BMW F700GS | 2slowspeeds

Christmas eve, the morning we left Kuala Lumpur and dropped all our panniers and bags off to BMW, we finally found out what was wrong with Streak. The engine management system no less – think of it as the heart and brains of the bike. Pretty major. The part has to be ordered from BMW in Germany and calibrated for Streak. With Christmas and new year holidays, the factory is closed for the next couple of weeks. As the part would then take another couple of weeks to arrive, we decide we need to tackle the problem from South America or our trip will be delayed too much to get back to Europe in time to claim half our Carnet de Passage cost back (with two bikes, this equates to the cost of one bike, so not insignificant).

It felt very strange walking away from Streak and Storm for over a month, like leaving our babies behind. It also felt very odd walking with our jackets on (we had to bring them back to give them a good wash in a washing machine) but with sandals rather than boots – very odd, your brain keeps telling you it’s unsafe and you should be wearing boots (not what are you doing wearing a heavy jacket?!!).

Leaving Streak and Storm behind brings to an end the first half of our Round The World trip. Wow!! Who would have thought?! The 2SlowSpeeds, cautious and relatively inexperienced riders, have ridden 21,500kms and made it unscathed to KL. If nothing else, we have shown any one can do this if they want to. We had no great skill, just the desire to do it and love of travel and each other.

Now no more riding, unpacking, packing, hand washing and looking for somewhere comfortable to sleep for a while. And we will be seeing friends again. The butterflies of excitement are showing up… But so many thoughts and questions are swerling in our heads! How will it feel like being home? Will it feel like home? We’ve only been gone 15 months, but have our friendships survived unchanged or how will they have changed? We have so many things to organise, will 4 weeks be long enough?

Arriving back in Australia in Sydney on Boxing Day confirmed for us that Australia is home.

Yes, we are resident in Manly Queensland again, the gates swing open, up the driveway and we are at our front door. Fifteen months on the road and we open up to a familiar but unfamiliar world. Glen and Robyn, who have very kindly looked after our interests while we have been on the road, collected us from the airport and took us back along familiar roads to our home of 16 years.

While it feels comfortable to be home, we have felt like we were in a hotel, all the drawers and cupboards being empty, nothing anywhere as we had packed all our personal possessions before we rented the place out in 2013. A legion of boxes we had packed in September 2013 confront us downstairs and we have no idea where anything is! We are still living mostly with our hand luggage and a few items discovered by accident. As we are only here for four weeks, we plan to unpack as little as possible, assuming we can find it in the first place!

Getting home in the middle of a RTW trip is slightly strange, normally home is the start/finish point, not the middle of the journey and if we had undertaken a normal RTW we would be relaxing with the journey over. Here, we are focused on shipping the bikes, spares ordering, planning and catching up with all our friends in the four weeks we are here. We found getting to grips with over a year’s mail was made less daunting by Robyn’s diligent sorting and prioritising each month. Even though we had tried to move all the snail mail to email, there are many organisations that have only changed over since we have been away.

As we travel around Brisbane with the roof down on the MX-5, it is interesting to see the interplay of our memories and our visual senses as brains are furiously matching the two images. From time to time we know that there is a mismatch but have to think hard to identify what the difference is. A house has been raised, a tree chopped down, a new appartment block built. It’s an interesting process to go through.

Our to do list over the next 4 weeks kept growing the first week we got back but is under control:

double GP appointment each, blood tests, eye tests, order new glasses, book cardiologist for stress-test, buy new medication for next 6 months, buy new fridge (old 17 year old one died when we got home), organise air conditioning repair (also died shortly before we returned), organise mammogram, organise mobile and internet credit, organise new vehicule insurance, organise new travel insurance, liaise with shipping agent in Singapore about various options to ship or airfreight our bikes, complete insurance claim paperwork for various losses and medical expenses we incurred over the past 12 months, renew post office box, follow up with several organisations to get all bills online, buy new spares for Streak and Storm like new oil filters, wash and re-waterproof our jackets, look for new boots, look for new gloves, and of course try to see most of our friends at least once.

