Well here we go: the LAST blog post for The Matt, Atley,
Ferg and Wendy Show! As I write this, Atley and Wendy pedal hard to the south
of Peru, towards a potential motorbike buyer. Ferg rides the glorious waves of
the Ecuador coast, patiently awaiting his bike buyer. And I am in central
Ecuador, sorting out an oil leak and more mountain roads. It’s been a long time
since the glory of Draper Road in Fort McMurray, Canada. We picked up The New
Guy in Vegas, Wendy in Panama and many others made legendary appearances along
the way. But now we have gone our separate ways, towards the next chapters of
our lives, with the power of accomplishment coursing through our veins. A sad
end for sure, but we’ve all got plenty to look forward to, and so much to
reflect on. Entonces, I shall hit rewind on this VHS thingo and take it from
the top. The place, Medellin, Colombia. The time, 3 weeks ago. Grab yourself a
huge bowl of popcorn chums; this is the final episode of The Matt, Atley, Ferg
and Wendy Show.
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| He's really put some girth on those limbs during this trip eh? |
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| One final jump for joy... |
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| Looking a little like Ray? |
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| Wendy with short guy from short boat. |
Medellin is a city that has only recently risen from tragic
times, into a fascinating, relaxed, and trendy city. 20 years ago there were
car-bombs, shootings, grenades and tragedies, but the government has managed to
push the violence far back into the remote mountains, and the city is now
thriving in comfortable squares adorned with funky street art, a very modern
train system and kick-ass motorbike stores. The Kawasaki dealer there (called
Kawasaki 10 because it’s on 10
th Street) helped us out with all the
parts we needed, installed Ferg’s chain while we waited, troubleshot my bike’s annoying
electrical issues and let us ride their awesome machines, just for the joy of
it all. Danny, the owner, has been a co-host on a weekly live TV show for 8
years, and invited us onto the show to be interviewed about our trip. We
wheeled Ferg’s bike into the studio on a Friday night, and had a great time
being interviewed on Colombian TV, along with some models and musicians. We supplied
them a few of our blog videos and photos ahead of time, and they played the
videos as introductions each time the show came back from a commercial break. It
was super exciting to rock the nation of Colombia with our travel adventures!
Alas we’re yet to get our hands on a copy of the episode, but when we do, we’ll
put it straight up on this page.
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| The set on Enferrados, Danny's show on Colombian TV |
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| Life as TV stars. It's ok I guess... |
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| Random coastal scene from Ecuador |
One night at our hostel in Medellin we invited fellow
Australian and Intrepid Dual Sporter, Trevor, over for a beer. As we were
waiting, someone had the thought that maybe we weren’t allowed visitors at the
hostel. I went up to the front desk and told them that my uncle was coming to
visit me, and was it ok if he came in for a beer. Thus a nickname was born, and
Uncle Trev has enjoyably crossed our paths many times since. Here are some of his
adventures:
http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=5583.0 Another of our recent motorbike travel companions is the ever-humble
Kornelius Martin, a seasoned yacht captain from Australia, who’s very
successfully trying his hand at transcontinental motorbike travel. Perhaps you
might have heard of Kornelius’s son, Jesse Martin, when he sailed solo around
the world in 2000 at the age of 17. And 2 more good friends of ours we’ve been
crossing paths with in South America with are Rosie and Kari from Ontario
Canada, Kawasaki die-hards to the bitter end. Check out their adventures here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=885887
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| Ride day for Medellin Kawasaki. |
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| 2012 Z1000.... is........ so..... awesome....... ! |
After a meaty lunch on the group ride day, we peeled off and
headed to Salento, a small town in the coffee growing region of central Colombia,
as per Elske’s 7
th commandment. It’s a lush, green, mountainous area
and we savoured the cool weather with boxes of Argentinean wine by an open fire
and turned a wad of hostel business cards we’d artfully turned into a deck for
boozy evening gaming. While checking into our cool hostel, pleasantly located
on a mountain ridge, we spied two Dual Sporters slinking towards us. They were
dead obvious in their rainproof pants and ruffled hair style, eyeballing our
farkles and dreaming up future forum posts. After a few minutes chatting, it
turned out that we’d already heard of Ken and Ebru, and they’d heard of us through
the incestuous Adventure Motorcyclist grape vine. Once settled in, we shared
