The packing, the prep, the plan……….. 3 weeks to D-Day

For those who have been following my Blogs, you know by now there is a Silly Little Post just before we leave for the next Leg, I pretend its is all about the packing, prep and plan, but it is actually to just test that the website is working Lekker. What you dont know is that while we are not riding there is a photo on the website advertising the next leg and the dates we are riding again, it is called the “Landing Page,” (look at me getting all IT-Tec-Smart!!!! But when I do a Post it has to appear in the position there is now currently a photo of a glacier, so things has to be changed on our side before the 1st post.

Current Landing Page to change to “Current Leg”

We plan to store the bikes in El Calafate which is next to the National Glazier Park with several Glaziers which we plan to visit at the end of this trip.

Another thing that happens after a Leg is that all the posts of the trip needs to be put in chronological order in a folder for when people land on the page in-between trips and they then need to navigate between the different Legs filed on the website. So sorry for you, but here is the excuse story and photos to test the Site:

The tires that are on my bike are all worn-up as SAA refused me to load my tires onto the flight 2 Legs ago (no car parts they say,) and I had to fit really horrible tires in Ecuador which did not even do half what the Heidenau K60 Scouts could have reached, (we have all mostly been riding on this far superior German Tyres throughout the 21 Legs.

I am flying with a different airline this time Latam, Brazilian Airline and hope they will think I have a Bicycle in my special Suitcase.

Rockie’s Top Box Pannier Bracket broke on the last trip and was brought back to RSA for repairs, but true to form, Pie was not happy with the design and re-designed the bracket to make it stronger and stainless-steel-welded it. The reason I can show you the Bracket is because it is with me, the reason it is with me is because Rocky does not believe in checked-luggage and only travels with hand luggage, so goes who is taking the bracket for him? Yes, the groups “Drug-Mule” who already has two tires to check into the planes hull.

I also decided it was time for new shirts and had them made. I bit of a disaster when the guy making the shirts delegates the job and then goes abroad for a month, so the staff got a few of the colour wrong with too much White on the front of the sleeves and too much Orange on the sleeve, but as they say, “It is what it are.” Changing it would result in buying new shirts, so I just have to accept the shirts with the mistakes.

As it is going to be very cold I also made some Beanies, and new Caps for the 1 week out of 4 when the sun shines at the bottom of the Continent:

But the real work for this trip happened many months ago when I did the Route Planning. There is a group of South African Adventurers that travel all over the world in 4X4’s and they have a TV Program called Voetspore. They traveled South America last year and they drove on a road, “Route 256” which is a road between Chile and Argentina and they all said it was the most beautiful road they have ever traveled, so I had to include it. Another thing that I learnt was that Patagonia is not just an area (of great beauty,) in Argentina, but also in Chile, so we have to cross back and forth between these two countries 4 times as we can’t miss the Lake District in Argentina, and we have to go to the Alpine Village called Bariloche, infamous for the town where lots of Nazis and SS Officers went to hide from prosecution after World War 2. We are also forced to satisfy Pie’s urges and will be visiting a pre-war car collector in Chile and go and Oh and Ah at his old cars, I have allowed a weekend with him as he will know the area and give us some nice local places to ride to and visit in his town of Puerto Montt on the West Coast of Chile.

And now it is time to push the Post Button and then hope you receive this email 1st time, and that if I go to the Website, “www.fleischer.co.za” I will see this boring Post at the top of the landing page under the Heading “Current Trip.” If you have not yet visited the website you should have a look. There is a Video with footage of Russia and Norway, we have a Tour Song Video (by Journey) also on the website and some other things you can look at.

We are looking forward to you riding with us soon.

XXXXX

Fleisch