Not Dead Yet

I stumbled upon something rather terrific the other day. A chance posting on my bike club's general forum by fellow member "RegVarney" (I assume he drives a bus for a living!) opened up a whole weekend's viewing pleasure for your humble scribe. If you've ever watched "Long Way Round" with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, you will love this.

A genial chap from Dublin named Oisin Hughes has put together a video blog telling the story of his retracing of Ewan and Charley's trip round the world - but importantly, this is without the large BMW sponsorship and backup crew that was always available to them to help them get out of any trouble. In turn, Oisin has uploaded all of this onto YouTube. Entitled "Not Dead Yet", there are currently 21 segments available to watch - each of which lasts for about 20 minutes or so. Although his trip took place last year, it seems he's still working and editing it as there's more to come next week with episode 22 due on 2 April. We watched all 21 (so far) last weekend - it was that good.

A very basic resumé would be that he's riding a bike (well, a BMW - but don't hold that against him) from Dublin, right across Europe and Asia to Yakutsk and then Magadan on the far-eastern seaboard of Russia. The reason I include Yakutsk and Magadan specifically is that these remote towns are connected by the now infamous "Road of Bones", which is fast becoming the Holy Grail for overlander bikers. It defeated Ewan and Charley.

Dating from the 1930s, the road was constructed by inmates of the gulag camps. Many of these inmates perished in this cold, desolate place (where the average winter temperature drops to -46°C!) and the road is treated as a memorial, because the bones of the people who died while constructing it were laid beneath or around the road. 

It now lies in a high state of disrepair (all but impassable in places) and remains one of the great challenges for adventure motorcyclists. The Road of Bones is the subject of episode 22, due next week. 

"Not Dead Yet" is a great yarn and very very entertaining. It starts well with our hero missing the boat from Dublin to Holyhead, and you start wondering what he will do when faced with anything more complicated than a passenger ferry! Is he safe to be let out alone we ask?! Well, yes he is and his trip turns into a great story. Personally, I loved his commentary round the Nurburgring: "Get out of the fockin' way ya cont....jaysus!!!!". Wonderful stuff....

Part 1 is HERE:

The rest can be found HERE:

ENJOY!!