This was a good week for planning. There have been a number of looming Big Questions, and I found tentative answers this week to three of the largest.
Q: How do I get from Europe to Egypt?
A: The first reasonably scheduled item on my itinerary after getting to Europe is to make it to Egypt in early October to rendezvous with my friend Amani, who is going there to meet much of her Dad’s family for the first time. There are, of course, a number of ways to get to Egypt from Europe – including overland via Syria and Jordan, or by taking a ferry to Tunis and then riding through Libya. It seems unlikely that my schedule allows for the first option (unless I skimp on other earlier parts of the trip – for example if I only spend a month in Scandinavia), and the second option would result in a fair bit of backtracking as soon as I’m ready to leave Egypt.
Luckily, there’s a reasonably new ferry service from Venice to Alexandria. It looks like it has only been running for a year or so – and I hope it’s still running a year from now! It’s a longish trip – three days on a ferry, with a stop in Tantous, Syria – but looks to be the best option at the moment (I’ll keep Tunis as a backup plan).
http://www.visemarline.com/en/homepage.php
Q: What’s the best plan of action for shipping my bike to Europe?
A: Most of what I’ve read indicates that it’s far easier to ship bikes by air from Canada than the US. OK, I live in Seattle, so that’s just a quick jump to Vancouver and then I’m golden. However, a few weeks ago I decided that it would be good to start my trip by riding across the United States. I’d like to see my parents one last time before embarking on this wild adventure, and I also think it would be good to have a long shake-out ride to see if there are any big issues that surface along the way, which I might be able to resolve before being in the middle of, say, Finland. This would require me to ride from NC to Montreal (most likely), adding another big chunk of mostly highway travel before I could actually be in Europe.
I did some more research, and (re-)discovered Warren Motorcycle Transport, a Florida company that has been organizing motorcycle tours of Europe for about 25 years – and has spun off a sideline shipping business. They ship (with Lufthansa) out of most of the major hubs on the East Coast, into Frankfurt or Munich. One of their departure hubs is Washington DC, which is only about five hours from where my family lives. Even better, they require that you fly on the same plane as your bike, so arrival basically means clearing customs, going down to freight, and riding off into the start of the adventure. This is much much better.
http://www.gate.net/~bikeship/
Q: How in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster am I going to ride across China?
A: It is apparently quite the bureaucratic nightmare for foreign travelers to enter China with their own vehicles and travel inside the country. In addition to requiring Chinese plates for the bike, the usual visas and other paperwork, travelers are required to hire a guide – who serves, as far as I can tell, as an escort to keep people from going where they shouldn’t. This isn’t cheap for solo motorcyclists, since it also involves the guide’s vehicle, lodging, food and so forth – estimates I’ve seen fall in the $100/day range. Of course, if you’re in a car, the guide can ride with you, making it much more reasonable.
However, there are a few motorcycle adventure touring companies that organize large Eurasian trips which include travel through China, and at least one that allows folks who approach China on their own to join the tour for just that part of the journey. For a (understandably hefty) price, they arrange all visas, plates, and guide – along with lodging and itinerary.
Getting through China and into Southeast Asia has been one of the biggest mental hurdles thus far, and I’m glad to have at least one option to make it easier. Yes, it’s the “throw money at the problem” option, but I would’ve had to do so anyway were I to undertake China on my own, and would’ve likely accelerated any travel through the country in order to keep guide costs down. This approach gives me the option of letting someone else handle all the logistics – for what would otherwise be one of the most logistically challenging countries of the entire trip.
http://www.adventurebiketours.co.uk/china.htm
I’m sure there will be more big questions in the days and weeks ahead. I’m sure I’ll have more “this is crazy / it’ll never work / what the hell am I thinking?” moments. I’m also sure that I’ll remember to breathe, do the research, and find solutions.
