Baja

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Latest film: Biking the Baja – In Pursuit of Whales

So excited to present the latest Two Wheeled Nomad installment of a month-long trip we made on the Baja Peninsula. It’s depicts why we live to travel by motorcycle as much as anything else, includes a handful of firsts for us and some experiences that will stay with me until the end. So put the kettle on, put feet and the volume up, and lose yourself for 15 minutes. The film was also aired on a national television show in the United States called ‘Right this minute‘, which was a nice surprise when they approached us.

Many thanks – Jason Spafford.

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28 Feb-4 Mar 2016 – Forever young at Bahía Concepción and feeling small on a limitless sea

Prizing ourselves out of San Ignacio was a whale-induced wrench. Comforted only by the fact that we were headed towards more azure bays, boojum-laden landscape—cactuses that twist and turn skyward, like inverted hairy carrots—scarred by rocky landslips amid a jumble of giant boulders. And foremost, we hoped, another helping of marine magic. The ride to get there invited the mountains to drop away, revealing a ribbon-like highway seemingly tossed into the rocks and salt lakes sparkling in the sun—flecking an otherwise dry and dusty desert.

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Even the sand can't stop me from watching the whales.

20-27 Feb 2016 – Having a whale of a time (Part 2 of 2)

Having intensively observed 50 shades of grey at Guerrero Negro, hooked us right in. Brain filters set to baleens, people and pictures frequently reinforced that San Ignacio Laguna on the west coast, just down the road from Guerrero Negro, reputed it to be the perfect breeding ground for the mysticeti (a whale without teeth). Little did they know they’d had me at hello. Antonio’s Ecotours boasted rave reports towards encounters in the same vein, as well as enjoying UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Hoping that we’d slam-dunk in the designated opening to encounter ‘Friendly whale syndrome’ again, I donned my helmet and set Pearl to roaring. Raring to get onto the rutted road leading into the laguna, what are we waiting for?

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She'll be back.

17-19 Feb 2016 – It’s no fluke when you see 50 shades of grey (Part 1 of 2)

“Thar she blows!” someone cried as puffs of vapour sprayed out from a pair of blowholes. Chins stopped wagging, giving way to the whopping 40-tonne whale breaching. Or so we’d been informed, the day before we arrived at Guerrero Negro. The prospect of encountering a mammal—post their long migration—the length of a semi-trailer truck at 6,000-stone, got me going.

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16 Feb 2016 – Nailing my knickers to the ceiling and putting dirt road demons to bed

The weather is glorious at this time of year on the Baja, in fact, it just about teeters on perfection. By day and night. I haven’t seen a single cloud blot the sky as yet on the eastern side, and may not. Without the body melting 24/7—keeps the spirits level, energy levels lively and mind sharp. A happy wife means a happy life, eh hubby-ish?

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Taking pictures at first light

13-15 Feb 2016 – New beginnings on the Baja with quite possibly the best fish tacos in town

Picnic tables amongst the pine trees of Arizona long gone, we’ve officially re-ridden onto what looks like a nosediving dragon—775-miles in body and 200-miles in girth—from Mexicali in the north to Cabo San Lucas in the south. The Baja peninsula dips its big toe into the bracing Pacific on the westside, and its pinky into the enticing Sea of Cortez along the east coast. Regardless of where on the 2,000-miles of sun bleached coastline we sink the side stands each day, I’m in need of firsts, warm sand to contour my back and I’m on a quest for one heck of a fish taco.

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Enjoying the night skies at Joshua Tree National Park, perhaps for the final time.

28 Jan-12 Feb 2016 – The eureka of going down before you can go up

An overnight pit stop in Joshua Tree National Park—a tent utopia as it goes—saw us once again ensconced in its ecological melting pot, lined by a jumble of stacked boulders and walls of imposing granite. The convergence of two great deserts: the Mojave and Colorado, blended together in a barbed landscape adorned in Sonoran flora and fauna. Such marvels of dry arid regions simply keep going about their business, adapting to relentless sun, little water and temperatures from below freezing to above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

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