Motorcycle Challenge/Clic Sargent

Charlie has just returned from a forty day journey covering 10,000 miles through eighteen countries on a Harley Davidson from London to Algeria and then circumnavigating the Mediterranean to benefit the children's charity Click/Sargent. Charlie is currently working on a documentary for Bletchley park, the decoding center that reduced WWII by at least two years as few know of its achievements and the government does not consider it important enough to finance or prevent it from being demolished. This page contains the pictures, videos and blog from the trip.

Trip pictures

Trip videos

Blog

Leave London and take the Eurostar to France and then the worst part of the whole journey - the 800 mile motorway run down the length of France to Nice but the Harley and I have to get aquainted somehow! I find that wind noise on the mike cuts out all inputs to the headphones after 75mph! Mr Harley please note! My iPod library now looking less useful as the only way to crack this leg is set the bike at 100, which it seems to like, and go for it. Arrive at Nice after midnight with static ears!

20th April

Depart Nice in France for the second leg into Spain. We had a difficult run over the Spanish border down to Alicante as the weather was filthy for the first 200 miles. Worst was the 50mph cross-winds that were gusting sufficiently to literally blow the bikes off the road. Takes something to blow an Ultra off the road but it would have been had we not kept the speed below 55mph!

Stay on the Spanish border at a place called the Cote d'Azur. Obviously a bit confused.

21st April

Drove south towards Alicante. At last we feel some heat on our backs and mile after mile of motorways are infused with really powerful scents of orange blossom from the orange groves alongside. Stay the night at a converted castle with pretentions of being something much grander so go to a little local fish café and have every sort of aquatic animal presented to us by an excited patron. Sure we were ripped off but at least he was trying!

22nd April

We reach Alicante and board the overnight ferry from Alicante to Oran in Algeria which was pretty chaotic. Bodies sleeping all over the decks and prayer mats everywhere. Share a cabin with Vic Norman, the aerobatic pilot. Basic but the water works.

23-24 April

When we arrived in Oran, Algeria, took two and a half hours to clear customs and immigration! And that was quick as the police took us to the front of the line! The other poor blighters must have taken most of the day!

Oran is one of the largest cities in Algeria, a major port and the home of the President who was re-elected two weeks ago. We stayed in a local hotel and had a police escort wherever we went. This was first because the Algerian police seem to be real characters and love the spectacle of charging through the streets shunting all and sundry off the road and secondly for "security". It is easy to forget that the country was in a civil war until three years ago and over 100,000 were killed in the fighting which is driven by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban imitators based in the hills. We had to drive through these hills to reach Tunisia and there were machine gun posts every few hundred yards and none of the locals were smiling.

Leaving Oran at 5am, we drove through the mountainous region of Algeria with police escort driving at high speed. The coast roads are very beautiful with coves with cristal clear blue water. It is a matter of time before these become major tourist attractions providing the country remains stable.

25th April

Arrive in Algiers for two nights. Algerian people all very friendly and despite the numerous checkpoints they are clearly happy to see tourists in their country after all the troubles. We refuel about every 150 miles as never quite sure when we will see the next petrol station. Note for Mr Harley- Please can you either have the fuel cap captive or else have a clip to store it while the tank is filled and you are astride the machine? Drove me mad!

Checked pressures for first time and a bit down on both. With tyre pressures so crucial on the Ultra why doesn't Harley have the pressures on the dash, like the BM's? If one of the local kids had some fun and let some air out I may find out when I drop it on a corner! With a truck coming the other way!

It must be remembered that all of north Africa was just one region dominated principally by the Phoenicians, then the Romans, the Bizantians, the Ottomans, the Spanish, the French and it was only after the first world war that the various powers drew arbitrary lines across the region to create the countries that we now know today. That is why the Romans, for instance, were able to build such impressive and vast buildings and cities using migrant labour, not slaves, from all over Africa, and that is why on the road out of Tunisia there is a sign for "Cairo- 2456km" ! Borders, in the minds of the people here, are meaningless which during the Libyan sanctions meant that with a native population of only 5m Libyans that there were another 9m immigrants who just wandered into the country. Now there are checkpoints every few miles where you have to slow down to be checked. A vast region that was just one open space has now become extremely possessive about it's borders!

On to Tunisia and Carthage to see the remains of the Roman town that covers an area of 40km x 25km! The roman baths were on a scale with St Paul's cathedral, to give you an idea of what we have been seeing.

Everywhere we look, unbelievable amounts of buildings are going up but 80% are empty! We drive through complete towns that are building sites. Algeria is a major oil producer and the petrol-dollars are being ploughed into housing and new towns with novel schemes to provide housing for the young. They pay a 10% down payment and the rest they pay off over 25 years on the basis that these payments cannot be more than 25% of their income!

We arrive at the town of Batna for the night.

26th April

As we neared the Libyan border the land became more desert-like with little but sand and the odd tree which let the wind tear at the bikes. We stopped to see the ruined Roman town of Sabratha on the coast and built in the 3rd Century BC, as were most of the Roman town along this coast. The first night in Libya was spent in an old Riad In Tripoli and this morning we are off to possibly the most important archaeological site in the world, Leptis Magna.

