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[jamesandanna12]

Yuma (Arizona) to La Paz (Mexico) - 20 Nov-4 Dec 2017

We departed our hotel in Yuma early on Monday morning for the Mexico border.  Our plan was to ride south through Baja California to the city of La Paz, 1,400km south.  From La Paz, we would catch an overnight ferry to mainland Mexico.  We really had little idea about what lay ahead - we were both excited and apprehensive. 

Just before we got to the border we saw the Wall... It was enormous. Sad sight. 

When we arrived at the border, there was little formality on the US side.  On the Mexican side however we had lots of paperwork to do, both for ourselves and the bikes. 

 The Mexican Immigration and Customs staff could not have been more helpful.  One security officer in particular couldn't do enough to help us, including stopping 4 lanes of traffic to enable us to ride from one office to another.  So far, everyone was very friendly 😁

After about 90 minutes, we had everything completed. Before we knew it, we were riding south through the farmland of northern Baja.  The roads were lower quality than what we had left behind in Arizona, but other than that everything was pretty straightforward. 

Our destination for the first night in Mexico was the coastal town of San Felipe on the Gulf of California.  It was a bit of a desolate place with some ropey hotels.  We visited 2 or 3 before selecting one for the night.  

We were only in our room for a few minutes when there was a knock on the door. A Canadian overlanding couple had arrived and seen our bikes.  We agreed to meet later for drinks and dinner.  We ended up having a great evening with Steve and Colleen (from Vancouver) with some fantastic margaritas! 🍹🍹 All in all, a fabulous first day in Mexico!! 😀

In the morning we went out for a walk around the town - nice and low-key. 

There are long stretches of empty desert in Baja.  Fuel, food and accommodation are sporadic.   Leaving San Felipe after our walk and a coffee, we had an ambitious plan to ride 400km to the next real town, Guerrero Negro on the Pacific coast.  After all, 400km was well with our daily range in the USA and Canada.  How naive we were! 😱😉

The road was immediately narrow, potholed with stretches of sand/dirt.  400km was going to take us all day!  

Fate had other plans however..... 

There was one fuel station in the entire stretch, 200km in.  We stopped for fuel.....

  As we were filling, the attendant said he could hear air escaping from Anna's rear tyre!  So it was that on our second day in Mexico, and 12 months into the trip,  we had our first puncture.   And in the middle of the desert in Baja at that!! 😱😱

We unloaded the bikes and assessed the damage. It was boiling hot and there was no water nearby, even at the petrol station. Thankfully our water bladder was full! 

    Argh!! 😬😈😬

It took us over three hours to mend the puncture, the main problem being getting the tyre off the rim - this proved very difficult.  I (James) had not mended a puncture since I was a child, and never with only the limited tools we were carrying.  

A lovely Mexican couple, who were in Baja on holidays, stopped to check if we were OK. He insisted on giving us two bottles of water, she however decided, whilst talking to Anna, that we were in need of something stronger! Bacardi with lemonade! 😉 Meeting them cheered us up a bit! 

It was gone 5.30pm by time we were up and running again. Dusk was setting in and we still had 200km to travel to Guerrero Negro.  As travelling in the dark was out of the question, it was clear that we needed to camp somewhere for the night.  It was dark by the time we finished packing our bikes! 

The petrol station attendant told us we could ride 2 miles down a nearby dirt road and camp by the beach.  Having read lots of stories about security in Mexico, we hoped it was safe.  It was pitch dark by time we reached the beach.  We found a structure with a thatched palm roof and decided to pitch our tent there (using the headlights of the bikes for illumination).  We were shattered - an eventful day we hoped not to repeat.

However we had our reward the next morning when we woke up to this sight:

Fortuitously we had camped in Gonzaga Bay, which was absolutely beautiful.  We felt like real adventure bikers after the past 24 hours!! 

This is where we camped - just gorgeous!

We packed our camping equipment and were soon back on the road to our original destination of Guerrero Negro.  We spent all day in the desert, with only occasional glimpses of the sea.  The road continued to be awful, including a very rough 40km stretch that had never been surfaced.  It was a dust bowl!

We arrived finally in Guerrero Negro, tired and dusty.  We quickly found a hotel and had a much needed shower.  There wasn't much in town so we were both surprised and delighted to find a nice pizzeria - a welcome treat after the past 36 hours!

From Guerrero Negro, we would ride 250km to the town of Santa Rosalia back on the Gulf of California.  But first thing first - we were looking forward to a proper Mexican breakfast! 

We got it! Scrambled eggs with green chillies, tomatoes and onions, beans, potato in a form of fries (haha) as well as delicious tortilla bread. Mmmmm! We were stuffed! 😉

Feeling lazy after breakfast we set off for Santa Rosalia. We were zigzagging from one coast to the other 😊

We had a great day of riding, almost all through desert.  In fact the only exception was the small oasis town of San Ignacio.  Out of the blue, we were riding through lush and green palm-lined roads. 

Mission San Ignacio dating back to early 1700s was very impressive. 

We really liked the beautiful San Ignacio. 

We also liked Santa Rosalia when we arrived.   After looking at several unattractive hotels, we finally found a comfortable one, followed by a nice taco restaurant for the evening.  This was our first experience of authentic Mexican food - we liked it a lot.

Returning to our hotel after dinner, we were amazed to see 2 British-registered Harley Davidsons parked beside our bikes.  The next morning, we were delighted to bump into the owners, Chris and Jill.  They had ridden from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Alaska, and then south to Mexico.  They were on their way to South America.  We had so many stories to share and immediately hit it off.  We hoped to meet again further down the road ☺

Before moving on we went for a walk. 

From Santa Rosalia, we rode a short day to the town of Mulege, also on the Gulf of California.

We arrived at lunchtime and quickly found a hotel.

We then used the afternoon to ride out to a couple of local beaches.  

Whilst the weather was warm, the water was cold...  Normally we wouldn't have bothered but it was way too beautiful not to go for a swim! 

After a couple of hours of swimming, it was time to ride back. 

From Mulege, we had a relatively easy day along the coast to the town of Loreto.  Here we planned to have a rest day.  The views along the coast were truly stunning - Baja was really getting under our skin.  

Loreto was quite a nice town, but without the spectacular coastal views from further north.   We were happy to rest after several tough days.  The highlights for us were walking lots along the Malecon (ie. seafront promenade) and finding a fabulous local taco place called Super Burro, well off the tourist track.   

From Loreto, we had a long ride across the desert to the town of Puerto San Carlos, on the Pacific Coast.  

The views were to die for! 

When we arrived however, we didn't really like the feel of the town, and decided to return 70km inland to the town of Constitucion.  

Here we found an unexpectedly nice hotel, and a beer and pizza for dinner. We would not have found any of these in Puerto San Carlos so turning around proved a good decision!

From Constitucion, we had another long day's ride to La Paz, where we hoped to spend a few days, before taking the ferry to mainland Mexico.  It was lots more desert, but at least by this stage, the road had improved from the early days around San Felipe. 

We had booked a nice hotel in La Paz, and hoped to be tourists for a few days.

We were happy to discover the rooftop pool at our hotel 😊

We went out for a walk to check out the town. 

The sunset was gorgeous! 

Even better with an ice cold beer! 😉

We really liked La Paz! Despite the bad publicity and bad things happening all the time, we felt relatively safe. 

We found an amazing cafe! Doce cuarenta - our absolute favourite!! 

On one of our evenings in La Paz, we met up with Chris and Jill, the 2 British Harley riders we had first met further north in Baja. We had a great evening sitting outdoors at a restaurant overlooking the sea, drinking beer and swapping stories. Great fun!! 😁

Our rooftop pool was lovely and quiet..... Probably because it wasn't heated  😉 That however didn't stop us! Although quite cold, in bright sunshine the pool was great! 

The views were beautiful! 

We were also delighted to find a little local ramen restaurant called Esperanza,  to which we returned more than once.  Delicious! 

The undoubted highlight of our time in La Paz was a morning spent swimming with whale sharks, the largest fish in the world.   We had previously, and unsuccessfully, tried to do this years before in the Philippines and had long hoped to try again.  We couldn't believe how many whale sharks had congregated off the coast of Baja, nor how the guide was able to take us to within a few metres without disturbing them at all.  We spent well over an hour in the water in several encounters with these beautiful creatures.   The photos simply do not do them justice.  We felt very lucky to have had such a great encounter. 

Our capitan and our amazing guide! 

We had a lovely small group 😊

Time to jump in! 

Wow!!! 

Aren't they amazing?! 😍

James kept swimming in parallel with the beautiful whale sharks 😊

Oh we were sooo happy!! 

We couldn't get enough of these lovely creatures! 

James's smile says it all!! 😁😁😁

It was a wonderful day!! 😍😍😍

We spent a lovely afternoon and evening walking around La Paz. 

Our last visit to our favourite cafe.

It was a beautiful evening!

The following morning, it was time to leave La Paz and Baja behind and head to the mainland. We really loved Baja, and hope to return some day 😍

So it was that we found ourselves in the port of Pichilingue one evening waiting for a 17 hour ferry to the city of Mazatlan in Sinaloa on the mainland. 

 This would be the start of "real Mexico" we felt.  

[jamesandanna12]

Moab (Utah) to Yuma (Arizona) - 10-20 Nov 2017

We were planning to use Moab as a base for exploring the nearby National Parks - Arches and Canyonlands. We thought the town would have a bit of the "cool" factor, a bit like Bend in Oregon, but it wasn't quite like that. It was a functional base for exploring the surrounding areas - i.e. not that much in the town itself. It didn't matter, we were happy.

The morning after arriving in Moab,  we set off for Canyonlands National Park.  It was perfect riding weather. 

Although we were several hundred kilometres distant from the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Canyonlands is effectively an extension of the same canyon in a different state. The views were absolutely huge.  In fact it was hard to comprehend that the far rim of the canyon was often 10km distant from where we were standing.  

Whilst on the rim of the canyon, we noticed a dirt road snaking down precipitously from the lip into the abyss below.  Further enquiry revealed that this was an old miners' track, called the Schafer Trail.  We decided to return the following day to see if we could ride the Schafer Trail. 

Beautiful place! 

The views were spectacular! 

We rode on to get to as many viewpoints as possible 😊

We walked up to a beautiful natural archway and some incredible views! 

Gorgeous!! 

This is definitely a million dollar view! 😍😍

We were definitely in the desert - the landscape was fantastic!! 

We got back on our bikes and rode on. 

The views were just amazing! 

Canyonlands National Park is definitely out-of-this-world-beautiful! We loved being there!! 😍 

We rode on - everywhere was so beautiful! 

As was the case in Bryce Canyon and Zion, we met lots of lovely and friendly folks who were intrigued by our foreign number plates and stories of our trip.  We were enjoying the national parks of Utah very much.

The light was going so it was time to head back. Oh the gorgeous roads! 😊

We got back to Moab starving. The most immediate dinner option was in the diner 😉

We left Moab early the next morning to head back towards Canyonlands.

We rode past an area famous for petroglyphs. 

Apparently there were many...... 

But you really had to look closely! 😉

By following the banks of the Colorado river, we were able to ride into the bottom of the canyon but not before stopping by a beautiful edge of the river. The landscape was great! 

We hoped to ride the Shafer Trail from the bottom of the canyon, upwards to the rim. The trail started easy....

 We were about 10kms into the trail, when it became obvious that it was unacceptably difficult for our riding skills (incredibly loose gravel and patches of powdery dust, huge rocks, steep uphills with no obvious grippy surface for our bikes to stay upright). Combined with the fact that an experienced motorcyclist died whilst riding this trail a month previously, we decided to turn back....  but not before taking some fabulous photos from the base of the canyon.

As it was early in the day we decided to ride to Arches National Park.  Arches was physically smaller than Canyonlands and much closer to Moab, so it was an easier riding day.  Yet again the views were wonderful! 😍

We got back to Moab and James found us a lovely little Thai restaurant for dinner. Thai food makes us very happy! 😁

After a couple of days of great riding around Moab, it was time to leave.  Winter was coming and whilst the days were still warm, the nights were becoming very cold.  And we still had to ride to the Grand Canyon (problems, problems!😋) which was also likely to be cold. We set off the next morning for the 2 day return trip to Page, Arizona, from where we would ride south to the Grand Canyon.

Day 1 was the backtrack to Blanding, Utah.  On the way, we decided to do the 55km diversion to the east rim of the canyon of which we had seen so much in Canyonlands.

The diversion was well worthwhile as we didn't see one other traveller all day.  We had the entire rim of the canyon to ourselves!!

The views were AMAZING! 😍

We couldn't believe we were the only people there! Such a beautiful place 😊

We enjoyed the peace and quiet. The views were incredible and it felt quite surreal that the place wasn't swarmed with tourists. We felt very lucky! 😊

It was amazing just being there and admiring the sheer beauty of the canyon. We stayed there for ages 😊

Reluctantly after about an hour and a half we had to keep going. We loved our surprisingly incredible stop though 😍

The remaining ride to Blanding was very enjoyable. 

There was one last treat in store for us - we saw a beautiful wild antelope along the way 😊

We reached our comfy motel in Blanding in daylight and recreated the same dinner as on the trip north - a Subway sandwich plus instant noodle soup.  There still wasn't much in Blanding!! 😉

Day 2 of our return ride to Page, Arizona gave us the chance to ride the Valley of the Gods, the 40km offroad loop that we had seen on the trip north.  We loved the Valley and its stunning views.  It was in places like this that the adventure bikes really came into their own.  We could go places that normal cars simply could not.

After a great morning in Valley of the Gods, we then re-rode through Monument Valley before arriving in Page.  A really great day of riding!

This time we merely overnighted in Page before heading out the following morning for the long, cold ride to the Grand Canyon. 

We largely rode through desert all day, but the low temperature told us it was time to head south for Winter.  After the Grand Canyon, we would head towards Mexico.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park at 3pm in the afternoon.

There's something really cool about arriving in such a place on our fully loaded bikes!! 😁

Wow! 

Amazing views!! 

The final 30km of the day's ride was along the rim of the canyon.  We had our first views .... and photos.  Stupendous views 😍😍

Bikes parked on the edge of the Grand Canyon! 👍😀 

We loved being able to ride around the Grand Canyon! 

Wonderful views! 😍

Whilst admiring the views, we met a lovely couple Geralene and Randy. It was a pleasure to meet you guys!! 😊👋

After the sun set, it got really cold! It was time to get to our hotel (but not before the last photo of course) 😉 

It was 6pm, freezing and dark by time we reached our hotel in Tusayan, a few miles away from the Canyon Village ....... not before all the traffic stopped for a herd of wild elk.  Lovely!  

Tusayan is a very expensive place to stay, but once again Anna had performed her magic by getting us a lovely room in the best hotel in town for an unbelievably cheap price! The woman knows how to find a bargain! 😉   We planned to stay 2 nights giving us the next day to further explore the Canyon.

As private vehicles are not permitted in most of the National Park, we spent most of the following day hopping on and off shuttle buses along the south rim of the Canyon.

 It was a beautiful day and we were lucky enough to get some lovely photos.

The views were truly grand! 😍

The hiking trails looked interesting. 

The Grand Canyon is so beautiful! 😍

All the layers and colours looked spectacular in the beautiful sunshine 😊

Gorgeous place! 

We had the most amazing day at the Grand Canyon. Incredible place! 😍 

It was getting cold so it was time to hop on our bikes and ride to our hotel. 

Ten minutes down the road we saw an elk. Nice end to a beautiful day 😊 

We got back to our hotel in darkness and since prices in nearby restaurants were utterly ridiculous, we enjoyed supper of ham, cream cheese and crackers and spicy instant noodle soup in our room. Yummy! 

We left our lovely Tusayan hotel the next morning for the long 2 day ride to Yuma, Arizona, close to the Mexican border.  This would be our final stop in the US before entering Mexico.   Our overnight stop was in the small town of Wickenburg, Arizona which turned out to be a sweet little town.  

The pool looked inviting so we decided to stay an extra night 😉  

The weather in the morning was lovely. We went for a walk around town.

Then it was time for some mechanicing......

Before relaxing in the pool and the hot tub! 😁

We had an early night and wondered over to Denny's where our motel provided breakfast. For once we had an amazingly sinful brekkie 😋

Our ride to Yuma was classic Arizona - desert, mountains and canyons.  Just beautiful!

We had hotel loyalty points for a couple of free nights in a hotel so decided to use these in Yuma.  We got to the hotel quite late, unpacked the bikes and admired the beautiful evening. 

We used the time in Yuma to plan for Mexico, repair a few bits and pieces of kit, rest a little bit and catch up on the blog (obviously highly unsuccessful!!) 😂😂

We do like pools and hot tubs! 😉

For our last supper in the US we went to a little Chinese restaurant round the corner. Yummy! 

We woke up to a beautiful morning - the mountains were very visible from our hotel room window. We packed our bags and couldn't stop wondering if we would like Mexico..... 

Before we knew it, the time had come to leave for the short 40km ride to Mexico and the unknown adventure that awaited..... We were both nervous and excited! 

[jamesandanna12]

Kanab (Utah) to Moab (Utah) - 7-10 Nov 2017

After changing the oil on the bikes in Kanab we set off to a town called Page in Arizona.  We were sad to leave behind the fabulous red rocks but hoped the scenery would remain interesting. It did!!! 😁 The riding was great!

The sky was amazing. It made everything look very atmospheric! 

On our way into Page we rode across a bridge over Glen Canyon, right beside a huge dam which created a very large reservoir for Las Vegas - Lake Powell.   Spectacular!

