Friends Around The World

We would like to thank all the people who kindly contributed to our two charities and to all the wonderful people who befriended us around the world and made us welcome in their homes and lives.

Below are pictures and fond memories.  If you see yourself, please leave us a message.

谢谢

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I think the only other adventure type biker we saw. On bridge high up above remote villages and valleys in Guizhou. He was riding from North east China yo Tibet.

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Very kind, peaceful and all round lovely people who made us very welcome.

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Meeting Steve Wordsworth from Hong Kong in Keswick. Steve and I worked together in Royal Hong Kong police (he still does) and he was riding his bicycle from Land's End to John O'Groats.... which he completed successfully a week later.

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Paul and Marja who we traveled across north k Kenya with. Thanks so much for carrying our fuel and panniers and being such good friends

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Stephen .. my racing snake guide up to the top of Mount Kenya

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Fanny in Masai Mara with our guide

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Yum yum ... Serengeti
Thank you very much to Ahmed and his family.
Sun, warm water and pretty girls... yes its Scotland.
Fanny making friends as usual
Going for a ride in Derbyshire with my friend (from schooldays) Andrea and her Ducati Monster.

Getting my six year Chinese driving licence after an all night swot

Bring your own customs official... in fact its Magdi cadging a life on back of my bike

Leon from Country Trax .. our off road riding instructor

Local witch doctor selling medicinal herbs and muti

Masaai herdsman in .... Serengeti

The kind Sudanese guys we met just before the border

Goodbye Ethiopia -- Hello Sudan

Sorting the bikes

Alicia's BMW GS800 lowered for her.. Not much ground clearance

Fanny and I riding around Dahab

The guys I met at Loch Lomond camping by the water and enjoying the summer of 2013.

One of many new friends I made on my trip. Riding a Classic Triumph Tiget which he had since new. (Derbyshire ...High Peak)

Big Bike Sand Course, South Africa

Leon and the guys of the Big Bike sand Course ... doing a bit of off roading in the hills

The Country Trax

Axle deep in sand...

Bai Jiu and beer with friends in China

Dutch friends who fed us after a rotten day in Switzerland

Lhasa

Tibetan girl on a pony

New friends high up in Tibet ...Lots of laughter... Lovely people.

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Top bike ... A KTM 950 Super Enduro... and these guys could ride them. Difficult to keep up.

Police in China ... most good.. some not so.... these were nice guys in Anhui

Troudow Pass and meeting a local family on a day trip

Having a Weissbier with Friedl and Winfried in Bavaria

Fitting new chain and serv

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The Canadian guys Michael and darren in Botswana after a flight over Okvango
Rupert and Joseph Waweru (chief guide) on Mount Kenya. Great expedition.. great people.
Fanny with Noa and Jose (RTW BMW riders from Spain) with whom we had many adventures in the Masai Mara, Kenya. Pictured here at Jungle Junction in Nairobi.
Our friends, Andrea and Gary who came out to Dahab to stay with us. John and Tony (Dive masters) in the background

Fanny and my aunt, Joan at her home in Cotignac, Provence, France
Tony at a dive briefing ... think he's done it a few times before.
Taking ferry over to Isle of Skye with the other bikers. This biker from Durham, who lives on Skye introduced to me and gave me a can of Avon skin cream all the locals use to ward off the scary Scottish midges.... its really does work. thanks..

Fanny at KTM factory in Mattighofen, Austria

My good friend and neighbour Francois Botha + dawg
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Cape Town Traffic police and Fanny
Okavango Delta, Botswana
Sorted... I think

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Fellow riders from South Africa .. The Taylor family (Turkey)
Nuria and Joken from Basque Country and their baby.
Turatech ... nice kit for bikes
Turatech in Istanbul, Turkey
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Fanny with Chinese Ambassador .. 非常感谢你的帮助我们。
Fanny with some tourists in Rome
So that's why GPS was taking us onto a railway ... thanks to staff for helping two plonkers on bikes
Andrea and Gary and diving friends
with mini me ... Aswan, Egypt
Shopping
We love Turkey ... such a beautiful country and lovely people. Fanny being given the tour of a local boxing gym in Mersin

Andrea in riding kit ... and her Ducati

Making friends in the Highlands of Scotland
The day was Triumph UK's open day and across the country every Triumph dealership was having a party and allowing test drives of all their models. My friend, Nick Dobson took me to several dealerships and we rode a few good bikes. I really liked the Triumph 800 Tiger, and it would have been a good bike for the UK tour, but there were none available in my price bracket, and I really do not care for the Explorer and the XC 800 is not what I'm after.

Of course you can trust us... look at our honest faces

Some more little friendly friends
What a smile
Nellie and Ellie

Ethiopian kids .. and there are lots of them.

