2muppets.com

Updates En-route: 4th January 2008

Posted on January 4th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 03. Spain, 02. England
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 03/01/2008

Location: Burgos - Spain

Distance travelled since last update: 180 kms

Muppets Say: Great first day riding in El Continente! Sunny skies, and stunning scenary here in the Basque country from Bilbao to Burgos. Starting to find our way with everything.

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Updates En-route: 3rd January 2008

Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 02. England
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 03/01/2008

Location: English Channel

Distance travelled since last update: 170 kms

Muppets Say: Wet, windy, wild seas. Shattered but incredibly relieved to be finally on our way. Minor bike issues but mostly due to Muppets workmanship!   Hasta Luego!

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The start at “Zero” 2nd January 2008

Posted on January 2nd, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 02. England
Post Location:

Date: 2nd January 2008

Location: Greenwich London

Distance travelled: 0 kms

Muppets Say: A sense of excitement, nervousness and relief that the trip is about to start.

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Zero to Zero to Hero!!!

Posted on January 1st, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 02. England
Post Location:

Happy New Year everyone!

We’ve decided on a theme for our departure at last – we’re going to leave tomorrow from zero degrees longitude – the meridian line at the Greenwich Observatory! The other zero of our theme is of course the equator, and the hero how we’ll feel if we pull this trip off without any major disastors!

Things can only get better in terms of this trip so far. Last minute work on the bike has had me feeling on the verge of a panic attack since Christmas, and a minor accident on our first ride out together almost ended the trip in one fell swoop.  Taking off from the lights I got halfway through an intersection before spotting Walter, a speeding octogenarian (estimated!) who had run a red light at least 3 seconds after the light change… I hauled on the anchors, and he to his credit hit the gas and managed to get past me before the front tyre washed out and I crashed in the middle of the intersection. Minor damage to the bike, a ruined pair of jeans – but fortunately most of the injuries were emotional!

Thanks to all the well wishers who’ve posted in the guestbook or emailed or texted the Sat Phone – nice to know there are people out there worried about us! Also, thank you to Katie for letting us stay in your flat during the last few days.

Finally, I want to say a BIG thanks to Paul and the guys at Bracken Bikes – when I turned up there after the spill, filled with adrenalin and shitting bricks about getting the bike sorted, they went out of their way to help me out – and all on New Years eve!

So the preparation is done and dusted – next post from the road!!!

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Bert & Ernie on the muddy island

Posted on December 30th, 2007 by 2muppets.
Categories: 02. England
Post Location: GPS Map

Well things are definitely moving in the right direction………

Since the last post we have been having some major issues  getting Ernie legally into the UK. My bike was flown out of SA by a freight forwarder on the 19th Dec under a Carnet de Passage, however it turns out that the UK will not clear the bike on a vehicle carnet (accepted in Spain and through Africa) but requires a temporary import permit. This gem of info was not known to the freight forwarder but gathered by Dan after days of phoning every customs official in the UK. Another scare was when our clearing agent in the UK was informed that the carnet had been completed by UK customs in error and that they now needed to ‘cancel’ the document……this nearly pushed Dan and I over the edge. So with my flight leaving at 9 that evening, my folks and I spent the day running around trying to obtain an emergency replacement carnet etc……so I boarded my flight to London after getting the following news from Dan “if customs don’t clear the bike by the 2nd the good news is that we can postpone the ferry for free, the bad news is that the next sailing is on the 4th of Feb!” As you can imagine it was a rather long and stressful flight. Besides all this stress it really was great getting into London and catching up with Dano, however the day dramatically improved - halfway back to London the clearing agent phoned to say that the bike and spares had been cleared customs (who in fact did not touch the Carnet) and was ready for collection :-)  !!!

A quick U’y on the Embankment and we were back at Swissport excitedly bashing the hell out of a crate. A drop of oil and petrol and Ernie fired up to life….so much of happiness !! Since collecting the bike Dan and I have spent our time reviewing all the kit we have bought, upgrading the front and rear springs on Dan’s bike, saying farewell to friends of ours who live in London, and buying last minute equipment. So we are now fully on track to depart on the 2nd Jan, both of us are extremely excited and cant wait to get on the road. As I sit typing this Dan is busy attacking the Lonely Planet guide to Africa with a Stanley knife, cutting countries we dont intent visiting out of the book, weight saving has been taken to a whole new level !!!! 

A big thanks so everyone who has sent messages of good luck, your support really means allot.

Cheers

Jody

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