Last leg of 10-year bike trek

Coates initially thought it would take four months

A 66-year-old Yorkshire mechanic told his wife that the motorbike trip he was about to embark on would last four months. But a decade on, he's still on the road, and she is still waiting for her husband to come home.

Ian Coates set off on his 1992 Honda Africa Twin in 1999 and has only been back to his West Yorkshire home of Hebden Bridge once during that time.

He has been to more than 70 countries and is finally nearing the end of his adventure. He told reporters the trip had just 'snowballed' and that he didn't think he'd go around the world.

The home strait involves crossing the Bering Strait from North America to Siberia and riding overland to France. In one update, in August 2005, Coates told his local newspaper that his wife, Judith, had flown out to Ecuador with spares for his motorbike. He hadn't seen her in three years. The couple spent two months together in Brazil before Coates returned to Ecuador, only to be told he had outstayed his visa. "I had to hide on the bus to get through the customs to get back into Ecuador as my wife was with me and she was flying back to England from Ecuador and my motor bike was there."

Coates said his wife had been content to let him get on with his adventure. Judith described feeling like a single woman again.

He sleeps in his tent at night and works in return for food. But soon he will enjoy the comforts of a double bed in Hebden Bridge again.