It's a few years since I sold my old XT and I haven't ridden a motorbike since, so it took me a while to settle into the saddle riding back on the new XT from Northampton. I say new bike, it's been used for light circumnavigation between Blighty and Australia, but seems fairly solid and the Yamaha XT600e, to give the bike it's full monica, has a grand reputation in the overlanding World.

The idea this time is to ride a bike from the tip of Argentina, to the top of Alaska. I've managed to hook up with a couple of other people who are into doing the trip, they are Mike from Edinburgh and Michelle from London/Australia. We all met up for the first time at a bikers meet in Derbyshire on 23rd June 2006 and after much talk of tracheotomies and the beneficial uses of biros in roadside first aid, along with horse tranquillisers, it quiet quickly become clear we'd all get on.

I did a big trip a good few years ago now from London to Sydney, Australia through Europe the Middle East, Tibet, China and Asia over 9 months and it gets inside your bones. I was really pleased to get home at the end, but I think there's something that stays with you, then surfaces every now and then, urging you to go again. Perhaps it spiritual, possibly a case of wanderlust or could it be I'm bone idle and don't like working, I guess we'll never know!