Big Foot on 2 wheels

Guatemala

2010-05-31T14:25:00.001-07:00

Belize

2010-05-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

Back in business

2010-05-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Tulum is mayan archaelogical site in Mexico's Riviera Maya.the buildings which are visible on the site date from the post-classic period, around 1200 and 1500 A.D.

Public beach in Tulum Mexico

Finally we are back in Cancun- Mexico. We had a hard time because of the accident however we were able to come back and care on with our big dream.

Due to the ashes fron the Vulcan in Iceland we had our flight cancelled and we had to wait for 2 weeks. Was just in time for us to take the bike and head to Belize. Our bike permit expires on 14 of may so we can' t take more risk , we have to get out of Mexico as soon as possible.

It took only 3 days to put our bike ready to ride again, everything went according to plan.

However We asked a mecanic to order a new battery and after the 3 days the mecanic desapaired with our baterry and our 2000 pesos , and we had to organise and buy ourselves. I believe all this is part of our trip the problems never finishes.

The second round of our big dream

2010-04-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

We organized everything to start our second round of our trip for 18 of april, we were looking forward to started everything once again, we missed all the problems .
I believe our trip have to have some tension , just when we believed everything was ready we discovered on the last day that our camera was not working so we had to buy a new one because was no time to repair.
On thursday a Vulcano in Iceland erupted and the ashes caused a bigger problem than everyone expected. All flights in /out of UK was canceled until further notice. Today is the fourth day that all flights has been canceled and no one has any idea when things will return to normal.

The Accident

2009-11-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

As soon we arrived at cancun Elenice started getting very sick, with fever and all the other bits. So the only thing we were able to do was to walk around and take some pictures. She always said that we would not have any problem like that , but she was very bad. We intended to stay just until wednesday however on our last day she felt much better and we decided to go to Cancun and walk around and leave once again on our trip.
Was about 11am on our way back to Puerto Morellos our nightmare started, a Taxi crushed with other car and came to our lane, I saw exactly was going to happen but was raining and in the end we hit on the left side of the bike breaking my leg. This was what we always scared to happen because we knew that would finish our holiday.

The taxi was on the midle lane and I was on right lane, the taxi came very fast towards our lane after crushing in another car which is front of the police car. On police report they never found the car which is just parked infront of them.

Up to this time I was laughing , but not few hours.

My leg broke in one place (tibia) and they put 4 screws , they put internal metal plate, so was no need for plasters.

Elenice did not have anything . I stayed 5 days in the hospital, however I still have to talk about the other bit of the accident.
The law in Mexico states that when an accident happens and police have to be called and someone goes to hospital both parties goes to JAIL until investigation is done and things are sorted. Because I went to hospital a policeman stayed 4 days from Wednesday to saturday wainting for fme out side and checking every morning if I still there.
On the next day Elenice Went to the police station and they have told her that the accident was my fault and we had to pay 7000 pesos to the taxi. However they had only one picture and they close the case without talking to me (Mexican Way).
I paid the amount in order for not to go to jail and another thousands in order to take the bike. This others thousands I can't say what for,I would call "Mordidas".
Our insurance Direct line was fantastic, paid all the hospital expenses but we have to fight for the other bits.
We returned to London after 18 days . Our trip has not finished just posponed .
Hopefully we are back in may2010.

On way to Cancun

2009-11-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

We stayed at ojo d' agua hotel. the people were very helpful and friendly.

After hours of driving finally we arrive at Porto Morelos -30 km from Cancun. Was the most expensive toll that we ever paid. The road was nice but not for the price that we have paid. Only few hours we understood why the road was so quiet, you rarely could see a car.

We met few brazilian at Cancun,they said that was cheaper to came to Cancun then staying in Brazil.

Porto Morelos was a fantastic place. It was quiet and very friendly people.

View of Cancun- Hotels Sector

Pezao after few tequilas.

All the way to Cancun

2009-11-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

El Tajin

2009-11-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

Mexico

2009-11-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

All the way to Mexico

2009-11-16T16:40:00.001-08:00

Cape May, ferry (New Jersey) to Delaware

Laredo Texas border with Mexico

I don't know how many times I took off my bags and put it back I am so tired of it.............

