Having intensively observed 50 shades of grey at Guerrero Negro, hooked us right in. Brain filters set to baleens, people and pictures frequently reinforced that San Ignacio Laguna on the west coast, just down the road from Guerrero Negro, reputed it to be the perfect breeding ground for the mysticeti (a whale without teeth). Little […]
17-19 Feb 2016 – It’s no fluke when you see 50 shades of grey (Part 1 of 2)
“Thar she blows!” someone cried as puffs of vapour sprayed out from a pair of blowholes. Chins stopped wagging, giving way to the whopping 40-tonne whale breaching. Or so we’d been informed, the day before we arrived at Guerrero Negro. The prospect of encountering a mammal—post their long migration—the length of a semi-trailer truck at 6,000-stone, […]
16 Feb 2016 – Nailing my knickers to the ceiling and putting dirt road demons to bed
The weather is glorious at this time of year on the Baja, in fact, it just about teeters on perfection. By day and night. I haven’t seen a single cloud blot the sky as yet on the eastern side, and may not. Without the body melting 24/7—keeps the spirits level, energy levels lively and mind […]
13-15 Feb 2016 – New beginnings on the Baja with quite possibly the best fish tacos in town
Picnic tables amongst the pine trees of Arizona long gone, we’ve officially re-ridden onto what looks like a nosediving dragon—775-miles in body and 200-miles in girth—from Mexicali in the north to Cabo San Lucas in the south. The Baja peninsula dips its big toe into the bracing Pacific on the westside, and its pinky into the […]
28 Jan-12 Feb 2016 – The eureka of going down before you can go up
An overnight pit stop in Joshua Tree National Park—a tent utopia as it goes—saw us once again ensconced in its ecological melting pot, lined by a jumble of stacked boulders and walls of imposing granite. The convergence of two great deserts: the Mojave and Colorado, blended together in a barbed landscape adorned in Sonoran flora and […]
7 Nov 2015-27 Jan 2016 – A holiday from the holiday and our sunny stateside return
The prospect of coming home after 33,000 miles through 21 countries on my motorcycle, was a welcomed and warranted one. Taking temporary leave from living out of panniers and a roll bag for two years short of a quarter—to being lavished in comfort at my mum’s house was beyond appealing—hand washing will only get you so […]
13 Oct-6 Nov 2015 – Four states, three seasons, two wondrous wheels and a Hondukis Yamakazufan 4000 (Part 1 of 2)
Ahead of us lay open country, reddish-grey, studded with cacti. Arizona was the first place I have been for a while that turned out to look exactly like I’d pictured it. As we rode along the blindingly bright highway, I felt happy and charmed. Nestled at an elevation of over 1,500 metres amongst the State’s […]
2-12 Oct 2015 – The start of the American dream
Wheeling up to the US border at Tecate was more of a ‘Triple Whopper with fries but better make that a diet coke’ drive-thru experience than the usual cacophony of queues—left, right and centre—about the Latin American customs and immigration offices. The familiarity of my old, comforting Latin American life was about to leave me […]
23 Sept-1 Oct 2015 – Blood moons, inverted hairy carrots and wandering sprouts
Intense light fell from a vaulted powder-blue sky that offered here and there a cloud so fat and dense-looking, it might have been full of milk. A monied seafront gleamed as much as the ocean. The coastline was lined with an assortment of majestic marine figurines, spotless sidewalks and restaurants with menus on which we […]
17-22 Sept 2015 – Top times in Zacatecas, undeserving times in Durango and biding our time in Mazatlán
The morning after the night before Mexico Independence Day was akin to Boxing Day in a rural corner of England. The highways were deliciously quiet, deserted even and the streets had become all but bare. Riding down the empty roads gave rise to revelling in a deep quietness. For a moment, I imagined what it would be […]