Final Post for KTM Tour of the World and of Leg 23

This Leg 23 was 5053km long, see more detail below:

 

Let me 1st start by saying, again, this Blog is at the address : www.fleischer.co.za, my name, not in the name of Pie, or Peens, or Rocky or Millsy, nor Tex or Dog, its my Blog, with my perceptions and my opinions and my experiences and my interpretations of the things I experienced, So please dont think this are their thoughts. I did however ask them each a few weeks before this Last leg to email me their thoughts, maybe some wisdom they discovered along the way, maybe their best day, or a memory of something, maybe just an observation or wisdom. Nada, Niks, Boggerall, Nothing was emailed to me. Then 2 day’s ago Pie WhatsApped me a long story which I would have to now copy word for word, it would take me very long, that is why I asked in advance before we left Johannesburg, then it was quick Copy & Paste. So in summary, Pie said he was sad it was over, but also glad in a way as it has come full circle, no one knew how big this was going to be when we started, but now that it is over there is also complete satisfaction, like what he felt at the end of the Peking to Paris he did, so sad it is over but also dont feel the need to carry on and continue. So, Happiness yet also a little sad.

So here comes my thoughts.

I guess one can say, “We just ran out of road,” and we ran out of Continents. Well, that is not 100% true, we just got to the bottom of the world after we started at the top in Alaska. and completed our 4 Continent. Now What ?

We have only traveled up to Lake Malawi by motorbike, (Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and back into South Africa, way back in 2004, long before this KTM World Tour was even conceived.

Pie was still young and all the blind girls  thought he was a LOOKER:

Peens has been cooking Big Prawns with the help of old Pie since 2004 :

 

So we could finish Africa, but I think because I stay in Africa, and have been so bitterly disappointed with how politics in South Africa killed the dream of all its people (who were so positive after 1994 with the new ANC Government, we hoped we could all write the one and only and 1st success story of Africa. But that dream and positivity most of us had has now crashed and is burning after the ANC’s Corrupt Government has mauled the country, it only took 32 years. The wheel is turning slowly, but I am too old to be positive that I will see the South Africa we dreamed of back then. So you can say I have contracted African Fever and just don’t want to see the rest of Africa anymore, it is just too painful to see the one failed Country after another, and not even to talk about the time wasted to cross borders, get visas, and then to still have to do the African Handshake (paying bribes,) I am over this sad Continent for now and it will be many years before I consider driving a 4×4 from Egypt to RSA. But never say never???????????????? The people of Africa are of the poorest in the world, but even though they have nothing, they always have a big warm smile, they are such good people, such a pity about the politicians.

We are left with Australia (and New Zealand.) But I have decided to do these countries with my lovely wife Thea, and not on bikes, but in a 4X4 or a Camper.

For those of you who have not gone back in time to read previous Posts on this Travel Blog and never read about our 1st Leg  (which took place 13 years and 10 months ago,)  let me enlighten you quickly as to how this World Tour came about : I was turning 50 years old in 2013 and wanted to do “Something Big” for my 50th Birthday. So I gathered my friends and we shipped 5 bikes (all KTM 990’s) and a Toyota Land Cruiser called Brutes to London from where we planned to ride down to Cape Town. But days before we were to start the ride there was something called “The Arab Spring” with unrest and wars in Tunisia and then it spread to Egypt. So we decided to just ride around Europe and then after 3 weeks to store the bikes somewhere (turned out to be Bucharest in Romania,) and continue later in the year when the dust had settled and it was safe to travel into Africa again. True to Africa, the dust did not settle,  things happens slowly in Africa. Our plan changed, we decided to try riding through Turkey and then into Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and then a boat over to Port Sudan into Africa. A Mr. Du Toit who I contacted at the RSA Embassy in Damascus told me it would not be a problem, but to avoid the town of Homs as unrest is starting there. Well, few months later Mr. Du Toit was answering his E-Mails from Pretoria and told me they had to evacuate the SA Embassy in Syria due to the war that was imminent. We all know how that country went, the war is still continuing today.

So we decided to ride East, and if we carry on long enough we will eventually get to the USA, and Tex said we should ride to his house in Houston for a beer with him, so we turned our wheels East, (we eventually had that beer at Tex’s house, 5 years later.)  Then as we were riding thought Ukraine, (which was never on my route, we were forced there because we rode right into a war, the Chechnya Rebels were occupying the area I planned to ride through, so we had to take a ferry across the Black Sea to Odessa in Ukraine.)  Rocky said his nephew got a job in Denmark, we could stop there for a beer first before having the beer with Tex. While having that beer in Copen Hagen a  year or so later, one of the nephew’s friends suggested we have a beer at the most Northern tip of the European Continent, at the top of the world, so we set our sights on Norway. And that is how the World Tour happened, never pushing just East, or just South, but meandering, riding from one sight to another for a beer, aiming toward Texas but doing big circles, rather lost if you look at our route.

Trip Down Memory Lane:

Here are some of those early photos when en were men!!!!!

These memories are not in chronological order and is just some photos I downloaded as they tell a story. And if you dont know the story, or cant remember the photo, it is time to go back and read the past Blogs I Posted.