You don't believe but we are still in America

Causeway Bridge 24 miles - New Orleans ,Lousiania
We stayed 2 days in New Orleans to see some friends and change some tires. Some part of New Orleans still in bad shape because of Katrina, so many houses complete destroyed and just abandoned. You can see there are a big difference from others states. It look that this part has been forgotten .

Wind from hurricane Ida.

We travelled 145000 miles and no one single stop by the police, I just hope this care on like that until the end of our trip.

Imagine a hurricane in way and I am waiting for a bus and the bus running late .......

Chesapeake bay Bridge17 miles in Virginia

Ferry Cape May (New Jersey) crossing to Delaware.

Once again we are on the road. It will be hard because 3 months is too long without riding, it will hurt our …….. . But the weather has been changing quickly so we must leave now. We decided to leave on Friday 6 of November 2009 in direction to Florida. We have to cross Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Caroline, South Caroline, Georgia and Finally Florida where we are looking to stay 2 days on the beach. During our trip we heard about the tornado Ida, We got a bit concern because it would arrive around Mexico on Sunday and we travelling by bike should be very concern. When we got in Virginia it was very cold and the roads were icy and very dangerous. We had to ride 650 miles on Saturday. By the end of the day we were very tired.

It is very interesting each state has your laws and we could see straight way because the first thing changed was the limits on the road and sometimes the conditions of it. When we arrived in Florida it was so different. The motorway was wider, excellent roads and the weather was fantastic. We Crossed Daytona and Pompano Beach however we decided to go to Miami Beach.

We arrived on Sunday night ,we agreed that we would not arrived in any city during the night however we keep making the same mistake and always getting a bad motel because of it .We arrived tired and crazy to get a place to sleep. It was so windy and so dangerous, I kept saying to Elenice if you see that we will fall you must jump of the bike. We hardy could ride so we stayed one night at the motel and we agreed to look for another place next morning.

We are not being luck with hotels on big cities, we always get some strange places, however on Miami it was the worst one. If you look outside it was a great and clean place but inside it was a scary and dirty hotel. First we did not see much problem because we left our luggage and left to the beach. Just then we saw how dirt it was. The lady which works on the reception came to our room and said do not leave anything valuable in the room so we had to carry computer and all cameras with us. Anyway on the second night Elenice decide to look for reviews of the hotel and that was a bad decision. I was trying to sleep but she was still wake and I asked why she could not sleep and she said “If you know what they said about the hotel you would not sleep at all”, and I replied tell me how many were killed that what came to my mind. She said one of them was that one couple woke up with a man inside their room, ( she said I already put a box on the door if someone open will make some noisy), I could not believe what I saw, when she said I jump of the bed and said let’s make our luggage and leave, she could not stop laughing and I was sc………….I put a chair holding the door , we just remember about all this American films. We waited until morning, of course we did not sleep and we left even without the keys deposit.

Break in New jersey/New york

2009-11-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

WE stopped in New Jersey form 3 months . It had a great time. We set our time to leave for 5 of november, but only if we don't get lazy.

Niagara falls

2009-07-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Niagara Falls and decided to stay at USA because was cheaper. Of course all American said that USA side was much better than the Canada. The border was very easy to cross however we needed to show visa like in any boarder. We left early morning to go to the Canada side, we spend all day, it was beautiful however nothing to compare with Iguacu falls.
Just when we arrived that we could see that the Canadian side was much better and fun. It was a bit crowded but we enjoyed. We had a trip by boat which went nearly under the falls, we were completely wet.
On our way back we had to cross the USA border again, it was a queue of cars, and they were checking everyone thoroughly. When came our time they asked about our bike, our documents and they did not believe that we were doing this trip.They looked to the bike’s plate and asked where was our bike registered? They checked all the documents and they open our box and asked where our clothes were. Of course we left on hotel. They were not sure what they should do and asked other staff but no one knew what to do. After few minutes and let us go.
From Niagara Falls we went to New Jersey where our friends live. We drove all day and were very anxious with our arrival. We drove all the way on the roads limit (Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey) because we could see police in every corner, and for who is trying to save money every penny counts, imagine a penalty here??????
When we were just 15 miles of New Jersey were got stuck at a big traffic jam and some people said that it did not exist any traffic jam in USA. The bike started overheating and we had keep off for few minutes while we were stopped.

