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Colin and Ryan Pyle take off from Shanghai on their two well-kitted out BMW bikes for an epic adventure. They will cover 18,000 kilometres over 60 days in a circuit of China that has never been attempted before. Within minutes of setting off, Colin is nearly clipped by a giant bus and that's just the first in a series of unexpected obstacles that lie in wait for the Pyle duo. Crazy drivers, 40 degree plus heat, massive landslides, floods, inhospitable towns and dangerous falls will hamper their progress as they wind north from Shanghai, cross the Yangtze River and on to the border of China and the hermit kingdom of North Korea.
Ryan and Colin Pyle bike to Inner Mongolia, bunking down for a night in a yurt village before visiting one of China's largest wind farms. Heading away from the idyllic grassland and rolling green hills they strike the world's largest traffic jam, where some trucks are stuck for 20 days. Forging slowly forward the Pyle brothers hit a nasty sand storm in Xinjiang province, before striking camp at the lowest landsite in China, 150 meters below sea level.
Ryan and Colin Pyle leave their moon-scape camping ground at Turpan and head across the salt flats to Xinjiang, China's Wild West. In a few hours they travel from 150m below sea level to 3300m above sea level in freezing temperatures. In the ancient Muslim city of Kashgar, they celebrate the end of Ramadan before venturing into the far western borderlands riding on the Karakoram Highway, the world's highest border crossing at 5200m above sea level, towards the border of China and Pakistan. However, at this point disaster strikes when Ryan takes a serious fall.
After Ryan has recovered from the worst motorcycle fall he's ever had, the Pyle brothers aim for Tibet on the G219 highway, passing mountains and lakes including one of the most holy places in Asia, Lake Manasarovar. Their ultimate goal is Mount Everest Base Camp, but it's not going to come easy. They end up camping on a desolate road 4000m above sea level. As Ryan attempts to celebrate his 32nd birthday, his bike's clutch burns out and the brothers are stranded in Zhongba, their fate in the hands of a local bike mechanic and facing the very real possibility that their epic journey could come to a premature end.
A local Zhongba motorcycle repairman comes to the Pyle brother's rescue, managing to get the BMW bike clutch back in working order. But further disaster strikes when Colin's bike blows a tyre. The journey is now in real jeopardy, with both bikes off the road and no clutch parts available in all of China. When the bike part finally arrives from Toronto, and Ryan and Colin make it to Mount Everest Base Camp, 12,500km from Shanghai. Their sense of achievement is fleeting; on their way back to Lhasa, they discover the road into Eastern Tibet has been indefinitely closed.
The closure of the Eastern Tibetan border forces the Pyle brothers to travel by plane reconnecting with their bikes in Shangri-La. From here they head to Guizhou province, but the improvement of the road tarmac and heavy rain make the road travel incredibly dangerous and Colin smashes his bike into a tree. Back on the road with new street tyres, Ryan and Colin make their way through the mystical karst landscape of Guilin and on to the manufacturing heartland of China before striking out for Shanghai, via Putoushan island and the Yangshan Port, the biggest and busiest port in the world.
Colin and Ryan Pyle set off from Delhi on their iconic Indian Royal Enfield bikes for an epic adventure. They will cover 14,000 kilometres over 54 days in a circuit of India. Neither Ryan nor Colin has ever been to India before, much less ridden on crazy roads full of sacred cows and overcrowded cars. Their journey begins by winding their way north up into the foothills of the Himalaya. They navigate over narrow mountain roads to Manali, the extreme sport capital of India, before navigating over a notorious mountain pass, 4000m above sea level, called The Rohtang Pass...
After surviving India's dangerous mountain roads, the Pyle's head to Amritsar, home to the peaceful Sikh Golden Temple and the volatile Indian - Pakistan Border. The daily flag lowering ceremony is a massive carnival, with spectators on either side of the border cheering for their respective side. Heading down from the mountains, they experience the last of the monsoon rains and enter India's Great Indian Desert of Rajasthan.
Colin and Ryan Pyle are in Rajasthan, famous for brightly painted palace hotels. The first stop in the heat of the Indian desert is the world famous rat temple in Bikaner. Colin doesn't last very long among the rat infestation and soon after is hit with a bad case of "Delhi-belly". After recovering from food poisoning, they head to south to Mumbai: home of Bollywood and the world's worst traffic jams. Navigating through Mumbai, Ryan has the first crash of the journey.
On their journey down the Indian south west coast, the Pyle brothers visit Mahindra's mega car factory, and Colin takes the test to become a car factory worker. Ryan recovers from his first fall of the trip, he's not seriously hurt but his bike is in need of repair. After another mechanical failure on Ryan's bike, Colin starts to question Ryan's riding ability. By day 29 they reach India's southernmost point called Cape Comorin or sunset point, where they watch the sun go down on the half-way mark of their epic journey.
