My name is Greg McKenzie
and I’m currently taking a break from earning a living to do something
which has festered in the back of my mind for a while now – a major
motorcycle trip.

I’m going to ride the length of the Americas south to
north, starting January 2005. I’ll be visiting friends on the way and
hopefully making some new ones too. I anticipate it will take me
six-months – but in truth, I don’t know and more than that, I don’t
care! I’ve taken many road-trips before – often on the bike, sometimes
in a car – very often to the south of France, occasionally further a
field. But these have been mere appetisers – building an appetite to
embark on this one big adventure.

Up until now now, I’ve never ridden into the sunset
without knowing when I need to be back. The timetable of work, annual
leave and mortgage payments dictating my thoughts, attitude and agenda.

The broad plan is to visit the southern most town in
the world (Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego) and riding to the northern most
point of the north American landmass (Deadhorse, Alaska).

This is the plan :

• PART 1: Ride to as far south as you can get (Ushuaia
  – 55deg SOUTH)
• PART 2: turn around and head as far north as you can
  go (Deadhorse – 74deg NORTH)

There’s beauty in simplicity! What could be easier? So
this is the ambition and the basis of the preparation.

FIRST LEG – South America

I land
in Buenos Aries, Argentina on 21st January 2005,
briefly travelling north to visit Montivideo, Uruguay
before turning south heading for Ushuaia, just short of Cape Horn.

I then turn north again trek around Patagonia, based
out of Punta Natales, Chile and continue on through
Santiago and the Atacama desert into Bolivia.
Across the border into Peru and head north again to
Quito, Ecuador.

SECOND LEG – Central and North America

The bike will be flown to Panama
from where I’ll continue heading north through Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico.

I intend to visit the Baja peninsula for
some sea-kayaking and more trekking before continuing up into the USA
stopping at Los Angeles and San Francisco on the way.

Across the border into British Columbia, Canada
and on towards Anchorage, Alaska. From Fairbanks I’ll take the 400 mile
solitary road towards Deadhorse and the the Arctic Ocean.

The bike is all set to go but it needs to go to
Liverpool (!?!) to get a Dangerous Goods Certificate, basically means
somebody checks that I’ve drained the petrol and disconnected the
battery.

My flight is booked for Thursday 20th Jan with Iberia –
I’ll arrive in B.A. late night on the 20th. I’ve booked a swanky hotel,
if only to ensure I can get some English speaking help for picking the
bike up. There’s a bunch of stuff that was intended but hasn’t
happened, but I’m keen to get under way.

YE-HAW…….arrived in Buenos Aires 11.30pm on 20th
Jan. The adventure begins!!!

The last couple of weeks before I left were
manic..suddenly the motivation is get things done increased remarkably
as the deadline sharpened.

Departure day was mighty long..after a few quenching
ales the night before, I was left to pack the gear until 2am. Then up
at 4.30am to catch the connecting flight to Madrid . Buenos Aires is
minus 3 hours to GMT so the beer in the Hotel Nogaro tasted so
goooooood!!!!

Despite the beer enhanced pack-job, I haven’t noticed
anything missing. I even remembered to bring the bike keys!!

Initial thoughts on Argentina and Buenos Aires are
great. People are friendly, prices are incredibly cheap, the food is
copious and great quality (steak and red wine – perfect for a gout
sufferer as myself) and the city easy to navigate. The taxi driver
drove like like a nutter from the airport and he didn’t stand out (!)
so looks like I’ll be right at home.

This morning I swapped the rather average
hotel breakfast for a much better offering from a café on
Plaza del Mayo. Coffee so think it could stand for election. A few
photo´s are attached below to get a flavour of the city. In
truth I´m still seeing the parts of B.A. that some Minister
of Tourism encourages us to see. Despite taking a stroll away from the
tourist / shopping centre today towards the more
´bohemian´ San Telmo barrio this afternoon (lots of
shaded cobbled streets and quaint antique shops) I´m still on
the tourist trail I think.

The bike arrived in one piece – good. I´m
getting restless already. If things go to plan I´ll be on the
road on Tuesday (25th).

If you want to know more about Greg’s
travels, visit his website at: http://www.unbeatentrack.com/