Ready To Race

There is a reason why KTM have won the last few Paris-Dakar rallies. Their bikes are just designed and built to fly over pretty much any terrain. Even with my limited, almost non existent off-road skills, after a quick blast tonight down some local dirt and gravel tracks, at speeds that would be uncomfortable in a car, i feel pretty confident - even when the back wheel is skidding all over the place. Of course it will probably be a completely different story when fully loaded with luggage in 40 degree heat in a foreign country... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I've also had to plan a new route since I have been declined an Iranian visa, probably on the grounds that I'm an evil foreign spy. Thus I have a couple of alternative options.

1) Bum around Turkey for a couple of weeks until the end of August then fly myself and the bike directly to India.

2)Divert through Georgia to Russia, then onto Kazakhstan and fly to India.

3)Divert through Georgia, Azerbaijan, ship to Turkemenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, through China - very expensive and time consuming paperwork, then on into Pakistan and India.

4)Divert through Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and then fly from Dubai to India.

Either way I will sadly miss out on a country I was looking forward to visiting. Decisions Decisions...