Tough Miles

The final stint, with only 21 days till Christmas. By this stage we had ridden through 24 countries, covering over 25,000 miles. The question remains…..did we make it to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world?Day 217, Friday 14th December. We woke up at 8.30am in a rustic Bolivian farm house. Our fear and anxiety from the previous night had now changed to feelings of excitement. With blue skies and sunshine the epic mountain road sweeping through a deep valley was no longer a nightmare, but rather a motorcycle adventurers dream. The landscape was incredible, and the last 50km of gravel cliff edge road was a perfect way to finish off Bolivia before crossing into Argentina….Read more

Despite slightly tainted from 6 years of absence, the memories of my first exposure to Bolivia’s carnage were still as potent as it’s locally distilled rum. I left the first time feeling like, well, like nothing really works all that well. We’d spent more time waiting for buses than actually riding them and once eventually on the move, the large majority of the trip would typically be spent either forcing the goats and chickens back under the seats or lending a hand to the overworked, underpaid drivers to botch a repair job to the overused vehicles as we clung to the side of a mountain dirt road. I’d been robbed in the streets of the countries capital, La Paz and…Read more

Day 216, Friday 23rd November, it felt great to be back on the road. After the miraculous repair job performed by Meastro and his boys in Pasto, Tough Miles set sail towards Ecuador. Petes bike had undergone some serious surgery, so we proceeded with caution and checked oil and water at regular intervals. It was only a short ride to the border, but the crossing itself took hours. As we rode…Read more

With every new city comes a new objective. Bogotá, Colombia’s capital brought two. The first of which was to regain possession of our bikes from Colombian customs. The second, remain focused and do not get trapped in Colombia’s outstanding party scene. Neither of which proved as easy as we had initially hoped. Landing in Bogotá just 10 minutes before our hostel’s party bus was due to leave for some Saturday night carnage got our Colombian experience off to a very nice start indeed. Read more

Ahhh the blog duties strike again. Guatemala was certainly a highlight, and Pete did a cracking job of documenting that experience. I’ve been lumbered with the rest of Central America, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles I guess. I just had a rummage through my wash bag looking for Imodium, no joy on that front, but I did find the 32mm socket we bought for adjusting the headsets next to my toothbrush Read more…

Day 169, the 7th October had us up at the crack of dawn knowing we had our second of many Central American border crossings in store. Due to his lack of Spanish at the time, Mad Dog Dave was keen to stick with us for the crossing. After all the horror stories we had read online about Read more…

For our route through Mainland Mexico we decided to head inland from Mazatlan, stopping at San Blas, Guanajuato, Teotihuacan, Minatitlan and finally San Cristobal. The 250km ride down the coast from Mazatlan to San Blas should have been a straight forward afternoon, but 20km down the road I realised I was missing my headphones and a hoody, yet another lossRead more…

Our journey through Central America was about to begin, and whilst camping just outside of San Diego the dreaded border crossing into Mexico was looming over us like a dark cloud. Through out the west coast of America countless people had warned us about the dangers of the surrounding towns. Neither of us knew what to expect. Carrying two laptops, an SLR camera Read more…

After leaving San Fran, Los Angeles was the next major stop but not before a nights camp in Big Sur. We’d heard rumors of there being some decent off road tracks around this region so we spoke to everybody we could trying to plan the best route for the following Read more…

The first 3 weeks of September saw us ride the West Coast of the U.S and what an outstanding few weeks it was. It was burgers, fries and copious amounts of beer for the duration and and our time in the U.S left us feeling grossly overweight and out of shape for our crossing in to Mexico. Read more…

Returning to a place for the second time on the same trip is the closest we get to the feeling of returning home. With the exceptional hospitality on offer at Jo’s place in Whistler, this experience was not going to be an exception to the rule. Our last visit to Whistler was all too rushed and this time there were a couple of things we wanted to achive from our stay. Read more…

When I thought about Alaska I imagined snow-capped mountains, frozen lakes and 24 hour daylight. I pictured myself fishing with locals through holes in the ice. My preconceptions of Alaska at this time of year couldn’t be further from the truth, and as we crossed the border the weather was so warm that even riding in a t-shirt was comfortable! It would appear we had lucked out with the weather again. Apparently during July there was barely a dry Read more…

We arrived in Vancouver at 1am on the 8th August, narrowly escaping a heavy downpour by timing our fuel stop perfectly. It’s never good turning up in a new city late at night, especially when the hostel is on a street littered with junkies and there’s nowhere to park the bikes Read more…

Day 94 of the trip. Having ridden through Europe, Russia, Mongolia and South Korea it was finally time for Tough Miles to hit up the USA. With the bikes onboard a container ship somewhere. Read more…

Clearing the bikes through South Korean customs can only be described as an absolute pleasure. A big leather sofa, multiple glasses of iced-tea, an air-conditioned office and English-speaking officers. The entire process was over within less than Read more…

It’s been weeks now since we finished the BAM, but despite being so adamant upon completion of that monster of an off-road route that I would never ride it again, sitting here now with an ice-cold beer, it’s proving impossible to feel those same emotions again. I already want to be Read more…

The BAM road is not just about motorcycling skill, it is a real test of physical and mental endurance. It is impossible to portray how tough this route really is, and once finally over it is far too easy to forget the pain each kilometer can bring. To ride it you need pure grit and Read more…

The only time we’ve had the shower gel out in the last 8 days is to lubricate the tyres for a set change or puncture repair. I’ve never felt as filthy as I did on that last night before we made it to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Everything was covered in sand and mud from numerous falls Read more…