A couple of days after getting home, we found out that a developer has been working very quietly and very hard at getting approval for a 5 storey block of 95 appartments and shops across the road from us. We found out that the cost of clearing port charges in Buenos Aires comes to AU$5000. All a bit much to take in. We feel drained. So many things to work out. Should we look at selling now? Should we look at shipping elsewhere or backtrack – backtracking is the least favoured option and only comes in as long as needing to be considered as an option and immediately dismissed. Should we just fly back to Europe in July/August? That question needed to be asked, considered for … 2 seconds, and dismissed. Still, so many questions and things to be considered and actioned.

We are glad we had a blog and many friends followed us so we didn’t have to go through the whole trip over and over again, but interestingly, a few questions have come up several times, such as:

What was your favourite place? We don’t have a single favourite place, but many places we would love to return to, mainly to see friends we made there again. We both loved Iran, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. When we think of these countries, we think of the special moments we spent with so many wonderful people. See photos below. We will cherish these photos even more as the box we shipped back from Dubai was raided by thieves somewhere and we lost brochures, receipts, maps, a dead iPad and most sadly of all presents from our friends in Uzbekistan.

Did you have any problems? No, not really. A few tough riding days, only one puncture, a smashed brake fluid container, a throttle problem on Anne’s bike, that’s it.

Did you ever have any problems with the police? No, never. We were fined twice but justifiably.

Were you ever in any danger? Never. Except from crazy drivers.

Did you take anything to defend yourself? Common sense and luck, that’s all. And thankfully, our Guardian Angels.

How does it feel like being home? As mentioned above, it is good to be home but it doesn’t quite feel like home. Most friends were away when we arrived and were unaware we had our mobiles reconnected within a couple of days. So many to call, so many to organise to see but so many things to organise that the social calendar has had to take a bit of a back seat. All in all, it feels like being in any city we’re travelling through, but not home although sleeping in our own bed is wonderful and having a washing machine pure luxury!

Do you think you will be able to settle down? We think so, we can’t imagine ourselves always being on the move like some travellers we’ve met or read about. We have many plans for when we get home!

Do you think you will you want to keep travelling? We won’t want to stay on the road, but travelling will always be something we enjoy doing. In future, we would rather go to a single place and stay longer, to get a good feel for the place and have time to enjoy and explore it more fully.

How far and how many hours did you travel every day? On average 7 hours including 2 hours’ rest spread over the day. We tried to have 3 riding days, then stop for 2 or 3 nights in one place.

Did you miss anything? Friends and family – especially the general chit chat you have with friends. Anne missed her perfume!! And a washing machine.

Did you get tired of wearing the same things every day? No, although Anne enjoyed buying new trousers and top as a change.

How often did you camp? Not often enough, just 6 times. But we are looking forward to lots lots more in the Americas.

Will you write a book? Yes, when we get back.

Are you enjoying being home? Oh yes, most definitely :-). Seeing friends again has been absolutely wonderful – we’re doing our best to see as many as we can before we head off to South America.

– Anne & Anthony

Cirik , who gave us an unforgettable experience of wonderful Kazakh hospitality

Our Uzbek friends after our amazing lunch stop in Uchqorghan – Abduvohid on my right and Mohamid on my left

A memorable evening in Samarkand: Gulnoza and baby Omar behind Anthony and Aziza’s kids Muqhbar and Raziza on either side of Anne, and Aziza’s niece Sabina behind Anne

Jamkhur just gave Anthony this superb gift – after another wonderful evening and delicious dinner of home made saussage rolls (the absolute best ever), home made fruit juice, delicious plov (a type of Uzbek pilaf), home made fortified wine, vodka, homegrown fruit, home home made fruit juice bread.

After I asked whether I could take a photo of her skating, she offered me one of her head bands – too sweet. In Toshkent, Uzbekistan

Ruxshona, 20 year old with 2 year old child, Azida, 22, married doctor and Dilnoza, 22, engaged with whom we chatted for an hour on life, mixed marriage, education and travel

Our campsite at the friendly road construction site near the Dervaza crater, Turkmenistan

The lovely twisty road towards our campsite for our first night in Iran, near Dor Badam, Iran

She wanted a photo of me with my bike, I said she could sit on my bike, she shouted ‘I love you’ and we embraced. Look at her husband in the mirror!

Afrooz and Anthony enjoying their ice cream – I love the guy behind them!!!