adventure tales long into the night, about fork oil viscosity, spoke tightening
techniques, hostel bathroom water sourcing methods and Ace of Base’s body of
work from ‘87-‘91. Ken and Ebru bought their bike in Chile, and have done a
30,000km+ journey through South America, including a 4 day jungle mud mission
through the Amazon in Western Brazil, which earns them the rank of Epic
Adventurers. Check out their glory here:
http://www.2fortheroad.co.uk/
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| Our South American riding buddies, from left: Kon, Kari, Ebru, Ken and Trev |
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| A very clear pool in Peru |
From Salento we motored south to the city of Cali, and
stayed in Motolombia Land. Mike the owner, runs a motorbike touring company and
a hostel, and his internet forum fame has made Motolombia a stopping point for
every Dual Sporter who’s ever considered upgrading their doohickey. He
patiently helped us out with various requests, and took our photo to be amongst
the thousands on the Adventure Motorcyclists wall of fame in his hostel. Having
been touring Colombia on motorbikes for 5 years now, Mike advised us of some
excellent routes ahead of us, and we wisely took heed. When we left Cali,
instead of sticking to the mouldy-old Panamerican down to Popayan, we turned
off onto faint dotted tracks on our maps, to be rewarded breathtaking mountain
views from a rocky, steep, twisting dirt road that crossed several ranges, went
through several tiny, staring villages, and eventually back to Popayan. Massive
win! It was another fantastic ride day, and we’ve got Motolombia Mike to thank!
Go rent some motorbikes off him and tour Colombia! T-t-t-t-today Junior! www.motolombia.com
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| Another awesome day on the adventure roads on Colombia |
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| The New Guy takes some time out to relax curbside |
Popayan is another Spanish Colonial town, with white washed
buildings, a big centre square, cobblestone roads and literally thousands of
Colombians - all speaking Spanish too! Using our cheap hotel there as a base of
operations, we ditched our bike luggage and did some day trips in various
directions. Trevor and I unknowingly headed into FARC* country and enjoyed
their hot springs and fried chicken. We scouted out the start of a back country
adventure route towards some ancient stone carvings in San Agustin, but were
advised by an informed local that there had been some FARC activity on the road,
and in the town we’d had the chicken in, the week before. So we neglected to
push into the jungle, and stayed on the main road.
*FARC is one of the Colombian guerrilla armies that have
been battling the government and army for the last 70 years. They have been
pushed back into the mountains now, but they are still actively at war with the
Colombian Army.
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| Trev and Matt exploring the remote Colombian mountains |
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| Sometimes, not often, we walk places. |
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| A local bus in southern Colombia |
Atley, Ferg and Wendy had pushed on into Ecuador while
Trevor and I were FARCing around. They toured the huge church at Las Lajas, and
as a measure of just how awesome it is, Ferg said, “Even I found it interesting!”
I rode the last couple of days of southern Colombia solo, and was in a constant
state of awe at the mega scenery that the Panamerican Highway cuts through and
over. Massive mountains, gigantic gorges, tunnels cut through mountain rock and
striking vistas that would possibly make a normal person thrash their arms
about and potentially hurt themselves, from the emotional overload garnished
from the enthralling landscape. Every local I spoke to, while pausing for a
photo, was very pleased with my appreciation for their land.
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| Did you say scenic? |
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| The Pan-American Highway in Southern Colombia is simply amazing. |
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| I'm sure many people have crashed on this road, with views like this off to one side... |
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| Las Lajas church |
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| Las Lajas church |
The border crossing from Colombia into Ecuador was exactly
the same as all the Central American crossings. There were local men lingering,
tattered laminated cards dangling around their neck, offering advice on which
building to go to next, hoping for a tip. There were ratty English backpackers,
wiping at their noses and glancing around nervously. And there were customs
officials who didn’t give a FARC. But it’s old hat for us now, and we all
swished through with little bother. I bought a month of obligatory motorbike
insurance at the first town I came to, for the agreeable sum of $3. Premium gasoline
here costs 50c/L and you can buy a plate of rice, beans, meat, salad, with a
bowl of soup and a glass of freshly squeezed juice, for $2.50. Ferg is in
heaven.
