A special page as a roll-call for the folks we meet along the way. Bon voyages all!

Before we set off, a general big thank you to many friendly folks on the ADVRider Alaska Forum. Got a lot of good technical advice here, too: Himalayan 411. And Andrew at The Motorcycle Shop, who lurked on ADVRider, ready to help out with a sale, and found a couple of bikes to get ready for us.

Having set off, we’ve done a lousy job so far of keeping names of all those we meet. Because Deadhorse is, definitively, the northern tip of the Pan American (unless you choose the Canadian Dempster alternative), and there’s only one road, and it’s hard, and long, and rather expensive; many of the bikers or cyclists one meets around there are starting the PanAm (occasionally finishing: hello young Spaniard on a G650GS). We quickly became rather blasé about it. And we’re always lousy about noting names. Sorry folks.

At the Dust 2 Dawson (D2D) we met again with Mark (of Anchorage and ADVRider advice), and shared a yarning campsite with Nate, who’d ridden up from Rhode Island (not a PanAm, but rather a long way). Behr from Germany, on a 34 year old decked out Harley. And a young French/Belgian couple, also on matching Himalayans, just setting off, and planning to go even slower than us. And so many more.

In Edmonton, we stopped at our first ever Bunk-a-Biker stay. Dave and Ardis were great hosts, and let Gid use their space to service the two Himalayans. We got on like a house on fire, and went to see Jaws together, consuming more popcorn than I’ve ever seen in my life. On the way out of Edmonton, we met a new, err, friend…

We’ve missed loads of people here, sorry! We never even met this fella, but what a curious PanAmerican jalopy to encounter at the Sturgis motorcycle rally! Buenos Dias Fabian!

Somewhere near the Grand Canyon, a fascinating chat with one Jamie Burns, on a much modified – simplified – RE Interceptor. That carries a cat, too.

Lake Lahontan, a lovely sunset chat with Deena and Robert, not on motorcycles but never mind… It’s a gorgeous spot. I ran barefoot for about 4km on the sand – a first for me.

To Reno, and after doing most of the bikes 12,000 mile service at an AirBnb hosted by the intriguing Tyler (a fellow tea drinker, indeed, seller), we moved on to Brian’s BaB in the Californian Sierras to change our chains and sprockets. In the pic Brian explains Baseball to Clare, with, ahem, help from Charlie and Larry.

Sadly, since the USA, we’ve been useless at updating this… But we also haven’t spent much time with other bikers.

In Honduras Steve, a Canadian rider, caught up with us on a road south, and we spent the afternoon, evening and morning’s ride together. Steve was doing an out-and-back from home to Panama – his version of the Snow Goose descent south for the winter.  We stopped together for the night and shared food, beer, and stories.

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Since Honduras, we have occasionally briefly met other travellers – usually just a wave – but not spent any time together.

In Colombia we stopped for a day, which became several when Gid was violently sick, at Donkey Sunrise ADV hub. Very restful, great food, idle and purposeful chatter. Was the German biker Claus? Host Tim and mechanic Ron very helpful.

I forget the name of a French cyclist with whom we shared many boring hours in a – was it Ecuadorean? – immigration office. We met quite a few cyclists – many French, all male, all much younger than ourselves in Colombia/Ecuador/Peru.

In Peru, Clare’s bike developed an odd noise from the clutch – the first mechanical issue beyond the routine or “obvious enough for Gid to diagnose”. Gid’s in a useful WhatsApp group of motorcycle travellers in South America, and so we were able to meet up with some mechanical wisdom in an hospedaje in Cusco. We’d briefly met Demon Damian, a wandering English biker – former motorcycle racer, overland biker and, inevitably, bike mechanic – in the Honduras Consulate in Guatemala City, as we collected our visas. The group had kept us in touch. Damian was already there with fellow biker travellers Damian, Alli and Yann. It was a nice break from the solitude (coupletude?) and straining Spanish, and we got a diagnosis and confidence the bike wasn’t about to explode (or worse, have to be dismantled by Gid at some dusty or rainy roadside).