The Grease Monkey & The Compass Rose

21/03/2023

What a sand storm looks like
Sky and ground melt in the same golden colours
🌞all you see🟨is yellow💛

21/03/2023

Yesterday we went to visit the remains of a Star Wars set "Tatooine" few km away from Nefta

20/03/2023

Goodbye Italy hallo Tunisia! 🐪

02/05/2020

Ciao a tutti! E' un po' che non ci facciamo vivi sui social, ma oggi alle 17:00 saremo onorati di essere ospiti per una diretta Instagram sul canale del nostro amico viaggiatore Gionata Nencini di PARTIREper.it - Per coloro che hanno scelto la moto per trovare la libertà, per collegarvi andate sul suo profilo instagram Partireper.it https://www.instagram.com/partireper.it
A dopo!!!

11.1k Followers, 7,495 Following, 1,620 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Gionata Nencini (.it)

05/12/2018

Missing this quiet and peaceful beauty. We were lucky to share it with some pretty amazing pals.
🇹🇳

02/12/2018

The Grease Monkey & The Compass Rose

25/11/2018

Uscire dagli alberghi con stile
***
Extiting the hotels with style
🇹🇳

24/11/2018

Fuel station in the village

20/11/2018

The dunes make you feel very small
🏜️
🇹🇳

16/11/2018

Grandi giornate tra sabbia, moto e amici. Tunisia
***
Great days among sand, motorcycles and friends. Tunisia

13/11/2018

Trails near Tozeur, Tunisia
🏜️ 🇹🇳

25/10/2018

We've been quiet, we know..! Too quiet!! Been all over the place, one year in the UK for work, now back in Italy awaiting to buy our home and workplace, and now prepping for a trip in Tunisia with some sand lover friends!
Also, sadly, Valentina's motorbike is going to be put to sleep and we're looking for a new/old one :-)
Stay tuned..!! We'll be back with photos and news

06/08/2018

This is us, the Grease Monkey (Matteo) on the left, and the Compass Rose (Valentina) on the right. Self portrait with our motorcycles: a Honda Transalp 600 and a Yamaha TTE600.

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #30
Today's pal is Piet Tschope, a german biker who lived many years in Spain and which was traveling east with his Yamaha XT600. We met him in Kazakhstan and spent a few days together before bumping into him again in Russia! The world sometimes is small and brings you to meet again even if you think roads have parted! Piet was traveling with his mascot Oscar and a guitar! Whotta dude!

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #26
We were in Osaka wandering about looking for a restaurant where to eat the famous Okonomiyaki and the Tacoyaki when we bumped into Toyo and asked him advice. He decided to take us personally and ate with us! The guy on the left is Vasilis, which we met on the ferry to Japan and with which we spent few days up until the arrival in Kyoto.

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #28
We met these group of bikers in Uzbekistan while heading back to Tashkent, the guy taking the selfie is Sarvar, he invited us to join his friends for dinner and then staying at his place for the night, and we accepted. We spent a fun night with friends sharing tales of motorbike trips and curiosities about our Countries. A great experience in Uzbekistan.

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #29
Coming to an end of the month initiative we tribute the people with which we spent more time and memorable moments. These are and from Trailing Horizons, we met in Dushanbe in Tajikistan and ended up spending a few days together on the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Corridor, we then crossed together the border of Kyrgyzstan and even when we tried to split up we catch up again at Song Kol Lake! We had an amazing time with these two and it was a pleasure and honor to share the road with them! We hope to meet again soon.

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day #25
Road restaurant owner in Japan. We had a lunch composed of 6 different small tastes of different things of which we don't remember the names of. He couldn't speak English so once again we used our fellow Google translate, we couldn't have done without it!

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #27
These guys are Igor Morozov and his girlfriend and friends of a motoclub in Novosibirsk, Russia. We had a crazy night over there, anticipated by Igor saying: "if you want to drink with us you have to sleep here for the night" intending that the level of alcohol was gonna be high. And he didn't lie. I decided to only drink beer but Matteo had to go through the whole vodka ritual winning a massive hangover for the next day! It was a night to remember though. We had lots of fun despite the massive language barriers (which seemed to dissolve the more we drank). Love these guys!

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #24
We met these guys in Mongolia on some pretty damaged pist near the construction of what will be the motorway connecting the whole country wedt to east. They belonged to two groups traveling: the participants to the Mongol Rally and two indipendent guys who named their trip MongolOne because traveling on a Fiat Uno (uno means one in italian). It was fun to spent one camping night with them and although we spared routes in the morning we managed to catch up in the same restaurant for lunch!!

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day #23
What a gang! Found just outside a road restaurant we just had food at. Couldn't avoid asking to take a picture of them. That old lady rocked!.. And the two people dressed in the same way..! Mongolia rulez!

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #22
A random guy we met in Russia in a little pension we stayed for a night before heading to Samara the next day. He wanted me to take a picture of him with Matteo and the bikes but then didn't have contacts to send him the picture so, here we go it gets published! I doubt he's got an Instagram account but you never know!

30/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #21
Our last hosts in Kyrgyzstan near the border to Kazakhstan. We had a last sleep in a Yurt, had our last Kyrgyzi supper and chai and watched the family in their evening routine including milking the cows. Kyrgyzstan is a country we'll never forget for its colours, flavors and people.

29/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #20
This the sweet Marisa Furuichi, which was working at the Inn we stayed in while in Kyoto. She knew how to do japanese makeup and she gifted me with some Japanese makeup brushes and I'll never forget that kindness! After we were back I managed to send her some Italian ones too!

29/07/2018

July - a meeting a day #19
These are Francisco and Ezechiel from Argentina, and a guy from the GuestHouse Kyrgyz Tours in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan. We met them totally randomly for dinner at the guest house, spent hours sharing stories from our travels and had to say goodbye the next day..! Hope to see then again!

29/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #18
This is a meeting no one wishes for but I had it! Just in the outskirts of Kyoto I had the brilliant idea to do a wheelie when the traffic light turned green, the second after I was crawling back from my bike which I managed to put completely vertical and about to fall on me. My ankle didn't make it and received those 165kg plus 30kg of luggage all in one go. I luckily didn't break any bones but damaged a tendon and ligament which still hurt 2 years later..! I was escorted by the most efficient ambulance personnel to Kyoto hospital. A journey I can't help remember both for the pain and the amazing vehicle I was put into. The most modern ambulance ever!

29/07/2018

July - a meeting a day! #14
These are in the order Matteo Codispoti, Диман Левков, Manon Quinter, Patrick Pagnier and me Valentina Visintin.
We met Diman at the Russian border coming from Kazakhstan and he asked us to join us to reach Novosibirsk where he was heading for a motorbike gathering. On our way we met Patrick and Manon who were heading south in Kazakhstan after they crossed Mongolia east to west. It's great to meet bikers from every possible country of the world!