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| We finally made it to the equator! |
In Quito, the capital city, Atley, Ferg and Wendy holed up in a nice hostel and spent a few days Looking At Things, playing pool and generally just taking it pretty easy. Fergs front tyre had started to resemble Bruce Willis' head, so he and Atley moseyed over to see a local moto-tour company to discuss route options, contemplate front sprocket sizes and most importantly to see if Ferg could swindle a used tyre out of them.
Cort, the tour dude, was pleased to oblige, and offered tales of twisty roads, piping hot black coffee in tiny cups and a used Pirelli for five bucks. Following the highly successful mission the gang ventured out into the big bad world to go be tourists. The city of Quito lies beneath a towering mountain range, and for a few bits of silver you can catch a cable car up into the clouds. At the top they were greeted by a British news crew and interviewed on the dangers of Ecuador. Tune in to World News on BBC1 on the first of June if you're missing our smiling faces.
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| Atley near horse. |
Using the route programmed into Atley’s GPS from the touring
company guy in Quito, we putted to the edge of the city, to find ourselves at
the start of a slightly wet dirt track, heading up a mountain-side. We paused
momentarily to push our proverbial glasses up our noses (Ferg literally), then
hit the track at maximum rpms! With Wendy twisting her fingers deep into
Atley’s kidneys as a sign of her complete satisfaction! We quickly found
ourselves in remote, foggy mountains, and we barely saw a soul for the next few
hours. But the riding was good and jungley, and we’d committed to wherever it
was taking us, so we pushed on with rumbling stomachs until we popped out on a
main highway at 2pm. The first food place we found promised trout. “How far are
we from the ocean,” we all thought. Then the grinning owner lady beckoned me
out a side door, to show me her husband plucking 4 flapping and very much alive
trout, from a huge cement trough. She then led me into the backyard to show me their
huge trout farm that they’ve been working for the last 20 years, with thousands
of trout swimming around in many different tanks. Needless to say, lunch was
delicious, and made me wonder what was happening on the Clearwater River in
Fort Mac.
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| Churchy bank building in Popayan, Colombia. Maybe. |
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We ended up staying at a hotel about 40km from where we
started the day, but our mud-covered bikes were proof of a successful day of adventuring.
The following day we attacked the southern leg of the Quilotoa loop, to visit
the crater lake of Quilotoa Volcano. On the road there we were very surprised
to bump into Patrick and Janika, a Dutch couple on bicycles that we’d sailed
from Panama to Colombia with. We gazed at their pedal bikes, their bulging
thighs, their heaving chests and the enormous valley we were in, and happily
flopped our skinny limbs back onto our motorised machines, to go buy burgers.
Alas up at the volcano they didn’t have burgers, they had guinea pigs threaded
onto metal rods, being hand twirled over barbeques by wrinkley, nodding locals.
I imagined plunging my pointy teeth into the well-cooked critter, but found my
legs involuntarily walked me away, so I followed the others up to a cheap restaurant
serving chicken and rice, while trying to avoid the man’s nodding disappointment.
The sky that day was bleak and overcast, making the water of the crater lake
murky and dreary. We didn’t stay long at the 4000 metre high lake, and hit the
wicked mountain curves again for more amazing riding, with Led Zepplin cranked
on my iPod.
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| Volcano posing |
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| Mmmmmm barbecued rat! |
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| Taking a break at 4000 metres is tiring in itself. |
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| Trying out Patrick and Janicka's bikes |
The next notable town we found ourselves in is called Banos,
which translates to toilets in Spanish. This is probably because the town lies
at the foot of a 5000 metre high and very active volcano, which can shit on
them at anytime. The popular gringo thing to do in that town is rent mountain
bikes and ride along the river, downhill, for 20km, then catch a truck ride back
into town. We joined forces with other people in our hostel to form a bicycle
gang of 9, and did just that, ending at a very high, very violent waterfall
called El Diablo. On the way we rode a
cable car over the river gorge for a dollar, which was powered by the innards
of truck, bolted to the edge of the cliff.
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| The 5000m high, active Tungurahua Volcano in Banos was just amazing. We saw lava flowing down it! |
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| Banos is marketed as a bit of an extreme sport hub. So Atley and Ferg did a bridge swing. That's where you jump off a perfectly good bridge, with a rope tied around your feet, and then swing around under the bridge, for $20. |
From Banos we did our final group ride together, with my
bike dripping oil and Atley’s bike dropping bolts, to the unremarkable town of
Riobamba. There we went out for quite possibly the fanciest dinner of the trip,
$10 steaks, then in the true tradition of many memorable nights of our trip, we had a rum party in the hotel room with Uncky T, while watching the
great footage we have for the final video. It was a jolly last evening together
and indeed a very sad lot of goodbyes in the morning.