We finally arrived in Page.  It was merely an overnight stop for us but it turned out to be lovely. We discovered that there was a hot air balloon festival in town that weekend - live music, food stalls, and a display of hot air gas burners after dark.  It was great fun.... So we decided to stay an extra night 😉

The live music was great! 

And the beer was pretty good too 😋

We were lucky to be there on the last evening of the hot air balloon festival! 😊

We loved this number plate!! "Mama says Im special" 😂😂

In the morning we woke up to a beautiful sight! 

During our unplanned extra day in Page, we visited and walked through Antelope Canyon, an incredible natural phenomenon formed over millenia by flash floods through the soft desert rock.  It was amazing! 😍

Private entry was not possible so we had to join a group. Antelope Canyon is located in Navajo land.   Whilst we found the Navajo less than friendly, we were delighted that we could see the canyon. 

We walked through the desert until there was a hole in the ground - something so amazing hidden underground! 

The shapes were incredible! 

Walking through the canyon was amazing. We loved it! 😍 And what's more incredible is the fact that until we got to Page, we'd never heard of it! 

The walk through the canyon was only about half an hour and our guide wasn't hanging around but we absolutely loved it! We could have stayed there much longer - incredible place! 😍

It was time to climb out: 

Once above ground one couldn't tell there was anything of interest down below! 😉

We topped off our day in Page by riding to Horseshoe Bend, the famous photo spot on the Colorado river as it flows towards the Grand Canyon. 

As we got closer, all you could see was a big hole! 

Although James doesn't like heights, it really was a wonderful view and we both loved it. Safe to say, we didn't go all the way to the edge 😉 

We really enjoyed the beautiful view! After an hour or so we headed back to Page but not before the few last photos 😊

We got back to Page just in time to take a walk around the town, order a takeaway pizza and buy a bottle of wine for dinner  😉 

In the morning it was time to hit the road.

We had a long ride to the small town of Blanding, Utah.  Utah is a real wilderness state and the ride was through amazing scenery.  There were beautiful canyons everywhere.

The views were spectacular!! 😍

The undoubted highlight of the day was riding through Monument Valley.  The views of the monuments or "mesas" were stupendous!

The landscape was out of this world! 

Riding was fantastic! 

Monument Valley is unbelievably beautiful! We couldn't get enough of the magnificent views 😍😊

We stopped at the famous spot where Forrest Gump finished running.  The view from that spot is one of the most famous views of Monument Valley. GORGEOUS! 😍

One place in particular caught our eye during the day - "Valley of the Gods". However it was late in the day when we passed the access road and we didn't have enough daylight to complete the offroad track. We took a few photos and hoped we might be able to ride it on our return route.

The start of the offroad track - gorgeous! 

After spending time in Monument Valley, we arrived in Blanding in darkness and with the temperature below zero. We were frozen!  Winter comes early at these altitudes. The town itself was as the name suggests, bland! 😉 It was a ghost town.  We felt lucky to find a Subway sandwich and some instant soup for dinner. Our room was cozy and warm and with a proper table and chairs, dinner was just lovely 😁

We had a great night's sleep and didn't really want to leave our comfy room however it was our final push to Moab.  We packed our bikes and set off. 

The scenery was empty and beautiful. 

We stopped by a little farm and  observed the cute black alpacas 😊

The riding was amazing, we loved it!! 

We rode past this incredible natural arch called Wilson Arch! How amazing is this?! 😊

Such a beautiful place! 

After our lovely stop we still had about half an hour left to go. We were tired but were loving every minute of the ride. The scenery really is to die for! 😍

After a great few days riding we finally arrived at a very nice motel in Moab and immediately did what we always do when tired - found a nice cafe!  Moab had a nice feel about it - we were glad to be staying for a couple of days.  

[jamesandanna12]

Las Vegas (Nevada) to Kanab (Utah) - 1-7 Nov 2017

I (Anna) got an AMAZING deal on our hotel in Vegas - undoubtedly the most comfortable we had stayed in on the trip 😀.  After a lot of recent camping, the comfort was welcome. 

Sitting around the pool was to figure prominently in our time in Las Vegas! 😁

After parking securely and recovering from the Death Valley heat, we set off in the evening to explore the strip.  Walking around Las Vegas was great fun! So much going on! Lights, music, heavy traffic, strange people - it was all a bit of a sensory overload (but in a fun to watch way!) 😉

We walked through many famous casinos including Ceasars Palace, Harrahs, Bellagio and The Venetian.  We also saw Mandalay Bay, the scene of a terrible mass-shooting a few weeks previously.  The casinos were fun to see! 

We are not gamblers so our enjoyment was in watching everything around us. It was interesting to see all the eccentric and sometimes crazy behaviour.  We also enjoyed the entertainment available in virtually every casino.  

However the highpoint for us was undoubtedly the fountain and music show at The Bellagio, which we loved.   We watched the show numerous times.  

We also had a great evening in an outdoor bar on the Strip watching a fantastic Game 6 of the World Series of baseball - James' favourite evening in Las Vegas.   

Walking around in daylight was great too! Plenty to look at! 😉

Inside The Belaggio there was an incredible "garden". Gorgeous!!

Isn't he cute?!! 😉

The peacocks were amazing - created with real flowers! 😍

Even the lobby was interesting!

We walked for miles - there was always something to see.

Walking around Vegas always guaranteed seeing something funny! 😉

He's good looking, isn't he?!! 😉

Overall we were delighted to see the city but have no real desire to return.  It's one of those places that everyone should see once, but for us no need to see a second time 😋  It's definitely cheesy and tacky with just a few too many dodgy people for our liking. 

Feeling rested, we left Las Vegas early in the morning to head towards the national parks of Utah.  Our first stop in Utah was the small town of Kanab where we planned to stay a few days.  From Kanab we would day-trip to the famous national parks of Zion and Bryce Canyon.  

We had a 130 second wait at the lights so I took a sneaky photo of James and the sign of our comfy hotel 😉

Riding out of Las Vegas was as chaotic as arriving... Fast and crazy! But thankfully, before too long, we were out of the city and in the desert again.

It was baking hot! 

The scenery was fantastic!! 

After a few hours on the bike we rode through the town of St. George. We were hungry and luckily we happened upon the best bagel shop in the world!! Delicious! 😊

We still had a couple of hours of riding to do. The heat was getting unbearable! Riding in heat is quite challenging - it's easy to lose concentration.

Thankfully the amazing views kept us occupied! Such a beautiful part of the world!! 😍

We finally arrived in our nice hotel in Kanab and settled in quickly into what was a very small town.  

Our first day trip from Kanab was to Zion National Park.  It was a beautiful 60km round trip ride from our hotel.  The park itself was wonderful - fabulous mountain views from a very deep canyon.  We spent all day walking and soaking up the views - awesome! 

We left our hotel early - the clouds were casting shadows and making the rocks shine beautifully! 

We arrived in Zion National Park, parked up, locked out gear and rushed to get on a bus. We'd heard of unbelievable queues but thankfully, it wasn't one of those days! 

We installed ourselves on the bus - it's nice when somebody else does the driving 😉

We got off quickly as there was a nice little 2km walk 😊

We spotted a little deer 😊

The views were incredible!!

The rock formations were incredible! 

The shapes and colours were so beautiful! 

We loved getting off the bus and walking around amongst the gorgeous rocks 😀

We happened upon a group of wild turkeys 😊

Zion is amazing! 

Isn't this so spectacular?! 😁

We were a bit speechless observing the beauty of the place.....      SPECTACULAR! 😍

After several hours spent in the park, it was time to hop on our bikes and ride back to our hotel. 

We took our time riding back as it was so fantastically beautiful 😀😀

We happened upon an amazing natural archway 😊

Riding was knock-your-socks-off beautiful! 

We decided we had a little bit of time to make one other stop before getting back to our hotel in daylight. We parked our bikes and climbed to the top of the hill. 

Wonderful place! 😁

The views were huge! 

We couldn't get enough of the fantastic views!! 

The light was going so unfortunately we had to get on our bikes and ride back to Kanab - we didn't want to ride in darkness. 

Our last 20km ride back was lovely. The light made the scenery look quite different. 

We got back and really fancied a glass of wine but...... We were in the Mormon state of Utah!!  We were interested to see the strict Utah/Mormon liquor laws first hand.  You cannot buy a drink other than as part of a meal.  There are no bars or pubs. None!  Neither can you buy alcohol in a supermarket or in shops.  You cannot buy a cold beer. Seriously! All beer sold is room temperature!  The only way to buy a bottle of wine is in the one state-owned liquor shop in each town.  In Kanab, the liquor store opened from midday until 7pm only - no spontaneous drinking in Utah!! 😂😋

Luckily, the state owned liquor store, located beside the police station (haha) was still open at 6.50 PM! 

There was nothing in Kanab so we had a Subway sandwich and wine for dinner 😊

It was a 200km round trip to Bryce Canyon the following day.  After our great day at Zion, we thought that Bryce might be an anticlimax.  It was not! It was just as spectacular, with huge views of the amazing rock formations for which it is famous.

On our way to Bryce we passed Dixie National Forest. Fantastic scenery! 

These natural archways are amazing! 

We arrived 😊

We were greeted with a vista and a half!! 😍

Beautiful! 

Riding through Bryce unveiled completely different views, shapes and colours. Gorgeous! 😍

The views were huge!! Bryce Canyon National Park is incredibly beautiful! 

Everywhere we went both in Zion and in Bryce, we met the most friendly people.  Our bikes and the Irish flag usually started the conversations.  Due to the many friendly encounters, we spent a long day at Bryce. We spent ages talking to three lovely people - Dave, Cheryl and Bob. It was a pleasure to meet you guys! 😊

The US really has incredible national parks. We just couldn't get enough! 😁

We love Bryce Canyon! 😍

We arrived back in Kanab just before darkness. All this riding is tiring sometimes 😉  It was an amazing day!! 😍 

In the morning we had one final chore to complete before leaving Kanab - a quick oil and filter change for both bikes in the back of the hotel car park. 

I was the designated "glamorous assistant" in charge of the dirty oil 😉

After disposing of the oil in the nearby garage, we left Kanab for the long three day ride to the town of Moab in eastern Utah.  We would spend a few days in Moab which we intended to use as a base from which to visit two more national parks, Canyonlands and Arches. On our way, we would pass through Monument Valley about which we were very excited! 😀👏😀 

[jamesandanna12]

San Francisco (California) to Las Vegas (Nevada) - 21-31 Oct 2017

We left San Francisco early on a warm Saturday morning heading south. For once, we didn't have to carry all our heavy bags - we love hotel trolleys! 😉

To exit the metropolitan area, we had to ride through the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and San Jose.  The urban area felt endless.  Bikes and big cities are not a good combination. 

Our original plan for California was to return to the Pacific Coast and ride down the coast on Highway 1 - the famous ocean road curving along the cliffs and through the beautiful Big Sur State Park.  A huge landslide and bridge damage in early 2017 had closed the road for 18 months however.   As a result, we had a long ride inland through endless farmland/desert.  Our destination the first night after San Francisco was the small agricultural town of King City.  It was so unmemorable that there is really nothing to say - just a stopover.

We left happily the next morning for the remaining miles to Paso Robles.  As we got ever closer to town, we were gradually surrounded by vineyards. Everything looked very pretty............ and happily, there were no wildfires.  

We checked into a really lovely motel early in the day. 

 The owner told us of her favourite local vineyard which had live music and open cellars on a Sunday. We didn't need a second invitation.  One quick Uber later, we were happily wandering around the Eberle Winery.  We were able to walk freely through the cellars, which was just lovely! 😊

The wine tasting was gorgeous! 

We enjoyed sampling most of the wines - the people there were so proud of their wines! Their Viognier and Cabernet Sauvignon were exquisite!

Can you tell we were enjoying ourselves?! 😉

But this was only part of the fun. After the tasting we sat in the garden, listening to jazz and enjoying a bottle of very good wine.  It really was a beautiful vineyard! 😍

The jazz band was amazing!

With the music, it was just a perfect setting for a lovely afternoon at the vineyard! 😊😊

We liked Paso Robles a lot, and decided to stay for a couple of days extra.  It reminded us of the French town of Beaune in Burgundy.  The next morning, we hopped on the bikes and rode around the local country roads, admiring the many vineyards.  The Autumn colours were beautiful.  

On our second full day in Paso Robles, we were able to spend some time working on the bikes (as well as enjoying a couple of coffee shops!). We changed air filters, brake pads and various other consumables on the bikes.

Our air filters were unbelievably black!! We quickly replaced them with beautiful new ones 😉

A "slight" difference 😉

James was very happy fixing our bikes 😁

After our hard work, we "needed" coffee! 😋

Walking around Paso Robles was always fun, especially coming up to Halloween! 😉

We never really got to see the Napa and Sonoma wineries, but Paso Robles is a  fabulous alternative.  We were very happy to spend some time there. From Paso Robles, we had decided to head away from the coast, ultimately in the direction of Las Vegas and further on to the national parks of Utah.  We had decided to miss out on Los Angeles and southern California.  Just like San Francisco, bikes and big cities are not a good mix!

Our first day out of Paso Robles was the ride to Sequoia National Park, to see more big trees. We departed early but not before taking a last photo with our house in the background ☺

The ride through the desert was fantastic! 

We saw a sign for a water reservoir so turned off to have a look. 

The setting was beautiful!

We arrived in the National Park campground at lunchtime.

We quickly pitched our tent in a tinder dry campsite - just like much of California, this area had not seen rain for a long time.

James unloaded the bikes whilst I made our beds 😉

Roadworks on the main mountain road inside the park meant that there was one way traffic.  The road opened every two hours for a few minutes.  We joined the queue and got through as part of the 2pm group.

The views of the National Park were beautiful from the high mountain road.  

Before long, we found ourselves at the start of a walk to General Sherman, reputedly the biggest tree in the world (by volume, not height).  Just like the Giant Redwoods, we really loved these huge trees.  To give an idea of age, some of the them were alive at the time of Christ. 

The trees were absolutely gorgeous! 

Here's General Sherman. Just huge! 

Riding amongst the giant sequoia trees was simply beautiful 😊

We couldn't get enough of them - so lovely and unusual 😊

We eventally made it back to camp and made dinner on our stove.  Amazingly given the dry conditions, campfires were permitted.  We lit one carefully and enjoyed sitting under the stars in this quiet and peaceful part of the US.  

We had some visitors as we were having a glass of wine before supper 😊

Our anniversary dinner 😁

We watched the fire and the stars - it was a beautiful night. We had a wonderful day! Time flies when you're having fun..... 11 years and counting! It was a perfect anniversary 😊😍

Next morning, we packed up early and set off on our way to Death Valley. 

One funny squirrel kept showing off its ability to carry chestnuts 😉

Our plan was to overnight in Ridgecrest, a small desert town just outside Death Valley.  We would then ride into the Valley the following day, do some exploring before camping overnight.  In that way, we would only spend one night in Death Valley, rather than two.  We were concerned about the heat, availability of water and camping spots - so one night was the lower risk option.

The ride to Ridgecrest was beautiful.  It was very hot and we were in desert much of the time.  The views were great!

I (Anna) loved the scenery! It was fantastic! James prefers slightly greener places. 

Gorgeous roads! 

It was lovely to see water in the lakes despite the major drought in California. Nice colour against all the yellows. 

Despite the unbelievable heat, we were loving the riding! 

We even saw Joshua Trees for the first time 😁

We were glad not to be permanent residents of Ridgecrest which was a dusty, barren and hot town.  That said, we did manage to find a nice Vietnamese restaurant for the evening 😊

The ride to Death Valley the next day took us over a high pass of 1,600m, followed by a huge descent into the Valley, 1,700m below.  The views of Death Valley as we descended into it were fabulous, although it was getting hotter and hotter.  We stopped for photos quite a bit 😉

It was very satisfying arriving in Death Valley on our laden bikes! 😁

The perfect road! So beautiful!! 😍

We both reached 25,000 miles (40,000km!) so we had to stop to take a photo 😁👏😁

Riding was unbelievably spectacular! 

We hoped to camp at the main campsite in the Valley at the appropriately named Furnace Creek.  We arrived at the campsite only to discover that the ticket booth was closed for lunch. There was a piece of paper on the window advising campers to find an empty site, take a note of the site number and come back after lunch to register and pay. So we rode around and found a site. We were delighted! Campsite spaces are difficult to secure in pretty places.

It was boiling hot! We waited and waited until the ticket booth reopened. I went to pay as James was unloading bikes. I entered the office and there were three guys stuffing their faces with doughnuts. They looked at me like I interrupted their party and rudely asked what I wanted! I said I wanted to pay for our camp site to which one guy said that all spaces were full. I pointed at their piece of paper in the window which advised that there were spaces, to find one and come back to pay! The guy just shrugged his shoulders whilst still chewing on his huge chunk of a doughnut and said he didn't care about what was written on the piece of paper and that the campsite was full! 

There was no talking to them as they really didn't care. So after both of us trying to talk to them reasonably and logically, we gave up. We were not impressed!! 😬

Luckily we found a spot nearby in what was really an RV site.  So much nicer!!!!

Given the difficult conditions and remoteness,  we were very glad to find anything.  In fact, our campsite also had a swimming pool, a real bonus in 38c temperatures.  Things happen for a reason, don't they?! 😉

After pitching our tent, we jumped back on the bikes and rode the 25km to Badwater, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.  The views were great despite the unbelievable heat and arid nature of everything. 

The salt flats were lovely to walk on - so crunchy! 😉

The sea level is two thirds of the height of the rock on the photo below. 

Very unusual place! 

We spent the afternoon exploring Death Valley

We  returned to our campsite at dusk.  With very limited food choices, we had planned to cook dinner on our stove.  The stove however had different ideas, and flat refused to cook properly!  It took over an hour of repeated disassembly and cleaning before we manage to cook anything.

