Big Trip special: Top 10 motorcycle tours from 2007

After nearly a year of big trips we’ve put our ten best stories together, and here they are just for you.

Some are here because of their exotic location, others because of the endurance the riders suffered and some because they are just great stories.

1. Nick Graham and Nick Clarke – Cotswolds to Cape Town

With no support and just each other for company these two riders took on the epic challenge and went through 14 countries to raise money for their chosen charities.

They spent six days in the desert with no food, argued like cat and dog and still managed to be friends at the end.

They also raised £124,000 for Clic Sargent and EDA.

Click here to read the full story

2. Damon I’Anson – Romania

“Peasants in headscarves are ploughing the fields, others scythe and stack hay by hand.

Heavily laden wooden carts are drawn snails pace by horses, past black-clad babushkas nodding under shady porches, and pretty young girls in floral skirts and blouses send up clouds of butterflies as they pad along the verges smiling demurely.

This feels like motorcycling into some paradise past, surroundings and fatigue conspiring to give the experience a dreamlike quality.”

This was Damon’s introduction to Romania.

Click here to read the full story

3. Sam Manicom – World Travels

During his time travelling aboard his trusty BMW GS Sam went through hell.

He was shot at twice, once crossing a border and the second breaking through an army barricade.

On the same trip he was nearly blinded by a driver whole knocked him off his bike in the desert then left him to die, and was thrown in prison for knocking someone over.

Click here to read the full story

4. Chris Smith and Liz Peel – South America

Chris and Liz spent three years travelling in the States, mainly in South and Central America.

Their scariest moment came when they crashed in Bolivia and put a hole in the tank of their Honda Africa Twin, they had to ride like mad to get out of the high desert and to a petrol station before the tank dripped-dry.

Click here to read the full story

5. Scooters in the Sahara

Dennis Robinson and seven buddies who normally ride around or big comfortable GS’s decided to take nine Honda C90’s and £200,000 worth of medical supplies to the Bansang Hospital in Gambia.

Every single bike made the 3,000 mile journey across the worlds toughest terrains.

Click here to read the full story

6. Fil Schiannini, his father Paolo and wife Nikki – NordKapp

Paolo is a geologist and as such has spent nearly all his working life in southern warmer climates.

When he decided to take a trip with his son he said that the furthest north he had ever been was Edinburgh so we made our destination point North Cape (or Nordkapp) travelling through Sweden, Norway and Finland.

We chose North Cape as it’s the most northerly point in Europe so it seemed to fit in with dad’s ambition.

Paolo rode up from Italy through Germany, Denmark and into Sweden where he met Fil and Niki at Gothenburg and started travelling north straight away the trip took them passed the biggest lake in Sweden, the Vänern. He then went through Sweden along the road hat skirts the Gulf of Botnia from the Finish Border we headed up to North Cape.

Click here to read the full story

7. Grant O’Brian – Kimberly region Australia

Eleven riders and their crew toured the incredible Kimberley region of Australia’s far north-west.

Crocodiles, dingos, kangaroos, helicopter rescues, tunnels, breathtaking gorges and mountain ridges filled their days.

Click here to read the full story

8. Kudu expeditions

Lee Myers and Mike Lambruanos started up an extreme touring company that goes through some of the roughest terrain known to man and machine.

They travel through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia and South Africa avoiding knee-deep pot holes, landmines and burnt out tanks.

Click here to read the full story

9. Ed Rowley and Dominic Geldard – Round the edge of Britain

Two novice riders, with under 1,000 miles of bike time between decided to take on nearly 3,000 miles around the coast of Great Britain in aid of McMillan Nurses.

They crashed on the second day missed their ferry to the Isle of Arron and endured torrential rain for most of their trip.

Click here to read the full story

10. Richard Fairbairn – Ecuador

When Richard went to Ecuador to help raise money for SOS Children’s charity he ate guinea pig, endured torrential rain and was constantly had to kick start his KTM when he stalled on mountain tracks, Amazonian trials and rough tarmac.

Click here to read the full story

If you’ve think you’ve got a story that’s just as good or even better then email dave.rawlings@emap.com and you could see yourself on these pages.