And that was that.
The
trip was finished.
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| Final Rum Party |
We’ve certainly come a long way since Atley and I randomly came
up with the plan to ride motorbikes half way around the world, during a Skype
conversation from Canada to Australia, in January 2011. Over the coming months
we assessed the feasibility of it, and decided that by July 2012 we could both
be in a position to depart. Over those 18 months many things happened, as life
does, but we managed to stick to our word, and leave it all behind. I must
admit that over those 18 months I was constantly waiting for that spanner in
the works, that would stop the trip. But luckily, and amazingly, we managed to
get ourselves to Brent’s garage on Draper Road, Fort McMurray, Canada, on June
15
th 2012, with the biggest grins in history! Inside that garage
were 2 motorbikes, boxes of parts, tools, motorbike gear, camping equipment,
and the potential for a trip of a lifetime. And sitting here in Ecuador 11
months later, I can say quite confidently, that we succeeded.
We crossed 11 international borders, rode 33 000 kilometres,
made hundreds of friends, learned how to maintain, fix and ride motorbikes,
learned how to speak Spanish (kinda), learned how to make awesome videos, and we
didn’t get robbed, kidnapped, lost or scared. (Much.)
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| We did it. |
Ferg joined us 2 months into the
trip and immediately became as much a part of it as Atley and I. Together we
ate, camped, slept, decided and acted. We picked each other up countless times,
whether it be from a fallen motorbike or a crappy mood. We looked after each
other when we were sick, drunk or upset, and sometimes all at once. We learned
to read each others’ minds, finish each others’ sentences and at a glance know
exactly how many minutes until I was ready to go in the morning (yep, I was
last to get ready about 95% of the time: AGAIN WE ARE WAITING FOR MATT???
Thanks for that quote German Matt). We have formed bonds that will never be
forgotten and will never be undone, and words cannot express how grateful I am
to both of them for enabling me to have the best year of my life. And as a true
test and example of their muuuuuy fuerte relationship, Atley and Wendy not only
survived being apart for most of the year, but got engaged on a mountain top in
Guatemala. Myself, Ferg and everyone we know, wish them the absolute best in
their future together, and have no doubt that it will be another successful adventure.
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There are so many reasons why most people can’t do a trip
like ours, whether it be money, time, family, work, health, ability, comfort or
interest, and looking back on it, I’m amazed that we could get all our ducks in
a row just to start it, let alone finish it. It was a life changing privilege.
Repeat that last sentence please, but slower this time. Perhaps we’ll never be
in the same position again, to take on such an epic adventure.... though
something tells me that we’ll be back on the mules again, someday, somewhere.
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| Bye! I'm going to back to whence I came in the lanky caverns of Atley! |
We have so many kind and amazing people to thank for aiding
us in our journey, and rather than write them all out and inevitably miss some,
I’d like to direct you to the Thank You page on this site, so we can miss some
there. We’ve been absolutely privileged to meet SO MANY AWESOME PEOPLE along
the way, that we’ve made friends with, shared the road with, gone swimming,
surfing, drinking, dancing, hiking, diving, caving, camping, riding, fishing, walking,
tanning, shopping, sailing, eating and exploring with! It certainly is the
people you meet that colour memories and we are most grateful to have had such
excellent experiences. A special thank you goes to those who invited us back to
visit them in their home country.
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| Peru mountains. I know I didn't talk about Peru, but that's where Atley and Wendy are right now, so they've slipped a couple of pics in from down there. |
To quickly tell you our future plans at this stage, Atley
and Wendy are heading back to Melbourne to save up for their wedding later on
this year, Ferg is off to explore Europe with his sister, and I’m heading back
to Medellin, Colombia to work for Danny as a motorbike mechanic for a few
months.
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| See you all...... right there! |
Although this story is now finished, don’t smash your computer and kick your dog just yet, because you just never know when you may be hearing from us again....
Thank you!
Love,
The Matt, Atley, Ferg and Wendy Show!
PS With us all separated right now, Atley has no computer to make the final video. So stay tuned for that too...
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| Later dudes. |
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