Two hours later we sat down to have our dinner. It was pitch dark of course and still 35c! The brown rice with spicy veggie red Thai curry was delicious!

After a busy day and a frustrating dinner preparation, there was only one thing for it  - we spent the rest of the evening in the swimming pool 😁

As we got out of our tent in the morning, we were greeted with a beautiful view. What a place!

Before leaving, we took a few photos.  As well as a campsite and swimming pool, our resort had a golf course - very unexpected in such a hot and dry place!

On leaving Death Valley, our ride would take us through the desert all day on the way to Las Vegas.  As we climbed out of the Valley early in the morning, we had tremendous views from 2km up into the barren emptiness where we had spent the previous 24 hours.   

The landscape was incredible! 😍

We couldn't get enough of it! Such an amazing place!!! 😍

The huge salt flats were very impressive from up high! 

We loved the views but reluctantly, we had to keep going - the heat was getting to us! 

The riding was great! 

The remaining ride to Las Vegas was interminable scrub and desert.  There were occasional towns but really there was nothing in any of these places.  

30km before Las Vegas, we rode through the beautiful Red Rock Canyon National Park.  As we reached the high point in the Park, we had our first glimpse of Vegas laid out below.  It was a huge, modern, neon-clad city in the middle of the desert - completely surreal and out of place.

I (Anna) had managed to find us a very nice hotel just off the strip.  So it was that late on Sunday afternoon, two tired, dusty and sweaty overlanders rode down the Las Vegas strip.  Much as we would like to have stopped for a photo at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, we were much too intent on staying alive on the 8 lane, 80mph road that is the strip! It was a crazy road!! 😱

We were very relieved to eventually park outside our hotel, where we planned to spend 3 or 4 nights exploring the madness that is Vegas. 

[jamesandanna12]

Bend (Oregon) to San Francisco (California) - 12-21 Oct 2017

After a lovely time in Bend, Oregon, we had a simple plan.  We needed to get back to the Pacific coast and sea level as quickly as possible.  The temperature was already below zero every night in Bend (1,100m altitude) and we had been warned that bad weather was forecast.  To get back to the coast, we needed to cross a 2,000m pass in the Cascade mountains. We were worried about snow and ice at this altitude so there was no time to waste.  We hurriedly left Bend the morning after our night out with Harold Cecil and the local adventure motorcycling folks.

Once we reached the Pacific, our plan was to hug the coastline until we reached the Californian wine regions of Napa and Sonoma.  From there we would go south to San Francisco where we planned to spend a few days. 

From the moment we left Bend, the temperature hovered around zero.  There were constant flurries of snow.  As we were still at 1,100m altitude and had yet to climb the 2,000m pass (at Crater Lake), we were increasingly concerned about the weather higher up.  We were right to be concerned! 

As we started to climb, the snow got heavier and heavier. Before long we were riding in the tire tracks of the vehicle in front - the only way to avoid sliding all over the place in the snow. Our visibility was terrible, with a constant need to clear snow from our visors.  We travelled painfully slowly, hoping that once we cleared the high pass and started to descend, the snow would relent.

The high pass at Crater Lake is a famous viewpoint in Oregon.  We saw nothing!  We were surrounded by clouds and snow - but at least we had made it to the top of the pass safely!  

We were soaked and frozen by time we commenced the long descent from the pass.  It took at least an hour for us to descend below the snow line.  Not the easiest of rides!

We still had a couple of hours of very wet riding ahead to reach our destination for the night, a motel in the small Oregon town of Roseburg.  It was bucketing rain! We were soaked! Riding is a bit miserable when you have about a litre of water in your boots! 😕

We were relieved to finally ride into the car park after one of our more difficult days.  Happily the day then improved immeasurably.  The couple managing the motel were absolutely fabulous, and seeing our overland bikes and our bedraggled state, went above and beyond to make us feel at home. Gloria even gave us a room with a fantasic jacuzzi! Nothing better to warm you up! Thank you guys!

We had a hot shower and jacuzzi obviously and after a bite to eat felt much better. We checked the weather webcam and were shocked to discover that we really did escape the snow in the Cascades! This was only a few hours after we rode on that road!! 😱

After a night drying out our gear, there wasn't much to detain us in Roseburg. We checked the weather webcam again and couldn't believe our eyes!!! We truly escaped!! If we had waited another day to leave Bend, we would have been stuck! 

We set off in much better weather for the small town of Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast.  First, we said goodbye to our kind hosts 😊

We had another great day of riding along the coast.

We stopped in a lovely looking town called Bandon. Coffee was good!

And we found a really cool sculpture! 😉

Then it poured!! 

We got a proper soaking, yet again 😉

But then the sun came out and we were rewarded with gorgeous views! 

We arrived at our motel in Gold Beach and after a quick turnaround, were just in time to walk the beach before sunset. It was beautiful!

Another highlight of our evening was watching the local high school playing a very competitive American football game under lights.  The whole town seemed to be there - a real study of small town America! 😉

The next morning we set off further south along the coast and over the state line into California.  The coast was magnificent!

After our fantastic ride hugging the coast, we were now riding in the land of giant redwood trees.  We planned to camp amongst them that night in the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park.  As we approached the Park, and had our first views of the trees, we were speechless.  They were simply magnificent. I'm not sure that photos can do them justice. 

We found a beautiful place to pitch our tent.  How about this for a campsite!!!

We wanted to see more of the trees so we hopped on the bikes and rode around. What an amazing place!! 😊

Look how huge they are!! 

We rode back to our campsite in enough daylight to cook supper 😊

....... and spent a good couple of hours watching our campfire before bed 😊

We were sad to leave our wonderful campsite the next morning.  

Happily, the first hour or two of our ride was through further groves of giant redwoods interspersed with views of the Pacific.  Just great! 

Our destination was the small coastal town of Fort Bragg. When we arrived, we found a very comfortable motel, together with a town that had wonderful views of the Pacific.  We decided to stay a second night to do some clifftop walking and to rest a bit after a lot of recent mileage.  

The views were great!

We found a very nice coffee shop in Fort Bragg, where we happily sat for an hour or two on our "day off".

One of our long term plans for the US had been to spend a number of days in the Napa and Sonoma wine regions.  In fact we were so set on this plan that I (James) had arranged to have a replacement credit card sent to the post office in Napa, where I would drop in to collect it.  As ever, plans don't quite work out as one hopes.  As we were travelling south through Oregon, huge wildfires had erupted in Napa and Sonoma counties.  Thousands of dwellings had been evacuated, destroyed or damaged, as had several notable wineries.  There was billions of dollars of damage and a federal disaster had been declared.   There was speculation that the fires could continue to burn until Christmas.  

With this backdrop, it was quite obvious that we would not be spending time in Napa and Sonoma.  But as my credit card had been mailed to the US prior to the fire, and was (hopefully) sitting in the post office in Napa, we needed to pass through. Consequently, we left Fort Bragg to ride straight into the fire-ravaged region.  We hoped to ride into Napa City, visit the post office, and then immediately resume our ride to San Francisco.  

Although we were still 200km north of Napa, we could smell smoke in the air from the moment we left Fort Bragg.  The initial ride along the Pacific Coast was spectacular, slightly tempered by the sight of a large number of emergency services trying to recover a car that had gone off the road and over a cliff during the night.  The car was resting 200m down the cliff just above the ocean.  The driver's body had not been found we were told.  These were dangerous roads!! 

As we got closer to Sonoma, we started to see burned out buildings - utterly destroyed.  The air was thick with smoke and most people (except us) were breathing through masks.  Emergency services were everywhere.  Obviously we didn't take any photos of the destruction - it was all too sad 😞

We eventually rode into the Post Office carpark in Napa, and joined a long queue to collect my credit card.  The queue was entirely composed of evacuees from the fires who were waiting to collect their mail.  Our need was so trivial compared the theirs.  We heard some dreadful stories - whole streets destroyed in minutes, as the residents fled for their lives, often during the night.  There were strange stories - one person's  house had survived, but the houses on either side had been burned to the ground.  Most of the evacuees had been out of their houses for at least 10 days.  All very sobering!

With my credit card in hand, we quickly left Napa for the final 70km sprint into Berkeley, the suburb of San Francisco where we would stay.  As well as doing some sightseeing, we had arranged to have new tires fitted to both bikes and to do some basic service procedures ourselves.  The bikes needed some tlc after the long trip to/from Alaska.  

We had carefully chosen our hotel in Berkeley for its proximity to the metro train (called the BART) which would easily take us into the centre of San Francisco.  We duly set off into town on our first morning.  Before long, we were walking through Fisherman's Wharf, taking photos of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz and seeing any number of other tourist sights.  San Francisco is a very scenic city! 

It was amazing to see Alcatraz! 

The city was made for walking! 

We walked and walked - about 25km! 😉 

We found a nice restaurant in Chinatown for dinner. 

As 25km walk wasn't quite enough, we walked some more - Sam Francisco at night is beautiful! 

On our second morning, we got back on the bikes to ride 30km across the city to our tire shop. We rode across the Bay Bridge and right into downtown, before exiting south to our destination.  We had great views of the city from the Bay Bridge, but sadly no photos. 

During the preceding two weeks, we had arranged to have new tires shipped to our San Francisco tire fitter.  We were delighted to see 4 shiny new tires waiting for us when we arrived.  These were expertly fitted and soon we were ready to do the return trip across the city to Berkeley.  Given that we were getting ever closer to Mexico, we were very happy to get some first hand tips on Baja California from the fitter.  

How square were our old tires?! Standing on their own! 😉

One of the nicest things we did in San Francisco was to walk through the Botanical Gardens towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a gorgeous day and the views were spectacular.

Our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Beautiful bridge!

There were several photoshoots going on!

We sat and watched the world go by for ages. Very peaceful setting 😊

It got cold very quickly so we headed back. It was a nice walk.

It poured rain but thankfully we found a cute little Vietnamese restaurant before too long.

The fresh spring rolls were to die for!!

After dinner we walked through Chinatown - so pretty!

During our remaining time in San Francisco, we decided to walk around the 1970s hippy hangout of Haight Asbury as well as seeing the university centre of Berkeley.  Whilst it was lovely to see these famous places, they were somewhat blighted by the number of homeless people we saw with drug/alcohol problems.  We were very happy that we didn't need to walk around either area at night.  Overall we liked San Francisco, but like most large cities, it certainly has its problems.  

Before long, our time in San Francisco had come to an end and we were ready to continue south.   Our initial destination would be the wine region of Paso Robles.  We had decided to spend a little time there due to the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma.   

[jamesandanna12]

Vancouver (British Columbia) to Bend (Oregon) - 28 Sept - 12 Oct 2017

There was nothing in the area where our hotel was... It was a struggle to even find a bite to eat. We found a shop and had some sandwiches for supper. We knew we were staying out of town but since the hotel prices in Vancouver were very high, we weren't able to be too picky. 

Having prearranged our appointment with Honda Vancouver, we were a bit shocked to discover the next morning that the shop was 30km away.  In fact it was downtown, just two blocks from the main tourist area of the city.  So our plan to rest from the bikes was not to happen.  We dropped the bikes at the shop after a stressy hour of riding and were told to return in two hours.

 We had coffee and saw some of the tourist sights - it is a scenic city.

The waterfront was lovely. 

Walking around we passed several markets - great for people watching. 

It was a beautiful sunny day - perfect for watching the world go by!

We liked watching the little water taxis 😉

This was definitely our favourite view of the city so far. 

The Honda folks did a great job and were fascinated by our trip. After saying our goodbyes, we dropped the bikes back to the hotel and returned downtown to meet Lubna.

We took the train to downtown - definitely a more relaxed way of getting around! 😉

The waterfront was very modern. 

There were several cruise ships in town. 

We had time to spare before meeting Lubna so we walked and walked 😊

We met Lubna and she showed us around some nice sights. She was a great tour guide! 😉

Lubna took us to her favourite restaurant. It was hopping!! Incredibly busy place! The restaurant was vegan - we've never actually been to one.... The food was fantastic!  And the desserts were to die for!! 

We had a lovely evening with Lubna. It was great to see her after so long. She and Anna got on like house and fire - clearly two troublesome ones! 😜😉

The three of us walked around some more after dinner - Vancouver at night is equally beautiful! 

Lubna - thank you for meeting us! We're both waving at you 😀👋👋😀

The following day was a Sunday.  Just like many people in Vancouver, we spent the day walking the city and in particular Stanley Park, the beautiful public park in the middle of Vancouver harbour.  We greatly enjoyed exploring - it is a very impressive and modern city.

We walked in the park for about 24km that Sunday! 😉 Great city! We really enjoyed it! After walking around some more, we went back to our hotel and packed for the following morning so we would be ready to set off early.

Our plan after leaving Vancouver was to hug the west coast of both Canada and the US as we rode south towards California.  Our first stop was Vancouver Island - a 2 hour ferry journey west of Vancouver itself.  

Riding to the ferry terminal was less hassle than we expected given how bad the traffic is in Vancouver! There was already a big queue but we were channelled into another lane 👍

We took our valuables with us and left the bikes beside a dozen others.  

The boat journey was lovely! 

The ferry journey was straightforward and before we knew it, we were riding into the small coastal town of Parksville in the centre of the island.  Here we found a very nice and friendly motel and a delightful sleepy seaside town.  We decided to stay for a couple of days and to use it as a base for exploring more of the island. The motel always had about half a dozen friendly bunnies around 😊

 We were happy to have table and chairs in our room - we were able to have a nice supper of Domino's pizza and a few glasses of Malbec! 😉

The coast was very beautiful and we really enjoyed the beach!

We also did a nice day trip across the island to the small town of Tofino on the rugged Pacific Coast.  We had a fabulous ride across the central mountain range before reaching Tofino.  

We parked our bikes and did a lovely coastal trek.  Whilst failing to see the hoped-for whales offshore, we were greeted by wonderful scenery.  Those whales are elusive! 😉

It was a beautiful day. The scenery was gorgeous! We left Tofino and stopped for an incredibly delicious strawberry crumble and coffee! 

From Parksville, we rode south to Victoria, the capital city of Vancouver Island.  Here we were pleasantly surprised to find a scenic, modern, tourist-friendly walking city.  We preferred Victoria to Vancouver (its more prestigious neighbour). 

One thing we really wanted to do whilst in Victoria was a day-long whale-watching boat trip.  Those whales couldn't avoid us forever. ............. Or could they?

We arrived at the little port and waited for the tour group to form. It was very picturesque! 

We finally set off. We were on a fast boat!! It was freezing and the wind was very strong - my hair was double the volume 😂 (and so was James's!) 😂 

Before too long we started seeing resident orcas!!!

Then we started seeing humpbacks!!! Finally!! They're not that elusive after all!! 😍 It was a lovely sight!! There were many whales playing 😀

The weather was getting progressively worse with torrential rain... Everyone hid inside the boat until there was a shout "WHALES!!!" - everyone rushed to the outer deck and in the pouring rain we saw several FULL BREACHES!!!!! Unbelievable!! 😍😍 

Everything happened too quickly to capture a photo but this stock image is what we saw 😍

After that incredible encounter everyone was ecstatic! The crew told us that this hardly ever happens! We were very lucky!!! 😊

On our way back to shore there was still plenty to look at, including sealions. 

We had an amazing day on the water!! Seeing orcas and  humpback whales in their full glory was something very special! Amongst stunning scenery, photographs cannot really do justice to what a memorable day we had 😍😀😍

Back on solid ground we walked around for hours.

To leave Victoria the next day, we took another ferry for the 2 hour crossing from Canada to the USA (to Port Angeles in Washington State).  

We were delighted to meet another overland motorcyclist on the ferry (Mark from the UK) and to discover that we had mutual travel friends in London.  It's a small world! 😁

Bikes secured, we went to the top deck. 

We had a very pleasant Sunday morning crossing, enjoying the views, drinking coffee and chatting. 

Before we knew it were riding into the spectacular Olympic National Park in Washington.  

We rode into the Park along the worringly-named Hurricane Ridge.  Happily we reached the 2,000m highpoint without too much wind.  Our only dodgy moment being when an elk sprinted across the road about 1m in front of my (James) bike.  As I couldn't possibly avoid him, I like to think he was clever enough to avoid me!

After exiting Olympic National Park, we rode to our motel in the small coastal town of Bremerton.  Our motel was occupied by some seriously questionable people - a variety of businesses were being run from the rooms!!  We even saw an envelope full of $100 bills outside a room next to ours! However we stayed as we had a plan for the following day. Bremerton is connected to Seattle by a commuter ferry - this was our plan to visit Seattle without riding the bikes into one of the worst traffic cities in the US. 

In the morning we had a brisk 50 minute walk to the ferry terminal and then were treated to a delightful ferry journey to Seattle. We were the only two non-commuters. 

The views of the Seattle skyline were great. 

After we got off the ferry, we walked in beautiful sunshine and very pleasant temperature.

It was nice to see the tourist places such as the Pike Place market.

The city was a great mixture of ultra modern and old and traditional.

Lunch was seafood pho in a little low-key Vietnamese restaurant. Yummy! 

We walked around a nice Sculpture Park afterwards - the red piece was the nicest one! 😉

There was plenty to look at everywhere. Seattle, like any number of big American or Canadian cities, has a significant amount of social problems. Many homeless, drunks and people on drugs on pretty much every street corner is not something we like seeing but thankfully, walking around felt safe enough. 

Our last stop on our tour of Seattle was an obligatory visit to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery or The Mothership as Anna calls it 😉

After a relaxing coffee or two we headed back to the ferry enjoying a nice sunset. 

