And across the border to Armenia

" The day started full of promise" We started off out of Tbilis ready to head down the road to the border crossing. There were two crossing to choose from. The decision was taken out of my hands as we missed the turn off to the first one.

We follow the "M6". It is not quite the standard of the M6 in the UK! The road gradually deteriorates

And gets worse

And worser!

After two hard hours we arrive at the border crossing. It is shut! There is a power failure so no computers. "How long?" A shrug of the shoulders. We wait two hours. Occasionally the power comes on and off again. Still nothing happening. We decide to cut our losses and backtrack for two hours to the turnoff to the other crossing

We get there at 3 pm. 7 hours on the road and we are 70 km from Tbilisi ! Not good. Then a difficult 2 hour border crossing. They do not like the paperwork for the bike. Virtually no English spoken. We get thru by 5 pm. Then it is a difficult ride on very very rough and broken roads thru a tight valley

A scary tunnel with a dirt floor and no lighting

Abandoned factories everywhere and deserted apartment buildings. A general air of decay, gloom and despondency. Light starts to fade. Will we have to pull over on the side of the road and put the tent up?

We arrive at the town of Sandzador just on getting fully dark and find a hotel. Even the hotel seems run down but ut still a welcome shelter from the thunderstorms that arrive just after us

Next day dawns more promising. We head down to Yerevan - capital of Armenia. The weather looks passable !

We by pass the centre of town and soon we are riding close to Mt Ararat. It has a bit of a cloud cover today.

Pope Francis was obviously a bit of a hit when he was here

The roads get better and the scenery gets better

We go over high passes

And we head to the town of Goris where it is time to find a hotel and stop for the night

Tomorrow- 150 km then the border crossing to Iran

We are not sure if this blog site works in Iran. If not then we are off the air until about the 20 th September when we arrive in Dubai on the ferry from the bottom of Iran

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12 June 2017 at 01:54

The last post!

How do you summarise a motorbike trip around the world from Tokyo to Los Angeles?. With difficulty! Well we are not into record setting. But we believe we are the oldest couple in the world to ride a motorbike “ two up” ie with pillion passenger, right round the world on one season Let’s start off with the statistics for the little trip - Total mileage. 34,416 km * No of days travelling 165 No of countries visited 29 Max temp on bike 41 deg C Min temp on bike 0 deg.C No of punctures. One No of breakdowns. One

Chapters 1 and 2

WHY MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURES ? I have always been interested in adventure. Over the years I have climbed mountains, parachuted, had my private pilots licence, dived, sailed and done various adventurous pursuits (with various degrees of success I might add!). Motorcycling has been one of the later activities. Why motorcycles? Firstly it is all a bit easier on the body as one gets a little bit older. This is of course on the assumption that one does not inadvertently part company suddenly with said machine! Secondly, it does also require a bit of brain power - intellect you might say if that does not sound snobby. There is also, to me, an element of "man and machine" about motorcycling. Then if that is not enough justification in itself there is the scenery and the absorption into the landscape you are passing through. On a bike you see much much more than in a car, bus or train. You are aware of nuances in the landscape, you smell the smells and you become more than just

And a volcano stopped us!

What a day. First thing this morning it was off to check the rear tyre of the bike. Oh the relief ! The tyre was rock solid and the same pressure as after fixing yesterday. So it is a pack up and first day on the road today. We get on the way with a just a little bit of nervous excitement. On to the Japanese motorway system we go. And what a delight. The traffic is orderly, calm not going to fast and not too thick. We track right in towards Tokyo itself before bearing West. Yes, there were lots of spaghetti junctions - It looks like The Los Angeles motorway system but it is so much easier (and slower). Japanese politeness really shows thru’. However there were lots of toll booths - we had chopped thru about NZ$50 in the first hour and a half Then we are on to the slow bit and off the motorways. It was about a four hour stop and start crawl thru the urban sprawl of greater Tokyo. However I did find time for some serious reflection - I also saw a hotel called - and I kid you not

Hubbard Motorcycle Adventures

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