Silk Road Adventure 2007 Live!Journal Chapters Menu
Welcome to the home page of the GlobeRiders Silk Road Adventure 2007 Live!Journal. For those of you who could not join us this year, especially those with family or friends participating, please consider this your departure gate for travelling "virtually" with our riders on The Silk Road. This is only the second time that GlobeRiders has conducted this, our newest global touring offering.
The Live!Journal consists of three parts
First are the "updates" or Live!Journal Dispatches. Twice weekly, or as time and internet connections permit, subscribers to our email newsletter will receive email updates announcing that new or updated Live!Journal chapters are available for viewing here on the GlobeRiders website. Each email dispatch will contain a short summary, picture of the day, and one or more links to new Live!Journal content.
Second is the Live!Journal itself. A new webpage will be created for each week of the tour. Each page will contain stories and photographs from participants on the tour, both riders and GlobeRiders staff. In a very real sense, it is a diary or "blog" of what riders are thinking or experiencing en route to China. Live!Journal content from participants will be published unedited. The Live!Journal Chapters Menu at the end of this page will allow you to directly access any weekly chapters page. Those highlighted in blue or yellow are available for viewing, those in white are still to come.
Courtesy of Touratech AG and their Touratech QV software and services, the third component of the Live!Journal is our Navigation Technology page. Helge's bike is equipped with a GPS satellite transponder. Anytime the group is actually moving, the position of the group will be updated via satellite every 30 minutes for the entire duration of the tour
Our ride begins on 01 MAY in Istanbul, Turkey. Over the next 53 days the group will ride 8,000 miles or 12,800 kilometers through Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. We'll then board a ferry/freighter for an overnight trip across the Caspian Sea, making landfall again in Turkmenistan, roll onward through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, through the Korgas Pass into Northwestern China, finally finishing up on 22 JUN in the city of the Terra Cotta Warriors and eastern terminus of the Silk Road, Xian, China.
As seems to be increasingly the case, we are once again blessed with an international group of participants and have riders from Canada, England, Ireland, Norway Switzerland and the USA. A "rogue's gallery" of this year's participants can be seen to the left. The motorcycles are a mix of BMW GS oilheads and hexheads, one rigged with a sidecar, with a lone Triumph Tiger filling out our complement of 19 bikes. Breaking it down, we have:
Istanbul is unique in that it is the only city in the world which spans two continents, Europe and Asia. Although it was historically the "end" of the Silk Road, it only seems fitting to begin our journey here at this magnificent crossroads of architecture, history and culture.
Come ride with us!
Mike M. Paull - Guide/Webmeister