Some people dream - others, like Kevin Maher, just get out there and do it, writes John Wheeler. Which type are you?
Many bikers dream of loading up and heading for the horizon. They dream of new sights, different cultures and new friends. Central to this dream is, of course, the bike they'll be riding.
For most of us the dream stops there. For a few others, like Kevin Maher, owner of a Dublin-based software company, it becomes a reality. Right now he's working out a mid-life crisis on a 30,000 km, round the world trip on his BMW R1150GS.
His route is taking him by air to Toronto, Canada then, the plan was, (but as we'll see plans are just that), to Anchorage, Alaska, flight to Magadan in Siberia, to Ulan Bator in Mongolia and across the "Road of Bones", through the Gobi Desert, on to Moscow, St Petersburg, the Baltic States and home.
The route is essentially similar to that taken by Ewan McGregor and co in The Long Way Round but, Kevin is going the opposite direction: east to west.
There is one other big difference. For all except the Gobi Desert section Kevin's aim is to ride alone - following the great Ted Simon tradition as described in Jupiter's Travels, the book that should be on every motorcyclist's bedside table.
Behind such an odyssey lies an enormous amount of planning. Thanks to the internet there is now a global community of motorcycling world travellers from whom the best advice can be gleaned.
Kevin's last report on 30th June saw him at the end of the North American section, with his bike in the air heading for Korea whilst he then had to head down to Seattle to fly to Seoul - not part of the original plan!
The log of his 9,890 kms trans-Canada ride describes what, for many of us, would rate the trip of a lifetime. He rode from Toronto to Niagra Falls, Quebec and on to Deep River where motorists start to get warnings of moose and advice not to ride at night.
Then the route gets into the real West, with names like Marathon, Thessalon, Denmark, Spanish, Wawa, Little River and Old Woman Lake giving some clue to the diversity of the first Europeans in these parts.
At Thunder Bay Kevin was stopped for the fourth time by the police. He says that having a spare set of knobbly tyres on the back of the bike giving that "I'm going a long way" impression helps make speeding tickets disappear, or, as in this case turns what should have been a $300 ticket into a $60 one. As ever on such journeys, he met other riders on their way back from where he was heading, a chance to gain the latest information and swap maps.
By the time Kevin had reached Manitoba he learned that the airline he had hoped would be flying him and his bike to Magadan in Siberia had just gone bust.
So leaving Manitoba Kevin headed into the USA to meet up at Glacier National Park with Mark who will be riding with him on his much modified Kawasaki KLR on the "Road of Bones" section.
After riding back into Canada Kevin headed for Anchorage, Alaska. En-route he discovered that his companion Mark is paranoid about bears which are plentiful in these parts!
Next day he met Laurence McLaughlin from Wexford, riding a Honda Pan-European, who rode the Siberian Highway to Vladivostock last year and was on his way back from a spin from San Francisco to Alaska. In Dawson City he encountered Hans, aged 68 (which proves you are never too old) from Holland on a 1989 BMW R100 now with 250,000 kms on the clock.
Outside Dawson City a slow puncture introduced Kevin to the joys of a near-perfect 180° slide on a fully-laden 350kg machine and the wisdom of buying a 12v compressor for just such eventualities. Eventually he reached Camp Cold Foot on the Arctic Circle. Then he took the Dalton Highway north towards the most northerly inhabited place on the North American continent. It is described as "a primitive route with no medical facilities and only one gas station for 414 miles."
This is serious touring. This is where you should start from if you really aim to do the Pan-American Highway which runs 9,814 km to Ushaia in Tierra del Fuego. Now, how is your own dream coming along?
His route
START: Toronto, Canada
1) To Anchorage in Alaska
2) Flight to Magadan in Siberia
3) Onward to Ulan Bator in Mongolia and across the "Road of Bones"
4) Through the Gobi Desert
5) On to Moscow, St Petersburg, the Baltic States
6) Home