Madurai is a 2000 year old city and one of the world's oldest inhabited cities. As the journey continues north up the east coast of India, the carnage on the roads continues. A side trip to an elephant sanctuary in Odisha Province showcases the beauty of India's national parks. Onwards to the Bay of Bengal and Kolkata, where Colin and Ryan Pyle visit a hospital and school for the blind run by the Seva Foundation. The Seva Foundation has restored the eyesight of over 3 million people in Asia and Africa; here the Pyle's witness how quick turnaround cataract surgery can ...
Darjeeling is the tea capital of India, Ryan and Colin Pyle join an army of tea pluckers whose premium tea, picked under the full moon, fetches over USD$900 per kilo. The last leg of the trip takes them to Bodhgaya, the birthplace of Buddhism, and then it's off for a dip in the Ganges River at Varanasi, before heading to Agra and the iconic Taj Mahal, the world's most famous mausoleum. Finally after 54 days on the road, the Pyle brothers arrive back at the India Gate in Delhi to end their epic tough ride around India.
After being blessed by a local priest, Ryan Pyle sets off from the iconic Copa Cabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on his BMW F800GS adventure motorcycle; the perfect bike for this is incredibly diverse adventure motorcycle ride. Ryan is looking to cover as much as 14,000 kilometres over a 60-day circuit of Brazil. There is just one problem, Ryan has never been to Brazil before, and he doesn't speak Portuguese, and has little experience in South America and the chaos on the roads. Ryan's journey begins by exiting Rio and making his way up through the foothills to Minas Gerais province in search of Gold and a deeper understanding of Brazil's mining past. From there he is heading north up the coast with his targets set on the first capital city of Brazil, the Afro-Brazilian city of Salvador.
After exploring a church made entirely of Gold, Ryan practices some Brazilian martial arts and then enjoys an ice-cold beverage in a celebration of Salvador's 466th birthday as a city. Leaving the metropolis of Salvador behind, Ryan moves further north up the coast only to get stuck in a monster sand dune before heading west and moving deeper in to the Amazon Basin. With the entrance into the Amazon region, Ryan says goodbye to the pavement and comes to terms with the legendary Amazonian mud. As the rain falls the mud makes any real progress nearly impossible and traffic jams and accidents begin to pile up as Ryan moves cautiously slow. Everything begins to get very difficult.
After his first proper crash of the trip, courtesy of the Amazonian mud, Ryan's spirits are down as he comes to the realization that traveling by road in the Amazon is going to be much harder than he originally anticipated. After a brief rest in the small village of Anapu, Ryan is refreshed and ready to continue to explore. Next Ryan connects with Gil, a local guide and resident of the Amazon. Ryan and Gil sample local chocolate and then climb a 45-meter NASA tower to explore the rain forest canopy and better understand how the rain forest affects global climate. Leaving the rain forest canopy behind Ryan and Gil visit Jamaraqua Village deep in the Amazon to learn about local life during a birthday celebration for village patriarch, Bhata. Marking the halfway point of the journey, Ryan finally makes it to the Amazon River, and enjoys a two-day boat ride upstream to the port city of Manaus.
Ryan's rest on the Amazon River boat has come to an end. It is now time to test of Ryan's resolve and put his survival skills to the test, but not before a quick flight over the Rio Negra River. After exploring the Amazon rainforest from the air Ryan meets up with Leo, a tree climbing and jungle survival expert. Leo takes Ryan 50m up in to the Amazon canopy as they climb "The Iron Tree" and then spend a night drinking jungle alcohol made from the Sacacura Mira tree bark. Ryan barely survives his night in the jungle, and his reward is a soul crushing muddy 900km journey along the most dangerous road in South America, known as the "Road of Ghosts" - The BR-319.
When Ryan successfully reaches the end of the BR-319, known as the "Road of Ghosts", the support vehicle breaks down yet again but more Brazilian hospitality comes to the rescue in the form of Domatti Sadi, a local rancher who tows the support vehicle to his ranch and cooks up a BBQ for the team. Back on the road and moving on proper tarmac roads, the landscape begins to change dramatically. Leaving the thick dense jungle behind Ryan begins his tour through the wheat fields and Great Plains of Brazil, the agricultural province of Mato Grosso. After having his mind and body destroyed in the Amazonian jungle Ryan takes a few days to rest and recover in the Pantanal wetlands, one of the largest and most diverse wetlands in the world.
Now that Ryan is done splashing around in The Iguazu Water Falls that separate Brazil and Argentina, he is back on the road and getting his sand boarding and yoga skills put to the test in the resort town of Florianopolis. Enjoying the sun and sand in Florianopolis was short-lived, as Ryan has to get back on the road in an effort to complete his epic journey around Brazil. All forward momentum comes to a grinding halt on the way to Sao Paulo as Ryan suffers a flat tire and a support vehicle breakdown, and a massive traffic jam, in the same day leading to a disastrous conclusion. While waiting for the support vehicle to be repaired Ryan learns and Japanese culture in Sao Paulo and then on his departure decides to climb the Pedro do Bau, as massive mountain in Sao Paulo state, on his way back to Rio de Janeiro.