Back on the ferry, we watched all the vehicles getting on board.  The sunset was gorgeous!

We had a nice day in Seattle. We had our last views of the city from the ferry - beautiful!

We were happy to leave our dodgy motel the following morning.  We would ride to the town of Astoria on the border between Washington and Oregon states.  The final 50km into Astoria was particularly memorable as we hugged the shore of the mighty Columbia river before riding the 6km bridge into Astoria.  Wonderful views! 

We spent the evening wandering around Astoria, marvelling at the huge river and landmark bridge.

The town was nice without being anything special.

We did however stumble upon the Douglas Fir - a 624 year old tree that was 115 inches in diameter.

Back in our motel we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset followed by a Chinese takeaway ���

We woke up earlier than planned - there was some construction going on in our motel. So we had breakfast and sat in the garden enjoying the views of the river and the ships.

On leaving Astoria our sat navs stopped working - any excuse for a photo with the fantastic bridge.

After departing Astoria, our ride took us along the Pacific Coast highway to the town of Newport.  From the start the coastal views were great.

However we had an unexpected bonus 30km before arrival in Newport.  We pulled off the road onto a clifftop parking area to take a few photos.....

And to our delight, immediately offshore we saw numerous humpback whales feeding/playing/hanging out! 😁  At some stages, the whales were no more than 100m from us 😍  This went on for a couple of hours.  Before long a crowd had gathered.  It really was a beautiful thing to see.  One local told us that in 52 years living on the Oregon coast, he had never seen a display like this.  We felt very lucky!!! 

After reluctantly dragging ourselves away from the whales, we checked into our unexpectedly lovely motel.  We discovered that Newport has a spectacular 5km long Pacific beach and was a very pleasant town.  We decided to stay for a few days, both to walk the beach and to ride back up the coast to see if we could rediscover the whales.  

The beach was truly beautiful!

We found an amazing local restaurant - it was a long walk to it but we were rewarded with great views!

Mo's was an incredibly busy local place famous for its seafood chowder. It was indeed amazing!!!

We loved walking the beach and stopping for a quiet beer afterwards.  We did it several days in a row 😁

Our return trip to see the whales wasn't quite as successful.  We still saw a few humpbacks, but further offshore.  The sea was rougher on our return visit making the whales more reluctant to come close to the shore.  

We went for our last walk down the beach - the colours were wonderful.

After 3 or 4 days, it was time to leave Newport.  We liked the town a lot.  Our next stop was to be the town of Bend, across the Cascade mountains in central Oregon.  We had two reasons for going there.  Firstly the ride across the Cascades was reputedly a beautiful one, and the mountains surrounding Bend were famous motorcycle routes. 

Our second reason to go to Bend was to visit a small specialist motorcycle luggage business called Giant Loop.  Giant Loop manufactures some of the best adventure motorcycle luggage/bags in the world.  Its bags were the centrepiece of the luggage system on both of our bikes.  We wanted to drop in and meet the clever folks who had made the bags upon which we relied so much. We knew that Giant Loop was owned and run by an adventure motorcycling enthusiast called Harold Cecil.  Harold is closely connected to Rally Raid, the UK engineering company that had prepped our bikes for the trip, and was Rally Raid's US distributor.  We just wanted to say hello and thanks.

The ride started off SPECTACULARLY! And it continued to be so! Amazing riding!!

Our Sunday ride then went across the Cascades  mountains -  indeed very beautiful! We did however see significant wildfire damage in the mountains.  Before we had even arrived in Bend, we knew we would like it - the countryside was motorcycle heaven.  

We checked into our motel and, as usual, immediately set off to explore the town on foot.  

We found Bend to be a really lovely, outdoorsy, artsy town - full of nice cafes and restaurants with a riverside walk through the centre.  A lovely place!

There was great coffee in the Looney Bean! 😉

Halloween was imminent and this house should definitely get the prize! 😋

The next morning, we hopped on the bikes and rode the few kms to Giant Loop's building.  We walked in the door unannounced, and immediately bumped into Harold.  He was so friendly and welcoming - we liked him a lot.  After taking the obligatory photos of us and the bikes for his Facebook page, we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours talking bikes and travel.  

As we were leaving, Harold told us of the local adventure motorcyclist group who hold an informal gathering every Weds evening in a local craft brewery.  We decided to extend our stay in Bend to attend.   We had a fabulous evening with Harold and some very friendly people.  They gave us lots of travel tips for our trip south - very helpful.  Unfortunately they also warned us of an imminent spell of cold weather, and said that the high mountain passes over the Cascades could easily become closed with snow.

Given that the nights in Bend were already sub-zero, we really didn't want it to get any colder.  The weather warnings made up our mind.  Reluctantly we would leave Bend the next morning, and ride back across the Cascades to the Pacific Coast where the weather was warmer.  

Our time in central Oregon was much too short.  The entire state is simply one huge outdoor playground.  We hope to return some day.  

[jamesandanna12]

Homer (Alaska) to Vancouver (British Columbia) - 12-28 Sept 2017

On our last evening in Homer we walked the beach for hours. It was so peaceful and beautiful. 

Then we heard a huge bang but couldn't figure what it was.... Until a few minutes later! It was a whale jumping above the water!!! This is something we had seen several times on National Geographic but never in the wild.... What an amazing and unexpected sight! 😍😍😍

It all happened out of the blue so couldn't take a photo but (thanks to Google images) this is what we saw:

Seeing the whale was amazing! We were a bit stunned.... There was no one around, just us. Beautiful! 😍

We waited for another half an hour or so hoping for another jump but that was it for the evening. We were delighted. We walked back and noticed a big bird landing in the water. We got closer and realised it was a bald eagle catching a salmon! It was another sight straight from a nature TV programme! 

We loved Homer and were sad to be leaving.  Just as the day we arrived, it was cloudy and damp on the day we left.  From Homer we needed to return to Anchorage.  However we planned two stops along the way.  We would stop at the Coopers Landing campsite to meet John and Julie, the hosts there who we'd met on the way south.  We would then spend a night in the coastal town of Seward where we hoped to do a glacier/fjord tour. 

We had an enjoyable ride to Coopers Landing where it was great to see John and Julie again.  We took along some cakes from The Moose is Loose bakery and had a lovely couple of hours over coffee. Having spent the summer in Alaska, John and Julie were also preparing for the long drive south to the lower 48 before winter.  We eventually said our goodbyes and headed to Seward.  We hope to meet John and Julie again in the future somewhere on the road 👋😊👋

Riding was beautiful. 

Then the weather changed... It was freezing cold!! 

We reached Seward in a downpour, a regular recent occurrence.  We checked into an unexpectedly nice motel and wandered around a very picturesque but wet town.  

We found and booked a boat tour for the following day.  

The seafront was lovely! 

Luckily the sun shone the next morning. Our tour took us out into the Gulf of Alaska via the Kenai Fjords National Park.  We were hoping to spot some whales but it was not to be.  However we saw wonderful glacier scenery and other wildlife along the way.

The boat trip was very relaxing.

 The scenery was gorgeous!

We saw a lot of beautiful glaciers!

We loved the boat trip!!

The glaciers really were very impressive!

After our lovely boat trip we got back on our bikes to ride to Anchorage. From Seward, it was just a few hours ride.  Just as we had experienced coming south, the return journey was very very windy, particularly as we got closer to Anchorage.  Sadly we passed a very serious motorcycle accident on the way. Not something one wants to see whilst riding a motorcycle. Later we found out that the rider sadly passed away 😞

It was late in the day for riding but we were treated to a lovely sunset.

The ride had one last twist.  The approach road to Anchorage was a fast 6 lane highway.  We were only 2 miles from the city centre and travelling at 60mph.  It was dusk - almost dark. At that moment, a huge bull moose (more than 2m tall) decided to saunter across the 6 lane road.  He was exactly the colour of dusk - almost invisible. Anna and I saw him simultaneously.  He was straight in front of me.  It was too late to stop.  With Anna screaming in the earpiece, I managed to slalom around the moose.  I couldn't stop of course as we both risked being rear-ended by the other traffic.  The moose just sauntered - no traffic was going to interrupt his evening walk! We had hoped to see a big bull moose all through Alaska - we hadn't reckoned on finally seeing one on a motorway in Anchorage! 

This is the closest Google image to what we saw - ours was just busier with traffic, fast, six lane road and bad visibility.... What could possibly go wrong! 😉

We were delighted to check back in to the lovely Bent Prop Inn and be greeted by John, the kind owner.  We would spend a couple of days resting before continuing the long ride south to Vancouver.  

So 2 days later, we set off for Tok, the first tiny settlement on the ride south.  It was a long but beautiful ride, showing Alaska's Autumn colours at their best.

The views were magnificent!

We couldn't get enough of the beautiful places we were riding through!

Riding was so beautiful! We loved it! But we were frozen so when we spotted a tiny cafe we had to stop for a hot drink.

The scenery was getting better and better!

Having been in Tok in late August and camping in a downpour, this time we decided to check in to the only decent motel in town.  We had a long (3,200km) and potentially cold ride south to Vancouver ahead - given the remoteness and potential for cold, we had decided to stay in motels whenever possible.  

We walked around for a few minutes before it poured! 

It was freezing cold after the sun went down so we were delighted with our warm motel 😊 We had a nice supper and good night's sleep (we slept like logs actually) 😉

Our plan was that after Tok, we would backtrack for a few days on our previous route as far as Watson Lake in the Yukon - the Alcan highway was the only road between the two points.  After Watson Lake, we would turn due south onto the Cassiar highway that runs 900km through the remote mountains of British Columbia.  We were nervous about the remoteness of the Cassiar but very much looking forward to it.

In a mirror image of our trip north 4 weeks earlier, our first day was the long ride from Tok through the Alaska/Canada border as far as Haines Junction in the Yukon. The weather was noticeably colder and greyer than when we had travelled north in August.

We rode through a very extensive wild fire area. 

The trees were gorgeous! 

We crossed the border very straightforwardly. Unlike in South America, everything is easy in US and Canada 😊

Riding was SPECTACULAR!! 

Then, out of the blue, the scenery changed and we were riding through desert! 

Not far from Haines Junction we started seeing beautiful mountains again. 

As it was the day before my birthday, Anna insisted on booking a nicer than normal place to stay in Haines Junction. It was very nice and cozy.

 We were gutted to discover that the lovely village cafe had closed for the winter.  It would reopen in April 2018. Summer is short in these northern parts! 

From Haines Junction, it was the short 170km ride to Whitehorse next day.  

Anna had very kindly booked a lovely hotel for 2 nights for my birthday.  

We had a lovely time in Whitehorse - plenty of coffee, a lovely birthday dinner and replacing some camping bits and pieces in advance of the Cassiar highway.  We liked Whitehorse - straight out of the TV series "Northern Exposure"!!

From Whitehorse, we had the long ride back to Watson Lake, still in the Yukon.   Being late in the year, and in a very remote area, we saw only a handful of vehicles all day.  It was fingers crossed that we didn't have any mechanical problems requiring help - people were scarce in these parts. By now, the days were mostly grey and very cold.  We were wearing all of our cold weather layers all the time.  The scenery was still beautiful.   

Our mileage - surely a lucky number! 😉

We couldn't get enough of the beautiful views!

Having camped in Watson Lake on the way north, we managed to find a clean motel this time.  It kept us out of the cold and we were able to give the bikes a " once over". 

However the "restaurants" in town were really poor - Anna managed to create a lovely supper from ingredients available at the local shop.

We set off the next morning for the tiny indigenous settlement of Dease Lake in British Columbia.  We counted the vehicles - we encountered 3 vehicles per hour. It was indeed remote.  We hoped the bikes would hold up and that we wouldn't need to seek help from the very few passing vehicles.

Dease Lake was tiny but we had booked the only nice motel available.  There was no restaurant in the village so supper consisted of pizza purchased in the local petrol station and cooked in the motel kitchen.  Happily we were also able to buy a bottle of wine.  We were the only "tourists " in the motel. The remaining guests were goldminers working in a remote mine 50 miles into the wilderness.  They worked 12 hour shifts around the clock, and were shuttled between the motel and the mine by the team helicopter.  There were no roads. We were fascinated by the miners and their tough lives.

We left Dease Lake early the next morning to ride to the glacier-surrounded town of Stewart, also in British Columbia.  Stewart was peculiar in that it was only 2 miles from the US (Alaska) border village of Hyder. As well as seeing the glaciers, we hoped to see bears fishing for salmon, the only real reason to visit Hyder. 

The ride started beautiful.....

Until we reached several of these bridges - incredibly slippery! Even though we tried to maintain our speed and ride in a straight line, the bikes had other ideas.... Because of the awful surface, the bikes were going to the left I.e. towards oncoming traffic! No fun!!!

We still  had a long and wet ride to Stewart, with intermittent views of the glaciers through the very low cloud cover.  

It was pouring rain on and off and we were getting fed up with being frozen. We rode past a lodge with a cafe and stopped for a bowl of hot soup. It was wet and muddy, just yuk!

We weren't terribly far away but the weather was getting worse.

Soaked, we finally arrived in Stewart. The town looked miserable with all the rain and dark clouds.

We checked in to a guesthouse run by an Austrian couple.

As both Stewart and Hyder were at the end of a 60 miles cul de sac, Hyder was probably the only place in the US where one can enter from another country without producing a visa and passport. There was simply no way out of Hyder other than to return the 2 miles to Canada (Stewart). A strange arrangement connecting these two tiny (and ultra-scenic!) settlements. 

As an idea of remoteness, our guesthouse hosts told us that they would not be around the next day as they were going on their once-per-month trip to the supermarket.  It was a 700 km round trip, all of which they did in one long day.  Imagine the planning involved for shopping, if you knew that forgetting something meant waiting one month for the next opportunity to buy. 

We went for a walk around town - there wasn't much there.

The following day we decided to ride 25km to Salmon Glacier - apparently an impressive one. There was a lot of cloud around and everything still looked soaking wet.

It was very cloudy when we set off.

Riding was wet and muddy so we hoped the views would be rewarding.....

It was not to be! We got to the viewpoint and saw nothing. The mountains and the glacier were covered in thick clouds! The clouds weren't moving away and it was freezing cold so we decided to go back. We didn't want to get stuck on the mountain with zero visibility.

Despite the mud, views were spectacular!

On our way back we stopped at Fish Creek in Hyder, where we hoped to see bears fishing. We spent a couple of hours watching the occasional salmon swimming upriver.  But no bears - it was too late in the season. 

We decided to return very early the following morning just on the off chance there were some hungry bears early in the day.

On our way back to our guesthouse we stopped at a few places in Hyder worth taking photo of (there weren't that many).

We saw a bicycle with the essentials - water and bear spray!

We left Alaska and chatted with border officials for ages - lovely ladies! 😊

There was nothing to do in Stewart so we had a bite to eat and watched some bad TV in our guesthouse.

The following morning we rose very early to ride the few miles to Fish Creek in Hyder again. We hoped we might be luckier this time.

We got to Fish Creek, waited for an hour and a half and.... Saw nothing. We were definitely too late in the season.

Happily as we rode back to Stewart, a black bear crossed the road immediately in front of us.  We had a great view whilst he climbed away from the road 😁👏😁

We went back to Stewart, packed up and set off for the long ride to the town of Smithers, British Columbia. Luckily the weather was (slightly) better as weather rode out and we had good views of several of the glaciers.  

We reached Smithers in midafternoon and found away very pleasant town, certainly the most developed we had seen in over a week. 

The high point was the fabulous Indian curry house next door to our motel - such a treat!

From Smithers, it was yet another long ride to the city of Prince George, technically the end of the Cassiar Highway.

The high points of the day were the several encounters along the road with black bears - such a special sight 😍

The low point was Prince George itself - it wasn't a city we warmed to. We saw significant drug and alcohol problems on the streets.  Combined with an unfortunate choice of motel (grungy!), the overall effect was of a gloomy and slightly edgy city.  We were happy to leave rapidly the next morning. 

We had a long but spectacular ride to the village of Cache Creek, our final overnight stop before Vancouver.  It was a day of lakes, mountains and farms. As we were gradually moving south all the time, this became the first day when we were able to start removing some of our endless cold weather layers.  

There really was nothing in Cache Creek, except our (very nice) motel, several petrol stations and a Subway sandwich shop.  Figure out where we had dinner!

Our ride the next day was fantastic.  The first half of the day was spent riding Fraser Canyon, a truly spectacular road............. and the weather was good.  For those of you who watch the Discovery Channel series "Highway Thru Hell" this is the featured road! 

After Fraser Canyon, we had a busy and flat 100km into Vancouver.   It was Friday evening and traffic was a nightmare from a long way out.  We had heard a lot of warnings about Vancouver traffic.  Now we had first hand experience!  

We were delighted to finally reach the city where we'd planned to spend 3 or 4 days.  As well as resting after the long journey from Alaska, we also intended to meet my (James) old friend, Lubna, as well as replace the chain and sprockets on both bikes.  

[jamesandanna12]

Fairbanks (Alaska) to Homer (Alaska) - 26 Aug - 12 Sept 2017

We really liked Fairbanks! It was low-key with empty streets and not many tourists. The weather was bad though! We kept getting very, very wet! 😉

The Arctic Circle was "only" 194 miles away but was already covered in snow 😐 We were too late to go further north even though it was only late August! 😢

The skies in the evenings were gorgeous! 

After a while of boring food, we happened upon a lovely Thai restaurant! Our favourite food! 

Incredibly spicy red Thai curry and pad Thai were to die for! We celebrated getting to Alaska with this feast! 😁

We got a bit of rest in our guesthouse. We managed to dry the tent and all our stuff thanks to great heaters in the house. Walking around Fairbanks was lovely -  calm and quiet. There was a completely different feeling to this city compared with other places.... A little eerie at times due to the fact that there were so few people around. We loved it! 

