2009 China Recce

The Pamir Highway

16/05/2009

Hi everyone. Kevin and I have just completed the tough and challenging Pamir highway. We’re riding the route a month earlier than we will be when we take the first GlobeBusters group on the new China trip, so there’s still some snow around to catch us out! This has given us some ‘interesting’ moments on the challenging terrain and riding the route has been a huge personal achievement!

We are now in Naryn, Kyrgyrzstan. Tajikstan was definitely the hard part of the journey, but also very fulfilling for us both. We’ll both be glad that there won’t be any snow when we come back with the GlobeBusters group, particularly as I managed to come off the bike riding over a high pass in minus wind chill conditions and sheet ice on road! This is a remote area of the world and the kind of infrastructure that we are all used to is pretty much non existent, except in capital cities. We’ve seen some incredible things though. The Pamirs are breathtaking and this route up there with the best and toughest in the world. We’ve also had three full on river crossings. People’s diet in these areas is fairly poor and consists of the same meat and potato soup and bread. After several days on Yaks meat, we’re both glad to be able to tuck into food which is more interesting!

Just a quick mention about our bikes and equipment. Both our BMW GSs have given zero problems and our equipment, notably our Touratech kit and our Garmin GPS have proved excellent for the challenging journey, leaving us to focus on the ride itself. Our Cotswold Outdoor gear is both robust and has been just the job in the sometimes very cold temperatures and we’ve certainly felt the benefit of being able to keep hydrated while riding thanks to our Kriega hydration pack.

Julia Sanders

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China Research Expedition Forges Eastwards

01/04/2009

The GlobeBusters research to expedition to China is well underway and is making good progress. Kevin and Julia Sanders left the UK on Sunday 29th April on their R1200GS's.


Today (April 1st) the pair left the snows of Austria behind to enter Slovenia and plan to reach Croatia before the day's end.

The weather has been excellent for the ride, despite recent snow frustrating attempts at crossing some high mountain passes.

The team now plan to ride onto Albaia and then Greece before entering Turkey at the weekend.

Check back to the GlobeBusters site for further news and updates.

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