It’s a motorcycle adventure that doesn’t so much have to worry about traffic but wildlife and corrupt foreign officials.

Through snow-laden passes, collapsed roads, landslides, corrupt officials and some 6,000 miles of the toughest riding imaginable, the GlobeBusters Silk Road motorcycle expedition has now ridden over the Irkeshtam Pass and made the border crossing into China, proving this is definitely not your ‘average’ motorcycle tour.

The group of 17 riders from a variety of different backgrounds left London’s iconic Ace Café around six weeks ago, knowing that what they were about to undertake was one of the world’s toughest motorcycle rides. However, the reality was that it was even more challenging than the Expedition Leader and Co-Founder of GlobeBusters, Kevin Sanders, could have imagined.

“Conditions have been far worse than when I did the research trip last year,” Kevin said speaking from Kashgar (China), “politically Kyrgyzstan was rather difficult, severe rains meant our road in Tajikistan was, quite literally, missing and late snow blizzards caused a ‘whiteout’ while we were trying to get the team across the Irkeshtam Pass into China”.

At one point Kevin was unsure whether the team of BMW riders would even get as far as China, especially when the group seemed to be stuck in limbo at the Uzbek border.

“Heavy-handed search techniques by corrupt officials made it pretty frustrating. One of our riders was stripped down to his underpants, while border guards meticulously searched his motorcycle gear, removing armor and zipping out liners,” he explains, “Ludicrously, we were trying to leave Uzbekistan, not enter it, and it took us the whole day!”

The GlobeBusters Silk Road route has taken one of the highest altitude roads in the world – The Pamir Highway, it has tracked the Afghan border and has taken the riders across the rigorous police state of Turkmenistan. The team now has a week in Kashgar to check over their BMW R 1200 GS and F 800 GS bikes and then complete the final formalities before entering Tibet.

If all goes to plan, Everest Base Camp will see the largest number of British registered motorcycles ever to arrive at the foot of the world’s highest mountain.

Interested motorcycle enthusiasts can follow the Silk Road Expedition through the GlobeBusters Travel Blog. For those bitten by the exotic road trip bug, there are even a few final places remain on the 2011 Silk Road Expedition.

“The bikes have performed exceptionally, especially the R 1200 GS Adventure, but that does not surprise me. My current bike has done 35,000 miles in eight months, with nothing to complain about. It’ll be a huge milestone to see a massive line of BMW bikes at Everest!” Kevin remarked.