On March 24th 2005 Mick Wheeler and Sue Wilson set off to ride through Germany into Poland, then riding down to Brest to cross Belarus into Russia. They rode across the frozen wasteland of Siberia and across ‘no mans land’ into Mongolia. East across the Altai mountains and desert to Ulaan Bataar. They crossed the Gobi desert and in to China where they were immediately arrested and returned by the officials back in to Mongolia for not having the required documents for their bike’s.
Not to be deterred they then returned the ‘long way home’ by riding through Mongolia, back in to Russia and then through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. Obtaining a lift across the Caspian Sea they returned home through Azerbeijan, Georgia and Turkey. No back up trucks, no film crew ... just two geriatrics out for a ride on their own!
On the 1st August 2009 Mick and Sue again set forth on another adventure. Leaving England they headed off through Germany, Italy, Greece and in to Turkey, meeting up with old friends. On the road again and an easy crossing in to Iran where the roads, like eastern Turkey, seemed to be in total disrepair or under total repair. The going was rough, dusty and polluted, much the same as Pakistan, their next country. Due to meet up with friends in India, and ride to the Himalayas, they had made excellent progress and so decided to take a week or so to explore northern Pakistan and the Karakorum Highway to the Chinese border. Especially because by this time they had lost their heavily armed escort!
Just north of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan a car inexplicably swerved in to the front of Sue’s Yamaha TTR250. Both riders collided with it and crashed to the ground, Sue suffering a very nasty compound fracture of the right upper arm. Sue had to be flown home and Mick, uninjured, remained behind to supervise the repatriation of both bike’s. Their journey was over.