At Afrooz’s brother Babak and his wife Reihaneh for dinner, Beshahr

Sohrab helping us with our bike maintenance outside Tehran

With Saba at the Green Palace, Saadabad Palaces, Darband – Tehran, Iran

Fariba, her brother and sisters took us out for dinner in Tehran

With Zoreh, Isfahan, Iran

Zoreh’s sister and husband in the front, with their kids Sarah and Mohammad with his wife Shadi, who all showed us around Esfahan

Reza with a friend, Banda Abbas, Iran

Lovely Anastasia in Sharjah

Mostafa from our hotel very kindly took us out to dinner with his daughter Aya

Ahmed in the centre and some of his staff

Kristjan and Happy Delhi Days

Rohan and Raj helped Anne find what we needed to fix her bike, Varanasi

Ukay, Smita, Dharmendra and uncle who escorted us into Ballia and invited us into their home

Aditya and his friends Imtiya and Anwar who helped us find our hotel in Forbesganj

We are about to leave Imphal for Myanmar

Anthony crossing the wooden log bridge under the creek bed on day 2 with those ahead waiting to help us

Anthony has been promoted by the red team and given lighting candle and lighter at the Taunggyi fire balloon festival, Myanmar

Anthony’s 60th birthday

Nung, the brilliant mechanic, loves selfies!

Atsuko and Micheal, Chiang Mai

Sunny from Sunny Cycle took us out for lunch at an old Chinese restaurant, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Angelene from BMW KL brought green tea in just for us

End of this leg of our trip, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and feeling good!

We realise that there has been some confusion as to what our plans are once we get to Australia at the end of this month. To make it all clear, I’ll step back in time and explain how this trip all came about.

Back in April 2013, we decided that we wanted to spend time with our families in Europe and I had a strong feeling that if we didn’t do this now, I would regret it. So we booked ourselves a one way ticket using frequent flyer points. Spending those 9 months with family was one of best things we’ve done.

Then we had to look at the return journey. To this day, neither of us can remember who came up with the idea of riding back on motorcycles…. As the saying goes, the rest is history :-).

While in Europe, we started looking into prices of motorcycles. We tried to see if we could buy motorcycles built for Australian design rules so that we could import them into Australia (knowing that the models we were interested in had not gone through the necessary certification for private importation). Neither BMW nor Triumph could help us there. Ok, we can’t bring bikes into Australia, we’ll just do a whole Round The World trip instead. The plot thickened when we found out that residents of a country are not allowed to temporarily import vehicles into their country on a Carnet de Passage (a Carnet is a customs document which allows travellers to temporarily import their vehicles without having to leave a cash deposit at the border). We were going to have UK registered bikes, on a UK Carnet de Passage which is valid for 12 months. So now, we can’t even bring the bikes into Australia, even just for a few weeks. Ok, we’ll just leave the bikes in Kuala Lumpur for 4-5 weeks while we go back to Australia and collect them again end of January 2016, when we’ll ship them and ourselves to South America.

Where exactly in South America we are not sure yet as it depends on what deals we manage to get – we’ve been working on that but haven’t firmed anything up yet. Our original thought had been to fly to Santiago and head up the west coast of South America etc but shipping the bikes there is problematic because it would entail using two airlines from KL and that means extra handling, and, yes, you guessed it, cost… The other option is to go to Sao Paulo, and find a boat to take us all down the Amazon. Looking into that too.

After South America, Central America, Mexico, and the USA, we’ll fly back to Europe from New York, sometime towards the end of July 2016.

Time to see our families again for a while, park our bikes somewhere in Europe and then we still have to work out how we’ll get home to Australia sometime… We are the 2 Slow Speeds – we’ll work it out sometime!! :-).

In the meantime, we will have had an absolutely fantastic time, learned so much, seen the world and people with new eyes, made new friends. And thanks to you all, our followers, we will have a diary of what we did, where we went, how we felt, who we met, all the details our memories couldn’t retain as we’ve experienced so much, because if it wasn’t for you and your comments and emails we received along the way, we might not have perservered with the blog.

We arrive in Sydney on 26th December and Brisbane 28th December and plan to fly back to Kuala Lumpur 28th January 2015. We will have lots to do as we will have been away for 15 months and we hope to catch with as many friends as possible during our time back home.

– Anne