A Crab appeared in Thailand, if life gives you Limes you add Tequila, so if it gives you a Giant Crab you take Group Photo:

 

Above are the original 990’s we rode through Europe and Asia, it was before Millsy joined us and before Dog made guest appearances.

Myself and Snowflake below, my 990 KTM which I rode from London to Singapore, slipping and sliding on a muddy road in Russia:

Below we are on the new bikes, joined by Dog and Millsy, entering the arctic Circle before our final push to Prudoe Bay Alaska:

Note the “Dog” in the photo on the right……….

 

Below Peens is looking at little Eels sold in plastic bags, in Laos :

Somewhere in Norway with a friend driving Brutus for us.

Few years earlier, we all back on the 990’s, at Norde Kaap, Arctic Circle Norway.

Below Pie looks fierce, photo taken on a sand-bank we followed a the end of the Crimean Peninsula, 2 months before Putin stole it from Ukraine.

Below we all are in Tex’s house where we get the new bikes, below is just before Peens takes an angle grinder and grinds off parts of his brand new bike to make place to fit some After Market Parts.  Dog and all Tex’s friends came to meet us and were horrified to the actions of Grinder, as his name became known for a few legs:

Below Pie’s bike is getting a Clutch Transplant, with a few clutch-plates “Harvested” out of all our bikes, with Sergei, our Russian Fixer looking on:

Below we are in Russia, they want a bribe and we just speak to them in Afrikaans until they give up and let us carry on.

Peens got into the local clothing in Turkey:

Below : In Siberia. No Body on this motorbike trip, over 400 days has ever laughed this much. There was a lady selling kebabs next to the road and Rocky told her she can jump on Peens’s bike and ride with us. She said no, her mother, making the fire said yes. Then the aunt brought some rope and told Peens to capture the lady and just take her, lots of jokes and fun, no one could speak the language, but communication was through hand signals. Eventually we sat at their little wooden “restaurant” ate their Burch Soup (beetroot based,) ate a few pieces of meet for the kebab and hugged and left, without the lady. Below you can see the lady cooking our kebabs and her whole family standing at the entrance to the little restaurant encouraging her to elope with all of us.

Also in Russia: When Rocky’s bike’s bike needed new fuel filters situated inside the fuel pump, which is  inside his fuel tank, Pie and Tex took his bike apart and with the help of YouTube and fixed it:

 

We rode somewhere is Thailand, we stopped to look at all the action and a Pageant happening, with loud music, and I won something, the TV Cameras captured the moment and I got given something, then we left, still dont know what happened or how it happened????????

 

Sometimes fuel was a problem, but we managed. Here Rocky is getting fuel in Laos:

Russia was not kind to Tex:

Below is in week 1 of the trip, crossing the Piraneese Mountains, Rocky and I, did not think I would finish Leg 1, never mind finish Leg 23:

Think this was Bulgaria:

Norway: Snow Flake getting a new look.

Below is Peens showing his softer side, we were in very rural Russia, no shops, just a truck that drives to your village every now and then. Peens bought some bread and seen below handing it out to some of the very poor people who wanted to buy more but could not afford it:

It was very cold in rural Turkey, below Tex and Pie warms them selves waiting for tea:

Below is a photo of a guy with a mustache, looking like an actor from a Adult Movie, looking at Pie and Tex working on Tex’s bike, in the middle of an off-ramp in Istanbul, this was minutes after taking the bikes out of Storage and the battery went below 12 Volt and died. I tried crossing in between the cars to to get to them and as the traffic was at walking speed I stalled my bike and fell right in the middle of all of this.

Below is the Adult Movie Star and his “Fellow Star” smiling as Peens’s bike is being tied between two trees, like a scene from their latest movie, after Peens was rammed into the back of a VW Polo by the driver of our back-up vehicle, and then the police came and Peens got Breatalized 10h00 in the morning, standard procedure in Poland in an accident, and then the police wanted proof of Insurance. But Peens’s bike was all skew and bent, so it was put between two trees and then pulled straight with ratchets and straps.

Speaking about accidents, below is our Back-up Vehicle Brutus after our friend Dollar, who drove it for us on that leg, rolled it into a potato field in Ukraine. It all started the night before when he took on an old lady in a Vodka drinking competition, which he lost. Then he went to our little “Hotel” and tried to shower, but had an accident and fell, breaking two ribs on his right hand side. The next morning we all gave him some tablets and pain-killers and then he drove Brutus, fell asleep and rolled it into the potatoes. Still hanging from the seatbelt up-side down, the farmers ran and spoke to him in Russian and told him they were going to release him from the seatbelt and he should brace. He did not understand and fell down, breaking two more ribs, but on the other side.

Random Photos, look how blond I used to be, no grey hair:

 

Goby desert Mongolia:

We got very badly lost in Turkey, eventually we stumbled onto a little farmers market, bought some cheese and nuts and dried fruit, ate and washed it down with some fruit juice, and then they pointed us into the right direction where we eventually got onto a real road again.

Me on my beloved DadASS somewhere in the USA:

Even the youngster used to have brown hair and not grey hair, nice Millsy:

We did choose the wrong roads in Russia. Below is Pie’s bike being towed as he tried to pull the Land Cruiser out of the mud when it got stuck.

