By the time this trip begins I will have thoroughly scouted it and will have finalized the itinerary.
I was in Russia twice in 2013 to perform scouting. On my second trip, I also scouted Mongolia from the Russian border at Kyakhta, south of Lake Baikal to the Chinese border at Zamiin-Uud.
Since I left Russia last September, my Moscow-based colleague, Svetlana Malygina, has continued to scout areas that we were not able to cover and she will do additional scouting in the months ahead, including the route into Kazakhstan.
I’m returning to Russia in a few weeks to lead our first tour there and I’ll return again in August for two months for the pre-ride from Moscow to Hong Kong. We’ll spend a month in China and will probably visit many more places than we can include in the final tour. In addition to checking hotels, restaurants, attractions and road conditions, I’ll capture additional GPS track logs and waypoints as well as additional photos and video.
Leadership Team
During my blogs and during several of my previous communications I have mentioned some of the staff who I am planning to assign to the Moscow to Hong Kong Adventure. I’m very pleased with the credentials and qualifications of this team. I”m sure that the team is significantly more robust than you’ll find on any motorcycle adventure.
John Jesson – Tour Director
During the course of his career with Ayres Adventures, John has travelled to all 7 continents and has led tours in Africa, Europe, New Zealand, North America (both the “lower 48″ as well as Alaska and Canada) and South America. He maintains homes in Calgary, Canada and Cape Town, South Africa.
Janis Cimins – Tour Leader
Janis was born in Latvia and lives in Riga, the nation’s capital. Janis has traveled through most European countries, as well as Asia, North America and South America. He lives with his wife Aija (a professional film director and photographer) and his two daughters on the banks of the Salaca River. The Salaca is famous for salmon fishing and ice skating – two of Janis’s favorite pastimes. Even better, his favorite enduro trails begin at his terrace.
Janis is fluent in Russian and English and specializes in leading tours for our guests from Russian-speaking countries. He has led Ayres Adventures tours in Africa, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and the United States.
John and Janis spent several weeks during September/October 2014 pre-riding the entire route of The Epic Journey. They are both very excited to be leading this incredible adventure.
[/fusion_builder_column]Svetlana Malygina – Tour Guide
When not behind her office desk in Moscow, Sveta also hosts private Russian groups on Ayres Adventures throughout the world. In this capacity she has hosted groups in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and the American Southwest.
Svetlana is very passionate about her country and is looking forward to showing you the wonders and beauty of Russia and Siberia.
Mike Meyer – Tour Leader and Paramedic
Yingchu Zhao – Tour Guide
Yingchu will meet us at the border as we enter China and will be our local guide through China and Hong Kong.
Yingchu has travelled throughout most of China as well as in several countries in Asia. She is fluent in English and Chinese.
Yingchu spent almost five weeks with John and Janis guiding them through China and assisting them with setting up the tour itinerary and hotel selection. Yingchu will meet us at the border as we enter China and will be our local guide through China and Hong Kong.
Tatiana Bunaeva – Creative Director and Webmaster
Tatiana is responsible for the design and maintenance of the Ayres Adventures website. Her major responsibility for the Epic Journey will be to update the “Live Waypoints” blog, which she developed for this Adventure. She will include regular updates, stories and photos from the group and the tour leaders.
Tatiana was born in a small Siberian village in central Russia. She studied and worked in the USA, and is currently based in Cologne, Germany, where she enjoys spending time with her husband and “geek friends”. [/fusion_builder_column]
NAVO Tours – Chinese Partner
Our business model calls for us to operate our own tours with our own staff. We never subcontract operation of our tours to another company and we’ll operate this tour with our own personnel too. However, a Chinese partner is required to travel in China.
Although care must be taken when planning travel through Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, travel through China is more complex and requires more advanced planning than does travel anywhere else in the world. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time evaluating and selecting a suitable partner and have chosen a Chinese company, NAVO Tours, to support the Chinese scouting later this year. I’m anticipating a successful scouting experience with NAVO and expect to designate them for assistance with the actual trip in 2015.
NAVO is a Chinese company whose headquarters is in Chengdu. Their website is at:
http://www.navo-tour.com/en/
In addition to the scouting, I’ll spend time with the management of NAVO in Chengdu in September as I’m interested in having them assist with developing additional tours in China for 2016 and beyond.
