I'm thinking about a seriously long (offroad) trip more and more often. What I would really like is a 3 month journey east, to Kazakhstan of if 3 months are too short a trip around the Black Sea. But since 3 months takes a lot of planning I want to do a 5 week trip next year to taste the adventure.

The 5 week trip could go south-east to Turkey or south to Morocco or Algeria. It is possible to ship your bike to Gibraltar by truck. Or north, Sweden and Norway which is not too far with plenty of wilderness. As I'm writing this today (Jan 30, 2010) my preference would be Turkey as it takes you through some realy great countries, coming from western Europe.

It would be great if there are others with similar ideas, I would love to do this kind of adventure with a few similar minds!  If you're interested or are planning something like this yourself, let me know, it would be great to start planning and dreaming. I know I am, staring at Google Maps/Earth at least twice a week!

There is a discussion thread here


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Huh?

Well, you could try if you like things 'the other way'
The latest and greatest Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is ready and available!

I had a little accident on the 12th of September 2009 in Germany, just across the Dutch border, which resulted in some HP2 damage. But more importantly some serious inconvenient damage to my left wrist.

I broke it in 4 places, was hospitalized in Rheine and a titanium plate was inserted only 4 hours after the event.

The following photo's further on in the article will show you how a broken wrist heals over time!

Update November 30: I've started climbing again and guess what?On my second day (yesterday) I already did a 6a. For those of you that don't know what a 6a is: try it

Update December 26 2009: Getting there!


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Commercial postings on the HP2 forums are not welcome and will be removed.

Reason being a few commercial spam attempts, spam bots trying to log in to post messages as well as a few folks posting on the forum for their own commercial benefit. These postings will from now on be deleted.

Members can of course sell or trade their own bike related goods.

C A N C E L E D - DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST

I will make it a solo trip instead, probably close to the Dutch/German  border. There's a fairly large rural/forested area above the city of Meppen (approximately 250km from Amsterdam). Plenty of space to find a camping spot or find a hotel. Google Maps shows quite a few unpaved roads in the area.

If anybody's interested drop me a private mail.


I take the HP2 out riding a lot but what I like best is a long weekend of fun. Last time this took me to the south of Belgium which was great except for the fact I went alone.

As discussed before on the forum there is another trip to the south of Belgium/Northern France coming up, from the 11th until the 13th of September. This will not be an organised weekend, we'll see where we end up exactely. What I will do is plan the area, as always, with Google Maps/Earth/Images.

Big question is (free)camping/tent or hotel?
The first: more in touch with nature, more stuff to carry
Second: travel light, need to look for hotel that wants to host dirty riders

Confirmed participants to date (through email to me):

• blackSP

Canceled:
Blue Monster