Going Walkabout on an 800xc through Russia & Central Asia...and maybe beyond...

Fixed it for you.

Hi GuiltyParty,

One of the best RR's ive read and through a country that I love. Let us know how you get on back in OZI. How much would I need for such a trip, ca ?

+1 Awesome story you guys. Can't wait to see you ride the liger in Oz this winter!

Wow, just an amazing ride report. I really enjoyed your report, but i'm feeling sorry for your bike.

I think that al the problems gave an extra dimension to your trip?

To bring back the bike in a reasonable looking state. Really?
That's showroom quality.
Must have hurt to undo it from its load of memories.
Smart move though: now you are obliged to do dirt roads to bring it back into its proper element.

You're resourceful and tenacious which made for a great story and reading, thanks.

Hahahah my thoughts exactly!!

Ripper of a trip and report Craig and Patty. And as much as I'm also sad that its drawn to a close for you, I'm very much looking forward to some rides and camping back in Oz with you. I can't beleive its been four years!!

Cheers
Dan

I enjoy your report so far.....Dont stop posting even as a backpacker!

Be well!

+1

Keep in touch

Great RR!!! Can´t wait for the Aussie RR!

great ride report, you two are champs with the hurdles you have jumped over
from the ozzie couple you met on the strom back in Krg/Taj
Its been wet and cold in Europe:eek1

bahahahaha love it! Ron Jeremy would be proud of this little slug. I might even keep it...and Patty loves it

Danno, my brother has the KLR in Kempsey and wants to get into some adventure riding so I reckon we need to do some exploring around the mid-north coast and tablelands when you move to Brizzy

From the moment we left our front door to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Irkutsk</st1lace></st1:City> but excluding bike repairs we spent £6,500 for the two of us. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Turkey</st1lace></st1:country-region> we blew our budget by £300 because petrol was unexpectedly really expensive, the most expensive of all the countries we visited. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region> was slightly more expensive than we expected but the main reason we went over budget there was because of the hotel/sauna in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Barnaul</st1lace></st1:City> while we sorted out the instrument panel.

We stayed in a cheap hotel every 3 nights (it's a girl thing) and camped all other nights. In <st1lace w:st="on">Western Europe</st1lace> we cooked our own meals but all through the 'stans we mostly ate out because it was cheap and food is part of the culture we were there to experience.

That also includes visa's for <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mongolia</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Turkey</st1lace></st1:country-region>, Tajikistan & Uzebkistan which we picked up along the way.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
It can be done cheaper with more camping. Doing something like this made me realise how possible and affordable it is and we'll aim to do something like this every 5 years or so.

This backpacking is hard work. Carrying my own gear, walking, catching public transport, no GPS telling me where to go. It's all too hard

<st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City> is a really nice city and to be honest has the best natural history museums in <st1lace w:st="on">Europe</st1lace> that I've seen. Most of them are in Russian though so I've left alot of the exact details to the imagination Today we're visiting the Kremlin.

Don't feel sorry for her. With a bit of TLC when she gets back home and more permanent repairs ishe will be better than new.

Thanks for following along mate and thanks for the comments.

My thoughts exactly, the dirtier the better

Hi GuiltyParty,

WOW Im gobsmaked. I thought it would have been far more.I spent that in 2 months touring the USA. I might give it a go then,I to have a Tiger 800XC.

On a related note, last year I met a couple on an Africa Twin (Julian and Lorena), who adopted their dog Trico from the streets in Spain:



Julian and Lorena have been on the road for over eleven years. They said that is often a challenge to get Trico across borders, most notably something like 6 months quarantine for Trico to get in Australia!! :huh

Swell ride, thanks for sharing and look forward to the Ausie part, good luck with customs. You ever worried about Pattys's safety in looney outback.

What a fantastic ride report and what an amazing journey.
Big thanks for taking the effort to document everything even when it must have felt easier to pick up a bottle of vodka and a napkin to wipe away the tears than picking up the camera and the keyboard.

Seems to me that in midst of all the chaos there was one key component that didn't brake down during the whole trip, the pillion passenger.
Hold on to that one.

love to catch up with you and buy you and Patty a beer when your in Melbourne... keep us informed here when you arrive

Of course, naturally. People were inquisitive about her and wanted to know everything about her and take photos so that became an everyday part of the trip and undoubtedly one of the big reasons we had so many random encounters, but most of the time there is no need to worry and everything was fine. It was when we were around people that had been drinking that we both started to get a little nervous. Drunk people are unpredictable and we couldn't predict their intentions. Some would get a little too touchy feely so we'd extract ourselves and move on.

So cool

We met a Swiss couple in Osh with an Egyptian hound and some other dog and they said it can get very expensive getting the certificates from vets saying they were free of disease. When they got to the border though and saw these dogs in the back of the landy they were too scared to go close

Thanks for following

She's a keeper that's for sure.

Sounds good mate we would like that. We'll have to check out the instrument panel in your pool room