Nov 7 2015

2 months in Europe

We always expected the completion of our Round The World motorcycle trip to bring a rollercoaster of emotions. How will we adjust to no longer being on the road, will we miss the freedom and exhilaration of the unknown, will we miss the excitement of the road, of making our plans as we go, of discovering new places, of meeting new people? As we were nearing the end of the trip, knowing we could celebrate an achievement we would never have dreamed of before the idea of making such a trip came to us out of the blue about 2 years ago, we knew we were no longer the same people and our outlook on life had changed. We were looking forward to seeing family and friends again, looking forward to reminiscing on some aspects of the trip as we found out the areas that interested people. We did expect to feed off the high of our achievement for a while as we readjusted to a new chapter in our lives. This was not to be!!

Coming back to ‘normal’ life happened for us with a thud. It was a bit brutal to say the least. The biggest change was completely unexpected: an undiagnosed and untreated illness that started hitting Anthony 2 months before the end of the trip and continued for another 2 months. What started as an irritating itch, turned into bursting blisters appearing on his back, backside, under his arms, his fingers and eventually all over his body, except his face. His skin itches all over his body all the time. The most difficult time for him is 15′ after waking up at around 5am and continues for about 6 hours. It eventually calms down and becomes more bearable. To say that this period has been extremely stressful and distressing is no exaggeration. Whenever I think of Anthony’s state, my stomach churns and my heart cries quietly. I try not to worry about his condition too much, as I watch him scratch silently, or I lather his body throughout the day with more anti-itch or steroid cream, find new blisters and cover individual burst blisters with antiseptic ointment. His blisters range from 1cm in diameter to 5cm. Some patches of skin are red raw. His days consist of scratching or napping during the day giving his body some much needed rest… It has been all consuming for the past couple of months. The experts we saw warned us of it most likely being an auto immune disease. Anthony resigned himself to having to manage his condition for the rest of his life. At least the first biopsy determined that his condition was not contagious and we would finally be able to visit family together. Having visited a few doctors, emergency departments, 3 dermatologists, had one inconclusive biopsy done, we pinned our hopes on getting a diagnosis on 2nd November from the Saint-Louis hospital in Paris where the 2nd biopsy was done. This hospital is reputed for being one of the very best for dermatology and hematology in Europe.

We had wondered how we would cope returning to ‘normal life!?!? Ha, we have come down from any high we might have had alright!!! We were in a holding pattern until 2nd November, one month after his 2nd biopsy. The surgeon in Paris warned us that if Anthony’s skin condition worsened, there was a risk that his whole skin could peel off. Not reassuring to say the least!

We are relieved to report we have a diagnosis on Anthony’s skin problem, it is easily cured and it is not an auto immune disease. An enormous relief, which has not quite sunk in yet. But…. we are embarrassed to report that it is contagious and we have potentially passed it onto anyone we have seen and hugged over the past few months. We have scabies – la gale!!! Yes, both of us. Anthony got a bullous impetigo, staphylococcus, from scratching, and continued infecting himself. His blisters masked the original scabies problem. Because my condition only manifested itself with tiny spots or red patches here and there and itching, albeit severe especially at night, I put it down to a gluten intolerance and just put up with it. Ha!! SlowSpeeds indeed!!!!

What a come back to earth!! Our RTW trip seems like a lifetime away, as the past 8 weeks have been all consuming with itching and worry and trying desperately and in vain to get our travel insurance to help us. We finally decided to return home as soon as possible after our 2nd visit to Saint-Louis in Paris. We have left Streak and Storm in storage for now, with all our riding gear and travel equipment for ??? Not sure how long, that will depend on Anthony’s health…

Our time in Europe has not been all bad of course, because we did manage to see our immediate family a few times each. Precious, precious moments. And we were thoroughly spoilt. After a month visiting family, we did feel the need to reconnect with nature and went to Yorkshire and Scotland for a week. It reminded us that one does not have to travel the world to find beauty. It is all around us. (Unfortunately, I only had my old iPhone to capture these sights as my camera batteries decided they would no longer recharge)