 

The statistics of our Adventure are as follow:

On the 1st few legs, Europe and Asia, London to Singapore, we rode just over 45 000km. Then some of us got new bikes in Texas and below you can see the ODO shows DadAss did 75 461, so in total our distance over 23 Legs was 120 461 km, or 75 288 miles.

And that is without any major accident or injury, I put this down to our Guardian Angles protecting us. There were close shaves, but nothing serious.

Days of riding in total 401

From start to finish was  13 years and 10 months

I can’t tell you how many tyres I used, or how many liters of fuel I consumed, mainly because I had lots of other jobs and responsibilities on these Bike Trips, and as I always tell my riding buddies and my wife and 3 kids “I can do a lot of things, but I can’t do EVERYTHING !!!!! Maybe this is a job that another person on the trip could have done, but then again, we never realized the scope and size of the Adventure we undertook, it sort of crept up on us from behind without us realizing what we had started. I only started doing this Blog daily from Leg 8, when we were half way through Russia. And without looking at any of those Posts now, I know they will be rather poorly written, not lots of photos, mainly short posts, and full of spelling mistakes. I really battled on several Legs with Wi Fi and my computer failed me several times, even lost the computer once and had to buy a replacement to do the blog on. So I know the past Blogs are not my finest work, but in spite of all the difficulties, armed with my two typing fingers, funny computers, and old technology to get the photos from my Point & Shoot Camera onto my Paraffin Computer with cables, and then my bad spelling thanks to my poor education in a Afrikaans speaking school, (English is my 2nd language,) and the un-cooperative Spell Check, I managed to get a Blog out on most nights, sometimes hours after my “friends” have been snoring for hours.

43 or 44 USA States out of the 50 States, which might soon increase once Greenland and Venezuela are added

Countries (or parts of Countries) we visited :

1. England
2. Wales
3. Isle of Man
4. France
5. Spain
6. Switzerland
7. Germany
8. Austria
9. Slovakia
10. Hungary
11. Romania
12. Bulgaria
13. Turkey
14. Georgia
15. Ukraine and The Crimea
16. Poland
17. Denmark
18. Norway
19. Sweden
20. Finland & Lapland
21. Russia & Siberia
22. Mongolia
23. China
24. Laos
25. Thailand
26. Malaysia
27. Singapore
28. USA & Alaska
29. Canada
30. Mexico
31. Guatemala
32. El Salvador
33. Honduras
34. Nicaragua
35. Costa Rica
36. Panama
37. Colombia
38. Ecuador
39. Peru
40. Bolivia   (We got visas for it twice, never managed to get the bikes in, I did fly out of this country and spent a weekend in La Paz)
41. Chile
42. Argentina
43. Uruguay

Wow, looking at the list now I realize just how big this little Birthday Ride turned out to be. I also realized on the last three Legs how important it had become for me to finish what we started and that it became very important to reach Ushuaia and tick that box. I started riding more and more carefully, rode like a BMW Rider, determined not to drop the bike and break a leg on the gravel, or break the bike before I have completed South America. If it wasn’t for my “friends” telling me I should start riding with new friends who owns BMW’s,  (an insult if you ride a KTM as we believe the BMW Riders are softer than us,) they almost had to drag me onto some of the more adventurous (that is just another word for DANGEROUS,) routes, kicking and screaming.

It is impossible for me to try and summarize all the nice, interesting, places or sights, or towns or tourist attractions we have visited or rode through on this World Tour, but you can read that for yourself by looking at the previous blogs.

But I will give you just a few answers to some of the many questions people ask me about this trip :