About the bikes, the others are all BMW GS 1200's and weigh 223kgs. My Ultra weighs 400kgs, and 510kgs with fuel and oil! My kit weighs 65kg so without my 95kg I have a weight of 575kgs between my legs! Means that I have to concentrate a bit more on the dirt roads, of which there were many in the hilly regions of Algeria.

27th April

The next morning pull off the road to see an amazing sight. In the middle of nowhere is a Roman town called Timgat built in 300BC. Complete streets with all the houses existing up to a height of at least six feet with numbers still carved into the door ways. The theater is in great condition and I was amused to see the local nick opposite a brothel where male prostitutes paraded for the ladies to select their choice of the day, evidenced by the carved signs on the doorway! That must have kept unemployment down! The town covers an area at least 25km by 40km which meant that we were looking at some 10% of the town and explained why there was no coliseum to see. The rest was buried by sand caused by a sudden earthquake which meant that all the treasures, including gold and coins, are there for the picking. The guide said that people arrive with trowels and help themselves and that the government did not consider that Roman remains were important enough despite the vast petrol dollars. This was to be the same story in all countries. The shabby museum displayed the finest collection of Roman mosaics that I have ever seen. Indeed only the Bardo museum in Tunis claims to eclipse this collection. Sadly the other museum is closed as it was robbed recently and so it is simpler to close it!

We then head up into the hills to cross the mountainous range leading into Tunisia. We felt that we were being watched all the time and it became clear why as we passed machine gun posts and army checkpoints along the way. This is where the Islamic fundamentalists are still holding out who were responsible for over 100,000 deaths in the fighting that only officially ended a few years ago.

We arrive at Algiers for the night. Impression of Algeria is a country populated with friendly people who want to move on. Much of the land is fertile with a booming agricultural sector. The coast line is attractive and the country is just waiting for the tourist boom however if this is not managed more carefully then it will end up as the Butlins of North Africa and miss out on the high earning side of this industry.

27th April

Cross into Tunisia and head towards Tunis. The word has spread that a bunch of lunitacs are riding from London around the entire Med and as we head into each town we get ambushed by local police cars that appear from nowhere and escort us at break-neck speeds through the towns literally shunting cars and pedestrians into the ditch and gutters reaching speeds of 70mph through narrow streets! Total chaos but as they peel off to wave us on all we see are huge grins from the crews who have relished the prospect of a bit of fun.

Wherever we go people wave excitedly. Not sure if this is because we are yet to see any other foreign bikes, or any big bikes, on the road! But it is the Harley that attracts attention when we stop. Police especially want to be photographed on it. Under normal conditions I would want to keep them as far away from my bike as possible!

6pm we arrive in Tunis.

28th April

We drive out to the Roman town of Carthage built in 70 BC that was destroyed in an earthquake. The Roman baths defy all expectations and although only the basement level survives it is clear that the scale of this bath complex was on a par with St Paul's cathedral! Simply mind-blowing! We then walk round the old quarters that were built by the Ottomans in the 16th Century with the buildings painted in bright white and the doors and windows painted in traditional blue. Hot weather and bright blue skies.

It is clear that all along the North African coast the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans built seriously large towns along the coast. Most were destroyed by earthquakes or the Vandals that arrived from Northern Europe in 425AD but what has saved so much of this amazing architecture is ten to twenty meters of sand that buried and preserved it all. Everywhere we walk it is clear that complete streets and houses lie under our feet.

29th April

Early 4.30am start and at 9.30 we cross the border into Libya, another major oil producer. Pictures of the great leader, Colonel Gadafi, everywhere. One of the largest countries in Africa, it has only some 5m of its own population with up to a further 9m of immigrant population from the rest of Africa. Signs proclaiming 'People's this and People's that' abound, which translated means that the great leader keeps a large chunk of everything for himself and his family - and the people get everything in name only. Same all over the world!

What all this brings home is that North Africa is really just a region. It was only after WWI that the colonial powers decided to draw arbitary borders across the map to create the countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. That explains the extent of the migration of labour and the fact that we have just passed a sign on the road that says "Cairo 2246km" !! After the Vandals occupied this area in 425AD came the Muslims from 643AD, the Spanish for a short period from 1511 - 1531, the Knights of Malta from 1531 - 1551 and then the Ottomans until 1735. After that Napoleon arrived and the French dominated this region until WWII so we rely on our French much of the time.

Talking to the locals throws up some interesting facts: a) literally everything is run by a cousin of a cousin, so that everyone knows someone. The result is that rules can be broken with impunity. Families connect illegally to the grid in the knowledge that the local meter man will not report them. Bin collections are not paid for as the crew have a distant relative on board. And as for taxes the official rate is.....wait for it.......1.5%!! and guess what? It is not paid except by people who work for the government.

Most cars curiously have 'CH' stickers on them even though they are clearly battered local cars. Apparently in the '90's Switzerland sent many second hand cars to Libya but then it was banned but Libyans now think it 'cool' to have the 'CH' on their cars!

All road signs are in Arabic only which means that we can't read anything! We are told that Gadafi ordered this as he noticed that in Europe no signs had Arabic on them so he decided to make a point. The result is that his crucial tourist trade suffers as tourists have no way of knowing where the hell they are going! Great move! Anyway Libya is no exception from the other countries in that there are checkpoints every twenty minutes or so. Sometimes they wave us on, other times they want to see our papers, so note for Mr Harley! Please can we have something that we can fit to the tank, or somewhere, that enables us to have ready access to documents and cameras etc as we cannot simply fish them out of the locked boxes - or the extra bag that I have since added on top of the back box!

