New Delhi to London

The aim: to ride six Royal Enfield Bullets 10,000km from the Red Fort in New Delhi to the Cavalry Club in London in 20 days, arriving no later than midnight on the Millennium.

13th December 1999 – 14th January 2000

On 13th December 1999, after five weeks of intensive planning, four newly commissioned army officers, a coalman and a tree surgeon set out on a 10,000kn race across Asia and Europe. The race raised 8500 Pounds Sterling for the Injured Jockey’s Fund, the Countryside Alliance and the Army Benevolent Fund.

Four days out of New Delhi we reached the Pakistan border crossing at Atari, by which time we had had two crashes, lost one of the team for two days and injured a third.

"...into the lawless lands of Baluchistan. It was on this road that we lost our first member of the team."

Once in Pakistan, we pushed south, down the Indus valley before crossing the river at Sukkur. From there we began the long climb up the barren Brahui Mountains into the lawless lands of Baluchistan. It was on this road that we lost our first member of the team. During the night Roger plunged off the road into a ravine and smashed his bike to bits, luckily escaping serious injury. He was put on a lorry and sent south to Karachi to export his bike and fly home. By this time we had entered Ramadan and were famished by the end of each day, spending 12-14 hours in the saddle.

We stopped briefly at the hill town of Quetta, before heading down onto the vast plains that skirt the southern border of Afghanistan. On day 12 we pulled into the dusty town of Dalbandin, only to meet two friends who were driving a 1978 Land Rover from England to Peshawar in Pakistan, making us realise just how painfully slow we were travelling.

On Christmas Eve we arrived at the ancient Iranian city of Bam, with its spectacular ruins, since destroyed by earthquake.

Christmas day was spent on a roundabout in Kerman, where we collapsed exhausted, before a small celebration in the evening. Olli was now suffering from chronic dysentery and no longer capable of riding, so we made the decision to put the bikes on a lorry across Iran, to the Turkish border.

On the Turkish side we stopped in the snowbound frontier city of Dogubeyazit. Here we heard that many of the passes we were required to cross were barely passable and with temperatures now dropping to -15 degrees Celsius, the bikes were put on lorry to take us to Istanbul.

On 31st December 1999 five of us arrived at Istanbul by bus, painfully aware of how far short from our objective we were. Regardless, we had a brilliant night watching fireworks bring in the Millennium over the Bosporus.

The bikes finally arrived on the 4th January and we immediately headed for the Greek border but 20 miles from Istanbul Matt’s bike blew it’s piston. After such a long way it was awful to see him head back to Istanbul in the back of a cattle lorry.

After a few issues with the Turkish border guards we finally entered Europe and rode swiftly through the stunning Greek mountains to the port of Igoumenitsa, where we boarded a ferry to Venice. Once in Venice we all felt that this was the home leg, however more breakdowns led to Ollie and Chris grinding to a final halt near Lake Como.

With only by brother and I left we began a non-stop 35 hour ride to Calais, through blizzards that were sweeping across northern Europe.

At 9.45pm, Friday 14th January 2000, 10,000 km, 33 days after leaving New Delhi and fourteen days past the deadline...

Two exhausted, dirty, triumphant motorcyclists remembered those, who through fate were not with them as they pulled up outside the Cavalry and Guards Club, Piccadilly.

Maps

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Photos

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