On the day of our departure we had an extra special breakfast with an amazing fruit salad, scrambled eggs with portobello mushrooms and homemade bread - yummy! We felt very lazy afterwards and didn't really feel like riding! 😜

Long before reaching Alaska we had hoped to ride the Dalton highway which starts just north of Fairbanks and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay Oil Fields.... We really wanted to see that part of Alaska.... Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be 😞 There was already 8 inches of snow on the Dalton highway!! We had to go south.... We were disappointed but still delighted to see a little bit of Alaska. We are very lucky! 

Unable to go north, we set off to Denali National Park - a must see for anyone visiting Alaska. It was a cold and overcast morning. 

We were riding through nothingness so when we saw a settlement to our left, we pulled in to have a look. We were in a tiny town called Nenana which over 100 years ago was an important trading post when gold was discovered in Fairbanks. It was a bit of a ghost town but nice to see! 

We needed to keep going as it was freezing cold! 

We started seeing different colours - the scenery was getting more colourful 😊

We rode through very cold fog- I could feel my hands shaking as I rode the bike! 

Thankfully after half an hour or so the fog disappeared and the skies cleared up a bit. 

We saw a cafe on the side of the road and pulled in for a hot cup of coffee. 

It was good to stop - our concentration levels go down a lot when we are freezing cold. We set off refreshed. Riding was fantastic!

We got to Denali National Park, found a camping spot, pitched our tent leaving everything in the tent and decided to ride the only road in the park that allowed private vehicles. 

We kept stopping to admire the sheer beauty of the place 😍

The wilderness was incredible! It felt like it was just the two of us riding through this magnificent corner of the world! 

There were no cars or buildings or people... Just amazing! I loved being there. It felt so different to anything we've ever done before. Riding was liberating and made us so happy!! 😍 

The scenery was spectacular! You could just look at it for hours! 

We got to the end of the permitted road - everywhere was so picturesque! 

We decided to head back to our campsite hoping we might see a wild animal or two. 

The riding was amazing!! 

We were riding admiring the scenery until James shouted in my helmet: "Caribou!" 😁 Oh it was a magnificent animal! Very beautiful! 

We watched it until until it disappeared. What a treat!! 😍

We got back to our campground and bought some fire wood for a lovely campfire later that evening. 

James was in charge of the stove and the campfire.... 

Whereas I sorted out drinks.... 😜

And our our favourite camping supper! 😜

We slept well and got up early to make it for our "bus tour". Denali National Park prohibits private vehicles  inside the park which means the only way see it is from the bus. We weren't complaining - somebody else was doing the driving! 😉 

It was a very cloudy morning but the scenery was gorgeous! 

We were able to get off the bus at eight different stops and then flag down the next bus. The views were very impressive!! 😍

Back on the bus our driver was telling us about the park and then he stopped quite suddenly..... 

There was a grizzly bear!!! 

It was incredible to see! We've never seen one before! 😀 

It was fantastic being in the middle of this total wilderness! We couldn't get enough of it! 

The colours were vivid and fabulous! 

Then we saw more grizzly bears in the distance!!  

They were far away so it was difficult to get a clear photo. It was amazing to see the grizzly bears relatively close to us! 

We even saw a mum and two cubs! 😍 

It was getting very cold but we loved being in the park.... Gorgeous place!!

We got back to the visitor centre near our campground and walked through the woods back to our tent. 

We saw a huge poster of what to do in case you encounter a bear, moose or a wolf.... We hoped we wouldn't need to use it! 

The only wild beasts we saw were a bunny rabbit 😉

And a mean looking squirrel! 😜

Back in our quiet campsite James made lovely fire! 😊 Having never camped before this trip, we were loving the peacefulness of it! 

After a cold night we got up early - we planned to visit a working farm of husky dogs! 😍😍

It was cloudy but beautiful. 

We arrived and were greeted with this beautiful sight:

The dogs were gorgeous!!! 😍

I was so happy! I love dogs so much! 😍

Then it was time for sled dog demonstration. 

The ranger explained that the dogs are truly working dogs and have to exercise a lot during the time of year when there is no snow. 

The dogs really wanted to run! 

After running around a small hill they rested and received treats 😊

The rangers then took them to their houses. 

More time for me to look at lovely dogs! 

Oh my God - I was so happy!! 😍 

After hours spent there (sorry James, I couldn't help it 😉), we had to leave - they were closing to visitors 😟 

Riding back was fabulous - the colours were incredible! I'm convinced we were there, in Denali National Park, at the best time of year I.e. when the leaves change colour 😊  

We got back in time to pick up some supplies - firewood and a box of wine 😉 

We prepared supper and watched the fire 😊 

We stayed up for quite a while - there's something absolutely mesmerising about watching a campfire! 😊 

It was a cold night. In the morning we put on all our warm layers and set off for Anchorage. 

It was freezing cold but the scenery was beautiful. 

We started seeing the beautifully red fireweed! 

Unfortunately the weather changed dramatically.... The heavens opened and we rode in torrential, freezing cold rain! 

We were soaked. Thankfully after an hour or so the rain stopped. We could enjoy the scenery again. 

We were getting near Anchorage when the heavens opened again.... We only had about 20 minutes to get to our accommodation but that was enough to soak us again. This time, as it was late afternoon, it was much colder and as we were pulling up to our guesthouse, I could feel my hands shaking. Dripping, we went into the reception only to be greeted by the friendliest man, John. He saw how cold and, according to him, blue we were.... So he showed us our apartment, switched the heating to full blast and put the kettle on! Before we knew it we were drinking hot tea 😊 Such a lovely welcome!!

Our little apartment was incredibly cozy! 

After a hot shower we went out - everything looked so wet! 

John saw us leaving and insisted on giving us a lift to the centre of town - so kind! It was a good 50 minute walk so we were delighted. John was incredibly friendly! He told us that we HAD TO visit the Anchorage museum. He said it was the best one he's ever been to and he's been to many. He dropped us off right outside the door. He even gave us an umbrella. Such a kind man! 😊 

The museum was very interesting! There were many captivating and contemporary sections. We loved this one: 

The stories about the Inuit people were beautiful! 

John was right - this was an AMAZING museum! 

The clothing made out of whale and seal skins and intestines was definitely not something you see every day. 

The references to Russia and the relationship between Russia and Alaska were very insightful and interesting. 

I loved the last photo I saw before the museum closed.... It was taken on a frozen Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia - a place James and I loved when we travelled there nearly ten years ago.  

We stayed in the museum until it closed and afterwards we went out to a restaurant/bar recommended by John - another fantastic suggestion! 

Fish and chips were delicious! 

After dinner we walked back to our house. It poured so we were very grateful for John's umbrella! 

We slept until midday! We were absolutely shattered! The comfy bed and lovely heat prevented us from resurfacing until 1pm! Haha! 😉 We checked on our bikes and went out to find coffee. 

Walking around Anchorage was very nice. Great street names such as Arctic Boulevard or Northern Lights Avenue made us smile a lot. 

Walking around we couldn't help but notice the resemblance to Russia and particularly, Siberia. 

There was lots for look at 😊

I resisted the temptation of buying this "gorgeous" bikini 😉😜 

Even though James really wanted one (not!!), we left this "beauty" behind 😂😂😂😂 

We walked for hours. Anchorage was a great place! We were leaving the following morning but with the knowledge that we would be back a couple of weeks later on our way out of Alaska. 

On our way back to the apartment we saw nice mushrooms straight from "Alice in the Wonderland".

For Northern Lights turn right 😉 

After a restful night we got up early, said goodbye to John and set off for Coopers Landing campground. We were hoping to see bears catching salmon.... We knew we were very late but we could only try... 

As we were only a few miles from the Anchorage sea plane airport, we made a little detour to have a look. There was a lot of activity with the little sea planes taking off and landing. Between the noise and the sudden changes in altitude, neither of us fancied flying on one of those! 😉

We saw two different airline offices 😜

We left towards our campsite. The riding was lovely but it was very, very cold! We had all our layers on!

We saw our first snow - it wasn't far away!

As we approached the campground, the sun came out a little 😊

We found a nice and quiet spot with our own bear box and started unpacking and setting up our tent for a couple of nights. 

We also met the campground hosts, John and Julie. They were just lovely! Friendly and welcoming. They said that the weather forecast was for heavy rain and that if our tent wasn't staying waterproof to knock on their camper van and they would put us up for the night! So kind!! 😊

As we were getting ready to start cooking, the black clouds came and it started to rain. At first it was just a gentle drizzle but after 10 minutes or so it became a torrential downpour! We were just in time to put up a tarp in order to give us tiny bit of shelter....

We had our dinner huddled under our tarp. It was sooo wet! But the chilli I made was delicious. 

A lady from a camper van next door came over and invited us for a cup of tea - so sweet! We chatted for hours whilst the rain got heavier and heavier... We were very envious of their dry bedroom! 😉

We  had a very long night... We slept but kept waking up with all the noises of rain and trees whistling. Everything looked soaked in the morning!

Our friends from the night before brought two sachets of Starbucks coffee! Oh the little joys in life!! 😉

After some coffee we set off for our walk to the spot where bears catch salmon... We knew we were very late in the season and John didn't think there were any bears around but we decided to take a walk anyway.

We got to the waterfalls and they were very pretty with plenty of salmon jumping upstream! We've never seen that before!

We watched the salmon jump for three hours! We hoped a very hungry bear would turn up but it wasn't to be.... Maybe one day when we return to Alaska! 🐻🐻

We had a lovely evening - John and Julie came over for a glass of wine by our campfire. We toasted marshmallows, drank some wine and chatted until late. It was lovely! They are from Nebraska and work as campground hosts during the summer months. We were sad to be leaving the following morning but already arranged to pop in for coffee on our way back! 😁

In the morning we packed up and chatted with John and Julie. Their daughter Jose who lives nearby with her husband and their cute little baby Jasper popped round and took a photo of the four of us. Jose and Jasper - hope you guys are keeping warm. Big hello from us! 👋👋

John and Julie - it was lovely to meet you both! We will see you soon! 😊

We left the campsite just as it started to rain... Julie told us about a nice cafe an hour and a bit away called "The moose is loose" - we of course planned to stop there 😉

Riding was wet...

But before we knew it we arrived at the café!

The cafe was cozy and warm. Lovely hot coffee and yummy pastries - just what we needed! 😁

After our lovely stop at the café it was time to keep going. We were feeling lazy but we had to ride on as it was a long ride to Homer. We set off in a drizzle.....

Then the rain got heavier....

And heavier.....

Eventually it was POURING!! We were soaked! I could feel huge amounts of water in my boots... Horrible!

We finally arrived at our destination utterly soaked! We booked a room on AirBnB. It was an experiment as we've never stayed in someone's house before I.e. sharing it with them. Prices of accommodation in Homer were ridiculous, even for dreadful places so this seemed like a good idea..... 

We rang the bell again and again but it was obvious that the house was empty! Not what we needed being completely soaked and freezing cold! 😬

At that point it was still pouring rain. I decided to go around the neighbours. Luckily one lady was kind enough to call the owner who said that the keys were under the door mat! After assuring us via email that someone will be home to let us in, I was not impressed! 😠

At least we were in, able to shower and pour out water from our boots! 😟

After trying to dry our gear and stuffing tissues into the boots we decided to go for a walk into town. The visibility was awful - it was grey everywhere!

The sea, although incredibly grey and covered in cloud, was lovely.

We walked around, pulled in for a bite to eat and went home. The woman opened the door for us and although pleasant, wasn't friendly. We regretted booking the room despite all the good reviews... Maybe AirBnB isn't for us.

We slept sort of ok... The bed wasn't very comfortable so we were happy to get up and go exploring. We went to the kitchen and had coffee with a nice view.

There were two lovely cats I spent ages playing with 😁

We decided to ride to the port and the Spit of land at "the end" of Homer.

There were hundreds of little fishing boats which made walking around very interesting.

We walked the pebble beach - it was just gorgeous! The views surrounding us were spectacular! 😍

We rode on to the Spit - that's where most people camp in summer. Everything was so wet!

Although deserted, the streets and buildings were cute.

We stopped for a bite to eat - delicious jalapeño bagels with smoked salmon cream cheese and hot coffee. Heaven!

After lunch we rode to the big ship area. James loves the TV series "Deadliest Catch" and he hoped to see one of the famous crab boats. Unfortunately they weren't there but it was still fun to look around!

We got back to town, parked our bikes and went for a walk.

The sunset was beautiful.

In the morning we went for a ride on the only road we haven't been on. The scenery was stunning everywhere and we just wanted to ride and see as much as possible. We love Alaska!! 😍

The mountains covered in cloud and sprinkled with snow were so atmospheric - beautiful!

Riding was amazing 😁

We got back and made our way to our favourite beach.

So so so beautiful!! 😍😍😍

We were leaving the following morning... I really didn't want to!! Homer was such an amazing place! Absolutely gorgeous! We really hope to return to Homer one day! 

The beach was gorgeous. All the driftwood made it look very atmospheric. We walked the beach for hours.... 

And then we saw something truly incredible....... 😍😍 

[jamesandanna12]

Pincher Creek (Alberta) to Fairbanks (Alaska) - 18-26 Aug 2017

Our plan from Pincher Creek was simple. We would ride 1,100km north through the Rockies in Alberta until we reached the town of Dawson Creek in British Colombia. Dawson Creek was the start of the Alaska-Canada highway (generally known as the Alcan) which runs a further 2,300km through the Yukon to Delta Junction in Alaska.  We faced a lot of riding ahead - we were still on a mission to beat the Alaskan winter.

The wind wasn't as bad as the previous day and riding was great.

Having camped quite a bit in the previous week, we were hoping for a comfy motel on our first night after leaving Pincher Creek.  We were tired. It was not to be... In fact we ended up having our single longest riding day of the trip so far - 625km!!  We also saw some amazing scenery.

Our route took us through beautiful countryside to the ski resorts of Banff and Lake Louise. 

We reached Lake Louise late on Saturday afternoon and hoped to find accomodation there.  No chance! It was a weekend in mid-August - everywhere was packed with Canadian families on their summer vacation.  There was nowhere to park - even for our two small bikes! We squished them beside a small car and went in for a coffee. 

After a quick googling of accommodation nearby it quickly became obvious that we would not be staying in Lake Louise 😕 In mid-August, there was still daylight until 9pm, so we decided to ride on to Jasper, another ski resort, which we hoped would be quieter.  It was a further 232 km which we hadn't planned to ride until the following day... And it was already 5.30pm! We were tired but had to keep going... 😕 

The ride from Lake Louise to Jasper turned out to be truly spectacular. The road is known as the Icefield Parkway - huge mountains interspersed with glaciers.  It was stunning.

We saw incredible glaciers! The sun was gone and it was freezing cold! We couldn't stop for long to admire these gorgeous views as we had to get to Jasper. We stopped to take some photos but we were frozen! 

The light was disappearing fast and we still had a bit to go! The distances between any civilisation in this part of the world are vast!

And then we saw a big group of elk 😀 

We had to stop! 😉

After the endless photo opportunities of the Icefield Parkway and the unexpected sighting of elk, it was dusk when we arrived in Jasper. EVERY hotel was full.  Riding in darkness, we backtracked 5km to a campsite we had passed on the way in to town.  Luckily we got the very last spot, and pitched our tent under the headlights of the bikes! 😱 We were so cold! And hungry! We had some sachets of instant soup that we carry as emergency food so James boiled water in pitch darkness only to discover that the soup was out of date - it tasted foul so we didn't eat it. We were still frozen. We weren't planning on camping so had no food with us apart from a couple of granola bars and a chocolate... So that was our dinner. We were absolutely shattered but it had been an amazing day's ride! 😍

In the morning we finally saw where we pitched our tent - it wasn't half bad. 

From Jasper, it was another long ride the following day to the town of Grande Prairie in northern Alberta.  We were definitely in oil country - most of the traffic in this remote area was oil-related.

It was very cold!

Although very cold, we were enjoying the riding. The scenery was gorgeous. 

Every now and then, it would threaten to pour rain but we somehow managed to avoid getting completely soaked. 

The roads were lovely and straight. All there was in that part of the world was trees - both in nature and on trucks. 

We managed to find a very basic motel in Grande Prarie, definitely a "one-nighter" (both the motel and the town!!). James hated the place. 

Yet another long ride the next day to Dawson Creek, the start of the Alcan highway. 

After a few photos it was on to Fort Nelson in northern British Columbia, through the wonderfully named settlements of Buckinghorse River and Sikanni Chief. 

We rode mainly through wilderness.  It was beautiful! 

There were a few roadworks delaying us 20-30 minutes at the time but we didn't mind it too much. 

The roads were wonderfully straight and empty!

Fort Nelson was merely a small settlement along the Alcan to provide gas, food and accommodation for passing travellers. We found a very nice and inexpensive motel - it was warm and cozy. We were happy! 

We went for a quick walk around Fort Nelson and took photos of the "most picturesque" places: 

And the best of all.... Dolly's corner!! 😂😂😂

As there was really no reason to linger in any of these settlements, it was another long ride the following day to the town of Watson Lake in the Yukon.  We were now a long way north.  The skies were no longer blue and sunny all the time.  We often went 15-20 minutes before seeing another vehicle.   Mostly those vehicles were all travelling the opposite way to us .... leaving Alaska to travel south.  We were pretty much the only travellers going in the other direction.  Obviously the tourist season in Alaska was drawing to a close ........ and we had yet to arrive!!

The skies were deceptively clear - it was very cold!!

We were enjoying the remoteness of this part of Canada very much! 