30th April

Stay in Tripoli in an old riad. Then go on to Leptis Magna which is the most important archialogical site in the world. Note for Mr Harley - please can you produce an extra widget that produces a wider foot plate for the bike stand? Many times I have to remain on the bike while someone else fetches a piece of stone or wood to put under the stand so that it does not sink into the sand, gravel or dirt! Anyway here is a complete city built by the Romans 200BC. The sheer scale of the town, the carvings and the condition of the buildings is mindboggling. Words cannot convey what lies before you. It simply has to be seen. I am still struggling with why, say, 1800 years later in Tudor times the streets were muddy and houses timber when the Romans built to last for ever and heating, baths and drainage were built for the whole community! We are still trying to catch up it seems!

On the way back we stop to see a complete Roman villa that was unearthed from the sand. Distinctly odd to be standing inside a villa that is 200BC. The 'sporting room' (old equivalent of the gun room) is decorated with fantastic paintings from 200BC but they badly need restoring. The authorities say that £25,000 is required to do this and this petrol rich country won't pay for it so recently an American woman offered $1m to do a complete job. When she was told to wire this to a Swiss account she had to withdraw the offer, meaning that the villa is decaying. A new roof was recently put on it but they used steel that was too heavy so the walls of this section are now crumbling and anyone can walk in with a trowel and dig up the priceless mosaics. Corruption is threatening to oversee the destruction of these treasures.

1 May

We leave Tripoli but then the wind increases and as we cross the desert area we get caught in a sandstorm with visibility some 20 feet. There are mounds of sand across the road which the Harley hates. The GS 1200's weigh 223 Kgs and the Ultra is 357kgs! With 45kgs of luggage and equipment and my weight of 90kgs it means that it weighs in at almost 500kgs! We are reduced to 35-40mph but cannot stop as there is no shelter. We do this for 2.5 hours until we arrive our hotel for the night.

2 May

In the morning the sandstorm is still with us. We have almost 500 miles to drive across the rest of Libya so no option but to press on. I can feel that the sand is causing problems as the horn has stopped working and the performance is down. I assume that sand is blocking the air filter which would explain why the fuel consumption had risen. When we arrive at Ajdabia I check the filter. Note for Mr Harley! Please replace the filter cover nut that currently needs an Allen key (that no one had) with a knurled nut that can be hand operated! Eventually got the cover off and am amazed to find sand on the carb butterfly, so it all gets a good clean. The BMW's seem to have suffered the same problems. I give the old girl a wash to find that the front of the bike no longer has chrome! It is now brushed steel! Strangely the BMW's screens are all now frosted but the Harley's is completely clear. Must be something to do with the Harley's aerodynamics. A favour, Mr Harley!? Put a rubber seal around the chrome cap that covers the petrol cap. When I opened it, it was full of sand that had to be blown out before re-fueling. Confuscious say sand in fuel bad joss. Also please make drain holes in the screen leather pouches and BOTH sides of the storage boxes on the crash bars because having washed the sand away the water then doesn't drain away!

3 May

Leaving at 5am we press on for another long drive and arrive in a village built on the 1930's by the Italians. We see pictures in the lobby but now it is scruffy and uncared for, like most of the villages and towns that we see.

My iPod is now my companion on the trip as I have got bored with the Arab music which, to me, now seems rather monotonous. Note for Mr Harley! As ipods are now an accepted extra on all bikes, can we have a pouch that takes an iPod that allows you to access the control 'wheel' of the iPod?

4 May

This modern hotel is built right next to Roman ruins but we are told that it is all 'family stuff' so no permission was required and sod the ruins!

The morning produces rain and 10c, much colder than the UK! We drive up into the hills to the remains of the Greek city of Apollo. The city dominates the coast land and the temple of Apollo, the treasury (where all the donations were stored) and the sacrificial altar are all remarkable recogniseable. Priests usually held office for three years so they tried to amass as much money in the treasury as possible before running for high political office. As we descend to the coast again we see the cliffs riddled with thousands of tombs carved out of the rock by the Greeks.

5 May

We head towards the Egyptian border but when we arrive it is chaos. None of the officials have a clue of their own procedure and at one point take us to a derelict building to have our bike forms processed! After five hours of this they tell us that all of our insurance's for Egypt are invalid and that we must buy insurance for the four days from them at a rate equivalent to a whole year! Now either AXA are a bunch of thieves and have conned us or these guys at the border are on a scam! I know where my money lies!

After a few miles we pick up a police escort but Egyptian police have no sense of fun as they insist we drive almost 300km of dead straight road in the desert at a steady 60mph (the national speed limit)! I have to keep splashing water on my face to stay awake. We eventually arrive at the coastal resort of Marsa Matruh for some rest.

6 May

Refreshed, we leave early to evade the police who we suspect are lurking somewhere to escort us. By 5pm we arrive at the outskirts of Cairo but stop at the Giza pyramids for a quick team photo. A security guard appeared and told us that we could photograph the pyramids but not our bikes! After a few choice words I snap away while he tells me that he will have me arrested. Nothing new here. Love to see them try it.

