Devon TRF Group Forum

Hi all

Some of you may know me and some won't. My name is Andy Lander Stow and I live in Ivybridge. 3 weeks today I'm beggaring off around the World on my XT600E - slightly modified!

2 years ago I took a Ural sidecar outfit for a quick jaunt through Mongolia and had such a great time that I thought I'd do it again, but this time on a solo bike.

I have no direct sponsorship but several companies have been supportive and have given me good discounts. I have received no money from anyone or any company. However I would like to raise some money for Riders for Health. This is a fantastic organisation, run by motorcyclists, that gives people in the Third World a chance to get medical treatment that we, in the West, take for granted. Imagine having to walk 50 miles just to get a headache tablet! Without Riders for Health, Comic Relief would have a really hard time getting the medicines and aid to folk whose only fault seems to be that they were born in an area of outstanding natural beauty - which is also akin to Hell's Kitchen!

To assist my rather poor fundraising activities so far I have decided to charge people a donation for seeing where I am and reading my Diary. Please note that not a penny of these funds will go to me!

I expect the trip to be over by the 2nd week in September by which time I hope to have ticked the following roads off of my Bucket List..

The Baikur-Amur Mainline road

The Road of Bones - twice

The Dalton Highway

Some of the Trans-Canadian Adventure Trail

The Labrador Highway

The Cabot Trail

and of course Mongolia - again.

I have also managed to get my Kazakhstan Visa so will be visiting the Aral Sea, the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the Charyn Canyon.

Whilst travelling through Europe I will only be transmitting my location once a day. When I go into the wilderness, BAM & RoB, I will set the GPS tracker to send my position every 10 minutes. I believe this caused rather a lot of interest, as well as some consternation that I had been hijacked by bandits, last time.

I also hope to do a DVD film on my return as I have a superb Drift Ghost Helmet Cam. I may even get the old typing fingers going and produce a book which will contain all the facts about such a journey. This would include cost of fuel in differnet Countries, how to buy fuel, where to get ferries and how much they cost, the cost of flying your bike across oceans as well as Customs palaver.

If you want to see how screwy I can be then please go to www.aatw2013.com where you can donate or not as you see fit.

The answer to your unasked question....Why the Road of Bones twice? If the Spring thaw is late (it was -42F 2 days ago) then the Old Summer Road is impossible to get to as the River at Kyubyume doesn't have a bridge anymore. If I can't do the Old Summer Road on the way to Magadan then I will attempt to do it on the return when I ride down to Zarubino - South of Vladivostok and slightly North of North Korea....Yes, I know!

The cost of fuel and the mpg of my XT means it costs, roughly, £50 to cover a 1000 miles in Russia.

Have a great Summer - if it gets here?