• The most beautiful country was Norway, and Patagonia in Chile
• The most beautiful Gravel Road\Pass is route 265 that runs in Chile to the town of Chile Chico  (on the way to Argentina)  along the shore of  Lake Buenos Aires\Largo Gral. Carrera.
• The biggest disappointment was San Fransisco, in my mind I was expecting so much more, you always see it in the movies and it looks so great. It was really very dirty, full of homeless, and according to a Voters Poll in 2022, the GLBTQ capital of the USA, with 23% of the city identifying as GLBTQ. In 1st world Countries this percentage is 4,5%, but in “San Fran” it is almost a quarter. We were unfortunate to go to a suburb where they all tend to stay, with the rainbow flags and paintwork everywhere, on many flags, hoisted on top of most buildings and houses, and painted on the road as Pedestrian Crossings.  We stopped at a park, on a hill overlooking the city and the bay, it was a Sunday, the weather was good and everybody was out for a picnic, showing offtheir bodies, clothed in G-Strings,  flaunting their “wares” and strutting around, gyrating to music, smoking some Devil’s Lettuce, indeed a very promiscuous society,  it was very “In Your Face.” We are thankfully not exposed to this ever in South Africa, except when there is a Gay Pride Parade or during  Pride Week or Month you hear about it on the radio or traffic reports,  (why do 4,5% of the 1st World get their own month  ???) Once again, just like what we saw when we were riding in the USA, the minority, (10% of the population,  is the tail wagging the dog, but I think Trump, (formerly Orange Man, but now Grey Man as he is also getting older) is going to be changing that as well.
• Saddest I felt was riding through Siberia, seeing the poverty of all the old people who stays on the “Trans Siberian Highway” (just a small tar road) and who spend the entire Summer chopping wood, preparing for the Winter. Reading the War Memorial Monuments at the entrances to the little towns. At one Memorial with a  big statue of a soldier and a Wall of Remembrance, I counted that 57 men from that village died in the 2nd World War, and then counted only 72 houses in the village as I rode through.  And Putin already then started talking of new wars at that stage and had just taken The Crimea from Ukraine.  How quickly can you forget 60 million deaths for the Russians in WW2. And if that was not enough, Siberia is also to where Stalin marched all his prisoners (not all criminals, some academics and scholars that just challenged his way of thinking, like what is happening in Iran now,)  the Gulag, where between 10m and 20m people were killed by him through  forced labour, (it was done all so secretly no one really knows how many were killed.)
• My biggest surprise was our ride through China, wow, the scale on which they do things are off the charts, seeing the highways they build, 8 lanes spanning across gorges and valleys, the new cities going up, the speed with which they do things, and the architecture of their buildings in some cities can be compared to Dubai anytime. The year we traveled through China they opened 52 new Coal Fired Power Stations, that’s one a week!!! Here in South Africa we are still trying to get our two new Power Stations to run properly even though they were years behind schedule and cost 3 times the original amount budgeted (if I remember correctly.)
• Any regrets, yes, my route through Colombia was not the greatest route as I just wanted us to get through Colombia and not spend much time in this country, I was worried about the Cartels and the Gangsters, but in hind sight, this country has so much to offer and we should have added a few days to our time in Colombia, I will have to go back in future to see the things
• The most dangerous ride was in China, we went to see the Panda’s and then left late, trying to get out of the city was the worst traffic I ever saw, 8 lanes of cars just all parked, no movement. Our bikes were overheating and we eventually were riding on the pavement to get some air through our radiators. When we eventually got out of the city it got dark and then the next minute we were in the dust, with road construction trucks driving in both directions of this gravel road under construction. Visibility was almost nil, and I remember following the lights of a truck when another truck passed just behind me at an intersection I did not even know where I was due to all the dust. The truck who’s lights I followed stopped at times causing me to swerve and skid onto the side of the road, I overtook the truck at one time, but without knowing the road, or having lights to follow, and the zero visibility, the construction truck was faster than me and rode right up to my back wheel, I had to get out of its way but could not see what was ahead, I rode right through the middle of some wheelbarrows and spades standing on the edge of the road. No one knew where the other guys where, we just had to soldier on to the next town where we planned to sleep, where we eventually all got together again. My Guardian Angle and all his friends were working overtime that day !!!!
• My hardest fall was in the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia after visiting a Nomad Tribe for a few days, broke some ribs, eventually having to go for a Check-up once we reached China at the local hospital at the border town. I dropped both the bikes I used on these 23 Legs many times, or fell over often,  or lost it is the mud or in a 270 degree bend on a gravel mountain pass when the bike stalls due to the steep incline, but Mongolia’s was a real fall.
• What happens with the Blog now? Well Milsy said I must not call this The Final Blog as he is convinced that there will be more adventures this group of guys will do together, like for example, we all fly to New Zealand and then hire dirt bikes and do a off-road ride, then I will stoke up this blog again and do a Post or two under a new Heading, but for now it ends. It will continue to be on the internet and people who surf the internet will continue to land on it and some might read sections or all of it. But to me this blog is something that will hopefully live on and be of value to my Daughters, who, one day when I have moved up to ride motorbikes and scuba dive in the oceans  in heaven,  can maybe on my birthday when I am missed, read a post or two. But I also believe that should I be blessed enough to have grandchildren, they can one day when they get older wonder who their grandfather was, and who this guy was that hopefully left them with my Legacy, and then they can read this Blog to get to know me a little better. The fact about this Blog is that it can never block anyone form seeing it, what I said is out there for anyone to go and read and see. And during the years I was sending it out I was never in control, (this Website falls under World Press) I could never block or exclude anyone from gettin this blog by email. A few times my wife would say she never got it, well sorry, you got it for hundreds of times, if you stopped getting it, blame your Server. Other people wanted to join via getting it by email and battled, but if they put in the correct email address they would get it, its like me printing a news paper and then when the News Paper Delivery boy does not deliver the news paper you blame me. So this Website will remain public and available to all who go to www.fleischer.co.za and no one in future will stop being able to see this. Until I stop paying my subscription to the guys that hosts my domain “Fleischer.” Which might carry on for many years or might soon end after I die????