Finally after few hours on trafic we arrived at our friend's house. After 5 years we could see them and their childrem.

Now we going to stay at New Jersey until november. So be pacient and we will keep you up date.

Four Corners

2009-07-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Four corners is the place where four states (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado) meets at one point. It was just a very expensive place, a mean you have to pay to do anything. It was very hot around 40 degrees. For us to take a picture we had to wait under the sun and I decided that was not worth to be under 40 degrees just to take a picture. Elenice waited an hour just to take a picture.
I stayed with others bikers waiting of course under a shade. As soon she took the picture we had to leave because the weather started changing and the sky started to be very dark. We drove to the centre of USA driving along the rota 66.We crossed small, old and beautiful cities. We always stay overnight in this cities just to understand the filling of staying at the famous rota 66.
Sometimes I had to drive around 500 miles per day but I drove once 700 miles, it was not very easy especially with Elenice on my back. During our trip we could see many different city names like: Rolla, Brazil, London, Moscow etc…………..
When riding to Niagara we stopped at rote 66(New Mexico/Texas) Tucumcari. It was a ghost place, too many motels but not many tourists in that area. We travel 620 miles and we stopped in Springfield however our head was only Niagara Falls.

Finally- Grand Cannyon

2009-07-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Mexican hat

We drove heading to Grand Canyon, we were very tired particularly after we had a lunch, sometimes became impossible to stay wake, specially on a motorbike.

It was an amazing experience. We were stunned with the size of the Grand Canyon. We spent only few hours driving around and taking some pictures and head to monument t valley (Utah). We were lucky the weather was good and wasn’t too hot.

We had to drive few miles across the desert and after 2 hours we had to stop because of a road work. We waited for around 30 minutes and they let us drive again however our motorbike broke down. Just when we stopped and started fixing the motorbike the weather started changing and got very dark and very windy.

Just in seconds it started a sand storm, our things started flying in the air because of the wind, and we could not see anything at all. The sand was getting inside our helmet and cloths .It had few trucks around however no one offered any help, just few minutes later one motorbike stopped, he was wearing a white cloth, I could not believe because it was extremely difficult to do anything.

I looked around we could not identify what was a ground or sky, was all complete red with the sand. We could not take any pictures which was very disappointing we were so worried about the storm that we complete forgot about pictures, we only took when the storm was already nearly finished.

Finally I fixed the motorbike and the guy stayed until the end, just to make sure we were ok.

We were in a rush to get to civilization.

We finally arrived at monument valley. The valley is not a valley in the conventional sense, but rather a wide flat, sometimes desolate landscape, interrupted by the crumbling formations rising hundreds of feet into the air, the last remnants of the sandstone layers that once covered the entire region.

After passing the eroded mesas of monument valley, highway US 163 crosses 20 miles of rather flat landscape past scattered Navajo houses to Mexican Hat, a small settlement named after a curious formation nearby consisting of a large flat rock 60 feet in diameter perched precariously on a much smaller base at the top of a small hill. The village itself is small, home to fewer than 100 people and offering few facilities, but the surrounding scenery is exceptional and not often visited, featuring 1,200 foot sandstone cliffs at the edge of Cedar mesa, deep, layered canyons of the San Juan River, vast sandy desert plains, and a wide valley studded with isolated red rock buttes and mesas. We stayed overnight and we met a family which has a bar was grandmother, mother, daughter and grandchild, 4 generations in one place. They did not care about war, politics, religion or Obama. They had their own world without being attached to money. They had a simple life style without worries. They could not stop asking about our trip and touching on Elenice.

