Welcome to Thoughts from the Road. Here’s Angela and Wayne from Two Wheels Do Travel discussing how they plan their motorcycle trip routes and destinations…
By Angela and Wayne
Two Wheels Do Travel
We are Angela and Wayne. When we meet Angela loved travelling and Wayne loved motorbikes. Combining the two is a match made in heaven. After spending four months travelling in South East Asia on a bike, we have now set our goal on the world. Which we are completing in legs and are just coming to the end of leg two in Central America. Leg three will start in early 2024 with South America.
Follow Angela and Wayne’s adventures here:
Facebook: @two wheels do travel
Instagram: @two.wheels.do.travel
How We Plan Our Motorcycle Trip Routes
Coddiwomple – “To travel purposefully towards a vague destination.”
But what if you have a destination, but the route to get there is a bit vague? Sounds simple, right? We are riding motorcycles from Los Angels to Panama, point the handlebars due south and go! But the reality is that we have spent most of our trip going east or west – and even sometimes north! Zigging and zagging here then there. And we love it!
Why do we travel like this? Well, for a number of reasons:
- We love the beach, but after a few days at 38C it’s just too hot, so we head back to the mountains.
- We love the mountains, but when it’s raining or below 5C the coast begins to call again.
- We love to explore more remote areas and challenging roads. It’s easier to travel lightly and loop back to a base.
- We can’t decide which route to take, so we ride both.
- Someone tells us about something amazing which wasn’t on our radar.
- We are looking for a smaller, quieter border crossing.
So how do we plan or know where we are going on our motorcycle trip? Well, the answer is we don’t really! We wing it with a bit of prior research but enough time and flexibility to allow for spontaneity.
Due to Covid, we had two years to plan this trip. We read books, watched YouTube and followed those that had done it before. We used My Maps to mark things we would love to see, do, or ride. But once we actually hit the road, we just took it day by day.
On more than one occasion we started riding towards a destination, then thought why are we going there? It’s a boring road to see something that we’re not overly interested in just because someone said it’s a “must see”. So, we turned around, found some back roads and did some exploring of our own.
And on other days, we ended up turning around because we bumped into a group of local riders and ended up joining them instead. These random days of exploration have been some of the best and most memorable days of our trip.
We now only plan a day or two ahead. We don’t book accommodation in advance unless it’s a public holiday or we have a commitment we must be there for. This allows us to make decisions on the fly and the adventure to develop organically.
For some this might be scary, but for us it is the best part of the adventure.
Angela and Wayne
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Thanks for checking out this Thoughts from the Road column. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more articles on round the world travel, route planning and destinations that we recommend you read next.
Winging it was the most challenging part of our motorbike travel….GD was chill about it. I am usually a very organized person. This time (2nd 4mth trip overseas) I am much more relaxed. Having camping gear helps
Wayne also struggled on our first trip through Asia. He loves to research. Which is great cos we know what to do when/if we ever get there. Having camping gear also helps as you know if things don’t work out at least you have a roof.
Agreed! Taking camping gear takes a lot of stress out of it. You don’t have to worry about where you’ll sleep that night! Although, I’ll never understand how those with hammocks do it!
Andy
Yes!!!!There’s way too many people out there nowadays having to get “here” and must ride “there” just to tick boxes and say they’ve done something. So reading your article is very refreshing. Go where the ride takes you, enjoy it and be spontaneous! Love it.
Thanks. Happy Spontaneous riding.