Hubbard Motorcycle Adventures

Let’s first start with a correction. In my first blog post for the trip I attributed the quote on why we are doing this  trip to a quote from  Gullivers Travels . It was actually Jupiters Travels. Mr Gulliver  apparently wasn’t really into introspection of this sort!  Secondly an acknowledgement. I am not set up to ride and take photos from the moving bike at the same time.  That would be taking multitasking too far - even for a male! So most of the photos in this blog come from Diana on the back. She has got taking photos from a moving bike down to a very fine art and Is now very skilled at it. I download  some of her photos each night. Under copywrite rules of course !  So back to our overnight at Nozawa- Onsen. The hotel had individual Onsen in each room. “Individual” is the key word here. Here is a photo of our in room Onsen. Think of it  as a flower pot Onsen !  Once I got in I almost had to do a Houdini act to get in and out!  It ...

This morning I got an email from Tatiana who is a Russian lady based in Japan and who does the ferry bookings to Korea and Vladivostok for us.  There is a problem! We personally are booked Japan to Korea in 10 days time and a week later Korea to Vladivostok. But the  Redhead (motorbike ) is only booked as far as Korea apparently and there is now no space on the Korea to Vladivostok leg for the Redhead. OK, can we miss Korea?  Not possible as our visas do not allow us to arrive early in Russia.  Can we carry the Redhead on as hand luggage?  Will she fit in a cabin designed tightly for two?  Can we dismember her and carry her pieces on board ? So now after discarding these alternatives  we are going to spend an extra week in Japan, give Korea a miss and then arrive Vladivostok on our original date. Korea’s loss, Japan’s  gain!  So it is a leisurely 17 days in Japan instead of 10 days as planned. Such is travel  Today, however we go up the...

I go to check out of the hotel this morning. The hotel was a very up market  hotel with a price to match.  It was a splurge !  However when I go to check out I find the price quoted was per person. Double ouch!  Lesson learned. But at least the magnificent evening meat and a good hearty breakfast was all included. Ditto the onsen experience. Well, as they say,  it is only money after all ! And after all I am in a good mood after having my private parts inspected last night by the lady onsen attendant , having my private parts massaged with hot air  this morning whilst sitting on the toilet.  And we had had a great evening meal last night. Hey, was that dark coloured meat on last nights buffet whale meat ?  It looked suspiciously so.  We go back up the road to see if is all closed. It is closed to motorbikes and open topped cars because of the volcano. But we have helmoets as  opposed to any drivers in open top cars !  That doesn’t ...

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...

There is a book of this name by Robert Preslig ( spelling Wilson ?) which is a lovely juxtaposition of Zen and general philosophy intermingled with the practical details of keeping a motorbike on the road. Well we have had Yen rather than Zen to contend with but philosophy in general went out the window as I worked out how to fix a motorbike tyre on a Sunday in Japan. Anyway the very helpful people at the hotel front desk went to work and we located a workshop that worked on a Sunday. However the tyre was leaking fast so I was reluctant to ride 20 km to a workshop. We located a workshop that agreed to pick the bike up from the hotel. So it was an ignominious start this morning and no real way to treat a lady!  Then we got delivered not to the workshop that we had contacted but rather to a little Mom and Pop workshop servicing mainly scooters. Oh the indignity to the Redhead ! And we find the problem!  It was a leaking valve stem which had not been tightened properly by the wo...

And now the bike clearance process starts. First of all it’s a trip out to the freight  company. The taxi driver who does not speak a word of English drops me at the wrong place. All the signs  are in  Japanese. Eventually with some assistance I get through the security system down the road and into the customs bond area. I find International Express Ltd ( Helpfully called IEC only!). I get my Carnet  documents for the bike. Then I am told in very broken English that I have to go into downtown Tokyo to see the JA F people. That is the Japanese Automoble Federation which is the equivalent of the A.A. in New Zealand. They have to endorse the Carnet before customs clearance. But it is now 1 pm on Friday. They  only work Monday to a Friday. Tokyo City is 80 km away ! I swallow and take a taxi to get there in time. This taxi fare I paid should single handledly pull Japan out of its current  recession!  We get there, find the office, find the right person a...

  Well we now find ourselves in Japan and ready to ride our motorbike to London. But first of all why are we doing this. The answer lies in this quote from Gullivers Travels which gives us clarity in our thinking and reasoning and this says it all -  We  Having got the purpose of the trip out of the way it is time to get down to the nitty gritty of the travel. First question - how do I make Diana as comfortable as possible on the back of a bike for 5 months and 30,000 km. . I search the internet and find this possibility.  Unfortunately we do not have a spare green sofa -  So having got this travel option off the table it is a question of getting the packing organised. I test out the Plan B accomodation options in the lounge at home  Actually on a more serious note the test was well worth while as I found I had the wrong tent poles to go with the tent   Imagine finding that out in the back blocks of Outer Mongolia as I put the tent up in the rain!...

 But first is is down to Bandar Abbas. We get an early start to maximise the cooler temperatures. Wise move Dick!  It starts off cool but gets progressively hotter as we get closer to the Gulf.   The temperature gauge on the bike moves upwards  through 32,  36, 38, 40, 41, 42, and then tops out at 42.5 degrees. That is hot and as I understand it humans top out at 50 degrees or not much above it. And this is Autumn here !  We got very good on our travels at sheltering from the rain under over ridges. Here is the opposite. We find one to shelter under from the relentless sun!  It is near the top of a mountain pass and the temperature drops to a cool and welcoming 37 degrees in the shade.   We see trucks lined up in a huge queue leaving the duty free port zone    Then is is back down the heat as we approach Bandar Abbas. Bandar is a ferry port, a very large cargo port and a very large Iranian navy port. It is right on the narrowest parts of...

We get  to Persopolis early in the afternoon and find a hotel about a kilometre from the ruins. It is very hot and it seems very crowded so it is an easy decision to go first thing the next morning when it is cool and the crowds thinner.   What an amazing place and one of the founding centres of modern Western civilisation - or at least until Donald Trump destroyed the concept of western civilisation ! The city was built by King Darius in something BC finished off by his son. Alexander the Great then came and plundered it and used 3, 000 camels just to take the spoils of the treasury away with him. I think the ancient city it is more inspiring than the Parthenon in Greece or the ancient ruins of Rome. One almost feels privileged to see it. We spend several hours taking in the wonder, the grandeur and the history of it all.      Then reality hits and it is time to head down the road to Shiraz all of 53 km away. We look for a hotel on the northern approached to th...