Inferno- Needles California

2009-07-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

our paradise hehehe

Camping

rota 66

Camping

We decided to ride in the route 66 today it still have some small parts preserved for tourism and also small towns where there are beautiful apartments and houses still preserved the old fashion of that time. It is one the most famous part of rota 66. Being in a desert of California could not go far in the heat of 45 degrees so we reached the border between Arizona California which we found a large lake .We decided that because was too hot we stayed , the water was excellent , it was like a paradise , we had everything we needed. we stay all day in water, after several hours in cold water ,drinking beer ,swimming and eating .
When the night came we realized that it was too hot still. The shower: the cold water was hot. It was already 8 o’clock and was very hot.
Then we decide to change of place to keep our tent. We thought that doing that we would solve our problem, WRONG it was boiling. We change places at least 10 times and still was impossible to stay, until we decided that we should go to a motel. It was around 11 o’clock when we got to the hotel around 15 miles.
Elenice got to the reception and spent few minutes and I was being cooked inside my jacket. She came out and ask is $50 is ok, and then I said I don’t care takeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee itttttttttttttttttttttt.I asked there is any air conditioning? We took our things and went to the room. After 20 minutes and air conditioning did not work, we did not complaint and waited for an hour and nothing. We had 100 showers to get cold but did not help, were far too hot still.
We kept having a shower and I decided to sleep on the floor. It was around 4 o’clock and we decided to leave because was too hot. I tried everything to fix the problem but I was not able. When we went to the petrol Station the staff said that was 40 Celsius. Imagine what we went through. The day before we had beaten the record of the year in Bakersfield and l now in Needles was the hottest day of the year so far. I decided to leave as fast as possible towards the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

San Francisco -California

2009-06-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Golden Bridge

Alcatraz prison

Is not easy to be a tourist.We started looking for hotel and we met a Brazilian girl at the reception which convinced us to stay giving us a special price. Also we met two Brazilian couples from Florianopolis on Holiday, very friendly and invited us to come to their house in Brazil, free hotel. Haahhahahah.
We spent 3 days at the weekend, beautiful city. We were very tired and decided to stay at the hotel that Friday. The next day we started walking around very early, but just few minutes late me and Elenice was already half way dead. Is not easy to walk in a City with so many hills. On Sunday we decide to take the bike and ride around the city, it was much more comfortable.
We left San Francisco on Monday and leave toward Los Angeles for a road with beautiful scenery to take our breath away ,however dangerous and filled of closed curves we could not ride more than 30 or 40 miles. We had the intention to stay overnight in camping area by the beach, however we did not find any nice beaches. In our mind California was more or less a paradise but we were wrong.
We decided to change once again our rote and we headed California-Arizona through beautiful and lonely mountains and farms which seems made of gold because of the dry grass. We drove through oil field, we also crossed gorgeous mountains and finally we saw astonishing green valley that when we got close we saw that whole valley was irrigated farms in the middle of the desert. It was like a dream seeing some green area after hours and hours of driving. In an infernal heat I decided to open my jacket and tried to get behind the windscreen and get some cold wind I stand up and I had quickly to sit back because the wind was too hot. It was an infernal heat of 45 degrees.
We quickly started looking for a place to spend the night having a great air conditioning until the following day to prepare to cross the hottest of all that USA and known as Death Valley (Valley of Death) being the lowest point and hot throughout USA. We stayed and rest at Bakersfield. It was a beautiful city which looks very rich, all houses were mansions however the city was divided by poor and rich, we could see exactly where poor lived. Once Again we left not early as we planned because we are always lazy.
The next day we left the old route 66 in California that connects Los Angeles to Chicago across the entire country, now there are only small parts of it because of the new highway, quicker and safer.