Requirements for traveling by motorcycle in China, which NAVO will handle, include:
Permits and Chinese government documents. These must be obtained months in advance by a registered self-driving tour operator. This includes carnets, temporary Chinese drivers licenses, and Chinese license tags for our vehicles while we’re in China.
Itinerary. The itinerary must be fixed beforehand and must be approved by several government departments. Once agreed to, visitors may only travel according to the itinerary and it’s not permissible to change the itinerary (including choice of hotels), entry/exit ports, or entry/exit dates. The scouting trip that I have arranged will encompass more territory than we will include on the final tour, so that Janis and I can decide which areas will be most interesting to include on the final itinerary.
Chinese Tour Guide. We are required to have an in-country tour guide who will accompany us through the entire tour. The NAVO guide will meet us at the entry point to China, help us through the entry process, and will accompany us during our entire time in China. The guide will see to it that our motorcycles are prepared for shipment out of China and that we make it through the exit process from the country.
Preparing for the Tour
I will provide registrants with a detailed document to assist with trip planning. The document will include instructions for completing all documentation needed and for obtaining needed visas, a suggested packing list, directions for making arrangements for shipping your motorcycle, and other recommendations for preparing for the trip. My goal is to have this documentation in the hands of registrants by the end of the year, after I have had the benefit of pre-riding the route and have completed my scouting in September.
We will also prepare a trip planning document that contains a daily description of the trip, including names and addresses of hotels to be used as well as the major attractions that you can expect on each day of the trip. This will be provided at least 90 days prior to the beginning of the trip.
Until planning documents and materials are complete, I can offer advice about some things that you can do to prepare for the trip.
Off-Road Training.
Although this trip is not planned as an off-road “enduro-style” trip and we will always use the best roads available, road conditions will vary significantly during the course of this trip. We will encounter some unpaved roads which, along with the possibility of adverse weather and road works, could require traveling for some periods in rough conditions. I know most of the registrants who have pre-booked this trip and I know that individual riding skills and experience varies. Several riders have expressed an intention to take off-road training before the tour. I think that additional training is always a good idea, especially before investing so much time and money in such an “epic” trip. We often partner with RawHyde Adventures in California and I cannot speak highly enough of their training programs. As of last year, RawHyde also began offering training in Colorado (see entry below).
GPS Experience. All riders should have a relatively late-model Garmin GPS unit and should be comfortable with using it. We will provide riders with a list of waypoints for important stops along the way, including border crossings, accommodations, scenic stops, fuel stops, and restaurants. We can provide some GPS training during the tour, but the more comfortable you are with the use of GPS before the trip, the more confident and prepared you will be.
Riding Gear.
Riders must have suitable riding gear, to include boots, gloves, helmet, and either a waterproof riding suit or a riding suit and rain suit combination. There are several manufacturers of good riding gear, but Ayres Adventures has settled on KLIM Technical Riding Gear for our tour leaders.
Motorcycle Preparations.
Each rider will have to provide a motorcycle suitable for off-road as well as on-road travel. We strongly recommend a BMW GS motorcycle (F650GS, F700GS, F800GS, F800GS Adventure, R1200GS, or R1200GS Adventure). Due to the occasional adverse roads conditions that we may encounter, the motorcycle should be equipped with spoked wheels (rather than aluminum alloy wheels). Although we will provide a support vehicle for transporting luggage, you should have sufficient luggage storage space on the motorcycle to store personal items that may be needed when the support vehicle is not available (cameras, rain suit, water, snacks, etc).
Regarding motorcycles, during the last several months I have learned a lot about options (or lack thereof) for renting, buying, or buying a motorcycle with a sellback option in Russia, as several registrants had asked about alternatives to shipping their personal motorcycles for this trip.
Renting is not an option, as you must own a motor vehicle in order to cross the borders where we’re going to travel. The rental cost for such a long trip and the difficulty of having the motorcycle truly equipped suitably would also render the option impractical.
The red tape involved in buying a motorcycle in Russia with a sell-back option is also infeasible as it is not possible for a non-resident, non-Russian to own a Russian-registered vehicle.
The only real option for most riders is to ship their own motorcycle to Moscow and to ship it home from Hong Kong at the end of the trip. Although the cost of the shipping is not included in the price of the trip, we will help with shipping arrangements to minimize the cost and inconvenience of this option.