• The most difficult country was China, mostly because the Red Tape to take your own bike in, (had to go through road worthy and we had to get Chineese Number Plates and do our Drivers Licenses again, took 2 days.) And the government is Communists, so lots of pre-visa checks, the route had to be approved by the Government and we had to pay a Agent to travel with us that checked that we stayed on the approved route, he did all the hotel bookings and helped us with ordering food, filling with fuel, etc. In China they also dont have big Adventure Touring Bikes, so a motorbike to them is a scooter, we were not allowed on any highways and had to ride 9 hours a day to just do 400km, over many mountains every day, using the little passes over the mountain, and then having to dodge all the local subsistence farmers on the road between their rice paddies with their scooters and buffaloes, walking with rakes and spades in the road, us weaving through the valley to get to the next mountain to cross. We were not even allowed to stop at the fuel pump when filling our bikes with fuel, motorbikes had a separate area away from the pumps where there were several watering cans with 4lt of fuel in each,  ready for the scooters, which is then poured into each motorbike. The language was very difficult as we traveled mostly through Rural China where we were the local attraction every night when we walked around the towns,  I doubt they had ever seen Westerners face to face in their little towns.
• What was my worst day: It is a long story, go and read it on Leg 15, Alaska trip, but basically Rocky’s bike got a big slash in the front tyre, only way to really fix it was to put in a tube, carried amongst us,  but it was with Pie’s Group who were 1 day ahead of us as they did bike Maintenance in Anchorage and 4 of us went Wild Salmon Fishing. We had to do a temperay repair, stuck about 6 plugs in the whole with lots of glue. But to pump a Tubeless Tyre that has come loose from the rim, you need a small explosion to “seat the tyre back into the Rim and then pump it.” We were 200km from any town with a Gas Station and a big Compressor to quickly pump the tyre so that it seats into the Rim. So for our explosion I suggested the Bear Spray I carried to spray at any bears, that did not explode. Then we tried Deodorant and then the gas from a Lighter. Eventually Peens poured 500ml of expensive Cognac into the wheel and set it alight, but instead of a small explosion we ended up with a Flambé-tyre:
• Country with the  best food, no contest, it was Argentina. But I must say, it was very interesting to see and taste the different food that they eat in other countries. We mostly stopped and ate Road-Food for lunch everyday, buying from ladies selling Soup or Taco’s or a Kebab, or a Stew from a little wooden structure or shack next to the side of the road. We ate what the locals ate, but in places like Laos and Thailand and China I drew the line, no way I was tasting a frog or a pig’s face. or a scorpion or chameleon. I must say, Argentina’s Beef is just so much better than any other place.
• Best People, very difficult to say as we met such amazing people in every country we travelled through. I like the Chilean and Argentinian people a lot, they are very much like South Africans. The people of Georgia surprised me, they are Rugby and Wine mad. Our taxi driver, one night when we went out on the town (Tbilisi) took us to his flat to talk rugby and let us taste his home made wine, which he stored in his washing machine in the bath room, minute little flat.
• Saddest People, the Russians are a very sad nation, or maybe a better word would be Serious nation, they have had hard lives, hard winters, lots of wars and deaths, and not much to be happy about, they are serious and they are hard people. I also felt sorry for the Rural Chinese people, their Blue Collar Workers and Laborers. They just work work work. There are very little human rights compared to other Western Countries and not many  smiles. They basically work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, 11 months a year. The Chinese don’t show much emotion, or maybe I am wrong and it is just because I can’t understand them when they are talking?????? But I hear things are also now changing. But compared to Africa where people who has nothing in this world has the biggest smiles, the Chinese really are a very sad nation, or, it is lost in translation and I just dont get them????
• What is the main reason that this Tour of the World was a success? I think there are many reasons, but you must remember that none of us could really just stop, it was like we were train-cars, hooked behind the KTM-train. If  you wanted to stop, what would you do with your bike? And it was not an option to miss a Leg as the bike had to be out of the country we left it in by a  certain date, a friend could go and ride it for you, but the owner of the bike needed to be there to take it out of a country and into the next. But I think the fact that we were all so different, with different temperaments, skills, my good sense of humor and good looks, and the fact that we were united around a common goal, is what contributed a lot in the early Legs. We really needed each other, and at the back of your mind you knew that these guys traveling with you will be there when you need them, they must get you to a hospital, inform your family if you can’t that things “went wrong.” I never doubted that they will call me  a chopper for a medical evacuation if needed. Or that they will come to the police to bail me out. But as time went by our friendships grew stronger, we rubbed off on one another, our testosterone stopped dripping and we started getting slow to anger, we got used to each others quirky habits and became more tolerant of one another, and a real strong bond grew over time. After the 1st few days of the ride you can say that we even had our bowel movements syncronised. We started to know what someone would do before they did it. For example, we all knew Peens would ride onto a pavement and over a red traffic light, or pass a truck on the wrong side and race off,  leaving us, but we were also not surprised a few hours later to see his bike parked almost in the road (to make sure we see it) after he found a little spot to eat, after looking at 3 or 4 places and then seeing which place has the freshest food, or plastic chairs to sit on instead of drums, or where there there was cold cool drinks from a fridge that was working.  I knew Pie and Tex would do the mechanical maintenance to my bike during the trip, I knew the finances were taken care of with Rocky running our Kitty, like a Swiss Banker, balancing to the cent at the end of the trip, he was also very important in some of the Storage arrangements and took over a lot of the Organising duties from me in the later Legs. I knew Millsy and Peens would mess with my Route and find some small gravel road to take us on, wasting time, forcing us to arrive late and me having to Blog while they drink a beer,  (but there is only one thing worse than following them into the abyss and that is to stick to my original route and ride it all by myself, that is a bog No-no, never ride alone.) We knew that Millsy would convince us that “The Glass Is Half Full,” (even when the glass lay shattered on the floor and the water has drained into the sand.) And of course the joking and pranks we played on each other was relentless. I told you a few Blog Posts ago about the prank when Peens removed the rubber off one of Pie’s Footrests that caused him to ride with one boot on metal and the other on rubber, slightly higher, for many years and through many countries. Another I now remember, Peens thinks he is a Babe Magnet, and as he was single then, (and still is,) he really tried finding true-love around every corner. One night in Russia he did almost find love, but, the lady had a job and decided not to elope on the back of Peens’s bike. She did give Peens a small framed Painting she painted as a sign of her love, which he then put behind the seat of our back-up vehicle. Pie then discovered the painting and decided to hide it, inside the Roof Top tent on Brutus’s roof.  Peens was very angry when he looked for it one day and many Legs later.  Pie told him that he threw it out one day when he decided to look for some spares and could not find them and decided it was a good time to throw away all the stuff we accumulated and were not using. This painting eventually got shipped back to South Africa with the vehicle and eventually was hung on a wall of a friend of Peens, who invited him over for a Braai, at which, after several drinks and him sitting opposite the painting, and looking at it all night he said “I had a similar painting once, a girl in Russia gave it to me, but it was just much bigger.”
• Said Painting :

