General Hints and Tips

Due to our own and others recent troubles experienced in prepping and on the road we thought to add in this section which we will add to as and when:

• The most important thing to do before you head off is to identify who will be your Anchor Man; the person to help you out when you are in trouble and need someone to jump to action and get things sorted back home: Criteria of a good anchor man: Not necessarily your best mate; (some best mates are highly irresponsible); will be staying where they are for at least the duration of your trip; have easy Internet and email access; have enough money to get things bought even though you will be paying them back...for the rest of your life. It would be recommended to also acquire one or two Assistant Anchor men just in case Chief Anchor Man goes on holiday for two weeks to Spain just when you blow a gasket.
• Get your bank address changed to that of your Anchor Man. Simply because if you loose your card in the back of beyond your bank will NOT post the cards to you directly but will only post them to the last known address which it registered on their system. So when you ask for a new card it will be posted standard post to that address. And please remember to tell the bank to stop sending statements otherwise your mate will keep receiving "junk" mail and who knows what they will get up to with that info.
• Make sure to tell you bank you are heading off to the back of beyond so that they don't suspend your account on a Saturday afternoon just after you have bought a snack in downtown Khartoum and the banks automated telephone system only comes back on line at 8:29 om Monday morning.
• Get Visa AND Mastercard credit cards. Most banks can provide both. Some places don't like one or the other.
• Make contact with a parts supplier of your specific make and model bike and get a name out of them. Someone you can ask for directly when you need THAT part. Also get a direct number to that person and not another automated system "Please press 3 for breakdown cover in Scotland and wales"
• PAYPAL...did you know you can now pay DHL by PAYPAL. You can also pay must sellers on Ebay with PAYPAL. Enough said.
• Check, recheck and double check and then check again that the engine and chassis numbers correspond with your bike and all associated paperwork. eg from experience the V5 can have the wrong chassis number; the ICMV from the RAC can have the wrong engine number.
• Vaccines: Rensche had a few head-bang-against-wall moments when trying to organise our vaccines at the local surgery because of the receptionists' lack of interest in our needs. In the end we phoned MASTA http://www.masta.org/ to establish our Official vaccine requirements . The call cost £1/minute but we were provided with a VERY detailed schedule and summary by country including health and security information. With this information in hand we swiftly distracted the nosey receptionists and managed to reach the Travel nurse who was very helpful and she was relieved we came well prepared. AND most of the vaccines were curtousy of the NHS.