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Published: March 5th 2009
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David Lees
David before the broken bones.. Broken Bones and we haven't left home yet !!!
David ‘Broken Bones’, one of the adventurers, fell off his dirt bike a few weeks ago, while fooling around out in the forest, and broke his shoulder blade, well that was a big bugger, as it was jeopardising his adventure ride with us. After lots of physiotherapy and taking it real easy, like no changing of the babies nappy, having his wife tie his shoe laces etc. When I say “Take care out there”, that’s sort of what I mean. Anyway, he gave me a call yesterday and has been cleared by the hospital to ride with us, so that’s just great news.
Also, you won't find a picture of Murray Goss, he will be driving the chase truck, his yellow local transport is a bit of a worry though....as the photo he sent was too small to go on the blog, but I am sure he will appear before too long.
The Eagle has landed, well, The bikes are in Valparaiso, more like it. The motos have been removed from the container and are in a bonded warehouse (I hope).
We are using a customs clearance agent that
Team Kawasaki for 2009
The Black Red and the Green I met while trying to clear my moto in 2005, he now specialises in custom clearances for moto’s into Chile, mostly German bikers, so we hope that things will go a bit smoother than last year...it’s amazing who you meet when the going gets tough.....stay tuned.
Gerardo has loaded his moto onto the back of the chase truck, in Punta Arenas, and loaded all of that onto a transporter and sent it North by road to Santiago. It is due there on Thursday and Gerardo will fly in on Friday, pick up the truck, have a rest then off to the airport to pick up Geraldine and me.
It was cheaper to do it this way, than for Gerardo to take 3 days off work, pay the fuel and accommodation, for the 3,000km’s from Punta Arenas to Santiago.
I just got notice yesterday that Kawasaki have a recall on the 2008/9 650 KL motos, very timely, not, as both David and mine are already in Chile. We have the information and the recall pack, so we will do the necessary mods before we head out of Vina del Mar. One of the problems is in the routing of the wiring
Vina del Mar
Next stop Vina del Mar, Chile loom, the other is the muffler has a tendency to work loose and may fall off. Nothing major really.
GPS...
Many people ask me if I have and use a GPS. Well, normally being one to embrace any new technology, I have not taken (advantage ?) of the GPS for finding directions. My reasons for this are varied, as most of my adventure riding these days is of course done in pretty remote places in South America and finding GPS data for these remote places is neigh on imposable. Even many maps that I use are unreliable. When I calculate mileage between towns or places, I use 3 maps and take the average, then, when I ride the actual route, I take the mileage off the moto for confirmation.
The other thing is it takes away that sense of adventure, as experiencing the expected is not an adventure. Without a GPS you are pretty much on your own and have to find your way, just like in the old days. A few years ago while in South America, I had left my hotel at 7.30 am in the city of San Juan, in Argentina. Using my map and the feeling
What I leave behind
This is Raewyn's playground while I am away in my water, I headed in the direction that should have taken me out of town, as it would have, but there was a confusing intersection which led onto a freeway and onto Mendoza, not wanting to go to Mendoza I tracked back to see where I had gone wrong, I asked (my Spanish then was nil) a couple of road workers the way out of town, they gave arm waving directions, that didn’t feel right, but took it anyway. After confirming my desired direction with two Policemen, standing on a corner, I sort of went back the way I had come from, but down a few more roads that I hadn’t seen before, and lo and behold there was my hotel that I had left an hour ago !!
I soon realised my mistake and found the road I needed to get outa town. I saw a lot of the city that I hadn’t planned on, a GPS may have got me out more directly, but I also had some interaction with some local people and it was a nice town. Needless to say I have a compass on my moto now.
Another time in La Paz, while riding with Curtis, Roger and the Doctor and Lolita, we got a bit confused (even though Curtis had a GPS). We asked a local taxi driver to lead us to our hotel, well it turned out that he never knew where it was, but he was too proud to admit it, so just drove around, with us bikes following, until we came past the same church again!!. During the heated discussion that followed, a young fellow said he knew where the hotel was, so he jumped on the back of Curtis’s moto and led us, with no problems, to our hotel, he of course got the taxi fee.
By experiencing this, three years later I was able to lead our group of riders directly to our hotel in the downtown heartland of La Paz, and no GPS. These are just two experiences that come to mind.
The other day while at Rod’s tyre shop here in Awanui, we observed a fellow riding a BMW 1200GSA and he was parked looking at his map, then up and down the road, I said to Rod “he looks a bit lost”. Soon after he headed North towards the cape, I finished my chat with Rod and proceeded to ride home (North). Just up the road I see this fellow parked again, so I pulled over to see if I could give him some assistance....I asked if he was lost, and in his Australian drool, said he was confused, (I was not surprised) and continued to poke the screen on his GPS and talking to himself inside his helmet, I just assumed that Australians did this?. Eventually he told me where he wanted to go, so I pointed in the direction and told him to turn right at the next T, a very simple instruction to get him on his way, as Kaitaia is just a small town, but I don’t think he heard me as right about now he was yelling into his helmet, for a moment I thought it was directed at me, but it was the silly woman on the GPS that wanted to send him the shortest route, not the route he wanted to take, now there was more confusion, as it turned out he had a riding buddy, somewhere down the road and with radio communication was trying to explain to this fellow, who was by now looking up and down the road to see where HE was. At this point in time I wished him a happy ride in NZ and rode home. Maybe it is all a case of too much technology and not enough exploration and FUN.
If things had been a little different and he had stopped to ask directions, and maybe a chat about our local area, you never know, he may have been one of the many bikers, that have stayed over at our place.......
We have 8 confirmed riders, so far, for the Patagonia Expedition in November, and good interest for the High Andes in March 2010, but don't leave it too late to confirm your booking. If you wait, all that happens is you get older.......
The next blog will be from South America,
hasta la By By (as Tom would say)
Un abrazo, Rosco
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