We started seeing beautiful wildlife! 

First.... Longhorn sheep! 

We rode for ten miles or so..... 

And an elk ran past! 😁

We got to the next settlement - it was time for petrol and a bite to eat. 

James sorted out petrol..... 

Whilst I figured out what's for lunch (piping hot chilli)! 😉 For once it was hot outside - happy days! 😍

After lunch we kept going. It was getting cold and we had to wear all our layers again 😕

We saw more longhorn sheep - this time they came right towards us! 😁

It was quiet and peaceful - we loved it! The scenery and wildlife were fabulous! 

And then we saw a black bear!!!!! Oh my God! What an excitement to see one as you ride past! 😍😁😍

We were lucky to watch the bear for a few minutes before it ran away. What a treat! We rode on and before too long.....

We saw a bison run across the road!! 

We followed it until we reached his friends - lots and lots of them! 

We arrived in Watson Lake not long before sunset - the town looked very unmemorable! We started looking for a hotel.... Most places were full and the couple that weren't, were absolutely filthy! I should have taken a photo! Horrible places! 😨

It would be another night camping for us.... After a long day we couldn't bring ourselves to stay in a dirty dump so we decided that although cold, our tent would be a better bet. 

The local campsite was 9km out of town in a forest, 5km down a gravel track from the paved road. We pitched our tent just before it got dark. It was too dark to cook so we had some granola bars and went to sleep...  We don't do anything the easy way! 

It was another early start the following morning for the long ride to Whitehorse, the largest town in the Yukon with a population of only 22,000 people.  We decided to ride back to Watson Lake to find breakfast. 

We stopped at the famous "Signpost forest" ☺

We had a bit of breakfast and set off for Whitehorse. 

It was yet another memorable day's riding.  Stunning mountains, remote lakes, wild animals (including black bears) and devoid of people/buildings.  We will remember these days of riding for a very long time.

We were wearing all our layers including two pairs of long johns beneath our bike trousers... Yet we were frozen! 

We stopped for petrol and a bite to eat. 

The little restaurant served lovely hot soup with cheesy bread rolls - yummy!! 

The soup really heated us up so we set off warm... Only to be frozen again within minutes 😉

By late afternoon, as we approached Whitehouse, the weather deteriorated. The temperature plummeted and we rode into town through a deluge of icy rain. We were a long way from the heat and humidity of Miami only a month earlier!

We were very pleased to reach our warm, dry motel, and to discover that Whitehorse was a charming little town. We really enjoyed walking around despite the rain. The town had several chic little cafes and a lovely restaurant for supper.  After our hard days on the road, the little comforts were welcome. 

Supper was a bison burger with fries - yum! 😉

As ever it was back on the road early the following morning.  It was to be a short day of only 170km to the tiny settlement of Haines Junction, Yukon, setting up the final push to the Alaska border the following day.

 The roads were beautiful and empty. 

We got to Haines Junction and rode around to check the hotel situation. Most places were full but we found a comfortable motel for the night. 

 The views from the motel were lovely!

And, to our amazement, we found a village coffee shop! 😀

We had a restful afternoon in a truly stunning setting.  

We went into the visitor centre just before they closed and learnt a little about the history of the indigenous people - fascinating!

There was only one place "in town" to get food - 1016 pub. 

The menu choices were burgers with fries or burgers with soup. Burgers it was that night 😉

It was an early start again the next morning......... via the village coffee shop. Thank God for good coffee! 😉  It was freezing cold but incredibly atmospheric! 

Today we were heading for the tiny town of Tok in Alaska.  On the way,  we would pass through the US border.  I (Anna) was a bit emotional knowing that we would finally make it to Alaska! It's been a long journey to get here .... We've enjoyed every bit but  for the last month, had to rush and ride pretty much every day. We were tired..... But so excited to finally arrive in Alaska!!!! 

Riding was fantastic! 

We were frozen with the wind chill whilst on the bikes.... There was nowhere to stop for miles and miles until we reached a sign for a bakery! 

We pulled up and the lights were on! ☺

They had some pastries but more importantly, they served hot soup! 

We waited in the cozy dining room trying to warm up. My hands were shaking from the cold! 

Our food arrived quickly - yummy spicy pumpkin soup! 

Warmed up, it was time to get back on the bikes. We rode for 10 miles or so and saw two lovely bears in the distance!! 😍

It was a beautiful day and we were getting very close to Alaska! 

And then we got to the border! 

After a quick chat with the border officials we were in Alaska!!! 

Oh my God! We were delighted!! 😁😁😁

We were delighted with ourselves! Having ridden over 8,000km from Miami in little more than a month, we were delighted to reach this landmark.  We felt huge sense of pride and accomplishment! A year ago I wasn't even able to ride a scooter!! 😂

The riding was yet more desolate beauty.  

There really was nothing in Tok Alaska.  It was another staging post of gas, food and accommodation for travellers. We found a nice campsite and pitched our tent. 

We went out for a quick walk around Tok. The skies were threatening!! 

After our quick walk around Tok we headed to the only restaurant for a well deserved cold beer and dinner. We ran for the last twenty metres or so as the heavens opened!  

Sadly it poured rain all night and continued the following morning.  We broke camp in a deluge and hit the road soaked before we started.  It was still late August but there was nothing summer-like about the Alaskan weather. 

James looks pretty soaked even before we packed up! 

On leaving Tok, our route would take us through the crossroads of Delta Junction (the end of the Alcan highway!) and on to Fairbanks, Alaska where we hoped to rest up for a couple of days. 

The rain wasn't stopping and it was unbelievably cold! The riding was great though. 

After a couple of hours riding, we didn't have too far to go - Fairbanks Alaska was just 95km away! We would of course go there via the town of North Pole! 😉

We rode on for a few miles and were treated to a lovely sight of several moose grazing in the marsh! We watched them for an hour or so! 😊

We decided to leave the pretty moose behind as we were frozen, as always. The views were so impressive that we had to keep stopping! 😉 

We got to North Pole - Santa's house!! 😉

Kitsch beyond belief! 😉

But the signs were quite cool 😁

As soon as we left North Pole it started raining.  As was by now becoming a daily occurrence, we arrived in Fairbanks in a deluge.  Given that we were soaked at the start of the day when we left Tok, the weather was really playing with us. We booked a guesthouse for a few days in Fairbanks.  We found it easily and were greeted by John, our friendly, if slightly eccentric, host. 

The guesthouse was very oldie worldie but clean, cozy and most importantly, warm! 

We quickly settled in to our comfortable quarters and set about drying all of our sodden riding and camping gear.  We were looking forward to a couple of lazy days........... with no riding! 😉

[jamesandanna12]

Sturgis (South Dakota) to Pincher Creek (Alberta) - 8-18 Aug 2017

We left Rapid City the following morning. We were going to ride through a little bit of the Black Hills national forest and pass Mount Rushmore. We were pottering slowly enjoying the hills and gentle twists of the road. 

We got to the entrance of Mount Rushmore and were planning to pay the entrance fee but as we rode on...

There it was! 

Beautiful!

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore featuring heads of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. 

We spent a good hour admiring Mount Rushmore and chatting to some friendly people who took a photo for us as we left...  There were lots of Harley riders - on daytrips from Sturgis. 

We rode around the mountain and... Got another glimps of Lincoln's head 😊

Riding was fabulous! 

Long straight roads - easy riding. 

The last half an hour or so of the ride to our motel in Casper, Wyoming was a complete downpour! We got soaked! We arrived in The Royal Inn - it wasn't very royal and we had to wait 40 minutes for housekeeping to prepare a room despite it being nearly 6pm 😉

We went out to get a bite to eat - Casper was nice despite the weather. 

We decided to stay an extra day.

Most importantly....... We found good coffee! 

Walking around was very mellow. 

We didn't do too much - we just needed a lazy day. In the evening we rode to Domino's pizza a few miles away and brought back a yummy pizza. James was the pizza delivery man!!!!

We packed up in the morning and rode towards Dubois, Wyoming. We intended to camp for a couple of nights in order to visit the Grand Teton national park. 

The ride started a little unexcitingly...

But it quickly become spectacular!

We saw gorgeous antelopes 😊 

The countryside was harsh but beautiful!

We arrived in Dubois and needed to buy food for supper. 

James was in charge of operating the trolley 😉

We stopped in the liquor store and got a big box of Malbec 😁 Camping without wine is not camping! 😋

The town looked really nice but we didn't have much time to explore - we had to find a campsite and pitch a tent. 

We hadn't eaten all day so when we saw this cute little cafe, we couldn't resist going in before leaving town 😁

The owner was incredibly friendly! 

And the coffee he made was to die for! 😍

We were ready to go when we got talking to a very friendly lady. She thought the campsite we intended going to would be full so she told us about a couple of alternative ones. 

She even drew us a map! ☺

The weather was changing a little - we hoped we wouldn't get wet. 

We saw more antelopes and elk in the distance. 

Eventually we arrived at the turnoff for the campsite. We wanted to see if we could get a pitch at the Shoshone national forest campground.

We rode around the campsite a couple of times and found a nice and quiet spot. 

We had a huge bear box all to ourselves - handy for storing all the food and toiletries. Apparently the bears like anything that smells 😱

James started the fire ☺

And I sat in my kitchen preparing supper 😁

We had our favourite camping food - sausages and fresh tomatoes with red onions. 

Dinner was delicious! All washed down with a few glasses of wine. Yummy! 😁

The campsite was incredibly peaceful and quiet. We sat around watching the fire.

It got cold quite quickly but the campfire kept us warm.

There's something mesmerising about watching a campfire... We stayed up quite late - so relaxing! 😊

We slept really well and woke up quite rested. We made coffee and set off on the ride to the Grand Teton national park. 

It was quite hazy but we could just about to see the Grand Tetons mountains. Gorgeous! (We discovered later that the haze was in fact smoke from wildfires that had been burning all summer in the Pacific Northwest).

Beautiful mountain range!

After a full day riding around the National Park, we headed back to the campsite. Lovely ride. 

We got back to base and went for a walk around the campsite. 

We found a pretty waterfall.

Then it was time for some bike maintenance. James maintained, I supervised 😉

We had some visitors - two elk wondered around our campsite for an hour 😊

We had an early night and set off early the following morning. We were on our way to Yellowstone national park. 

We stopped to top up with petrol and saw these snowmobiles. Winter was coming!

But they looked like fun!

The road to Yellowstone took us through the Grand Tetons again... And we were very happy about that - so beautiful! 

The riding was great! 

We arrived at Yellowstone national park ☺

We were surprised that we couldn't see very much - we rode through dense forest and there were hardly any pullouts. We stopped at them all 😉

When we finally arrived at the visitor's centre, there were huge crowds outside. People gathered to see Old Faithful - a cone geyser that is highly predicable with eruptions every 45 minutes or so. Our timing was good - we only waited 10 minutes. 

The eruption started very small..... 

Got bigger..... 

And bigger! Eruptions shoot about 20,000 litres of boiling water to a height of 50 metres. The one we saw was pretty big! 

We rode on and saw several other geothermal areas of Yellowstone. Nice to see but we weren't really taken by them. 

After a while we reached a prettier part. We weren't seeing any animals though... 

We found a very picturesque geyser!

We were nearly at the end of Yellowstone and weren't that impressed. We kept hoping to see something with a wow factor.....

That wow moment never came....

We left Yellowstone underwhelmed. It was incredibly busy, over commercialised with absolutely no sign of any wildlife.  Perhaps August wasn't the cleverest time to visit!  The road out and the scenery were great though 😉  

We stopped to look at the river disappointed that we didn't see any animals in Yellowstone, only to find three elk looking at us 😊

As we rode away, there was an almighty downpour! We hid in Subway - the only place other than a petrol station. 

By the time we got to Bozeman, Montana it was geting dark. We were staying in a motel in the middle of nowhere. The only "restaurant" within walking distance was McDonald's... Ugh... 😕

The following day we got up early and set off for a little town in Montana called Missoula. 

We arrived in our motel in Missuola - it was a sweet little place! We checked in for a couple of days. 

We instantly liked Missoula. The town was clean, friendly and quite sophisticated. 

We even found something we craved for ages.... Indian curry! 

In the morning we went to a local art gallery - lovely place!

All the artwork was beautiful and had stories behind it. 

After a couple of hours in the gallery it was time for some chores. 

My summer gloves needed to be replaced! 😉

After trying on several pairs and managing to get a little discount, I purchased this pretty pair ☺

We arranged with a bike shop to have front tyres installed. We dropped off our bikes and when we got back, we were told that the front wheel bearings were shot on both bikes! The mechanics were so good - thank you Big Sky Motorsports! Our wheels are not standard as we raised the suspension to withstand riding on bad or nonexistent roads in South America.  The mechanics tried to identify the bearings we needed... Luckily James found out that our bearings are also standard for other models of motorbike. And Big Sky had two sets in the shop! We were very lucky! 

The mechanics were telling us about the wildfires in the area. One of them had to be evacuated and had not been home for a week. We hope he got his home back. Very scary! The smell of smoke was very strong and you could see in the air. 

We walked by the river when we heard some music.... 

There was a band playing great music in the park  😁

We sat there for a while until James spotted a barber shop - it was time! 😉 

Missoula was a lovely place to walk around. We were very happy there. 

The smoke was getting worse! 

In the morning the wind changed direction and we had clearer sky. We were very near Canada but wanted to visit Glacier national park before crossing the border. We planned on camping near a small town called Colombia Falls. 

Riding and scenery were great. 

We found a quiet spot and set up our house for the night. 

After a refreshing shower we prepared a bite to eat but first thing first.... 

A glass of wine 😁

We didn't have the greatest night's sleep... There's definitely a tolerance limit  for camping... And we've reached it! 😴😴

We packed up and set off to see our next national park - Glacier. 

After a while on some nice roads... 

We arrived! 

The scenery was gorgeous! 

We got our first glimpse of a glacier.... 

Without knowing too much about this national park, we expected to see some  big glaciers.... But that wasn't the case. The remaining glaciers are predicted to all disappear by 2030 - due to the warming climate.  

Glacier national park was nice - the scenery was definitely spectacular, just not the glaciers! 

As we left the park, we were very near the Canadian border - a little tiny crossing called Chief Mountain. 

There wasn't much of a queue. 

Welcome to Canada! 

The scenery was beautiful! 

It was a long day. The wind picked up and riding was very tough. We stopped in a little town called Pincher Creek and decided to stay there for the night. We found a lovely little campsite.  

There was a little Chinese restaurant in town so we didn't have to cook. We went for a walk - it was a cute and friendly little town. 

[jamesandanna12]

Miami (Florida) to Sturgis (South Dakota) - 27 July - 8 Aug 2017

God it was hot the morning we left Miami airport! By 8am the temperature was already above 30c - way too hot!

We decided to go north as quickly as possible in order to get away from the heat. This meant riding on the multi-lane interstate roads for a couple of days. We didn't like the idea but decided to try it anyway. 

It was a boring ride! Fast, and you couldn't see anything! All we saw was other vehicles! We stopped a few times for petrol and cold drinks.

I hate fast roads - no way to pull up on the side of the road and take a photo. Riding wasn't particularly enjoyable - too fast and monotonous. We started "zoning out" - that's the only way I can think of describing it... We weren't dozing off, we were very awake - we were simply switching off and not paying as much attention. And it was all because of the monotonous straight road with nothing to look at. 

We stopped several times to try to pull ourselves together. 

The heat was killing us! We kept going. I was never this bored on the bike! Interstate highways are not for us! 

We finally reached our hotel on the side of the interstate near Daytona Beach. We were exhausted from the heat and the riding itself. We parked up and went out to get something to eat. Our choices within walking distance were McDonald's, KFC, Burger King and another burger joint 😟 Not the places we enjoy... Anyway, we were hungry so went to McDonald's and ordered two grilled chicken salads. We're determined not to eat burgers and fries all the time!

We left early the following morning promising each other that it was to be the last day riding on interstates. We were going to Savannah in Georgia or shall I say, a motel near Savannah Georgia. It was to be another practical motel  on the side of the interstate. 

We were suffering as much as the previous day! Frequent stops helped but we were so bored it was unreal! I don't know how some people can drive solely on interstates! 

We got to our motel slightly amused by hundreds (literally!) of billboards for personal injury law firms! 

We felt better in the morning - no more interstates! Yay! 😁😁

We packed our bikes and set off towards a small town called Laurens in South Carolina. The temperature was better.

Oh the lovely small roads! We enjoyed the riding - it was quiet and green with plenty to look at.

The first sighting of a wild turkey 😉

We stopped for water and were entertained by a bunch of people drinking fizzy drinks from takeaway cups - the sizes were called Big Gulp, Super Big Gulp and Double Gulp! What's wrong with water these days? 😉

We got to our motel and whilst checking in, we couldn't understand the majority of what the lady in the reception was saying to us. The southern accent was sooo different! 😂

The room was very basic but clean but more importantly, it had a nice pool 😊

After a swim, we went for a walk. Laurens was a cute little place.

Nothing was happening in Laurens until we walked past a burger joint - lots of shiny classic cars. It was the place to hang out on a Saturday night!

We left in the morning and headed for Morristown, Tennessee - half way between Laurens and Lexington, Kentucky. James loves his horse racing and that part of the world and I've never been, so we decided to swing by 😊

We were definitely in the Bible Belt - hundreds of lovely churches with manicured graveyards and gardens. 

We were so happy to be off the interstates! The small roads were great! It was a shame that we were rushing through the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky..... on our quest to reach Alaska before winter. Lots of historic old towns, civil war history, friendly people and lovely countryside - we hope to return! 

