The Wakhan Valley, the starkly beautiful 'roof of the world' Pamir's, the contrasting lushness of the corridor villages and the connecting M41 Pamir Highway made Tajikistan arguably one of the most exciting destinations across our motorcycle adventure.

This video documents our spectacular ride from Murghab to Langar. The tracks were treacherous but it was worth the risk - the scenery is 'off-the-dial'.

Stay tuned for more video footage.

Sunbaking on the balmy shores of the Adriatic Sea and swimming in crystal clear water, appreciating the mountainous landscapes and villages, enjoying a few aperol spritzes with old friends, and generally relaxing, the Balkans was what we had been dreaming about! We didn’t know much about the Balkans before we arrived, but now that we've been there we wouldn’t hesitate in recommending a visit.

Getting into the Balkans, and moving through, proved harder than expected. After departing Gallipoli we headed straight for the Turkey-Greece border. Unfortunately we didn’t get much further...

With all of our luggage on we decided to test the performance of our KLRs on a lap around the famous Nurburgring. Check out how fast the race cars go past us!

This is just a taste of our European experience. We will have more Europe blog posts shortly.

Where East meets West! In Turkey we rode along the Black Sea coastline, hung out with fellow travellers in Trabzon, got motion sickness from too many corners around Amasra, serviced our bikes, camped in some sweet spots, got stuck in Istanbul traffic for hours and explored the Gallipoli battlefields.

Trabzon

In Trabzon we got in contact with some Turkish motorcycle riders whom we had met on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan. One of the riders, Sedat, is the manager of his family's hotel and he generously put us up for a few nights. This was no normal hotel! It had a rock climbing wall and Sedat’s vintage BMW c...

The Caucasus region is a mountain range between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and is considered to be the world's most ethnically diverse region. Over eight days we rode through Azerbaijan and Georgia. We had planned to detour into Armenia for a few days but cancelled this plan in favour of more time on the coast of Croatia - something we'd been dreaming about when riding through the Iranian Desert!

Azerbaijan

The first thing we noticed as we crossed from Iran to Azerbaijan was the freedom of the Azeri people in comparison to their Iranian neighhbours. The women wore bikinis and there were a variet...

Yazd to Shiraz

With the heat of the day becoming less intense the further we travelled southwest the riding became much easier. A random highlight on this leg of the journey occurred at a highway rest stop. As usual we were surrounded by a crowd of blokes interested in the bikes, looking at the country stickers on Todd's panniers (a work of art) and asking lots of questions in Farsi (which we are obviously fluent in). Suddenly the situation escalated when one bloke pulled out a large banner and gestured for us to pose for a photo with it in front of our bikes. The banner was in Farsi, and looked like an ISIS...

If we'd made our decision to travel to Iran based on popular advice we would have never visited. Luckily we did visit. It was exciting to "conquer the unknown" and travel across the country that is neither 'East' nor 'West' and experience first-hand the culture, meet the people, see the sights, learn some of the history, and ultimately form our own opinions based on actual experiences. And the experiences were extraordinary. The highlights;

The Route and the Sights

Over sixteen days our 4000 kilometre route across Iran took us through the major centres of Mashhad in the north east, Tabas and Yazd in the centr...

The most mysterious and least travelled of Central Asia's "Stans", Turkmenistan is a country of stark contrasts. The short travel from the ancient city of Merv to the futuristic and ultra-modern Ashgabat, via poverty stricken villages, makes you wonder if you’ve actually travelled in time instead of distance.

For the first time on our adventure we had to travel through a country under an escort. The escort was required in order to obtain the invitation to enter Turkmenistan, the tourist visa on arrival, and permission to travel overland. We had arranged all this in advance with StanTours during the planning p...

Introducing Uzbekistan - Central Asia's cradle of culture for more than two millennia, and home to a suite of architectural wonders and ancient cities that were once lynchpins on the Silk Road. The glorious cities of Samarkand and Bukhara inspire visions of caravans plodding along the Silk Road, bustling bazaars, Sultans, scholars, mazes of alleys walked by beggars and street rats, and a magic carpet or two if you have a good imagination. 

The growing tourist trade in the major centres made for easier travel, but without compromise to local traditions and customs, and the overall cultural experience. Our slow...

Where "Great Game" strategic rivalry and conflict between the British and Russian Empires for supremacy in Central Asia once occurred, and where recent post Soviet era civil war tore communities apart, we went exploring. The Wakhan Valley, the starkly beautiful 'roof of the world' Pamirs, the contrasting lushness of the corridor villages and the connecting M41 Pamir Highway made Tajikistan arguably one of the most exciting destinations of the trip to-date.

Culturally it was great to interact with the diverse mix of Tajik peoples. Persians, Kazaks, Mongols, Uzbeks, Russians, the Pamiris of Badakhshan, and a s...