18 - Spain and France

We leave Madrid around 11.30am, after uncrating the bike. We have the same strategy for this leg as we did for the first. No sleep. Ride, ride, ride. As the sun goes down we are riding to Barcelona.

We cross into France at about 1.30am.

We rest for 1/2 hour en route to Tolouse on a park bench. We arrive back in Calais at 4.00pm on Saturday 22 June 2002. A final mammoth 1,764 miles in 30 hours.

13 - Alaska

We left Anchorage at 10.00am Monday 10 June. Bike's right handlebar was slightly damaged in transit to Anchorage, but nothing too bad. Perfect conditions - little traffic, long sweeping roads and incredible scenery.

Scented pine forests, deep river valleys, glacial lakes, jagged snow capped peaks.

If only we could stop and enjoy it!

14 - Canada

The Alaskan Highway seems to disintegrate in places. The roads get eaten away by frosts in deep winter and summer is the only time to dig them up and re-lay the tarmac.

We have to follow Pilot Cars and slither around on deep gravel. The scenery remains perfect.

15 - United States of America

We have planned for riding on InterState through the US. It might not be interesting road, but its up to five lanes wide, with a 75 mph speed limit.

We do divert to take in Monument Valley, the Navajo Indian Reservation and a little of Route 66.

Then we head south to El Paso.

16 - Mexico

We make the Mexican border by rush hour. Bad move. Time on this border counts and we spend more than 4 hours getting immigration stamps and the temporary vehicle pass.

Due to a huge storm, we are forced to wait at the border town overnight.

We complete the Mexico riding (913 miles) in the next day, via Torreon, Monterrey and Saltillo.

17 - Southern States, USA

As Miami draws nearer, the cumulative effect of the riding and the tiredness becomes more debilitating. And then the final 3 electric storms to contend with. In the space of 3 hours we get soaked, dried, soaked, dried, soaked and dried.

We arrive at Ibercondor, our air freighter, without a hitch. It is 6pm. We are knackered, filthy, heads buzzing with lack of sleep. Our American leg has taken just over 7 days and 6,777 miles.

8 - United Arab Emirates

We arrived at Sharjah around 8.00am in the morning and we did not leave the docks until mid-day - this was after some clerk had made a typing error on our documents and we could not go until it was corrected.

It was only a 30 mile ride to the Dubai Cargo Village and Cathay Pacific.

Cathay were all prepared for the bike and had set everything up for us to air freight it to Oz.

9 - Western Australia

Munich Motorcycles did the first main service on the bike since we left and then we headed up the Great Northern Highway to Port Hedland.

Getting our first taste of road trains - 53.5 metres of heavy truck, pulling about 4 separate trailers of stuff - camels, cattle, fuel, you name it.

10 - Northern Territories, Australia

Seems like a biker's dream. No speed limits on the roads, no traffic out there and long straight roads. Perfect for testing a top end speed.

But oh no! Some joker decides to stick thousands of kangaroos, emus, eagles and cattle out there whose main meeting point is the road.

You pick your speed very carefully!

11 - Australia

We completed the Australian leg, having ridden down through Alice Springs and then on to Sydney, via Broken Hill. We rode 5,080 miles in 4 days & 16 hours.

Our longest riding day was 22 hours.

We left Glendambo at 4.00am in the middle of a "prohibited area" in the Outback and rode 1,230 miles to Sydney, arriving at 2.00am.

12 - New Zealand

Another major service at European Motorcycles, the up to Picton. We crossed to Wellington (our anti-podal point) on the ferry and spent a very wet and cold day up to Auckland.

The best bit has to be the volcanic scenery on the Desert Road between Waiouru and Turangi.

7 - Bandar E Abbas

Riding into Abbas, our departure port was a huge relief. We crossed the Persian Gulf in an old 1959 Japanese ferry that had been donated to Iran some time ago.

Our Greece to UAE leg was 3,487 miles in 4 days and 10 hours.

1 - France and Italy

We left Calais at 8.00am on 11 May 2002. The strategy for this leg was to ride it in one hit.

Other than a half an hour kip at a petrol station on a bench, we rode 1,671 miles without sleeping.

Fighting to keep going during the early hours was a real will of mind over matter.

The first leg took 27.5 hours.

3 - Turkey

We got through the border in only ten minutes due to the help of the Turkish OMM Bike Club, who rode with us to Istanbul.

Crossing the Bosphorus was a huge psychological boost – onto the Asian continent and already over 4 days quicker than the previous record.

4 - Eastern Turkey

Beyond Ankara, Turkey becomes a hard country to cross.

The country is more remote, large cities are few and in between there are only small villages of mud houses and grass roofs or industrial areas, where the towns look bleak.

The road twists across huge mountain ranges, laced with snow and ice and covered in fog – treacherous riding conditions.

5 - Northern Iran

Riding through the first small town was just a small taster of what is to come. Cars cut in front, pull out without warning, no indication, no lights, no junctions, nothing, nothing, nothing. On the positive side, the price of petrol was only 3p per litre!

We always drew a crowd – our BMW was not a regular sight in Iran. Apparently, they banned bikes over 250cc some years ago.

6 - Southern Iran

The terrain was now desert scrub land. Flat shimmering miles of sand and thorny grass with a backdrop of multi-coloured rocky barren mountains against a bright white blue sky.

Temperatures soared to 45 degrees. There was no shade. We were being baked alive.

Interesting road hazards though!

2 - Greece

Greece was slow and hard going. Lots of road works, many single carriage way roads running through villages.

Our final push to the border was 313 miles and over 5 hours in the seat.