We arrive at the Nile hotel on the banks of the nile in time to see Chelsea removed from the championship. Got to admit it, Barcelona played better. Surprised to see no streets made of mud but then the city has grown to a population of 25m (double London's) and that was 35 years ago.

7 May

Drove out to see the pyramids and the Spynx properly. Amazed to see houses and car parks etc so close to them. Last time I was here was 1974 during the war which lead me to correct our guide who proudly told us about their great victory that year! She was amazed as she was not born until 1975 and the schools had conveniently reversed historical reality! That would explain why my youngest son's Russian friends at his school genuinely think that Russia won WWII without the help of the allies and that they took Berlin single-handedly.

I drive over to the Harley dealership to say hello to our Egyptian counterparts and leave the bike for a quick once-over. They change the oil and the filter even though the old girl was running faultlessly. They are a friendly lot who seem to love what they are doing. Sales are still good in Cairo and the average age of Harley owners is 25 - 35 years so although they could be HOG members, the term 'Hairy Old Git' couldn't apply! The guys confirm that despite the sound system on the Ultra doing everything that it will not include the input from my iPhone! That is truly daft!

We then went to the Cairo museum to see some of the world's greatest antiquities. Whilst the contents are unrivalled, I was flabberghasted to see much of the fabulous contents of king Tut's tomb breaking up because there is no humidity or temperature control. I remember the fuss that the Egyptian authorities made when the collection came to London.

8 May

We leave at 8am and head towards the tunnel under the Suez canal. The last time I was here was in a UN plane photographing the debris of the Egyptian armoured corp following Israel's devastating destruction of their army. As we emerge the sea is now on the right side as the gulf of Suez comes into view.

On a refueling stop I notice that the entire left side of the bike is plastered in oil. Minor panic but the level is OK. On inspection it seems that the guys must have removed the oil sender unit for the oil pressure gauge to ease access to the filter and then not put it back correctly. Now Mr Harley...wherever you are....please include a basic tool kit under the seat or somewhere! No Allen keys and the BM's all have metric keys! Paul Lewis recommends a cloth tied round the sender to act as a capillary duct to take the oil under the bike. This improves things and seems to miss the rear tyre. Will have to find a tool somewhere in Jordan.

The desert gives way to sand coloured rocky terrain that gradually increases in height and changes to a pink colour. Nothing, literally nothing, grows here and not surprising that the Bible refers to it as the 'Wilderness'. At 4pm we arrive next to Mount Sinai and walk up to the monastry which is not only the oldest Christian monastry in the world but the site where Moses wrote the ten commandments. Its setting is magical and incredibly peaceful. I can imagine why Moses came here to avoid all distractions. We stay overnght in the village and then press on to the Red sea for the ferry to Jordan. The scenery in Sinai is breathtaking and also beautiful, and is without doubt something that everyone should see before they depart this world. The sweeping curves that cut though these hills were also perfect for the Harley that planted itself on the road - aided by gentle application of the rear brake as demonstrated to me by the angry ant himself, Paul Lewis.

We arrive at the port and a small wait of 6 hours as the boat is running late and miracle of miracles, the papers only take an hour to process!! Progress! At 4pm the boat sets sail for Jordan.

9th May

7pm depart Siniai and its fantastic scenery for the port. We arrive to unexpected calm and have to wait for four hours for departure. On to the Ferry to be told that the 36 mile journey across the Red sea takes 4.5 hours! Where is Moses? Surely he could part the waters just for 6 bikers? Then we could do it in 20 mins.

Arrive in Aquba to be met by the leader of the Jordanian Red Arrows. Suddenly everything happens extremely quickly and we are whisked to our hotel. Something is clearly wrong with the Jordanians as the streets are spotless and everything in the hotel works and nothing is hanging off the walls. Bloody miracle!

10th May

Picked up at 7.30 and taken to the Red Falcons air base for a slap up Jordanian breakfast and then treated to a private air display. Mightily impressed and what really decent guys these chaps were. They will be at the Royal International Air Tatoo, Fairford soon - so see them!

Then drove on to see Petra that defies most descriptions. It is a town built into the rock face of a gorge by the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago, turning it into an important junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. Incredibily elaborate carved facades to the cave dwellings, added to by the Romans who built the colonaded street and the temple.

Stayed the night in the town.

11th May

Dept for Amman and the dead sea via the 'King's Way', an utterly amazing route through Jordan's most spectacular landscape. If they have their Grand Canyon, this is it. Spectacular colours of the rocks and then we descend to the azure blue of the dead sea. All have to jump in for a group photo and then drive on to Amman. 39c now so my Harley leathers are getting a bit hot and the BMW gearboxes getting a bit temperamental.

12th May

Dept Amman at 8am and after losing our way up in the mountains we eventually found the Roman town of Jurash. Very impressive as so much is still intact. Arrived at the Syrian border at 1pm and take 3 hours to clear. Get charged an entry tax, a bike tax and further insurance as yet again they say that our insurance company (AXA) should know that it is not valid in Syria. Eventually having taken a loan out from the IMF and sold my children and mother, we are allowed on our way.

