Final thoughts and photographs

This trip was a great experience for me, and must surely leave a big mark on my life. I learned some more things about motorcycling, and a lot about myself and life in general. My view of the world has also changed significantly.

Here are some more photographs that I didn't include in with the story.

Mountains in Turkey.

Kilometre marker in Kazakhstan.

Horse riding is a massive part of the tradition of the all the Central Asian peoples.

Kazakh steppe - In places completely flat and empty.

Some kind of sand vole? These things live all over Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Photoing me...

...Photoing you.

Water is really important in Kazakhstan. In the intense 45degree heat, I found it very difficult to force myself to drink enough to be feel healthy.

Kazakh kids on an Ural. Seeing people like this with modern mobile phones demonstrates that this part of the world is far more complex than a simple 'poverty' story.

Posing with some Kazakh kids at a petrol stop. All the kids in the region wear similar clothes to this - Cheap mass produced imports from China.

Kazakh family out in the desert.

Remote and barren section of the Pamhir Highway in the North of Tajikistan.

Lake Karakul.

Horse festival at Murgab. Notice the Audi baseball cap - The same chinese clothing as in Kazakhstan.

Traditional Kyrgyz hats.

Fantastic setting for the festival, at 3600m altitude!

Pamhir Highway.

The road through the Roshtkala valley.

Bartang valley road.

Last of the great adventurers? Or a great big idiot from Nottingham, England?

Looking down towards Ishkashim, on the Afghanistan border.

Chinese roadmaking crew who helped us with a puncture repair.

'Buhanka' UAZ 4x4 minibus. Fantastic vehicle. Found all over the former Soviet Union, and still produced today looking pretty much the same.

Fantastic few days set around the Kyrgyz/Tajik border.

Kyrgyz girls in traditional dress at the Peak Lenin horse festival.

Eva making friends at the Peak Lenin basecamp.

Three local lads on an Izh.

Eva getting to grips with the DR350.

Great 'eerie' morning atmosphere at a camping spot in Russia.

The national treasure of Russia.

Camping on a hill overlooking a small village - Smoke from fires and Banya creating an evening haze.

Small Russian village in the Altaisky Krai.

Riverside camping spot, with lots of wood ready to make a fire.

Together in Mongolia.

No building site health+saftey laws in Mongolia. Part of a 'human chain' throwing bricks up to the top of a three story building!

Firewood for sale?

Good long straight road in Mongolia.

Izh riding local.

Camping spot in the Mongolian Altai.

Buddhist prayer flags outside Hovd.

Crows flying.

Beautiful lake.

Hilltop Buddhist rockpile. 

Mongol bikers!

Riverside camping spot.

Mongol local fetching his wife home from work. I suspect that there is something fundamentally wrong with the western way of life, when this guy's everyday reality is only a mere distant sought-after dream for many here in the 'first world' nations.

Some kind of cemetary I believe.

Gate to a Buddhist monestary.

Off road riding in the hills outside UlanBataar, with Walter Colebatch.

Unrestricted off-piste riding in any direction - the offroad dream.

Siberian campfire and full moon.

'Novosibirsk 1062km' - We started to realise it would be a long hard struggle to ride all the way across Russia.

Another roaring fire, another full moon.

Naughty - Lost our lonely planet 'bible'.

Our travelling companion across Russia.

Drunkedd with a beautiful girl on the Trans-Siberian railway.

Morning map check inside the tent.

Braving the morning cold outside the tent, one final time.