• But another reason was  that our wives and families allowed us to go, and that we all had our own businesses and could make time for about 6 weeks every year to go twice to ride bikes. We called our WhatsApp Group : The Oros Group (Oros is a very cheap orange flavored cool drink that you mix with water,) as we decided not to waste money on the finest food and accommodation and drinks and always try to get the cheapest hotel and never went crazy when we ordered our meals at restaurants. So our wives did never become jealous when they saw the photos of our appalling hotel rooms or plates of food, and that helped, if we were living it up champagne-style I have no doubt they would have wanted to join us, or stop us.
• How many Tourist things did you do. We went to many waterfalls and cathedrals and cities in the early Legs, but as time went on we started to avoid these and rather did things done by locals and experienced the way locals lived, we went more and more off the beaten track and avoided cities and big roads, we hated highways (Turnpikes and Interstates as it is called in the USA.) But we did do some tourist stuffs that were memorable. Castles in Bavaria, flew in a balloon in Capadocia, visited The Summer Palace in St. Petersburg, swam in Lake Baikal in Siberia, trekked with Nomads in Mongolia, looked at Reactor Number 4 at Chernobyl, went down the Salt Mines, twice, sipped wine in Bordeaux, looked for bulls in Pamplona , ate some chocolate in Switzerland, saluted the guards at Check Point Charlie, saw Buda & Pest, got shook-up on the Roman-built cobble stone roads of Romania, we dipped our toes in the Black Sea and got to know some Gypsies in Bulgaria, walked through the ruins of Effaces and watched Peens swimming in the pools at Pamukale in Turkey, visited the mountain Monasteries in The Steps area of Georgia, rode to the Submarine Base in Balaclava, Crimea, (months before Putin stole it from Ukraine,) saw the evil of what can happen when 1 man has too much power at Auschwitz and Birkenau, got disappointed at the statue of The Little Mermaid in Denmark, (it is really a very small statue,) followed the Fjords of Norway into the Arctic circle to Norde Kaap, went to a Drag Race weekend in Sweden, looked for Father Christmas in Lapland, visited the Terracotta Worriers in China, Scuba Dived in Thailand, walked out on the glass viewing deck of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, got to see the fire-works show lighting up the snake on the hotel (a famous building  in Singapore.) Scuba Dived off Florida Quays, rode all the Twisties of The Tail of the Dragon, visited the museums in Washington. ate fish in Nova Scotia, meandered through the Great Lakes, saw the old Geyser blow in the Yellow Stone National Park, experienced the Air Show at Oshkosh, had a beer at Sturgis, followed the Alaskan Oil Pipeline to the tip of the North American Continent and searched for Polar Bears while swimming in the Sea of Buemont,  (only the mad ones swam,) saw the Presidents chiseled-out in the Rocky Mountains at Mount Rushmore. Looked up at the Red Wood Trees in Yosemite, parked our bikes for a photo on Time Square, experienced the heat in Death Valley. We traded some Beads in Bourbon Street (New Orleans,) we listened to Country music in Nashville and walked inside the prison walls of Alcatraz,  tossed the Mullet fish from Alabama to Florida, I can go on and on, but will fast forward now, but I need to mention how great it was when we crossed the Equator, the majority of all our travels were in the Northern Hemisphere, and to follow the Inca’s footsteps  in Peru, see Patagonia, sip Mal Bec red wine in Mendoza, see the Glaciers …… the highlights are just to many to mention in this Blog.  I just remembered visiting the highest town in the world, La Rinconada, at 4525M, higher than Kilimanjaro. I remember the headaches and the shortness of breath. I now remember slipping and sliding in the mud of this Mining Town in Peru. Guys, I have to stop now, just go back and read the blogs, there is just too many things to mention now and I know some of you are already on your 4th coffee for the morning and shaking.
• People ask me if things have changed over the years that we have been riding. Yes, things like Google Maps, Pin Locations, Cell Phone connectivity, Booking.com, Uber all made life and Navigation easier for us. Getting new bikes was also a big change as the old 990’s we used from London to Singapore were very heavy on fuel, had no fuel gauge, (just a light when you went onto Reserve,) they had no Trip Computers and the only electronics it had was that you could turn off the ABS, so getting the 1190’s in Texas was a big leap with the technology that came  with it. I often joke and say that on the earlier trips I would pack my Sun Glasses, now I pack my Reading Glasses and my Computer Glasses. We used to pack some Voltaren for when you fall off the bike after being Wind-Gat (driving like a Show-Off,) and some head-ache tablets for the morning after we might have “Gone Big” but now the medicine bag has become rather big with all our “old man meds” and we are also now much more prepared and travel with meds for any sickness that might arise. We realize we are no longer Bullet Proof.
• Longest Border Crossing, for many years the crossing into Ukraine was our longest crossing, we arrived at Odesa on a Ferry (with 90 train-cars at the bottom in the hold, then 60 Interlink Trucks on the middle deck, and then 6 cars and our 5 motorbikes on the top deck.) The border crossing took 5 hours, from 19h00 to Midnight,  the guards wanted a bribe and we were too stupid to realize this, so everything on our bikes and in the Land Cruiser had to be packed out and sniffer dogs smelled their way through or possessions. While we waited, all the trucks went through the border and even the trains had left. This was before Google Translate and communication was by Hand Signals. Then all the border crossings in Central America took 5 hours. Could it get worse? Yes, it did get longer when we sat at Customs in Bogota Colombia waiting for our bikes to be cleared after we flew them over from Panama, but that was only 6 hours, it took us 12 hours to leave Peru as there was a mix-up between our Fixer and the Custom Officials with re-instating our  Temporary Import Permits which we had Suspended to be able to leave the bikes there longer.
• Biggest Observation………… I guess that it does not matter what your nationality, culture, where you stay, how poor or rich you are, we are all humans, and we all have the same basic desires, needs and wants. We all just want to provide for our families, have a job, be a father or mother, nurture, live in peace and belong, no matter where you are, we are all the same, most of all we just want to be loved, and love those around us. And if you can see this, then War makes no sense. How can you have so much hate in you to want to kill another when we are basically all the same? I know religion adds the evil angle to my theory, but through so many countries and Continents, all I saw was people just like me, who thinks similar to me.