Several riders from the USA who are booked on the trip own US-registered motorcycles that are stored in Germany so that they can use them to tour Europe. They will ride their motorcycles from Germany to Moscow for this trip, and will then ship them back to Germany from Hong Kong. I can provide information on this alternative, if you think you would like to keep a bike in Europe.
We have a few very good sponsors, including KLIM, Jesse Luggage, and Bill Mayer Saddles. Some of them occasionally offer special promotions for our customers and these are not publicized. If any of you who have booked trips with us are interested in acquiring these products, please send me an email.
Custom RawHyde Training Program
I have made arrangements with RawHyde Adventures to conduct a special training program for riders who have booked this tour and who wish to take training together with the riders who they will travel with on The Epic Journey. Since this special training program may not be of interest to all registrants, the cost of the training will be in addition to the cost of the tour. The date of this training will be announced before the end of the year, and will probably take place in March, 2015. There will be several features of this special RawHyde program that will distinguish it from RawHyde’s regular training programs.
I will work with Jim Hyde and the RawHyde staff to insure that the course is tailored specifically for the road conditions that I experience during the next several months when I do the pre-ride.
I will share a presentation that includes photos and video from the scouting trip as well as detailed information that will help riders further prepare for the trip.
The program will be limited to riders who are booked on The Epic Journey, providing the opportunity to become acquainted with fellow travelers before we arrive in Moscow.
The training will include a ride into Death Valley with an overnight at RawHyde’s “Base Camp Alpha”. I’ve participated in this myself and found it to be an incredibly enjoyable experience.
Current Events (The Ukraine)
With the start of the tour almost 15 months away, it’s impossible to say whether events at that time will interfere with the operation of the trip. In the last month, our customers for our first Russian Tour (Beyond the Golden Ring) were able to secure Russian visas without difficulty. I don’t foresee that events will make it necessary to cancel the trip.
As you know, the planned trip does not go near The Ukraine. If the situation changes in the next year such that we’re not able to use Russia as the starting point, I’m prepared to use an alternate route, probably starting in Istanbul and avoiding Russia.
Some Personal Notes
As this bulletin is being published, I’m making arrangements to return to Russia at the end of May. Janis Cimins and Svetlana Malygina and I will lead our first Russian trip, Beyond the Golden Ring, beginning May 31. I had intended to ship a motorcycle to Moscow for this Russian tour as well as the pre-ride from Moscow to Hong Kong in August and September. I waited too long to ship the motorcycle via a slow boat and found that the charges to fly the bike to Moscow are outrageous – nearly half the cost of a new bike.
After doing a bit of research, I found that it’s quite easy for me to purchase a new motorcycle in Latvia and leave it with Janis. Janis has offered to put the break-in mileage on the bike for me and to have the first service performed before I arrive in Latvia. So, in a few weeks I’ll pick up a new BMW F800GS Adventure in Riga, head to Moscow with Janis to lead the first Russian tour, and return to Riga to leave the bike until August when I return for the pre-ride from Moscow to Kong Kong.
I’ll also be heading to Latvia with the latest in GPS technology. I’ve squeezed about as much life from my old Garmin 276C as I can and I must reluctantly succumb to the new generation of GPS units. I’ve ordered a new Garmin Monterra, along with a Touratech locking mount and crossbar outfit for the new F800GS Adventure. I hate parting with the 276C but I’m sure that as I become accustomed to using the new unit I’ll wonder how I ever managed without the ability to control my GoPro from the GPS unit, or to include geo-tagged photos along with my waypoints and track logs. The Monterra includes an 8MP autofocus camera with automatic geotagging and flash, sunlight readable display, Android operating system with Google Play apps, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio with weather alerts, etc. etc.
By the time I return from the final scouting and pre-run in October I should have collected a wealth of new photos, video, and GPS track logs and waypoints that I can share with all of you who have booked the trip.
As for our other Epic Journeys that are planned for the future, our General Manager, John Jesson, and tour leader Jason Kilian will be working on Cape Town to Gibraltar. John Jesson and Chris Gladstone, our Kiwi tour leader, will take on the Australian piece. Steve Phillips will be working on Alaska to Antarctica and Claus Lazik will lay out Gibraltar to Moscow. All of them have been very busy with our regular tours but we should have some information to share regarding the planning for these during the next several months.
That’s it for now. As always, please don’t hesitate to let me know if I can answer any questions about the Epic Journey – Moscow to Hong Kong 2015.
Sincerely,
Ron Ayres
President
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