The Route

The above map shows a very rough idea of the preliminary route we have planned. It is likely that changes will be made, depending on the social and political situations as well as the weather in the different countries along the route.

The first leg of our journey will be from Germany to Azerbaijan. We will be starting out from Berlin and ride through Germany while making our way up to Denmark and Norway, visiting friends and family along the way. After our “goodbye round” we will be heading towards Azerbaijan through Eastern Europe, most of the Balkan countries, Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia. In Azerbaijan we hope to take the ferry from Baku (Bakı) across the Caspian Sea to Aktau. Kazakhstan, where the second leg of our journey begins.

From Kazakhstan we will be making a dip down into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan before heading north again, where we will drive through the eastern part of Kazakhstan. Then we will press on through Russia into Mongolia, and back into Russia again south of Lake Baikal, where we will hopefully meet up with some family living there. From Lake Baikal we will rest our worn out behinds and take the scenic train route to the island of Sakhalin, where the second leg of the journey ends with a ferry to the island of Hokkaido, Japan.

The third leg of the journey will be one of the shortest in distance, but no less interesting. We will be travelling south through the whole length of Japan to Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu, where we will be meeting up with an old friend, and from where we will be shipping the bikes to Thailand, thus marking the end of the third leg.

The start of the fourth, and so far the last, leg will be marked by our reunion with our bikes in Thailand, where we will be making a loop up through the northern part of the country, into Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Some stretches perhaps without the bikes, as it can be bothersome to get permission to import them into some of the countries. After the loop, we will make our way down to Malaysia and then back up north into and through Burma to India. Driving along the northern part, brushing elbows with the Himalaya, we will try and visit Nepal on our way to Leh in the northwestern part of India, in Ladakh, where we met each other over 7 years ago. This is where the final leg of the journey ends, and where we will see what the world has in store for us from there on.

The route is not set in stone, and many things can happen underway, that calls for changes, but we will just see where the road will lead us and take in all the experiences we make along the way.