I have to stop now, I have probably lost most of you by now as there are lots of words and not any more photos.

Final Thoughts :

Now all of you are reading again as this is the part of the post  that I “Go Deep.”

Was it worth it? There were lots of sacrifices made, early mornings, late nights, uncomfortable days, extreme heat and cold, long flights and lay-overs and lots of time spent in airports, lots of planning and packing, lots of non-fun-stuff, many frustrated hours spent with the group when tensions got high and we have become irritated with each other, (usually at the end of the trips we had just had enough of each other, well some of us more than others,) There were tensions when we got lost as a group, or got lead down the wrong road by me and other times Peens, but even more tension and frustration when the group split into 2 or 3 and one of them would then not rejoin the group where we thought we would meet-up, and usually it would happen where there is no Cell Phone Signal and you must just try and figure out where the lost party turned the wrong way and where they might be waiting for us to join them.

My wife had to sacrifice a lot for me to be able to do this Epic Adventure, specially when my daughters were still young. My daughters also had to cope with me being away for long periods.

KTM Tour of the World also did not come cheap, I dont even want to try to estimate how much these 23 Legs has cost me financially, but if I just think of how much I have seen, experienced and learnt on these bike trips, the cost pails in comparison.

But there is something else I got out of this that is far far more important than the Adventure, the Memories made and everything I saw, experienced, tasted over the almost 14 years, and that is :

How much I have changed. I estimate that we have spent a total of 2800 hours of riding. That means 2800 hours of quiet, just me and myself in that motorbike helmet, time to be quiet and listen to yourself, mull over and re-chew your thoughts and things that are happening in your life, evaluate where you are in life, contemplating decisions you need to make, just work through all the crap that is in your head, listen to your heart, listen to your God. I always thought I was rather well stitched together with excellent mental health, but oh boy oh boy, did I have some issues to work through once my soul really started talking to me.  I had to come to the point where I realized I was a pretty shitty person, (feel so sorry for my parents, they really had a hard time raising me,)  and even my Siblings did not have it easy, I realised I needed lots of improvement to become a better husband, father, son, sibling, business partner, employer, boss, just to become a better person.

I was shocked to discover how much issues of my childhood and early adulthood I needed to process, work thorough and analyse and deal with. My biggest shock came when I realized I was my own worst enemy as a kid and young-man. It is almost as if I was out to Sabotage myself, I was stubborn and refused to take advice or listen to others. It is an absolute miracle that I made a success of my life. Let me give you just one example, (I remembered so many examples once I had opened this Can Of Worms.)