We arrive at Damascus at 5pm having caused chaos by driving down the little pedestrian streets in the old quarter. We are staying in a renovated riad that is spectacular and as we are getting our sweaty bodies off the bikes the wives turn up on a golf cart. Lots of hugs and tears and, as has become the ritual, we pile into the showers for de-gunging.

13th May

Harley has been performing faultlessly and has never missed a beat but the Cairo Harley chap clearly did something daft when he checked the machine. I am told that the Armenians are genius with machines and so off I toddle, with Smiley, the driver for the Wags, and in no time he tells me that some f....wit removed a sender unit to facilitate the changing of the oil filter but then damaged the 'O' ring when he put it back. New 'O' ring in ten minutes then, to clean the bike, he connects a container of petrol to his neighbour's car spraying unit and blasts the bike to de-grease it! Checked for smokers and kept my head down.

Next door I see two eight year olds service an Alfa Romeo then race it up and down the street to check all is OK...which it was! Perhaps a three year old damaged my 'O' ring?

10pm we all depart and head out towards the desert but on the way stop at one of the world's most famous fortified castles built in the 8th century, Krac de Chevallier. Almost completely intact we tour this before having lunch at a local eaterie served by an outrageously gay local who has us all in stitches.

After two hours across the desert we stop in the middle of nowhere at a shack called 'Cafe Bagdad'. great local nosh and another two hours later we suddenly stumble on Roman ruins. It is Palmyra. The columns that lined the streets are still standing. The temple was built in 35AD and the Christian paintings in it date from the late 4th century ad and are the oldest paintings in existence.

We then drive up the hill overlooking Palmyra to the fort that Saladin built. Damned impressive and great views over the surrounding desert.

14th May

Dept 8am across the desert. Temperature guage still reading 39c. Lots of military activity and funny holes in the sand dunes. Unless their rabbits are square there are men in them holes! Then we slow down as the local delivery service for intercontinental ballistic missiles has got lost and can't find the eventual user, which was presumably one of the occupants of the square holes that we were looking at - or rather were looking at us.....and my three cameras around my neck.

Stop in a town for a coffee break and whilst I am sitting on my Harley waiting for the others to mount up I am suddenly surrounded by a TV crew, a crowd of some fifty locals and several mikes thrust into my face! Where the hell did they spring from?! They ask where I have ridden from and I say London. They think I misunderstand them as no idiot would do that so after several attempts I get them to believe me and it turns out it is Iraq TV! Strangest things happen when you least expect it.

5pm we arrive at the coast to stay at an hotel called the 'Cote D'Azur'! Funny sense of humour these Syrians.

15th May

Learn funny things about the BMW GS 1200's. Some of the gearboxes behave oddly when they get hot as gear selection is not always guaranteed, particularly changing down. Also we are now approaching the 6000 mile mark and lack of concentration into a corner on the Harley, as Paul Lewis so ably demonstrated, is rectified by gentle but firm application of the rear brake which stretches the wheelbase and helps the bike settle down into the corner. Apparently the other guys are not having such an easy time of it as the rear brakes are a bit pathetic and need some real force for anything to happen at all.

The land now changes to very green and fertile and we are told that three harvests a year are the norm. We climb steadily up into the mountains and stop at 1700m for a cofee overlooking the fertile plain of the Algearb which is irrigated by a network of canals. Steep twisty road down the escarpment, across the plain and then up the arid hills the other side towards Apamea, which is an old Roman town with the longest surviving original colonaded street in the world, of some 2km.

Duly impressed we then went on to what is locally known as 'The Dead City'. On on side road to it the local bikers, on things that fall out of a packet of Kellogs corn flakes, buzz around us trying to get a reaction. I nudge one that sends him into a spin and Myles tries to unscrew another's helmet at 50mph.

The city is called Apamea and houses are literally intact, save the roofs. The stone tombs bear the Syrian Christian cross so it had clearly been occupied by several races. So strange to see complete houses now that we had seen so many ruins, infact the first time for all of us with the exception of the Roman villa on the coast in Algeria.
On the way back to the main road one of the braver idiot bikers tries to mess with Myles's BMW but undertands first hand what happens when a bike powered by a hair dryer meets some 450kg of German engineering. Myles said he 'felt something, but he was not sure what'. I was riding behind him and I know 'what'. The rider clipped Myles's rear wheel. He cartwheeled along the tarmac and off the road into the ditch. His bike literally reverted to it's state when it was in component form on the shelves. Dodging the bits we felt it wise to continue, bearing in mind that there were some twenty of them, six of us and I wasn't keen to sample the hospitality of Syrian jails.

On the main road to Aleppo a truck's rear tyre burst sending Syrian spares all over the road in a cloud of red desert dust. Amazingly we all emerged the other side of the cloud intact which was more than we could say for the truck.

7pm we arrived in Aleppo, the commercial capital of Syria.

16th May

Up in the morning to see a rather unique place. I had learnt in school about this chap who had spent some 40 years on the top of a 15m high pillar to preach to the locals. His fame spread all over the world and people flocked to see him. When he fell off his perch a local emperor financed the bulding of a remarkable chuch on the site, named after the preacher, St Simeon. Built in 470AD it is supposedly the oldest Christian church in the world.

