Isn’t this dangerous? Won’t you get beaten, stabbed, kidnapped?
Well yes, there is admittedly an element of danger throughout Central and South America. However it is my belief that these events are rare enough to make travel reasonable. These events happen all over the world but only countries we know little about seem to gain a reputation as a dangerous location.

Colombia is famous for its violent history. Recent reports have been that travel is becoming safer and the country more stable so at this stage we will travel through it. However as things change fast we will keep an ‘ear to the ground’ in regards to this country.

Our most likely threat is theft.

What do your family think of this?
Well John’s solution was simply not to tell his mother. It has so far been remarkably effective at quelling protests.

So do you think you’re Ewan Macgregor now or something?
Ewan Macgregor and Charley Boorman made a journey from London to New York successfully creating a television series. While surely the trip was not an easy one for these two our trip differs in several key regards:

• We have no support vehicles, no satellite phones, no helmet cameras, intercoms.
• We have no money.
• We look ridiculous in kilts

I suspect when they crossed borders into some Eastern countries customs were unsure if they were travelling the nation or invading it.

If you are interested in their trip, try www.longwayround.com. It’s much flashier than our site. I notice that one of them is to do the Paris-Dakar rally so they are genuine bike riders but in a different realm to us. We do hope however to grow superior beards than Charley and Ewan.

So you’re just like Che Guevara then?
Well, I suppose there are some similarities to the trip made by Ernesto “Che” Guevara however we intend it to differ in many respects than ours

• Che’s motorcycle broke down and he was forced to abandon it.
• Che’s route was from central Argentina to Patagonia, up through Chile and Peru. Our route will not go through these countries.
• We hope not to meet revolutionaries. Che obviously did the opposite.

As a concession to the legend though we will be reading Los diarios de la motocicleta.

What will you do when you get a flat tire?

Well that’ll be about the end of the trip then won’t it? What do you think we’re going to do, push the bike? We’ll carry spare tubes, a good puncture repair kit for later on and some big tire irons.