UK to Nepal - BMW R1200GS

Who	Steve Rawlinson ~ email
Profession	Company Director
Born 1971	Nationality British
Previous travel experience	Backpacking in East Africa, Sahara Desert in a Nissan Patrol
Previous bike travels	None

This trip	London to Kathmandu, Nepal
Departure date	Sep 2006
Number in group	4
Trip duration	9 weeks
Distance covered	10,000 miles
Cost of trip (not incl. bike)	£4000

Best day	Offroading near Karimabad on the KKH, N. Pakistan
Worst/ hardest day	14 hours of being moved on by police between Quetta and D.G. Khan. Ended up in D.I. Khan with Police stationed outside hotel room.
Favourite place	Karimabad, N. Pakistan. Stunning.
Biggest headache	Pakistani Police in Punjab. Well intentioned but very intrusive.
Biggest mistake	coming home
Most pleasant surprise	Friendliness of Iranian people. Couldn't do enough for us. Crowds gathered whenever we pulled up but unlike elsewhere were extremely polite
Any illness	Usual travellers tummy bugs in India
Other trips planned	Africa North to South
One travel tip	Don't stress. It'll work out.

Bike Model	BMW R1200GS
Age/ mileage on departure	2 years, 16,000 miles
Modifications	Bigger footpegs, panniers, engine bars, comms, sargent seat
Mods you wish you'd done	none
Type of baggage	Ally Panniers & top box
Tyres used	Conti TKC80
Number of punctures

Bike's weak point	difficult to maintain in the field
Bike's strong point	awesome all-rounder, a delight to ride
Bike problems	flat battery one cold morning in Turkey
Number of accidents	1
Same bike again?	yes
One biking tip	keep the weight low, and then reduce weight again