Hot times- Direction San Francisco California

2009-06-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

After a few miles with curved roads, we drove for many hours on flat land passing by small indigenous villages leaving behind all the bad weather and finding a blue sky and a lot of sunshine. By early morning we drove on way to the parks; most famous of all USA (Yellowstone National Park) seeing a very rich fauna, several animals, which many of them never seen by us.
There were several places where boiling water was coming out of the earth. We started riding to a higher area in the park in search of a camping area, fun enough we began to observe that the higher we got the cold it was; still we could see a lot of snow between the trees. We drove until we found a camp where we stopped and tried to stay however it was full like all others camping site inside the park. We did not had a choice, we had to ride for few more miles and stay in a camping outside of the park where it was full of mosquitoes and bears ,while Elenice went to check I could see how people was annoyed with the mosquitoes because was too many around .
The next day we left early towards Salt Lake City through beautiful roads. The more we went towards south the hotter it was getting. We arrived at Salt Lake City which reminded us the bad side of a big City; traffic jam, pollution and very noisy etc.
After few days travelling for only small towns we were again in a very big and hot City. When we entered the city center, we were crazy to leave as quickly as possible. I changed the route to San Francisco in California, to get out of Salt Lake by the route 6 and 50 considered the most solitary road of all USA. After driving for hours we passed by strong winds, sand storms and very solitary areas , sometimes staying for up to 40 minutes without passing by any car, only by some petrol station like old west style and some cities where had plenty casinos which was already in the state of Nevada where gambling is 100% unrestricted .
We drove through the desert of the states of Utah and Nevada and arrived at Sam Francisco California.

Bears land

2009-06-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

We drove all day until near the border states of Yukon to British Columbia territory better known as the Bears land hehehehe . we stop at a cafe in the side of the road and find a couple of Dutch who also were doing the same route that we are and another biker from California who came from Alaska we stopped there and started chatting to more or less 1 hours. No one was in a hurry, you understand…………..

We decided to hit the road because we would spend hours and hours there talking hehehehe. As soon we were on the road we started seeing some animals to the roadside, Aussie, Bears etc…

We stopped at Jasper national park e in Alberta; we were required to pay $ 20 (Jasper National Park) if we cross. We kept stooping several times to take beautiful photos. Unforgettable place, we stayed for the rest days driving slowly and enjoying ourselves.

We stopped at Lake Louise. Where stayed for the night. I had the worst night so far. It was expensive and very cold, and too helps us was raining. We woke up early (4:00) and headed to Jasper national Park. After few miles we filled our tank and just after few miles we found a guy in a BMW adventure without petrol ,his thank was 33 litres , imagine running out with petrol with a thank of this size? We offered him to follow us until the next petrol station .Was about 4 miles and he was hoping to find his friends, he had lost them as I do not know hehehehehe.When we arrived he was very happy, even wanted to pay us, however I just asked for a picture, because the bike had a stickers saying LONG WAY UP. Was the nearly the same as Ewan McGregor and Charlie Bowman the long way down long way around.

We headed to Calgary 150 miles away. It rained for the rest of the day, we were soaked. We decided to take a rest in Calgary and on Monday we had to change our tires. We stayed all day in bed resting; it really helped us after a so difficult day.

On Monday as soon we organised our things we headed directly to a store that was BMW authorized. I expected it would be extremely difficult to change the tires however we had the luck of having the exact size of my tires for my bike. We spent more than $ 300 for Rear tire.

We follow straight to the border with USA; we drove for about 20 minutes to leave the city and started to rain for about 3 or 4 hours. When we got to the border another surprise we thought it would be a large border with many officers, when we arrived there only one official, by the way very nice, offered us some maps of the state from the next state which was Montana.

Fairbanks to White Horse Canada

2009-06-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Now we are going to Canada through 3 states Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta which are known by bear’s land where you see more bears than people, leaving only 201 miles to the border between Alaska and Canada. In the last 100 miles once again, I was on the road without petrol , seems that I haven’t learned the lesson ,if you ride 50 miles and see a petrol station, stop and fill it up because you never know when you will see another one. We passed by beautiful landscapes, rivers and finally we saw Alaska border: beautiful board (welcome to Alaska) while the other side of Canada a simple card saying Welcome to Canada.

During our trip pezao once again nearly run out with petrol. We stopped to fill the tank, however the petrol station was disable, the pumps was chained and all broken , it look like it that was closed ages ago. We drove few miles more, and finally we found a petrol station. Once it looked closed, however when I called a man appeared saying thanks to wake me up, its time to close, thanks God we were able to fill our tank.

