With our boat having been cancelled a few days before we were due to sail on 5th November, and no sea-based alternatives being available in the near future, we’ve been actively pursuing the air freight options. Yesterday, we rode the bike up to the packers depot at Heathrow to have it crated, and the helpful people at Motofreight are arranging to have it flown to Santiago, Chile, hopefully later next week. Santiago is on the same latitude as our original port of destination – Montevideo, Uruguay – albeit it’s to the west side of the continent rather then the east. That’s fine for us, and we can now make our way south to Tierra del Fuego and the ‘End of the World’ on the Carretera Austral, the remote and picturesque road which runs down to the southernmost parts of Chile, and then ride back north through Argentina. It’s much the same as our original plan albeit the other way round.
Meeting up with Tim, the very helpful chap from Motofreight. He has a good taste in bikes, owning an Africa Twin the same as ours albeit a couple of years older.
We took off the bike’s mirrors and screen as these would leave it taller than the 1.6m high crate, plus we took off the top box and stowed it in the sidecar foot well. Then we pushed the bike into the depot to await crating-up early next week.
Travelling the Americas by motorbike and sidecar 