We eventually arrived in our motel and went for a little walk. It was the usual motel by the side of the freeway. It was a lovely afternoon. I liked our shadow - couldn't resist snapping a photo 😉

We left in the morning in beautiful sunshine. 

Riding was lovely and we happened upon a gorgeous viewpoint overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains! 

We got talking to Richard - a lovely and interesting man!

All he wanted was a little kiss! 😉

And we caught it on the selfie stick! 😂

We chatted with Richard for over an hour. He was great fun! We know you're reading this Richard so a big hello from us 👋👋  And given that you like kisses, here's one: 😘

It was baking hot - we were overheating so we had to start moving. 

We didn't have that much mileage to do so we're making good progress until... We reached an awfully long queue! 

We crawled for a couple of hours but eventually got to our motel just outside Lexington, Kentucky. Again, it was on the side of the motorway but we didn't care - we were there to see a little bit of Kentucky horse country. We booked in for two nights and planned to spend the whole of the next day exploring.

We set off early as we wanted to spend a bit of time around Keeneland  - what a gorgeous place! 😍  Keeneland is the top thoroughbred racehorse sales complex in the world as well as being an important racetrack.  The surrounding area contains many of America's top stud farms.

James was so happy to be back in Keeneland! 

We spent a few hours riding and walking around Keeneland. Special place!

Afterwards, we decided to go to the Wild Turkey distillery, a famous Kentucky bourbon house. We like bourbon but sadly, as we were on the bikes, we couldn't sip the golden goodness 😢

We parked up and were taken on the bus to the distillery. Nobody walks in the US!

The views were great!

Our guide, Bubba, was a great laugh!

The tour was very interesting.

The distillery buildings were like ghost town!

But once inside... The smell was divine! 😁

Then the saddest part... Bourbon tasting! 😢😢

We couldn't drink ..... I did however take a small sip, moved it around in my mouth and spat it out - the bourbon was fantastic! We're looking forward to drinking some! 😀

Lovely place!

We rode back to our Lexington motel enjoying the cute little towns we passed. 

We managed to find salads for supper! Happy days! 

The following day we planned to ride to a little town called Olney in Illinois. We needed to keep going as Alaska wasn't getting any warmer... Having had no time constraints for months, it was quite strange to be rushing north.  

The riding was low-key and beautiful.

I loved this house - straight from some scary movie! 

Riding was great with lots to see. 

We eventually reached our motel - it was very cheap but extremely comfortable and the man running it, incredibly friendly. 

We could park right outside our room so bringing the luggage in didn't take long 😉

After a shower we went exploring. 

We walked past a lovely looking cafe but it was already closed for the day. We decided to go there for breakfast in the morning. 

The cafe was clearly a focal point in Olney - full of regulars. Coffee was fantastic!

We got talking to a very friendly couple who were traveling in their RV and this cafe was their usual stop. Then a very friendly truck driver started talking to us - we told him about our trip and before too long, we were talking to several people at the same time. It was lovely! Such friendly people!! We really enjoyed meeting Lucinda and Rob - a lovely couple from Olney. They told us something we didn't know - apparently Olney is famous for being the home of white albino squirrels. They told us which part of the park to go to in order to have a chance of seeing one. We've never seen one so said goodbye to everyone and decided to ride to the park. Before we left we were asked by the staff to write something in the visitor's book! As we were leaving the cafe, a friendly lady called Sarah approached us and since she didn't hear all of our travel story, she had a few questions 😉 She gave us some travel tips and suggestions. Sarah - it was great to meet. A big hello from us 👋👋

Our time in this cafe was just incredible. EVERYONE was so friendly and curious. It was very sweet! We rode away "buzzing" - what a treat to meet so many nice people. 

We got to the park but couldn't see any squirrels. 

And then we saw... Lucinda and Rob! They drove after us from the cafe to make sure we would see the squirrels! So sweet! We looked and looked but clearly the albino squirrels were on strike - they were nowhere to be found 😉

Instead we took a photo of the four of us. Lucinda and Rob - it was lovely to meet you both! 👋👋

We were having a fantastic morning! 😊

We decided to stop at one of Sarah's recommended places in the next town of Newton - the statue of Burl Ives, the famous country musician who hailed from there.

It was well past 1pm and we were still just outside Olney! 😂 We had to make some progress! 

The road was quiet and with plenty of daylight left, we were enjoying the ride.

We really liked the lovely countryside!

Then the heavens opened! Luckily we weren't terribly far from our motel in Macomb, Illinois.

The following morning there was no sign of rain so we set off in gorgeous sunshine. We were on our way to Des Moines, Iowa but first, we rode through the town of Fort Madison, Iowa. The streets were tidy and houses very pretty. This was the point (and long metal bridge) where we would cross the great Mississippi river.

We enjoyed our stop there and but after a while kept going. 

Unpacking in Des Moines didn't take long 😉

The following day we spent a whole day making our way to Norfolk, Nebraska. The roads were beautifully straight! Corn country!

We were starving by the time we got to our hotel so soon after checking in, we went next door, to a sports bar for a dirty burger on a Saturday night. 

In the morning, as we left our motel, James spotted a John Deere sales yard... We had to stop 😋 He was admiring all the machinery whilst I made fun of him. It seemed only fair 😉

It was very cold! We were frozen. 

It was a dark, cold day! We were a long way north now.  We stopped for petrol and went in for a cup of coffee. 

Coffee wasn't great but it warmed us up.

I liked the banner!

Back on the bikes ☺

We finally arrived in our destination - Kennebec, South Dakota - population 284, two motels, a church and one diner . 

Our motel was functional - clean and comfortable. 

It was great parking outside the room - saves us from carting heavy bags!

We went for a walk around the "town" - there was nothing there but it was nice to stretch the legs ☺.  Kennebec is really a series of huge grain silos alongside the railway tracks.  It's still corn country!

Sunset was gorgeous.

We went to the diner as it was the only place "in town" to get something to eat. It wasn't great. The only thing on the menu were burgers... And not very good ones 😕 Oh well, at least we weren't hungry anymore. 

The following morning we set off towards Sturgis. All week we'd been seeing Harley Davidson riders travelling towards Sturgis, the small town in South Dakota where 500,000 Harley riders congregate for a week each summer - i.e. the mother ship! 😉  We happened to be passing during that particular week. 

We thought the bikers would be friendly, like they would be pretty much anywhere in the world but no, the US so far is different. The Harley riders are quite unfriendly with an exception of a few  (Tony who we met twice on the road was great! We loved his funny stories! Big hello from us 👋👋)

It was very overcast for the first hour or so.  It was cold!!

The sun came out a little and made the scenery even more amazing - the colours were fantastic! 

The views were huge! And the straight roads fantastic! 

Our plan was to see our first National Park in the US - The Badlands. That was the real reason for taking this route - the bike rally in Sturgis was just a nice to see, since we were so close to it.

The clouds made the views so spectacular! We said "WOW" sooooooo many times!

Riding in the Park was incredible! Beautiful roads and scenery to die for!! 

We met three very friendly bikers - great guys!

It was so beautiful you could just stay there all day! 

I love this place!!! This is probably one of my favourite photos! 😊

Don't we look so happy?! 😁😁

Riding was sooo good! Beautiful twisty roads with lovely scenery and fantastic rock formations.  

It was great to be able to ride through the park with all our stuff! Proper motorcycling 😉 

It was difficult to make progress as around every corner the view was different and quite spectacular!

It was getting late in the day but that still didn't stop us from pulling in every couple of minutes to admire the views!  

We needed to get moving in order to get to our hotel in Rapid City before darkness. We saw a lot of bighorn sheep.

We got to our hotel just before the daylight disappeared completely - there was about a million Harley's there. We tried talking to a few people but nope, they wouldn't engage! We weren't one of them. Very disappointing attitude but hey ho 😉 When we set off to ride to Sturgis the following morning, most of the bikes had left already.

We reached Sturgis and after riding around for a little while found somewhere to park - aren't our bikes the nicest?! 😉

Welcome to Sturgis.

There was a lot of bikes!

Can you spot the cutie? 

Someone had their dog in a box on their bike 😊

There were bikes everywhere! Great sight. 

There were some great trucks too.

The noise in Sturgis was something else! 

All the stalls with "Sturgis merchandise" kept us entertained 😂

Walking around Sturgis was interesting, even though it really wasn't our cup of tea! 😉

And then James saw his favourite Harley......

John Deere one of course! 😂

There were so many bikes everywhere! 

After a few hours there we had enough! It's not our scene but it's good to be able to say that from experience 😉.  We rode back the 30 miles to Rapid City where we managed to squeeze in oil changes to both bikes before sunset.

[jamesandanna12]

Our entire route in South America. We loved it.

Anna's favourite places:

* All of The Andes were spectacular! The riding was always difficult with varying degrees of toughness but the scenery and the ability to be able to ride at high altitude (3,000 - 5,000m) was amazing.

* The Galapagos islands! An incredible part of the world. The wildlife was amazing between giant tortoises walking freely, sea lions and iguanas everywhere, Galapagos penguins catching fish, sharks, blue-footed boobies and of course, my favourite, sea turtles! All that combined with some beautiful beaches.... Heaven! I feel very lucky that we were able to spend some time there.

* Salento and surrounding areas of the coffee country in Colombia - so beautiful! We could have easily spent more time there.

*Medellin Colombia, thanks to our lovely friends, Maurizio and Elena! 

* Sucre in Bolivia - our great Spanish school, Marco, Gonzalo, Shirley and... all the amazing Bolivian white wines!!! 

# # #

James' favourite places:

* Paso de Jama (2 day crossing of the high Andes from Purmamarca, Argentina to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile)

* Sucre, Bolivia 

* Ride from Colca Canyon to Sicuani, Peru - 250km off road at up to 5,000m elevation on the Peruvian altiplano.

* Coffee country and Medellin, Colombia 

###

Total distance covered 20,034 km

[jamesandanna12]

Bogota (Colombia) to Miami (USA) - 20-27 July 2017

After a lovely time seeing our families, we flew back to Bogota. We were very excited to resume our trip! After a long flight we were back in our usual friendly hotel in Bogota by 11pm. After a few hours of sleep, we were back in the shipping agent's office at 8am the following morning. She warned us that clearing the bikes through customs would take the whole day - up to 11pm!!! We weren't looking forward to such a long day but didn't have much choice. We put all our luggage and bike clothing in her car and travelled to the warehouse.  The bikes were waiting for us 😀

We put all the luggage on the bikes, put on our safety gear and followed Veronica on our bikes as she negotiated Bogota's horrible traffic in the comfort of her car. We couldn't lose her, so rode a little faster than usual but hey ho, we were safe. Eventually after about 45 minutes we got to the correct part of the airport. We were met by Veronica's colleague, Libardo, who had the required "airside clearance" and was our agent from then on. Lovely man! He went from one window to the next whilst we waited outside ☺

Our mileage whilst in South America!! 20,045km! 👏👏👏

This was it - our bikes were in the process of being shipped to the US... It felt very strange knowing that we were "finished" with South America. For now... 😉

We weren't allowed to take any photos whilst inside the airport. The clearance process took a while but nowhere near as long as we expected! We were finished by 3.30pm! The most amazing thing was that the Customs didn't even want to look at our bikes! We were shipping them FROM Colombia to Miami! Incredible! 😉 Libardo said that this never happens. We were lucky as this particular part of the process takes at least two and a half hours! Result! 😀

Libardo was fabulous! We were very grateful for his help! 

We taxied back to our hotel, packed the remaining bits and pieces and went out for a last dinner in our favourite Thai restaurant. We walked back looking at the lovely hills of Bogota wondering how/if we will like the US... 

We got up very early the following morning, took a taxi back to the airport and queued again for hours to get through security. I (Anna) was pulled out for the enhanced security check. I hadn't had my coffee at that stage yet so must have looked quite rough haha! 😂😉😋

Our flight was on time but had no entertainment - there was an issue with the screens. I love my movies on the plane 😞 Anyway, it was a good opportunity to read about the US and the places we might want to visit. We were a little sad leaving South America - traveling there was hard work but also very rewarding. Thank God I learnt to ride a bike - we got to see such great places and leave with wonderful memories!  😊

We booked four nights in an airport hotel in Miami - we had a three day window in which the bikes would arrive so needed to "hang around". I found a nice hotel with a lovely pool. So after checking in... Straight to the pool 😀

It was very strange to be back in an English speaking country! Suddenly everything was so easy! 😉 We really have to improve our Spanish further!

Veronica told us that the bikes weren't going to fly the following morning so we were free to go to the beach 👏 One of the requirements for choosing a hotel near Miami airport was a free airport shuttle - it worked like clockwork every hour on the hour. Once in the airport, we walked for about 20 minutes through the airport to the shuttle buses to Miami beach. Given that we were potentially going to do that quite a few times waiting for our bikes to arrive, it saved us quite a lot of money on multiple long taxi rides to Miami Beach. It just took a while to get to the beach 😉 

As we caught the first glimpse of South beach we saw a large group of people gathering on the edge. We got closer and saw an alligator! 

A slightly unnerving welcome to Miami beach! 😉

There were two rangers trying to catch the alligator... We watched their entertainingly unsuccessful attempts for nearly an hour. Eventually, with the help of a few beachgoers, they caught it!

It was incredible to see. There were people swimming a few metres from where we were. 

A very interesting start to our time in Miami! 😉 

We went for a swim and it was bliss! The water was amazing!!!! 

Some hours later we went for a walk. The weather was great but very, very hot! 

We needed a little air-conditioning... It was about 40 degrees Celsius! We found a little fresh fruit smoothie shop 😊.  Constant cooling required!

We took the shuttle bus back to the airport - it took twice as long as earlier in the day but we had no pressing engagements so it didn't bother us too much 😉 We got an email from the shipping company - our bikes wouldn't be flying the following day either... 

So... In the morning we made the same journey back to the beach 😁

We swam again for hours! Happy days! 😊😊 I have to say... I wasn't terribly upset that the bikes weren't yet in the US 😉

Walking around the Art Deco area of Miami beach was very enjoyable.

We got back to our hotel and there was no message from the shipping company... Technically the bikes were supposed to arrive the following morning. We emailed Veronica and unfortunately there was a day's delay... So we extended our hotel by an extra day and...

Went back to the beach in the morning! 😁 What else would we be doing?!! 😁

Whilst at the beach, we got a text from Veronica saying our bikes would be in Miami overnight and ready for collection from 10am the following morning! We had a great time at the beach but were now very happy to resume our trip 👏

We reached the airport early, found the correct part of the (huge) cargo terminal, filled in some paperwork, paid some money and waited to be allowed into the warehouse.

After a few minutes we were in! So straightforward.

We could see our bikes on a pallet that had been removed from a 747 cargo hold a few hours earlier ☺

As we got closer we noticed that one bike was leaning on the other! 😱😱 Really not what you want to see! They had obviously moved in transit.

We were anxious to see any damage... 

But thankfully, after closer inspection, the bikes were fine! But that's only thanks to the fact that we had used soft luggage on the bikes! If we'd had aluminium boxes on the bikes, the sides and indicators would have been significantly damaged. Phew! That was lucky!

The airport staff were friendly and helpful.  Before long, we had our beasts back! 😍

We were free to go after a couple of hours all in all - unbelievable! In South America this process would have taken a very long day. We were very happy!

It looked like it was going to pour rain so we rode back to our hotel quite quickly, our first miles in North America. 

After unloading the luggage, we had the difficult job of repacking everything! Oh the horror! 😬 The swimming pool helped to ease the pain 😉

Before long we were ready to go! Miami was hot! It was lovely to be by the beach but with bikes ready to go, we needed to move on to cooler places with a lot less tourists!

[jamesandanna12]

Europe - family visit - 2-19 July 2017

We got up very early in our Bogota hotel, took an Uber to the airport and... Saw the ridiculously long queues for security! We were in the airport three hours before the flight and we just made it! Phew! 

It was a looong series of flights to get to Europe. 

We spent two weeks shuttling between various members of our families and we had a wonderful time! We couldn't see everyone unfortunately... But we will catch up with everyone when we get back next year! 😊

[jamesandanna12]

Tatacoa Desert (Colombia) to Bogota (Colombia) - 2 June - 1 July 2017

We left Villavieja and the Tatacoa Desert in sweltering heat. We knew the road wouldn't be great but it was actually way worse than we expected. We were going to Giradot in a VERY cross-country way. The surface was all loose gravel which made us ride much slower than we'd have wanted. Progress was slow and it was unbelievably hot!

Good road, eh?! 😉

The worst thing about our journey were two horrible tunnels we had to ride through... After a particularly bad gravel stretch of road we got to the first tunnel. There was no warning - one minute you ride through a "tunnel" of shrubs, which is lovely...

the next minute you ride onto a real tunnel that's unsurfaced and pitch dark! 😱😱😱 James was ahead of me and screaming in my ear to stop!!! There were huge, uneven 2-3 feet deep mud ruts everywhere on the surface! As the tunnel was not lit, we couldn't see the ruts or the huge potholes or even the uneven ground. If there were vehicles coming, we wouldn't have been able to see them. We COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING! 😱😱😱

I hate unlit tunnels and get very scared... Unfortunately South America is full of them but this one was particularly slippery and dangerous. The tunnel was maybe 500 metres long, with 2 bends and so dark I struggled to see James's rear lights! Riding in pitch darkness "by feel only" is no fun! Needless to say, my helmet was full of tears 😢

We encountered another similar tunnel but luckily we saw a big truck approaching it ahead of us so we accelerated, caught up with it and stayed at the back of the truck - at least we were able to see a little! Phew! 

The scenery was stunning in the Magdalena river valley 😊

We eventually reached Giradot and we got a great deal in a lovely modern hotel with a pool - happy days! 

