Walter Colebatch, James Mudie ride two Honda Transalps from Tokyo to London. The journey goes through China, Mongolia,
Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kyrghizstan, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
Czech Republic, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Britain.
This motorcycle journey and travel included Tokyo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Nanjing, Tianjin, Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Ulan-Ude,
Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Semipalatinsk, Almaty, Chimkent, Moscow, Minsk, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki,
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brugge, Paris and London.
The Tokyo to London by motorcycle journey was completed in late 1994 by two Australians, Walter Colebatch and James Mudie.
In roughly chronological order
The Australia-China friendship society in Melbourne for their letters of support
- which may have helped sway the Chinese offficials; Tony Hill in Sydney for
Logistics advice; James' surrogate family for housing and feeding us in Tokyo,
Tamsin from the Australian Consulate in Shanghai for the guarantee we would take
the bikes out of China, Lyall Crawford who
housed us in that mighty big black compound in Beijing. Erkhembaatar
and Gerlee who housed us, fed us and put up with arriving back in Ulaan
Baatar at 5am... three times. DHL for losing 40 rolls of valuable
exposed film somewhere between Ulaan Baatar, Leverkusen and Moscow and showing no interest in finding it; To
the gang of expats
from the Intourist Hotel in Irkutsk who all helped stop us going mad while
we waited for our spares in Siberia, thanks to John and Patty (Rolls-Royce)
Brooks; Barry (Boeing) Parmenter; Sally the Stewardess; Chris, Cathy and
the folks at the Raleigh International camp; Marina Vozniak - the nicest
woman who has ever charged me US$7 per minute for faxing services; Mel, Kamal and
Veronica for putting us up (and for putting up with us) while we waited
for our spares; All the lovely girls at the Irkutsk Foreign Languages Institute
for showing me around town and for laughing at my Russian. Olga Zhorova
A very
big thanks to Igor and the crew at the Irkutsk Toyota dealership for doing
such a good job on our Sukhoi jet fighter brake pads and refusing to take payment. Thanks
to David Waterhouse and all the crew at Telstra Almaty for taking in a
couple of dirty, smelly guys who'd spent a couple of days crossing a desert
- and to the British Embassy in Almaty for avoiding (like the plague) a
couple of dirty, smelly guys who'd just crossed the desert:& To various
staff at the Australian, British and Canadian Embassies in Moscow for their
help To Asko Hakkinen (and Finlandia Vodka) who in his absence arranged
5 star accommodation in downtown Helsinki: To the guys at Brandt
Honda in Helsinki: To Malin and Cecelia who took exceptionally fine care
of us in Stockholm: Roger Brown in Vienna and Rachel Mor and family in
Moscow and Fontainebleau for same, and finally a very big thanks to Andrew (Swizzels) Matlow, Cathy Woellwarth, (Big)
John Daley, Pete Bantick and Melanie Devlin for so graciously letting us
sponge for two months after the trip!
The most comprehensive advice site for international moto-touring is at :
Peter Forwood has compiled an index of motorcycle travel
advice by country and must have close to one hundred countries listed on every continent.
Peter's own journeys between Europe and Asia via India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey are well
documented and make for good reading.
Another source of both inspiration and advice is Jim Rogers' book, Investment Biker. Jim
spent 18 months and rode pretty much everywhere. From Ireland to Japan via Turkey and
Central Asia; then back to Ireland via Siberia and Russia; down across the Sahara and through
Zaire to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand; finally from Tierra del Fuego in South America
to Alaska and back to the US. Two people, on two bikes. Jim's girlfriend who accompanied
him on the trip had never even ridden before they decided to make the trip, so that in itself
should wipe out a whole bunch of excuses not to make a trip for yourself.