Went back to Allepo to see round the Citadel, built by the Ottomans but nobody had told President Asad and the Turkish President of our plans so they were allowed up there for lunch and we had to settle for a kebab in the restaurant by the gate. Cheeky fellas!

Went round the siouks built by the Ottomans and still running in exactly the same way as they did then. Bought another backgammon board to add to the collection.

17th May

We all said tearful farewells to our other halves and, of course, Smiley who had proved himself a real asset in all ways. We all wanted to take him home! We set off for the Turkish border encountering more than our fair share of trucks using the wrong side of the dual carriageways. Arrive at the Turkish border but have to pay a tax on our bodies and then a tax on our bikes for permission to take them/us out of the country! Get to the Turkish side and clearly we are in the wrong place as the buildings are all clean, the floors polished marble and the shops and cafeteria immaculate. What's more we are cleared in some 30 minutes.

Soon see that Turkey is in a league of its own compared to the other countries that we have driven through. There is no doubt that Kemel Ataturk, as first president of Turkey in 1923 (until 1938) was personally responsible for modernising Turkey and making it stand out amongst its neighbours but in the last ten years the country has advanced hugely. It has much more of a European feel to it than its neighbours with a very modern infrastructure and education system.

After some 300 miles of driving through the mountains with the snow capped volcanoes looking down on us, we suddenly arrived in the middle of an extraordinary rock formation in Capadoccia. The town is called Goreme and the 'houses' reminded me of the Clangers (old children's tv programe) that used to pop out of mounds in the ground. Our guide was a 35 year old truly beautiful woman called Ozgul so we all had trouble concentrating. Way back, wind and water eroded the sandstone to form these conical shaped mounds and in about 3000BC people hollowed them out to form rooms inside, many with three to four stories. Later, in the 8th century AD the Christians inhabited these conical sandcastles on the assumption that passers by would not realise that this was a settlement and that they would be safer, which largely worked. The churches in these rocks are quite stunning, with the ornate frescoes surviving from the 8th century AD. Alas they are not protected so gradually tourists' hands are destroying this beautiful artwork. In the 1920's Kemal Ataturk, in his bid to modernise Turkey, repatriated all foreigners and the Christians were shipped back to Greece.

Then we were shown another thing quite unique. The Hitites built some 160 underground cities but only a few were discovered as recently as the 1960's. We went down one that was 80m deep, was built over some eighteen stories and housed some 3000 people. We toured the school rooms, churches, stables and meeting rooms. They had planned the water supplies, sewage disposal and air vents to perfection. We were all rather speechless as we emerged into the afternoon sun. Later the persecuted Christians lived in these cities. Some 40 have been identified but the sqeamish need not inspect as some of the tunnels are only four feet high and very narrow to deter attackers!

Our 'cave' hotel had an ancient Haman hewn out of solid rock some 2000 years ago so the rest of the day was spent being beaten up and scrubbed by some very fit ladies! Squeaky clean for the next day's 300 mile ride across the plains.

18th May

Explain to the others that I have a problem with the knob on my bike as it has got sand in it! Much laughter but Harley people will know what I mean...no ignition key but a large chrome knob. Seems that it doesn't like the desert sand causing it to jam. Continue looking round the 8th Century churches and dwellings carved into the conical sandstone pillars that comprise this extraordinary settlement. Number of visitors causing severe damage to the site and unless it is better protected then there won't be much left in 50 years, despite World Heritage classification!

19th May

9am departure. Damn cold so cold weather jacket. Notice that many cars run on LPG. Message for Boris - tell all taxis in London that they have three years to convert to gas and change all the buses to gas. Otherwise no license. If Delhi have done this then why can't we? Plateau at 1200m and continue for 300km across this vast fertile plain that must supply Europe with many of its out of season vegetables, with the snow capped volcanoes looking down on us. Road almost dead straight so getting bored. Big thank-you to Harley for having a back rest as it makes it hugely more comfortable. Poor sods on the BMW's! Notice big difference with Turkey compared to all the previous countries is that they paint all their houses and blocks of flats bright colours whilst before they have all been plain dull grey concrete. Also they all have red tiled roofs, rather than the flat roofs. At 4pm we arrive at Afyonkarahisar as the sky goes dark. Perhaps our first rain since leaving France?? Seems to be a large university town. The old citadel is perched on an impossibly steep outcrop of rock and the old quarters quite ancient but otherwise an unremarkable place.

20th May

8am dept for Iznik, an ancient town that has made the finest tiles in the world since at least the 1400's, supplying all the palaces and churches across the region. Stop for a quick kebab & realise that we must be nearing Europe as the 'Dambuster' type loos are disappearing for the normal ones with seats. Also alcohol more available. Just realise that we have been dry for much of the time - Algeria and Libya dry, Tunisia, Syria and Turkey wet in hotels only and Egypt and Jordan almost wet! Decide that so much to see in Istanbul that we press on rather than stay in Iznik and arrive there at 4pm. At supper ridiculous chap does a war dance round the salt-encrusted sea bass having set fire to it and the table and then we get ripped off for a silly amount of money!

21st May

Spend the day walking round the city beyond the Bosphorus bridge. Small Victorian houses that give the area the fell of Sausolito outside San Francisco. Financial district buzzing and the buildings very modern and impressive. Old palaces on the water's edge converted into hotels and museums. Walked twelve miles so time to get a taxi back to hotel and supper at a local restaurant that didn't rip us off.

