travellingbennetts

Compass Expeditions “Ultimate South America”, our second major overseas adventure motorcycle expedition is fast approaching. You would assume we had learned a lot about preparing ourselves, the bikes and what (and what not!) to pack from our Cairo to Cape Town expedition in 2017.  Well, partly true I guess…

Our preparations started in March 2022 when the opportunity to fast-forward this trip from 2024 to 2023 came up due to Compass not running the Road of Bones (London to Magadan) for obvious reasons.  With Duncan’s Triumph Tiger 800 “Aquaman” heading up to 100,000km it was decided that he should upgrade before the trip.  Similarly my Tiger “Princess Ruby” was up there in the kilometres as well so a new Triumph Tiger 900 for each of us!  Easier said than done with supply quite limited and Duncan waiting months for his (although he was fussy on colour…)  I happened to walk into a local dealer in June and saw one on the floor – is it available?  “Yes”, deal done!  While I was unfussy about the colour, the white did seem a tad bland so off to the House of Wraps to get some contrasting orange/copper highlights, nice!

So the big ticket items of new bikes ticked off, the list moved onto the smaller stuff! Of course there were lists made.  I have a comprehensive packing list that I modify for our longer trips on the bikes. A great advantage of going with Compass is the bags are carried in the support vehicle and only a top box with day use items is needed on the bike. We are each provided 2 x 100 litre duffle bags and all items must fit into these, which I find helps to bring some discipline to the packing process. The top box of the bike can be loaded up with gear prior to shipping so I put in my riding boots and riding pants which would take up a fair bit of room in the duffle bag. Duncan nicely carried all the bike spares in his.  A definite plus of this trip compared to our 80 day African trip is that we are both on the same type of bike which reduces the spares inventory needed.

The journey to Santiago begins with a truck journey to Melbourne…

Speaking of bike shipping – they left in late November via truck to Melbourne and were then packed into a container for their trip to Santiago.  We ran them both down to minimal fuel levels and made sure they were as clean-ish as we could get them in preparation for export.  We need a Carnet for each bike, which were a lot easier to obtain this time through the AAA, the 2017 RACQ Carnet experience was lengthy and confusing.  The only visa needed was a Chile entry visa, a new requirement since Covid and took about 4 weeks and required a Federal Police clearance to ensure our good character.

So, with a little over 7 weeks to departure date the nitty-gritty of arrangements are coming to the fore.  International Driving Permits, Covid boosters, sourcing malaria pills (for the Amazon region) and altitude sickness pills (for me) are a few of the administrative details for the 4 months away.

Getting cosy with some BMW’s in the shipping container in Melbourne – next stop Chile!

The climate will vary wildly between cool Patagonian nippiness and Colombian humidity, so a full range of clothing articles will be required.  I strongly favour the merino wool infused items for comfort in both heat and cool, in fact a couple of my T-shirts from the 2017 Africa trip are still pristine in condition.  Shows that forking out that extra amount pays dividends for long-lasting wear.

Given that most of the 7 countries to be visited are Spanish speaking we are additionally taking some steps to learn the basics of the language.  These days this can be done via apps, YouTube videos and podcasts to listen to when driving.  I even downloaded an e-book that promises to “teach you Spanish while you sleep”.  No problemo!

We’ve found that a big overseas trip remains a remote concept until the bikes are loaded on a truck. Their disappearance is the equivalent of The Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s “Shit just got real”. Then it quickly becomes about the trivial yet somehow all consuming stuff – how is Duncan going to maintain the remnants of his hair for 4 months without looking like an aging hippy, should he start the mullet now? Does my preferred Colgate product exist in South America? Will every small town have a Triumph dealership? What is the back-up if I get a hole in my gloves? And don’t get me started on the conundrum of how many cans of dry shampoo should be packed to mitigate helmet hair issues.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” said the Chinese Taoist Laozi, who obviously never did a motorbike expedition. Our journey of 24,000 kilometres started with a single mouse click on the BOOK NOW button.