It is always very heart warming to be warmly greeted by complete strangers in far flung places. This has happened to me in the USA, Europe Africa and Asia, but never in the UK.
Goodbye Ethiopia -- Hello Sudan
Our new friends... they gave us coffee and we shared a water melon with them at what must be the most remote and interesting coffee shop I have ever been to. What fun.
Thanks to our customs fixer at Cairo airport we have documents sorted out for another months or so.
With an Africa Twin RTW rider in Italy ... met a petrol station as you do

Wiv a bit of art innit.... Rome

Nick, Paola, and Fanny out walking in Paola's home town of Ferrentino, Italy
With a nice pair of knockers.. Tuscany somewhere.
China in Pompei
Fanny and I with the Pope ... sort of.
Tibet with lamas
We were made very welcome at 4,700 meters in middle of Tibet
Fanny making herself very comfortable with new friends
With Little Living Bhudda
Little Living Bhudda checking our our bikes
Our very good friend , Si Ba outside his monastery. We later met him again in Lhasa
Young Lama whose only English were
Yaks Milk Yoghurt and Rice... with our hosts
Fanny lighting up a tab from the sacred flame...
Testing the bikes
Taking Si Ba back up the mountain to the temple to collect his phone charger!!!!
Fun and games
Lots of laughter
We met some lovely fellow travelers in Tibet. They always seemed genuinely happy to see us and chat. I think being one of very few, if not only foreigner might have something to do with it.
Goodbye to our friends from Tibet. We will come back. One day.
Very cold above 5000 meters... but still people to meet
Our mechanic in Nanjing
Flanny and Fanny
A little friend in Shangri La (Yunnan) helping himself to Fanny's dinner
Friends and KTM RC8s in Kunming
More friends in China
Being escorted out of Changqing city by BMW club members
Girls love bikes
A guy selling lotus seeds in Jiangxi
Fanny and our host Flanny in Changsha in Hunan
This guy saved our bacon.... no fuel for 2 days between Guizhou and Guangxi
Off he goes... solo to Tibet on a rather ropey bike. He had fixed it many times but still kept breaking down.
Yunnan, China
Cyclists riding around Dali lake, Yunnan
More food ... our kind host in Kunming
Our good buddies in Dali
More oil and filters please... we look after our bike ... or I should say CF Moto do
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We made lots of whooly friends in Tibet
Odd furry friends in Qinghai ... added because we basically never saw anyone else.
Qinghai lake ... more furry friends
Bikes hijacked .. again
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Tibetan girl on a pony

This guy was hilarious ... he played a trumpet in Chengdu People's Park while very odd people pretended to be cat walk models walking up and down a red carpet.
Chongqing motorcycle groups
Fanny meeting the motor cycle press
Lots of picture posing in Chongqing
Meeting one of the motorcycle show models ... cant remember her name or what her face looks like ... if I ever did.
One of our sponsors... thanks so much for super kit.
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Oh dear .... more food.
Me earning my three dinners a day taking the press for rides around the show ground
Fanny was a superstar at show
Presented with a Hada by Tibetan riders
CF Motos amazing stunt rider ... Hu Hai
How many meals can I eat in a day ... it seems a lot .. and so can Fanny.
Local bikers
These police in Hubei were very friendly and kind... in fact with a couple of exceptions that we write about in the diary, the authorities in China treated us well.
BMW guys in Yichang
BMW riders club helping us in Yichang
Mr Chu
Local bikers ... lovely foxy hat.
Riding in northern Tibet
Where ever we went in China big crowds would appear to look at the bikes, and especially Fanny.
We did it....
Finally making it to Shanghai... we had ridden 53,600 kilometers since we left Cape Town. No fanfare to greet us... we didn't need one .. Fanny and I were together all the way
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Motorcycling ... where ever you are brings a smile to your face
Our good friend, Si Ba whom we first met on the Tibetan Plateau and now having yaks milk tea and walnuts in a local tea house in Lhasa
Tibetan guy in a tea shop in Lhasa.
Si Ba and I in middle of Tibetan Plateau

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5 thoughts on “Friends Around The World”

  1. What a nice trip, I can’t wait until i get “on the road again” I’m planning my own trip RTW from 2014, Waiting for the new 1190 Adv R, then the 1200GS ADV will have to find a new owner.

    regards,
    Bjørn

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  2. come and visit the Philippines some time, there are a few back roads here that would be nice for trail riding and even ATV off-roading (currently I am with CFMOTO distributor)

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  3. What an amazing trip – how brave you both are – hope you are back home safe and well. Had a vivid dream the other night about your Uncle Mick (Pilcher) which is how I found your website when I tried to look him up on the web. You mentioned that you visited him whilst in Lusaka please can you tell me if he is still OK – we knew each other very well when I lived in Lusaka (40 years ago !!) and this dream brought back the very happy memories.

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    • HI Ann, Rupert let me know about your post. I’m Micks daughter Rosie. Perhaps you didn’t know of me – im almost 40. Mick is still living here in Lusaka. if you would like to contact him, through me, you are welcome. My email is rosiezam@yahoo.co.uk

      Reply

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