Options in light of disaster.

After extensively thinking about all the possible options that I have since my passport was stolen from an embassy I think I have now rationally gotten them down to two options....

I am now riding on my third engine, I have gone through two other pistons, cylinder rebores and now a stolen passport. All in the space of 6 months. A lot of people in the world seem to think that things happen for a reason. That life gives you signs and you should follow them. There's no doubt that human history has been shaped by people following signs, but personally I don't take to such things. I don't believe in God, divine intervention or the sort. If things happen for a reason then why are babies born with heart defects, children getting cancer, loved one's dying in road accidents. This is what life can give you. It is a game of chance and it can be cruel. There's no way around it, I feel I have been very unlucky since I left home. But that is it.

After everything that happened with my engines I really thought most of my troubles were over and I lulled myself into a false sense of optimism where I expected everything to be fine, for a least a while anyway. So when my passport was stolen a week after I got a new engine it hit me hard. In Africa you can sweet talk a pharmacist into giving you anything... Diazapam, Dihydrocodeine, Tramadol, and I spazzed myself out on a beach for the best part of a week.


After realising this really isn't the best thing to do I escaped the beach and I am now living with an American diplomat in Accra central, in a massive air condition house (which feels really weird) and he even has a pool! He's a very positive and travelled man and we've talked a lot about my current situation.

There's no getting around the fact that I need to go back to England to get a new passport. As of 13/10/13 the British government changed there legislation on their foreign citizens acquiring a passport abroad. If this happened before I would have been able to get a new passport from here no problem. But now I need to be a citizen, local insurance ID, proof of address etc. I looked into temporarily becoming a citizen but that isn't possible. I could become a citizen of Togo for the some of £20 but then have no British high commission there. What my government now does is issue you with an emergency passport... which only has five pages in. I could technically reach South Africa with this, but I'm doubtful it will work. Both of the Congo's stand in the way and they have visas that are very, very hard to obtain. Togo is the best place to get the visa, but then my 5 page passport would have expired before I get to the Congolese border. If by a stroke of luck I did manage to get through then by the time I get to South Africa I would still need to fly home. The further I go from here the more expensive that is. And if I get stuck outside the Congo it is even more expensive to fly home. The emergency passports are £100 a pop too. I don't think going on as it is, is a viable option.

I do need to get home from here and pick up my standard passport. The two options are; fly home from here, sort a passport out in England, hopefully find some work to equate my expenses and then come back and continue. The sting of this is that I will be leaving my bike in the country illegally. Out of the many things I've learned in Africa you can talk your way out of most things at borders. But this is still a risk and it could be expensive.

My second option is to turn around. I can make it back to England on two emergency passports and I can see a lot of West Africa that I haven't seen yet. I can pick up a 5 country visa in Togo which covers Benin, Burkina, Ivory coast and Guinea. I can then go to Sierra Leone and the Gambia and then make my way back up through the Sahara (which has been one of my favourite parts of the journey so far) and make it back to England.

The main goal out of all of this was to get to Canada with my girlfriend. She was going to meet me in South America and we were going to ride up together. But if I decide to ride home, which would still take me another 6 months, I could meet her, work until the weather changes and replenish some much needed funds and then we could set off to the far East together and make it to Canada whilst seeing Russia, Kazakhstan, Kygzstan and Mongolia. Everywhere in the World interests me but these countries do especially.

I'm torn between both these options. I do wholeheartedly begrudge been in the position where I now how to fork out on an air ticket for England after walking into an embassy for a £10 piece of paper. But these things happen. (I have said this a lot so far!)

As yet I am still very undecided about both of these. They both make me happy, but if I'm honest my heart is shifting towards riding home and going East. But then I have always wanted to see central Africa....

I don't know yet.

Suggestions are welcome.