Reeth, Yorkshire

Yorkshire Dales national park

Loch Iubhair

Loch Tulla, Scotland

Loch na h-Achlaise, Scotland

Scotland

Loch Lomond, Scotland

Urquhart castle on Loch Ness

Whisky & Wine store in Edinburgh

Trying 3 new single malts in the Bow Bar

Durham cathedral

Inside Durham cathedral

We have both taken our scabies treatment, are no longer contagious and are good to go (although itching will take another couple of weeks to subside as our anti bodies continue to fight). We leave Europe on Sunday 8th November, Anthony’s birthday!! We have now said our goodbyes to our family, until next time… Streak and Storm are resting in a climate controlled storage place, until next time… In a couple of days, we will be home, over 2 years since we left. How odd that after driving our hire cars for the past few weeks with my mobile recharging in it, only today, the day we said our final goodbyes before returning to Australia, does my mobile suddenly decide to play Gurrumul Yunupingu’s album – it feels like a sign, it is time, home is calling…!! I suddenly feel homesick, I miss the bush… It will be lovely to be home and catch up with friends.

While traveling around Europe for 2 months, all we had with us was one small on-board wheelie bag each. What is all this stuff that fill our cupboards back home and what were we thinking when we brought all this stuff over with us 2 years ago?! One thing we are certain of, we are no longer attached to ‘things’ and our first priority, after getting our phones and internet reconnected at home, is to declutter.

We have a busy time ahead and an exciting new stage in our lives awaits us …

– Anne

Jan 22 2015

Change of Direction……..

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of visits to friends, end of year tax returns, dealing with issues on packing our bikes in Singapore and other assorted matters. No sooner do we remove an item off the list that another seems to attach itself to the bottom. New fridge, air conditioning breakdown, car breakdown thrown into the mix. As usual we plough on and are down to one week before departure.

As part of our planning we both had health checks to undergo, in my case since I had a quadruple heart bypass almost six years ago, I have a heart stress test. This process involves being wired up to a heart monitor while walking, jogging and finally running on a treadmill. In between you have to stop, lie on a bed, and try hold your breath while scans are taken. Something to do with the poor design of the human body putting the heart behind the ribs, hard to do an ultra-scan. I have never understood why I have to pay for this form of modern torture.

We start the process and after a few minutes I get off the treadmill for my first scan. I expect to be back on the treadmill for increased activity, but after a few minutes and more scans I am disconnected. A sinking feeling envelops me, but I feel calm, the last time this happened I ended up having an angiogram followed by a quadruple heart bypass.

I join Anne as we wait for the cardiac specialist, I share my thoughts with her and we both wait with some trepidation. In we go and get the news: they have identified “dangerous activity” in my heart and need to schedule an angiogram next Wednesday, one day after our planned departure to Santiago. This will provide the first information needed to diagnose and then fix this problem so our onward trip has been postponed.

Life can take interesting twists and turns and this is one of them. Until we have a definitive answer to my issue which will take a few weeks at a minimum, we cannot proceed with our planned trip to the Americas. A delay of a month would make the trip from Santiago to New York too tight given other constraints and timings. While much swirls through our minds, we can make no plans but this sure is ‘a Change of Direction…..’

– Anthony

Jan 17 2015

Video

IranWire Interview

Thanks to our friend Afrooz, we were interviewed by Homayoun Kheyri for IranWire last week. It was such a hot steamy and wet day, we had to change tops twice while the team was installing all the lights, umbrellas etc in our lounge before the interview started!

We clearly need more practice but we are grateful to be able to share our amazing experiences with Iranian hospitality we experienced everywhere we went in Iran.

Here’s the video on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=G715DuTx_Yc
Uploaded by Homayoun Kheyri
IranWire- A Trip To Iran.

– Anne & Anthony

Jan 10 2015

Our Guardian Angels’ Well Deserved Rest

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