Petra - Aqaba (6.875 km)

yeah... lifes tough

its hard work riding in sand

its hard to describe the beauty here... but i think you get the idea. wadi rum desert.

Well we left petra in the morning around 9. drive through on the kings road to wadi. now wadi is a desert with beautiful red sand with red rocks. its a reserve so we had to pay to get in. a real one horse town and we arrived to chaos and our other biker friends running around..we asked what the deal was and they told us to find fuel and water quickly. were leaving in 30min for the desert! so we did. fuel from jerry cans and boom, i find myself looking straight into my first desert crossing. it was daunting and i was scared. having never ridden on sand before. sand is mighty tricky and the bike just goes everywhere. its like riding on jelly laced with oil. the place was just mind blowingly beautiful out there. ive never seen anything like it. it literally took my breath away. my first 600m i came off twice, and hard. i thought i was going to pass out from exhaustion. it was tough, much tougher than i thought. i let my tyre pressure down some more and then we kicked off! it all came to me for the next 40 km. and i only fell down twice in the last stage. so we made it.. our first desert crossing. sudan is going to be 100 times harder. having to cover 700km of sand with our luggage.

Martedi 04/12/2007 abbiamo raggiunto Michael, Werner, Tom e George che avevano campeggiato nella riserva di Wadi-Rum. Dopo aver comprato un po' di benzina da un beduino siamo entrati tutti e 6 nel deserto. George ha bucato la ruota anteriore dopo pochi chilometri ed e' dovuto tornare indietro, mentre noi 5 abbiamo fatto una cinquantina di chilometri in mezzo a dune e formazioni rocciose che per l'aspetto ricordano quelle che si vedono nei film di John Ford.

Questa per me e' stata una giornata speciale perche' abbiamo provato per la prima volta le moto nel deserto e perche' , nonostante qualche linea di febbre, mi sono divertito tantissimo.

Le multistrada se la sono cavata bene e, benche' montassero una ruota anteriore da 17", hanno tenuto il passo di moto attrezzate appositamente per il deserto e sono arrivate ad Aqaba (N 29 31,576' E 34 59,730') tutte intere (a parte la leva della frizione).

Colonna sonora: "Green onions" Booker T. & The MG's

Dead Sea - Petra (6.686 km)

no really its not a film set

indiana jones

treasure hunters

note the dirty white t-shirt.... yuk

endless views

Domenica 2/12/2007 abbiamo percorso tutta la Kings Highway fino a Petra (N 30 19,118' E 35 28,960'). Purtroppo c'e' stata nebbia per tutto il giorno e non abbiamo visto praticamente nulla. (Il panorama deve essere stato veramente bello!) La temperatura e' tornata sotto lo zero ed io mi sono preso la febbre proprio il giorno prima di entrare nel deserto. Domani sara' dura..., ma non vedo l'ora di attraversare le mitiche dune di sabbia!

Colonna sonora: "Comfortably Numb" Pink Floyd

Sunday 2/12/2007 (N 30 19,118' E 35 28,960'). We took the king's highway to Petra. it was so incredibly cold. We went from -400 metres under the sea (dead sea's sea level believe it or not) to 1650 metres above. big change in temprature. one of the best roads ive ridden (seem to be saying that a lot lately) with incredible views once again. tom was saying afterwards that he was admiring the way the ducatis went into the curves, saying that they were so graceful. it was a hard day. at one stage we had 10 metres of visibilty in the fog. it was cold, we did a lot of km's and we were happy to get into our hotel room at the end of the night. a big pizza and a couple of beers helped wash away the cold from our blood. the next morning we visited petra. which is just breathtaking. every person must see this place in their life time. a 6 hour walk we decided to take some donkeys up to the monastry. which was bloody funny. i thought they were going to peg on us. strong little buggers and so sweet. they took us right to the top and me and matteo were laughing all the way up.

Damascus - Dead Sea (6.291 km)

6 travellers going around the world on different missions

our first camp. on the shores of the dead sea. -400 metres under sea level.

our descent to the dead sea from Amman

cruising in jordan.

no comment

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Well we hooked up with 4 other bikers. so now were 6. 2 guys from australia and malaysia. they travelled 25.000 km's in 8 weeks! through pakistan! with a 40% chance of getting hijacked. (86% of percentages are made up mind you). chris nearly died from altitude sickness and the stories go on and on. amazing guys. we walked damascus flat in 3 hours and hit the bar in true biker style. and got horrificly drunk in an arab country. after all, we are infidels to do in a righteously bodacious joint like siria. next morning we cruised through to the dead sea. a long slow cruise with george and tom. stopping often. taking it easy. we camped freely with the bedouins of the region near the shores of the dead sea. ah... so great to camp out in the open. and for free! woke up to a little kid on donkey staring at us and asking us wether we could swap his donkey with our dukes. mmmmmm it was tough, and that donkey looked mighty fine... but we decided to keep our signoritas instead.

Venerdi 30/11/2007 siamo entrati in Giordania. Ad Amman ci siamo separati e Robin ed io abbiamo proseguito per il Mar Morto (N 31 45,869' E 35 35,232') insieme a Tom e George con cui ci siamo accampati per la notte. Il giorno dopo abbiamo ritrovato in spiaggia Michael e Werner che ci hanno raccontato di essere stati ospitati da un Giordano che gli ha lasciato la casa a disposizione. Naturalmente la sera stessa ci siamo trasferiti tutti in questa casa con vista mare, terrazzo e piscina con annessa sorgente termale naturale.

Colonna sonora: "Mad about you" Sting