Were drove a bit more and decided to stop for a camping, which was located by an immense a beautiful lake. During our whole trip I was afraid of bears, and when we spoke to the camping office the lady told us that we should becarefull with bears, because two bears were walking around and we should not cook or eat any food on our tend, smells attracts bears attentions. We had to keep our food inside the laundry. I went to have a shower and when he returned I Elenice was by the window inside the laundry saying that she saw a bear nearby.

During the night a couple came to our tent screaming, saying that their tent has been attacked by a bear heheheheh, but just at the end she said, the reason could be because they had eaten fish inside her tent. We carried on sleeping and on the middle of the night I (Elenice) woke up with some noise, Pezao was saying go, go, go, and I asked him what was going on. He said that he thought that a bear was around and that he heard some noise; I started laughing and asked him if this was the way to scare a bear. Afterwards he said the he has put his life in risk and the next time should be me because he is the person which knows how to drive, knows the route.

The next morning we followed to White Horse, one of the greatest cities in Canada, leaving behind the most beautiful mountains. We cannot express our feeling and the privilege of seeing so beautiful things on our trip.

We stopped at White Horse, after weeks missing KFC we stopped and finally had a proper food hehehehehe. In Dead Horse we met 2 biker also doing the same route with a BMW and another with an Africa Twin, the same as we have, the only difference is that they had bold tires. They told us that we should by buy pepper spray, because we will need in order to continue our trip. We bought the pepper spray and when I was trying to use, I pressed by mistake and the spray went straight to Elenice eyes. At least I know its works, because Elenice was shouting, coughing, crying and asking for water, she was complete blind. If works with bears it works with the thieves in South America. We decide not to stay at White Horse and we headed to Yellow Stone and then Calgary.

Back to Fairbank

2009-06-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

During our trip back, Pezao parked the motorbike to take a picture, unfortunately he dropped the bike, thanks God he did not get hurt. One truck driver was passing and stopped to help us. We always read about when we have something fun we should take a picture; I was so afraid that he was hurt so I did not take any.

We stayed once again at Cold Foot, and only then we realized that Pezao,s legs was swollen. We still had 260 miles to get to Fairbanks. We stayed overnight and we left early on next day.

Because we did not know why his legs were swollen we decided to stay two days at Fairbanks. We met Paul from England which was doing the same journey; Alaska to Patagonia however was doing by Motobike.

Midnigth Sun- Prudhoe Bay

2009-06-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

We were very impressed by the midnight sun. Took some pictures and kept riding to Prudhoe Bay. We were so amazed with the view; we could not stop taking pictures.

The last 100 miles was the most difficult part of our trip so far, was extremely cold, it nearly freezing and fog that we could see one meter in front of us. We had to stop and put more cloth because was impossible to carry on driving. We drove all night, and arrived at Prudhoe Bay at 6am. Elenice were extremely cold, shaking, her fingers were blue………

We met two guys who offered Elenice to use their room to have a shower, they felt sorry for her, and they even gave something to put in her feet. When we arrived we were dying to have a cup of coffee I would pay any price for one. Some people asked us when we arrived; when we said that was that morning people said that we were crazy, one of them said how came it was -5 c .

Because was too cold we decide that the best option was to go back that same day to Cold Foot. Was the best feeling, we cannot explain with words. We stayed for few hours and headed back to cold foot.

Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay

2009-06-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Fairbanks and organised a camping to stay overnight.
The next day we pursue our journey to the top of the Americas-Prudhoe Bay. The Dalton High way travels 500 miles being 414 in gravel, through the most remote land accessible by road in Alaska. Paralleling the trans-Alaska Pipeline System from Livengood, the high way crosses the Yukon River, Arctic Circle, and Brooks Mountains Range on its way to Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean.
The trans Alaska pipeline System(800 miles of pipeline) was designed and constructed to move oil from North slope of Alaska to the northern most ice free port in Valdez, Alaska.