Giradot is a very busy town full of people from Bogota escaping the cold. It was a bit chavvy - we didn't like it. 

After a night's sleep, we set off for Bogota. The weather was bad! It was cold and wet and the visibility was terrible. It took us a while to get to Bogota. 

After a horrible ride in fog and cloud, we finally reached Bogota - the Colombian capital of 8 million people. We hit traffic and it took us nearly two hours to get to our hotel. When we finally arrived, we parked the bikes, showered, went across the road for a Domino's pizza and collapsed in bed 😉

Our hotel room was lovely, quiet and comfortable. We slept like logs! In the morning we went exploring. 

We went to the museum of gold - Museo del Oro. Hands down the most beautiful museum I've been to (Anna). We learnt a lot about the history of Colombia. 

Walk back to our hotel was chaotic but great people watching opportunity. 

The following morning we found an unbelievably nice French patisserie - fantastic coffee and proper croissants (not the Colombian version filled with horrible quesito - cheese kept in room temperature. Yuk!). We're not fans 😂

Walking around old Bogota was lovely!

Knowing that we would be back in Bogota before too long, we decided to leave the following morning and ride to Salento - a small town in the hills known for its coffee growing plantations. The ride was nice but big sections of bad surface made our journey slow and a bit tiring.

We pulled in for lunch in a little restaurant beside a petrol station. It was the usual feast but actually quite nice.

It was a beautiful day and riding was fantastic. It was getting hillier and hillier and we were loving the scenery. 

We were getting nearer Salento when the sun started setting. We were tired as we rode all day. It was time to stop............ however...

Our sat nav decided to play a cruel trick on us and send us completely cross-country to Salento! 

We ended up on, what can only be described as, a goat track! Huge potholes we could lose our bikes in, horribly steep uphills, big mud only sections and... darkness! We arrived in pitch darkness. Yuk! 

We found a little simple hostel for the night and went out to get a bite to eat. As we walked around the tiny center of Salanto, we heard a very loud "hello". It was Axel, the Austrian guy we met in MotoCamp in Chile! We joined him and his girlfriend Gabi for drink and a catch up. And then... we saw our other friends, Kevin and Celia. South America is a small place! 😁

Axel told us about this great hotel they were staying in so I (Anna) decided to investigate 😁 It was indeed lovely! We checked in for four nights! 

Gustavo, the owner, was incredibly friendly and helpful. We liked him a lot. He made sure our bikes were safe and sound.

The weather was a bit patchy but for once we had a lovely place to hang out - just outside our room on the veranda. We were to be found there every time there was a torrential downpour. 

Walking around Salento was lovely and low-key. 

We even found a fresh mango juice cart - happy days! 🙆🙆

There was one huge hill in Salento - many, many steps (600 something) but the view was worth it!

In the evening we met up with the other four for dinner and some drinks. It was a lovely evening ☺We shared stories from our journeys - some really incredible ones! I (Anna) was a happy bunny when between all six of us, I realised that I fell off my bike the least amount of times (I.e. once). Yay! 😉

The following day we went on a coffee plantation tour. It was very interesting.

The farm was in a lovely setting. 

There was an unbelievably pungent smell from the coffee cherries!

Our guide was very good at explaining the whole coffee lifecycle process.

We were tasked with picking what we thought were ripe coffee cherries. It was more difficult than we expected. 

I found four 😉

James did much better!

We tasted the cherries and they were surprisingly sweet. The two perfectly formed coffee beans were just lovely 😊

The baskets suit us, don't they! 😂

This is the small version of the machine separating cherries from the valuable coffee beans.

And this is the difference between good coffee (left) that is exported out of Colombia and bad coffee (right) that tastes foul and is the only coffee widely available in Colombia. No surprise then that most Colombians drink hot chocolate instead! 

At the end of the tour it was time for tasting. It was better than the usual coffee in Colombia but still a far cry from the "good stuff" we can get back home. 

So have a nice up of coffee for us 😊 Cheers!

The following morning Gustavo served the most amazing breakfast. We loved having breakfast in the garden - such a treat! 

We wanted to see the Cocora Valley and wax palm trees, the tallest variety in the world, so we booked a ride in a shared Jeep. 

The valley was stunning!

We went on a little 10km hike - beautiful scenery!

It was an incredibly beautiful hike! 

The clouds started coming down but they only added to the atmospheric ambiance! 

It was cold and getting cloudier and cloudier but it only added to the beauty of the place! 

We walked back to the point where we could take the Jeep back to town just in time... The heavens opened! We timed our walk pretty well! 

Back in Salento we went for a coffee (still bitter but the best one we could get in town) 😉

We walked around the town for hours - lovely and peaceful. 

All the restaurants close very early so we pulled in for dinner in daylight. 

After supper we sat on the square drinking beer and observing the local life. Great fun! 

The following morning it was time to check out... We didn't really want to - Salento and our hotel have been a bit of an oasis. Salento and that area of the coffee country would definitely be on our list to visit if we were back in Colombia again.  

We were going to Medellin. I (Anna) have an Italian friend Maurizio who lives there with his Colombian girlfriend Elena. Maurizio and I worked together years ago so I was looking forward to seeing him again 😊

The first bit of the journey was very straightforward.

We encountered several diversions - very slow and on awful surface. We hoped the road to Medellin would be a good one but it was actually in dreadful condition. Huge potholes, bad surface and very windy and twisty with no passing lanes and full of impatient macho drivers. 

And then we happened upon this queue... We waited for ten minutes or so but nothing was moving. Several motorbikes weaved their way through all the cars so we followed them. 

After 10km we were still negotiating our way through all the parked cars! The queue was huge! Eventually we got to the front. All the motorcycles were waiting there. We stopped beside a truck and the driver told us what happened. It was a particularly tight bend and one truck didn't make the turn and fell into the ravine. The driver had died. Horribly sad! 

We waited for nearly three hours for the road to be reopened. We were nervous at the prospect of riding on these roads in darkness. Thankfully we got off the mountain in daylight or just about. We arrived at Maurizio's in pitch darkness. They were waiting for us and I think were quite relieved that we arrived in one piece 😉 We had a great evening of catching up! 

The view from the apartment was gorgeous!

We walked around for ages! 

And then we stopped at the nicest Italian cafe ever! It was Maurizio's and Elena's favourite. Ohhhh the tiramisu!! 😍😍

We were having a great time in Medellin with our friends. We intended staying for a couple of nights... But Maurizio and Elena were making us feel like home and way too comfortable! 😉 They are real foodies and were spoiling us all the time with amazing dinners! 

After an incredible supper we went out for a glass of wine 😀

After a glass of wine we moved onto the local drink, Aguardiente, typical Colombian firewater. It tasted great with pieces of orange and lime. 

We all had a fantastic evening! 

The guys told us many stories about Colombia, drugs, Escobar, guerilla wars and how all that affected local people... Scary. Things are definitely on the up and are much better than even ten years ago but you can still get someone killed for $100 😱 Life is cheap in Colombia. James and I are very cautious when out  and about and we're not the only ones -  All of us stay alert with our eyes open, never flaunt wealth (phone, camera, jewellery) and never are out late at night. Elena holds her breath when walking past people - 'The Devil's Breath' drug (scopolamine) is often thrown in people's faces. It eliminates free will and can wipe the memory of its victims! Life is cheap in all South America.

The following day we had a very lazy day 😉

The guys told us about a couple of places worth visiting  so we decided to ride there for a day trip. We decided to ride to Guatape without realising how bad and slow the road would be! 

The scenery was great.

The view from the top of the Guatape rock was supposed to be lovely but given that it took us several hours to get there, if we had climbed it, we would have run out of daylight to get back to Medellin. So we admired the view from the ground. 

Coming back, the traffic was even worse and it took us ages to get back. The roads in Colombia really are bad. 

We had another lazy day of booking flights to Europe, walking around and having lunch with our friends.

We stayed in Medellin for a whole week! Maurizio and Elena made us feel so welcome! We loved staying with them in their gorgeous apartment, chatting to early hours, practicing our Spanish (sorry Elena), hearing the (scary) stories about Colombia, watching great movies together and being entertained by the amazing cooking shows (God they can cook!). Maurizio and Elena - thank you so much for having us! 😘 😘 

We set off very early on Sunday morning. We were packed and ready to go at 6.15am! 😵 We had to go so early because all the main roads in big cities in Colombia close for bicycles only on Sundays from 7am until 2pm. 

One last look at the lovely view from the balcony 😊

The traffic was light and it was relatively easy to get out of Medellin. We were on our way to Cartagena but needed to break the journey somewhere. Our plan was to ride and stop when when we get tired. It was a long journey to the coast and we had no idea about the state of the roads - Colombians still don't drive. It's the legacy of the past where roads were too dangerous to drive on. People simply fly, even what we consider to be tiny distances.  

But before we got out of Medellin we remembered what Maurizio told us... He said that when we get to a particular place where the road splits to stay LEFT! If we stayed on the road and veered right we would end up in Moravia -  a notoriously dangerous area of Medellin. We got to a place where the road split... And had no idea if that was the correct spot or not... Our sat nav was of no help! We stopped on the central reservation in the middle of quite a busy motorway at that stage and discussed whether or not this was our left turn 😉 We decided to go left... And thank God we did! Very shortly we noticed Moravia on our right... It looked a very deprived area. Thanks Maurizio!

The roads were OK, mostly paved. We rode for hours in clouds...

And then in fog...

And then the weather improved and it was beautiful ☺

We rode all day and progress was quite slow despite the seemingly OK roads. We got to a town called Planeta Rica. We saw a modern looking hotel several kilometres out of town but thought that it would be easier to stay in town... We rode around Planeta Rica - it was a dump! Everyone seemed to be either drunk or drinking and when one guy started running towards me and shouting, we did a very quick U-turn towards the out of town hotel! 

The sunset was gorgeous!

We slept well but were looking forward to leaving the unpleasant town so packed up and left early.. 

It was a lovely fresh morning but the temperature was rising rapidly. 

We rode through some poor towns and villages - there was very little in these places. 

The scenery was beautiful. It was hot as hell though! 😉

Approaching Cartagena was interesting. We thought it would be like riding into Medellin, fast and modern, but instead we rode on dirt roads and passed several horse and carts! 

We really wanted to stay in the old walled city of Cartagena but as parking our bikes was going to be virtually impossible, we had to stay outside the walls. We decided to stay on the seafront but the area felt very dodgy. At least our hotel was secure and the bikes were safe. 

The waterfront was nice but there were a lot of people lurking. There were no tourists around. 

We walked to the walled city - it was beautifully lit. 

The following morning we enjoyed our breakfast on the hotel terrace. It was 10am and already baking!  

The old city of Cartagena was gorgeous! 

After walking around for a few hours, we were melting! 

We went to our favourite chain restaurant for dinner - Crepe & Waffle - the best salads ever!!!! 

I loved walking within the walled city at night - so pretty! 

But once outside the walls, it was point-and-go for us. Pavements weren't lit and there were a lot of people lurking around. As we walked to our hotel, all we could see was cigarettes lighting in the bushes across the street - and many of them. Not the nicest of walks. 

The following day was a day of chores. We needed to finally put new tyres on our bikes - the tyres that we carried since Lima! But first, coffee and a walk to see the fort. 

A very friendly chap working in our hotel showed us the way to a local mechanic that we would never have found ourselves. The rear rack on James's bike was broken and we needed it welded back together. 

Then we got the tyres changed. The tyre man had very primitive tools but had great attitude and was very friendly. He was delighted that we left the old tyres with him - there was still life in them and he was able to resell them. 

After a few hours the bikes were done. Our next chore was to try and find someone to wash our bike gear. I found this place called "Beer and laundry" and since it had great reviews, we decided to give it a go. We were greeted by Ana Maria and her brother Juan. It was a cute little place with a dozen or so washers and dryers, ice cold beer and homemade pizzas. The guys said they would try to wash our gear so we were delighted. When we came back to collect our trousers and jackets, we couldn't believe the transformation! Poor Juan scrubbed our gear by hand! Everything looked brand new!  Thank you Juan and Ana Maria! ☺We also met an incredibly friendly couple sitting there, Neil and Cat - we had a lovely chat. A big hello from us 👋😀👋

It was really nice to meet these four! Always such a treat to meet lovely people 😊

Our next destination was going to be a nice beach 😀 We have heard a lot about the Caribbean coast of Colombia so we wanted to see it.  We decided to go to El Rododero near Santa Marta which was supposed to be a lovely place to visit. 

We left the following morning after another lovely brekkie on the terrace. 

It was hot as hell! Nearly 40 degrees Celsius! And that's before midday! 😵

We were baking! When you are by the pool with cocktails in hand, this heat is one thing... When you are riding in full motorcycle gear, that's ANOTHER story! 

We eventually found a hotel - it wasn't great but the bikes were safe. We wanted to see if we liked El Rododero before we looked for a better place to stay. By the time we checked in, unpacked and showered, it was late in the evening so we just went out for a bite to eat. There were so many people around!!  

We felt a bit better after a night's sleep - we must have overheated on the bikes. We went to the beach - my main objective was to go for a swim!   😉

But... 

The beach was absolutely crowded and the amount of hawkers was unreal! We were approached every few seconds! Not exaggerating! Ignoring them didn't work and there was nowhere to hide - they would just stand there surrounding you. Not nice.

But the worst thing was the smell of sewage! Oh my God! The water didn't look clean in places so it put us off swimming for sure 😕 😲

So we just took some photos. Disappointing. 

The later it got, the more people appeared on the beach. The smell was as bad as earlier so safe to say, I didn't get to have a swim 😢

The sunset was lovely. 

We found amazing dinner! The food was spectacular! Oh the seafood stew... 😍

We were disappointed with El Rododero - sewage in the sea is just unacceptable! I still can't believe that so many people were swimming there! 😱

We decided to leave the following morning and ride up the coast for a while and see if we found somewhere we liked...

We were in no rush so we went to have one last look at the beach and get coffee. 

It was was unbelievably crowded and unfortunately, smelly as ever. 

We set off in baking heat. We rode a good bit of the coast and it seemed even more crowded. I suppose Colombians have only that small stretch of the coast to go on holidays as the whole Pacific side is largely controlled by the guerillas. We like low-key and quiet beaches - the coast of Colombia wasn't for us. 

We decided to go to a little town called Minca. It was 700m high in the hills. We hoped it would give us a little respite from the heat. We found a very simple room in a house in the jungle. The road to it was rutted with horrible deep gravel. 

Turning into the house wasn't very nice - steep and on loose gravel... James dropped the bike. It was so hot and we were overheated. It could have easily happened to me. 

With only a small fan in our room, we hoped that would be enough. The house looked really cool! 

We were in a real wildermess. 

The village was tiny! 

We sat around the terrace with the other people staying in the house - lovely bunch of backpackers. It was really hot and the bugs were biting...

A few little kittens kept us entertained.

After a couple of hours of being outside, my legs had 70 bites on them despite highly concentrated DEET. 

We had to fnd a different place to stay for the following day as our guesthouse was full. We found what on the face of it, looked like a better place. It had a nicer, cleaner room and lovely gardens. 

And on their terrace we could watch dozens of hummingbirds!! What a treat! 😍

The view from the terrace was something else!

The hummingbirds were absolutely beautiful! I was wishing I had a better camera. 

We watched the cute little creatures for a good couple of hours. We wanted coffee so we went to the only place that served it. It was ok but there was a nice surprise for us - yummy muffins 😋

We watched the local life around us. 

We were told that there was a lovely spot with a waterfall with hot springs so we hiked an hour up the hill to get there. The views were lovely.

Eventually we reached the access point..... Need I say more?

Neither James nor I fancied negotiating our way through the hordes of people so we turned around. At least the walk back was mostly downhill.

Minca was nothing special - again, we heard a lot about it but it wasn't our cup of tea. The worst thing however was that James became ill after having breakfast in our hotel. Timing was terrible as we had a huge shlep back to Bogota and we had to do it in three days - we had our flight to Europe booked. Poor James had a miserable day 😟 

The following day was better - the scenery was nicer and more importantly, James felt much better.

We were riding against the clock which we didn't enjoy. We had to get back to Bogota in the early afternoon on Thursday in order to get our bikes properly washed in preparation of shipping to Miami. We had an appointment with our shipping agent the following morning. We rushed a bit. 

We stopped for some water and I played with a very cuddly cat 😀

We arrived back in Bogota wrecked. We overheated quite a bit but still needed to ride through the absolute centre of Bogota to get the bikes cleaned. Argh! 😬😬

We identified a proper vehicle vehicle cleaning garage in advance and rode straight there. After unloading all our luggage, the bikes were on lifts and getting washed...

And washed...

And washed some more...

An hour and a half later we were still waiting...

The guys were doing an amazing job!

Two and a half hours later we were still waiting...

The people running the garage were incredibly friendly. All they wanted was to put our "business card" on their wall 😁

As we put our card on the glass window, we saw our friend's, Dave, card! We had met him in Santiago Chile.  He was in Bogota only a couple of months earlier. Incredible! 

Finally, after nearly three and a half hours we were free to go! 

We got to our hotel very tired. We slept like logs. The following morning we had to get up early and ride to our shipping agent's office. We rode for an hour and a quarter through heavy traffic. We eventually got to the office, sorted out all the paperwork for shipping our bikes to Miami and rode to a storage place our agent organised for us to store the bikes whilst we flew to Europe. 

I was very sad to leave our bikes behind! 😢

It felt like the end of an era... We were flying to Europe to see our families and were very happy about that! But we were also a little sad because we knew our time in South America was nearly over... 😟

[jamesandanna12]

South America - entire route covered.