When I was a teenager my mom told me that my dad’s Medical Aid was willing to pay a large % towards an Orthodontist and that she has made an appointment for me and that my crooked teeth could be fixed, I refused to go. As a result I could eat an apple through a tennis racket for many more years. My mom begged me to go but I refused. Much later in life when I had already started my own business and did not have a Medical Aid, I paid my friends cousin, a dentist with a practice on the Pretoria Station, to pull the two healthy but “way out of line with the other teeth,” and I had to wear a metal plate in my mouth for many years, until I one day had enough and had implants fitted at my own cost, to achieve what the orthodontist could have done many years ago.

I think this “Harde-Gat-Houding” (stubbornness) only started to change when I was in my late 20’s and early 30’s. The Good Lord gave me a strong wife that kicked me into the right direction, and some very influential strong people came into my life and they guided me into the right direction (kicking and screaming) and opened doors for me, helping me build a successful business over the years. These mentors are still in my life and we will be Life Long Friends. Some of them are even part of this World Tour Group riding with me now.

An example of another thing I had to work through was the whole issue I had about feeling guilty that I never emigrated or get a 2nd Passport. I eventually made peace with it.  I love staying in RSA and have it all figured out, Street Wise. I could never have made a financial success in another country, but by staying I could make a BIG Success here in South Africa on multiple fronts. My kids are in the position to emigrate should they want to, as their education will open doors for them in most countries, and sadly for them, then I might follow them to a new country.  have had an AMAZING LIFE here in Johannesburg and can just see it getting better when I move permanently to my Holiday House\Retirement House in Hermanus next year.  Yes there are many problems in South Africa, and I have no doubt they will just get bigger over time, but the way things are going in Europe and the UK, (and the uncertain future in these countries where as one Muslim Scholar had said,  they are being “conquered by the womb.”) I would rather be a foreigner in my own country than a foreigner in another mans’s country. I stood at Ground Zero where the Twin Towers used to be and saw what can happen when hate finds a way. I have no doubt that the hate for the USA is going up daily thanks to Trump who has turned the world on to its head and making new enemies by the minute, not just outside the borders of the USA. There in no chance of a Nuke-Bomb landing in my backyard here in the Shit Hole County (according to Trump) where I stay, but China and Russia, and probably North Korea has their sights set on a few places on the other side of the pond.  I am surrounded by all my family and many many real true friends, I am talking real real friends with who you share a deep bond and with whom you have shared your life and lived through all the stages of your life, shared with them the tears and the joy. I will always have a very close bond with my fellow riders that shared this Adventure with me, but I also have several other friends just as close and special which I look forward to spending more time with, probably some of that time in an old age home, but together, sharing the sickness and pain that also lies ahead for us. I would not have had these friends and family around me if I emigrated.

I spent many hours analysing my life and discovered just how blessed I was. Things like to have had such good parents (my father taught me to work hard and not live beyond my means, that is why I got married late and had kids late,) I had learnt from my dad to work hard and to take  responsibility for my decisions and not hold out the Begging Bowl. My mom was a House Wife who managed to turn every Penny around, and she worked hard as well raising 3 kids, but she also made our clothes and sewed many dresses for weddings and functions for her and my sisters, she would save money by doing the baking and cooking all by her self, no pre made foods. She spent a lot of time on her knees praying, thanks to me. Then more people entered my life and and they took over from my parents and continued to shape and guide me, I re-lived all of this and could see that everything happened exactly at the right time in my life, and counting all these blessings had a very humbling affect on me.

So, I did not need to spend one Rand on seeing a Shrink to help me work through issues, I healed myself, not like I was that far gone, but the hours with myself in the helmet made me see the Wood For The Trees. Riding with what the world might call “Captains of Industry” was an honor and I believe some of their wisdom has rubbed off onto me. This big Adventure has made me accept myself,  I like my life, I even like myself,  I am truly happy now, I burst into song for no reason, I laugh more and smile more. I even make way for the infamous Mini Bus Taxi’s in Johannesburg. when driving in traffic.  I am so happy to be alive and to be where I am now, I believe I am exactly where I am suppose to be in my life right now!!!!!!! I agree I am not perfect, yet, and that my wife still has a little work left with me, but I am happy. I am a better husband, dad, Christian, friend, citizen, son, sibling today than before we rode out of London all those years ago. I am at peace.

One last very important thing is that the saying Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, is very true, the time away from my lovely wife Thea has made me realize how happy she makes me and our love has grown deeper, not just from my side, if you ask her she will agree that the time apart did cement our relationship.

Last Words Of Wisdom:

Words that comes up to summarize this Adventure : Blessed, Lucky, Thankful, Grateful, Happy, Proud.

A wise man once said : Grace is God making sure that you get what you don’t deserve. Mercy is God making sure that you don’t get what you do deserve. And that Peace is what you enjoy when you accept His Grace and Mercy. I am at peace, 100%.

So for the very last time, this is me signing off, thanks for riding with us.

Luv Ja Madly, chase your dreams and follow the rainbows life gives you!!!!!!!! And when a door in life opens, walk through it, dont kick it open, I tried it in the past and bumped my head far too many times.

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Fleisch