22nd May

Guide took us round the historic center. Went round the old palace, decorated with exquisite tiles from Iznik, built in 500 AD. Then toured one of the most spectacular churches, St Sophia, built in 570 AD that somehow even dwarfs St Pauls in London. In 540 AD the Romans built a vast underground water reservoir supported by numerous columns that they called a 'cistern' and this exists intact today. The Roman hippodrome, in which they held chariot races, exists today albeit that it is now tarmaced. The Egyptian obelisk built in 1450BC still exists in its original location supported on four blocks of bronze, and the Roman one of 470 BC is still there with its carvings showing exactly what happened in those days. We then went into the vast mosque of Sultan Ahmed, known as the 'Blue Mosque' that was built in 1609.

Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, is an extraordinary city. At a time when Britain was living in the dark ages, the Roman empire was cut in two as it became unmanageable due to its size. The Eastern side was run by Emperor Constantine who was the first Emperor to ban the persecution of Christians and embrace Christianity. The center of this new empire was the city that he built and named after him. The remains of the Byzantine arch still remain from which all distances around the world were measured.

Istanbul is a truly remarkable city and its historical importance greater than almost any other city in the world. This is a city that deserves another visit.

23rd May

Dept 6.30am for Bulgaria. Cross the border and find the country very green and fertile. We drive through the capital, Sophia, and then enter Serbia when there is a dramatic change in the quality of the roads and it is clear that the people are much poorer. The houses are very basic and the people don't have much to smile about. At 5pm were stop for the night where a local hotel gives us a great meal and some elderly musicians turn out to play for us.

24th May

Dept at 6.30am for Kosovo. Really beautiful countryside, green and fertile but almost no vehicles on the road and the roads in appalling condition.

At 9am we arrive at the border of Kosovo to be met by a bunch of thugs dressed as border police. They immediately tell us that although we have valid insurance that we have to see a chap in a hut to buy 'their insurance' off them! While we do so one of them explains that Kosovo is a very poor country and they (probably meaning the chap I was talking to) needed lots of money. They then say that the Harley must be very valuable and ask how much it costs. Prompted by Tim I say 'oh a lot. At least 8,000€'. Which was some way off the 25,000€ actual value. If they were going to relieve me of it this value seemed to disappoint them and they let us go on.

Following the others I jump a set of lights to be stopped by a policeman. Cost 160€ and magistrates in the morning. I offer 100€ now and he swears me to secrecy and accepts the money. Asks me if I support Man United against Barcelona and I say I do whereupon he beams and says he is going to Rome to see them win! Not surprised now he has the money to get there! As I drive off I see him lining up his next victim.

We were only in Kosovo for an hour and a half but we didn't see a single building that was not new, all the roads were a mess and every single mosque was just being completed. That said it all. The country had been trashed in the fighting.

We then crossed the border back into Serbia and drove for a while before crossing into Montenegro. At this rate it seemed that every damn town had a border control! Montenegro is like Switzerland, only greener. The roads were good and as we descended to the sea it was easy to see why people are talking of this country as the next real investment opportunity. However the country has close ties to Russia which has led to much of the really attractive coastal area being sold to the Russian and they are famous for building ugly developments and ignoring the environment. What we see and what locals tell us seem to bear this out.

As dusk falls we take a short ferry ride across a lake to Croatia and then arrive in Dubrovnik at 9.30pm. Long day as we have been on the road since 6.30 am and have crossed four borders. Have a quick Pizza and crash for the night.

25th May

Go to the old walled city of Dubrovnik, one of the World Heritage sites. The founding of this city is thought to date from Greek times but there was certainly a city here in the 5th C BC and it was certainly fortified in the 15th C. We all remember the news footage during the war of 1990 - 1995 so it is best summed up by Ilea, our taxi driver. He lived in America until the mid 1980's. His father, with six others, rowed across the Adriatic for three days to escape communism. They landed in Italy and then settled in America but Ilea always wanted to return to his homeland. With communism gone and the country living at a less frenetic pace he settled with his new wife and children. Then civil war broke out with the Serbian military stoking up resentment with one goal: to acquire territory and in particular the coastline, so valuable for tourism. Ilea joined the Croatian army but there was no 'army' as such. No real means to defend themselves and then the Serbs appeared on the hills overlooking Dubrovnik and laid siege to it for almost a year. No water or power for six months, and the ancient town was pounded by artillery so that much was severely damaged. The Montenegans were coaxed into joining the Serbians but had no stomach for the fight. 'They (the Montenegrans) used to fire mortars into the old town but with the fuse removed so they didn't explode and messages taped to the rounds saying 'Sorry!'.

Now things are better but resentments still exist, particularly in Bosnia where the religious problems with the Muslims, as they all feel, will rise to the surface again before too long. In the evening we drove to a fishing village 10kms to the north of the old town and whilst we eat delicious fresh fish, reflected on the tribal chaos that has existed in this region for so long. In the morning we depart for the Roman town of Split towards the northern end of Croatia.