We arrived at 3pm and decide to stay overnight at cold foot, better, no other option. We just organized our camping (which was free) and went to sleep by the way it was only 3pm, it was a bit cold .The mosquitoes nearly killed us; I haven’t seen something like that before in my entire life. We thought that cold foot was a city but had only one bar, a post office and hotel.
We spoke to the locals ( bar owner)and he explained that we were going to Prudhoe Bay; he explained that we had to carry some petrol with us because the next petrol station was only on black horse 250 miles away.
Funny enough we woke up around 10pm thinking that it was day already, however was night but with sunshine. We decide to carry on with our journey in direction to Prudhoe Bay. We had to curry extra gallon of gasoline plus our luggage, just them I realised that I had too much weight. We were so stupid that we curried our entire luggage with us to Prudhoe Bay, never came to my mind to leave most of it in Fairbanks, only when we started riding in gravel road that we started thinking we should do, we even thought in hiding luggage. On the end we decide to curry the whole weight and riding 1000miles with the whole weight, anyway no other choice.
During our trip we met two guys, we started riding with them but they were riding far too fast for us. I thought that with we break down we could ask them for help but after few miles we decided to let then go, was far too dangerous.

Destination ..Fairbanks

2009-06-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

Thursday 11/06/09
We prepared everything and left Anchorage with the destination to Fairbank, but we decided to go to Matanuska Glacier which is 24 miles long and is the “largest glacier accessible by car” just 78 miles from Anchorage. We could walk and get closer; however we were filling pain in every single muscle in our body because of our trip to the flat top. It was not that interesting, we spent hours to get there and we could only see from miles away, was nothing like what they told us.
We headed to Fairbanks, center of Alaska. During our journey to Fairbanks we passed by the highest mountain in North America -Mount McKinley (20320 foot tall), of course that we did not climb…………………………. .We travelled 260 miles in 9 hours.

Finally we could understand the magnificence of travelling in Alaska. Nevertheless we never expected to run out of petrol in America. This certainty really put us in a big trouble. After praying for about 30 minutes we did not have any petrol at all, we had just, but just enough. The petrol station employee started laughing when we went to pay, because our tank was complete empty when we got there.
We arrived in Fairbanks and organised a camping to stay overnight.

Flat top Mountain

2009-06-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 10 of June 2009
We woke up around 5am again and we decided to head to the flat top ( most popular mountain to climb in anchorage).We climbed ,however it nearly got us killed with a heart attack. we went up by the most popular route ; we were expecting to be very easy and decided to get down by the worst bit of the mountain. For me it looked like I was climbing the Everest. We thought that was not enough so we decided to go to a Hidden Lake, it shows that it was 2 miles away. We walked, walked, and walked for around 2 hours e nothing to see that ffffffffff……………. lake.
When we found the it lakewas just a bit of water between the mountains (not even a pond). Now we had to go back and 10 meters was more like 10miles. By the end of our tour Pezao had a big hole on his feet.
American really exaggerate things, when they said hidden lake, I was expecting to be something amazing, but we got there, was really disappointing.American really knows how to sell their products..............

Motorbycle arrival- Anchorage

2009-06-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

Our bike was supposed to arrive at 7am. The Hostel manager offered to take us to the airport. This time took only 10 minute…..We took all the documents that James Cargo gave us and went to the airport looking for the customs clearance.
We explained that we were expecting a motorbike from UK and that we needed a document from customs authorizing us to get the bike from FedEx. He looked at us very surprised and asked us to wait, but he did not have any idea what he should do. He started making some calls and came to us and asked only for one copy of pezao’s passport, by the way he did not had his original but he was happy with only the photocopy. He stamped and signed on our papers and gave us all the documents necessary to take the bike, however he never asked us to pay for the fees that you should pay in order to get the bike. We saved around £400 heheheheh and then we went straight way to the cargo. We spoke to one of FedEx staff and they asked us to wait. After 20 minutes she appeared and asked us to go to the car park in order to receive our bike. She came carrying our bike on forklift. She dropped and left us on car park with this huge box and just said that she would come back to collect the box. We looked at each other and started laughing. We never imagined that this would be that easy.
After that we prepared the bike and went to the hotel. So many people were curious about trip and we stayed all day talking to people and preparing for the next days. We organized to go to a Because of the time difference we slept during all afternoon and woke up around 5 in the morning.