Janells Solo Ride through Baja

Told from Janell Clarke's perspective.

Narrated Audio Blog

I left Los Barrilles on the 04 December, with my girls on board, nervous and thrilled. The alternative had been driving or flying out with Stu but I really didn't want either of those options, I wanted to continue riding in Mexico for as long as possible, even if it was more or less back the same 2000km we'd arrived from Tijuana. Mexico is a beautiful country where I always felt safe and welcome. I had a really nice send off from everyone staying at Chris's place then I was off with my dogs. It was a beautiful sunny day and I settled in to riding quickly. I was determined to enjoy the ride, I didn't want to rub it in Stu's face but this was an opportunity for some girl time and to run everything at my pace including stopping for photos whenever I wanted.

The route was fairly straightforward, I stayed on the main road through Baja. I knew places to camp from our trip south and my friends in Los Barriles had arranged accommodation one of the nights with Martha and Kurt of Black Dog Cycleworks. I hadn't met Martha and Kurt before but had heard of them and their company that makes motorcycle accessories. They were from the US but mostly living near Mulege with their home a few steps from the Bay. They also had a super friendly black labrador called Libby. When I arrived at their place I was welcomed with Margarita's and Ceviche. It was so good, Margarita's are hands down my favourite drink.

The journey continued smoothly with perfect riding weather. A truck accident stopped traffic for a while one day, I felt so grateful to be observing the situation and not involved. The Police were doing a good job getting it sorted quickly so traffic could continue moving.

We stayed in hotels most nights that we'd used on our way down. They had no problem with the dogs being in the room with me. I'd taken both sleeping bags so I could zip them together and we could all climb in. I didn't draw much attention, only at one restaurant did a man come and have a chat about my Pillion Pooch. He was on his motorbike with homemade panniers and a topbox for his dog. He mostly rode around his town like this, the dog definitely enjoyed riding.

My only real fear being on my own was a breakdown because I didn't have a phone and I certainly didn't have internet so I couldn't contact anyone. Then on day 4 my motorbike died on me. I checked my GPS and I was a long way from any town. The terrain was fairly flat so I pushed the motorbike a safe distance away from the road, got Weeti and Shadow off to stretch their legs and go to the toilet and then began pulling the motorbike apart. Nothing obvious was jumping out at me. A few cars and motorbikes passed me but nobody stopped, a thought the bikers would and were surprised that they didn't even wave. Then two guys on bicycles turned off the road and came over to say hi and see if everything was okay. They were really nice and really funny as you can see from the pose they chose in my photo, pretending to me Cactus. I explained what happened and they suggested it might be an electrical issue. They had a poke around, pushed and pulled a few things and then we had a go at starting it and she fired up just fine. We had a chat, I put my bike back together and we were all on our merry way again. I was so thankful to those two young gentlemen, even if the bike hadn't started again, to have had some company and talk through the problem was really comforting.

Day five we made it to the border and had a very smooth border crossing into the US. Stu was staying in San Diego with my cousin Kim and they were both not expecting me until the next day. I rode up Kim's driveway, parked up and walked in the house with the dogs to find Stu, very surprised but very happy to see me. I was feeling over the moon, it wasn't an epic trip but I'd managed it just with my girls and really enjoyed the ride. It was the first time I realised that I really wanted to be riding around the world, for so long I had thought I was only doing it for Stu and just making the most of it. But I was really happy to have the Pack back together and now I could get excited about Christmas.