50` North: 08/01/2008

The following people and organisations made our trip that much more memorable.
Thank you all for your service, hospitality and friendship.

Dave Milligan
Get Routed

Julie
Imorex Shipping Services

Dave and Julie made all the arrangements for the shipping of our bike from Sydney to the UK and back – fantastic service and great people.

Geoff & Elizabeth Harvey
The Grafton Guest House
13 Sea Rd
Felixstowe IP11 7LU

Put up with us before and after the trip whilst getting our bike from the docks in Felixstowe.

Ian Webber
BMW Ocean Plymouth
Longbride Rd
Plymouth PL6 8LD
UK

The guys at Ocean Plymouth were just terrific in getting us back on the road after the fuel pump packed it in.

Wolfgang Kober
Automobile Bavaria
Sos. Bucuresti-Ploiesti, nr 53A
013685 Bucuresi
Romania

Wolfgang flagged us down on the highway in Romania; took our photo and was putting a story about our trip in the Romania BMW magazine.

Fred Meier
BMW Motorrad Zentrum Munchen
Frankfurter Ring 29
80807 Munchen
Germany

Fred and the service guys arranged for us to jump the queue (150 bikes) and install fresh brake pads and a quick oil change – thanks heaps guys – great service and hospitality.

Simon Corcoran
VISALINK
15A/21 Sabre Drive
Port Melbourne VIC 3207

Simon and his team arranged our Ukraine & Russian visas before leaving Australia – great service at the right price.

Gareth Evans
Flight Centre
Shop CL11 Canberra Centre
Canberra ACT 2601

Gareth organised our flights with Korean Air from Sydney to London via and overnight stop in Seoul.

www.speedferries.com
Crossing from Dover to France and back – very cheap and great service.

Ross Pengilly
International Police Association (NSW Section)

Ross made the necessary introductions via the IPA network and put us in contact with members in Hungary.

Ida Havasi
International Police Association - Hungary Section

Ida gave us a tour of the Hungarian Parliament building and Police Headquarters.

Vitaliy Laptev
Pavel Nizkin

We met Vitaliv and Pavel in a hotel in the Ukraine. They were on their way to race in a WRC rally.

Alexander Pincevschii

Met Alexander at a roadside café somewhere in the Ukrainian outback and he shared his cut lunch with us.

Igor Broyde

Igor and his friend Andrew (the Cossack) collared us in a hotel in the Ukraine and poured vodka down our throats for the night – we were very sick little puppies the next morning!

Nangijala Osipova
Moscow, Russia

A member of the Horizons Community – she was kind enough to meet us on the outskirts of Moscow and escorted us into the city – no small feat in peak hour with 6 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic!

Sidenko Artem

We met Sidenko at the Russian border; he helped us fill in the Russian paperwork to get us through the border crossing – thanks mate – without him we would have taken 6 hours to get into Russia, as it was it only took 20 minutes.

Ivan
Fort MFG Motorcycle Company
Gluhoozerskoye St, 18H
192019 St Petersburg
Russia

Also the home of: Rolling Anarchy MCC
http://www.rollinganarchy.com/index_eng.html

Ivan and the guys at Rolling Anarchy MCC allowed us to stay at their clubhouse in St Petersburg for a few days after we couldn’t find any accommodation in town – fantastic hosts – appreciate the hospitality guys.

Dmitry
Alexander Lysenko (Sacha)

Dmitry and Sacha were our Moscow hosts and took us to areas of the city we would not have found on our own – they fed and watered us – two really special people and now our great friends – oh those Russians!

Carmen Olteanu (Curator)
National Police Museum
187 Calea Domneasca
Targaviste
Romania

Carmen gave us an escorted tour around the largest and oldest Police museum in the world.

Bogdan Chifan
Suceava, Romania

Mihai Dumitru
Bucuresti, Romania

Andrei Preda
Bucuresti, Romania

Very special thanks to our Romanian friends, Chif, Mihai and Andrei, and not to forget the guys from Seawolves MC and Bukowina MC – our time in Romania was made extra special having known these guys.

Antonio & Laura Lamanna
Grosseto, Italy

Our new friends in Tuscany – soon to be residents of Townsville. They took us into their home and made us feel like one of the family – very extra special people, and now our great friends.

Marta Bockowska

Marta is nearly one of the family (Mat’s girlfriend’s sister).

Horizons Unlimited (motorcycle traveller’s website)
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com

Finally, our friends in Australia who, throughout our journey sent us emails and SMS messages of support.

Last but not least, Mum and Derek who put up with us at the end of our adventure before we came home; also, Michael’s cousins and extended family and friends in North Wales.

We returned the bike to the Imorex depot in Felixstowe after giving it a steam clean and stripped her down ready for the trip home. It's going to be sitting on the docks for another 4 weeks before it leaves on a 'slow boat to Sydney'. Should get it back by the middle of October.

Stripping the bike down

All packed and ready to go

After leaving the bike in Felixstowe, we caught the train to Heathrow at 1pm on Friday. The plane left at 9.30pm for Sydney via Seoul; arriving in Sydney about 6.30am on Sunday; then the bus to Canberra, getting us home about 1pm on Sunday afternoon - absolutely stuffed!

We're currently culling the photos (815 in total) and 5 hours of video. Once we've reviewed everything, we'll post a final epilogue.

But for now; thanks to everyone who made this trip possible and especially to those folks we met along the way who made it more memorable; and also our new friends.