26th May

7am leave Dubrovnik, heading north towards the Roman town of Split. The coastal road of Croatia is very beautiful with ancient villages perched on the cliffs overlooking azure blue coves. Quite understandable that the Croatians call this their 'Riviera', as it does indeed compare with the French and Italian riviera and if it wasn't for the interruption of communism it would be equally well known - which jolts me back to the bridge over a gorge in Serbia two days before. Tied to the railing were at least twenty floral wreaths and with a drop of over two hundred feet it was clear that this was the site of a mass execution that sent husbands and fathers down into the ravine below. After about 100km along the coast roar we climb up over the mountains onto the central plateau. Temperatures in the high 30's but as progress is good we bypass Split and press on, passing through Slovenia, pass Venice but our leader, Nick Laing and one other want to take these last days at a slower pace so peel off. As dusk falls and we have been on the road for over twelve hours, we stop in Padua for the night. Large pizza and several bottles of good Italian red wine later, we retire for the night.

27th May

Leave Padua at 6.30am heading for France but get a ribbing from friends about my interview with the BBC when we were in Amman. They called me and said, 'Charlie as you were in the jungle with Peter Andre and Jordan, what is your reaction to their announcement that they are to divorce?' I replied, absolutely truthfully, 'Well, I'm in Jordan right now.' Apparently it was the silence that followed that caused all the amusement. I suspect that half the controllers were saying that, knowing me, it could be true and the other half were saying that I was being smutty and so the interview should be terminated!

Home is in sight but today's driving will all be along the Riviera motorway, twisting in and out of the numerous tunnels. After an hour the other two peel off with frantic signs that nature was calling, leaving Vic Norman (the aerobatic pilot) and I to press on. By midday we has passed Nice in France and fifteen minutes later I rumbled up the drive of our French holiday home to find a very pregnant wife standing at the top of the steps together with many good friends. I now understand the name of the website 'Smellybiker.com' slightly better and having peeled off my hot leathers I sat down to my first glass of ice cold rose for six weeks.

We are all pausing here before the final leg back to London and that night the others came round for a final reunion supper before we go our different ways. Lots of things were said at supper and many compliments given to Nick Laing who had spent over 18 months organising the expedition. But with almost 9000 miles already clocked up it was suggested that what we had just done was an achievement of which we could be proud but it didn't feel like it and I think that had a lot to do with the low-down torque of the Harley, it's wonderful seat and the protection offered by the fairing and screen.

Still we had been though some interesting times and terrain. Without question the most challenging aspect was the soft desert sand (that caused me to drop the bike - but only once!), the gravel roads that were best negotiated by keeping the Harley under 2000rpm, and driving through four hours of continuous sandstorm in crosswinds of 50mph and visibility of 15 yards. This reduced all the frontal chrome of the Harley to a stainless-steel look, reduced all the fiberglass fairings to a matt appearance and completely knackered my Canon G10 and Sanyo HD movie camera. When we eventually stopped I found that sand had penetrated the inside of both lenses, but the good news is what the cameras managed to capture before they packed up!

In the safety of our French home I was asked what were the two most memorable aspects of the expedition. My answer regarding the terrain is Sinai wilderness, which included the oldest church on the planet where Moses wrote the ten commandments, and the spectacular scenery along the King's Highway in Jordan. What saddened me was to see first-hand the vandalism caused by the crusaders that, as a result of their indebtedness to the Doge of Venice, desecrated so many holy sites on his instructions, including St Sophia in Istanbul.

In addition to this what struck me was that whatever we learn in our history lessons at school, it is only when you see the monumental sites such as Leptis Magna in Libya and the church of St Sophia in Istanbul do you realise that world civilisation was truly centered in this region. And with this history comes the realisation of just how much of a 'tool' religion was to keep the poorer people in line as well as giving them a reason to live by promising them a life beyond the miserable one they lived at that time. And from that we move on to today where, particularly in Britain, Christianity is entering its twilight era at a time when the Islamic faith is exploding - aided by government grants to built ever grander mosques in an effort to show the all-encompassing nature of the new Britain.

The absurd thing is that Christians and Muslims all worship the same God but now I have an even stronger belief that, barring some miracle, that the next cataclysmic shift in world power will not be as a result of earthquakes or an empire over-stretching itself but by another religious war when 90% of the Christians and Muslims will be peace-loving and god fearing people. It will be the fanatics that will throw us all into this pit of chaos and who knows what relics of past civilisations six bikers will be seeing in two thousand years' time?

My last report will be when I arrive back at Thames Valley Harley. My only worry is that they won't recognise their bike! My answer to that is this: having checked my oil levels and air pressures every day for the six weeks on the road and the bike never needed anything. It never missed a beat, even though performance dropped a bit until I cleaned out the air filter after the sandstorm. The engine is almost 1600cc and the BMW's were 1200cc and yet our petrol consumption was almost identical. It is true that the unmade roads made me concentrate and that anything over 2000rpm was asking for either end to break away, but the real winner was comfort! I was riding in an armchair with a back support for 16,000 kilometers whilst the others had a funny little German machine-gunner's thing to perch on. When I was asked to lead it was they who asked me to stop for a break. Guys back home in Wauwatosa, York, Kansas City or Tomahawk USA....this machine might need some minor mods but on this event you came out on top!

So after 10,000 miles, eighteen countries, sandstorms, dodgy roads, temperatures of 39c and border police wanting the Harley, bottom line is well done Harley!