Home Sweet Home

sunflowers — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:50:08 +0000

I know you aren’t suppose to run away from your problems. But this last month since the accident has been really stressful and as I get nearer and nearer to home I feel like the problems of the last month are slowly melting away. I still need to figure out what to do with my bike and see a doctor about my shoulder but it will be nice to be home.

Thanks for all the Fish

sunflowers — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:45:16 +0000

A big thank you to everyone for following along on the journey with me. A special thank you to everyone that commented, emailed and sent help along the way.

Gotta Have Goals

sunflowers — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:44:05 +0000

It’s weird when something that has been such a big part of your life is over (other than sorting out my collarbone and what to do with my bike). So I have decided to follow in Ian’s path and come up with a set of new goals for the future.

Marching Mothers

sunflowers — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:43:17 +0000

I am getting depressed sitting around Dakar Motos wondering what I am going to do with my bike so I decided to go into town and see the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo march as their children disappeared during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. It turns out that Myles who came down and traveled with me when I couldn’t do anything had just arrived in Buenos Aires so we met up for a coffee. It was nice to talk to someone about what I was going to do with my bike.

I also visited La Boca to have lunch (I thought I better have some Argentinean meat before I go) where a nice girl cut up my meat for me and the cemetery where Evita was buried.

Bike Dilemma

sunflowers — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:42:35 +0000

I had arranged to go back to Dakar Motos in order to take the bike across the border with Stephen and now I am going back to sort out a big mess as now I have to figure out what to do with my motorbike. We made a list of the things wrong with it.

1.missing back indicators and brake light
2.pannier racks are broken
3.1 panniers dented, 1pannier repaired or replaced
4.tail rack is bent
5.subframe slightly twisted (just the bit that goes over the rack)
6.handlebars took an impact and the front forks misaligned (need to loosen the triple clamps and straighten the forks)
7.speedo needs to be replaced
8.the windscreen broke
9.headlight moved a little bit

The cost of shipping it back to the UK is expensive and it would be hard to sell for parts as they don’t have DR650s in Argentina.

Goal 74

sunflowers — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:41:19 +0000

Ian (100 goals in 100 weeks) likes to have company when he completes a goal and I was lucky enough to be accompanying him on goal 74. This is his write up for the day. A big thanks to him for being my chauffeur for the day and allowing me to see all the things I hadn’t had a chance to see yet.

Life 4 Sale

sunflowers — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:30:56 +0000

For the first time on my trip I give up. I shipped my bike up to Dakar Motos and the guy who has bought it went there on the 22nd January to make sure it was ok as I had told him about the crash and sent him photos has decided that he wants his money back and no longer wants the bike. I understand his position but for me it feels a bit like the last straw, it has been hard month with the accident and now this. I don’t even have anyone to talk to as the people who are staying where I am are Swiss and speak German all the time and the internet isn’t good enough to phone my mother.

Then when I am feeling at an all time trip low I met this bloke at dinner who turned out to be famous. Does anyone remember the British guy who moved to Australia with his wife and when she left him he decided to sell his life on ebay. Ian’s website about selling his life on ebay is www.alife4sale.com. Afterwards he used the money to achieve his life goals www.100goals100weeks.com. He was really interesting to talk to and we made arrangements to meet up the next day and hire a vehicle together.

Hangi and Home

sunflowers — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:39:14 +0000

I went to a traditional dinner and show and it turns out that they traditionally cooked like the maoris do in New Zealand by steaming food in a pit (see my blog entry when my family did a hangi).

I had been looking forward to coming to Easter Island because I thought it being a Polynesian island it would remind me of home but this is the first time that it has.

Alternative Healing

sunflowers — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:38:29 +0000

There isn’t really much to do on Easter Island when you can’t dive, snorkel, hire a car to drive or bicycle around so I decided to have a reki session with Diana. I was a little bit skeptical but actually I felt much better afterwards.

Then in the afternoon we went to the place that the islanders used to have the birdman competition and swim to an island and the first one back with an egg tribe became chief.

Couch Surfing Party

sunflowers — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:37:32 +0000

I was lucky enough to find Diana to couch surf with as accommodation is pretty expensive on Easter Island. Diana is a Swiss girl who had been studying alternative therapies while working at a bank and then gave it all up to come and become a healing practitioner on Easter Island. I have a lot of respect for people who make dramatic changes to their lives and she is particularly lovely. Also that night another person who couch surfs invited us to a bbq at his place.