the equivalent of £1.50 per bike to travel 90 miles.

Things start getting busy with the traffic and it is a very twisty route to get o the dealer. Not sure if i said but we are not allowed past Ring road 4 as no big motorcycles are allowed past this point.


Kevin had informed the UK, USA and Polish Embassies in Beijing of our pending arrival and if they would like to attend.
Only one replied and that was Poland. They presented Robert with a Letter of Congratulations for representing Poland to travel. Polish TV were there to film the occasion so we have a TV star in the making. Theyb even had Kevin doing a piece on us all. Would be interesting to see what they translate, hopefully robert will let us know


Presentations and speeches all done from Globebusters and BMW China and it is time to grab our bags and go to the hotel.
We are on the executive floor which has its own check in and its own breakfast room and overlooks the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square
This will be our final home before departures to airports on our respective days

11955 miles – Beijing, China

Oh my God it’s the 1st July

Another early start and it is cooler and very full of smog. Every town you go through you can smell or taste chemicals. I think I have had a facial chemical peel today based.
Then it rains from around mile 80 all the rest of the way to our hotel which is the last stop before Beijing.Least it reduces the smog so i can breath properely.
Crazy driving and the smog make for a dull ride but it gets more entertaining once the rain starts again. They keep flashing me for my lights
OK “Muppets” you can see me then!!!!
Just a few picture s before the rain of the delights of the Chinese dual carriageway




Tomorrow we ride only about 100 ish miles into Beijing and go to BMW Beijing. The bikes will stay there over night as they are not allowed into the city.
We will g back on Saturday and ride them to the port for them to be loaded into a container to be returned home
OK got to go and get the bike cleaned as customs can be a bit funny if they are too dirty. Might be bringing in a bacterial growth!!

11842 miles – Baoding, China

Getting nearer 30th June

Another day like yesterday where it all about getting the miles dines and not really anything of interest to see.
Oh I nearly forgot, making sure no idiot tries to knock you off, most important.
Very hot again and the wetting down of the suit helps to stop me reaching boiling point in all the gear.

The odd temple allows for a little reprieve from the heat but the miles have to be done to finish the Silk Road.
We cross the yellow river which is a very well known landmark and marks the fact that we are getting closer to the goal


Then what do you get, road closure as if we want anymore delay. Honest this is how they do it on a major dual carriageway

“SOD IT”
Let’s just ignore it
Whoohoo!
WE are not alone in this as we find locals in their cars that have done the same thing and this is for nearly 20 miles

Not very often you get to take a picture of your bike in the middle lane of a motorway!
We stop at a new garage and ask if they have any food as this is a new thing in china for the garages to sell goods rather than just petrol.
Yes they have packets of noodles but they need boiling water and dishes. No problem, they go off, come back with cold damp towels to cool ourselves on and then the noodles arrive.


They would not even take a tip when i paid the bill of the equivalent to £1.40
That is one thing he a very strict on is to give you your exact change and will not take a tip
A little while later it starts to get get dark, then damp on the ground and then light rain. That will be nice to get cooled off again. This is a side road as the main road was being dug up.

Then it really decides to rain and we are reduced to about 30 mph to see the road but the stupid locals resort to hazard indicators and no lights. Don’t they realise there is no charge for having your headlights on!!!!!!!!!!
Once the rain stopped it was very cool with the suit drying out “lovely”
Another road closure at a bridge and no way round but a path over the mound so over we go and the same thing 5 miles down the road for over the mound at the start ot the town. All the locals are doing it and i find it amazing that the close the road but everyone ignores it if it is not convenient for them
Only one incident today that we were all concerned about and that was Charles had a scrape with a local in a car and it got a little ugly and the police were involved. He offered to pay for the scratch he put on the car while filtering, but the local was trying for a lot more. Only took 4 hours to get straight down the police station were money was handed over.

11629 miles – Handan, China

Onward 29th June

Getting closer to the end of the trip and a few more miles to do in the region of around 900 miles left to do in three and a bit days. So it’s an early start, as we are on the road before 08:00, we have over 250 miles to do today and from our experience this will take some time due to a) road repairs and b) bad driving by the locals. The favourite repair now seems to drill up the bad tarmac, then leave a piece that is about 6 inches deep open for several days, and then eventually fill it with Tarmac. These are not marked and can almost be a patchwork quilt across the road. This causes the Chinese drivers to be swerving everywhere.

Not much more to say as there are no views of the fantastic countryside as it is all hidden by smog. There were mountain outlines but that is all you can see.
Finally arrive at our destination and like all good Chinese cities, you will find a statue of the old man himself

Got to get the hotel ASAP as this suit is ringing wet inside from my sweat. Sorry but you need to know how hot it is. If only there was smelly vision,

11381 miles - Louyang, China

Terracotta warriors and more 27th June

After a much needed lie in and missing breakfast in the hotel, there was only one place to go to get the morning food “Starbucks”. Western culture has finally filtered the Chinese culture along with MacDonald’s and KFC. I have been enjoying the Chinese cuisine so did not have the western food except for a Vanilla Thick shake as the temperature is still rising the more east we go.
So, time to wander this city Xi’an, which was the original capital of China after the unification of the seven provinces, in 200 BC. It’s a walled city which is complete and you can cycle around the whole perimeter on top. I know it does not look that hot due to the smog but it was over 40 Deg C on the wall



This is very modern and everyone is so westernised. I do not know what I was expecting but not a scene from any European city with Designer shops and fashion shops.


It does have its older areas which are for more of the creative artistic stuff




So back to the hotel to get freshened up for the group meal which will be dumplings followed by a show

The steamed dumplings where excellent and they are made in different shapes to symbolise what the filling is
Have a guess at this one????????????????????


Then it was back to the hotel for 10:00 to watch a very disappointing England get hammered by the Germans (being Polite) in the world cup over a glass of wine
The following morning was to visit the Terracotta Warriors which the city is famous for. No one knew of their existence until in 1974 a local farmer was digging a well and unearthed some parts of the warriors. He took it to the local civil servants who did not know what they were and it took over a month before some Archaeologists got all excited and the whole project started. The position of the well is in one of the photos where the sign of number 1 is!






All the figures have different faces and different sizes of body and there is over 7000 of them but many have been left covered by the earth as they found that when open to the air the faded to the earthen colour that you can see
The pictures here are of a thin guy and a smiley one along with a photo of the original colours when first uncovered. You must also remember that they were all broken and it is an on-going process o put them all back together again





Ok, do not want to bore you with too much of this stuff but I would recommend that if you are in the area, to pop in and have a nose around

11104 miles – Xi’an, China