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.