EuroKClub
General forum area => Ride Out Reports => Topic started by: Matt on August 01, 2023, 07:29:17 pm
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Yes.
As you may recall, a bunch of us went off in June on David's Old Gits 2023 - Italy Lakes and Mountains. I variously kept a log/blog/diary/cry for help of my trip as we went, and as I stayed on after the Dolomites section and headed into the Balkans. Here are those words. I hope you're bored enough to read it, otherwise it'll just serve to help me remember what I did.
Day One
Our trip started from my house on Friday. Martin and Richard turned up - on time - and I duly forgot to give them the trip branded t-shirts that had been sent to me to take care of.
The first target was the channel tunnel near Folkestone. Unfortunately, as with so many places in the south, this required us to take the M25 and then the M20. Both of these motorways had enough traffic on to make it a less than relaxing start. In any case we arrived at the tunnel terminal in plenty of time, rode the circuitous entry roads and said hello to the French guy and bonjour to the English guy. We had our first new experience here too, being pulled into the customs inspection area. Thankfully this consisted of less than 5 minutes of some guys looking at and brushing the bikes for some assumedly drug sniffing machines. Next we joined the bike queue for the train, and sat behind an old fella for the next ten minutes who left his engine running, killing polar bears like there was no tomorrow.
The train under the sea was uneventful and thirty or so minutes later we rode off onto the right side of the road in a place the foreigners call France. It was nearly 4pm French time at this stage, but we only had to get to a town called Bethune for our first night, and this was about an hour or so away, so a relatively light introduction to French driving. It was a pleasant enough motorway ride with about 5% of the traffic we experienced earlier in the day on the UK side.
Bethune is a small town a few miles north west of Lens. It feels like a good way into France until you zoom the map out and realise it's only about 5% of the way down the country. Our hotel, a new Ibis construction, was near the centre and secure and pleasant. We met a few of the wider group here and had a nice evening at a Mexican restaurant over the road.
(https://i.ibb.co/PmY7GFf/20230617-072146.jpg)
Day Two
Saturday was always going to be the biggest day. The requirement was simply to get to our next hotel, Hotel Florimont, in the south of France, 20km or so south of Geneva. Over 470 miles. Sat on motorways for 90% of it. In the UK this would be agony, however as with our Friday afternoon ride in northern France the traffic was almost entirely very light. We set off around 0900 and got into the routine of riding for an hour or two, stopping for water/petrol/snacks, and continuing. All whilst obeying speed limits as we tried to work out what the cameras, radars etc look like in France. A fun law change in France means our Sat Navs would be breaking the law if they pointed out the speed cameras, so we only ever got notices of kilometre long patches where a camera 'might' await us. The mild annoyance of not knowing where the cameras are hiding was ameliorated however by the 130kph (80mph) speed limit, which feels much better than the UK 70mph.
Another somewhat more frustrating aspect of this ride was the fact all these motorways are toll roads. We'd been sensible sausages and bought little black boxes (Tags, or Telepasses) that would in theory be recognised by the magic at the toll booth and automatically charge us and open the gate. In theory. Each of us encountered at least one booth that day on the way onto/off a section that wouldn't recognise the little Tag device. Our fun conversations with the people at the end of the "Assistance" button were very enjoyable. In opposite land. Somehow though, they let us through and we finally dropped off the toll roads several hours later to enjoy our first country roads for the final 100km or so to the hotel.
Here we came across the most vivid watery bit at a dam, where we stopped for a break and variously hid in the shade as much as possible. As we got closer to our destination the scenery became more and more excellent.
Anyway, Saturday ended when we got to the hotel south of Annecy where most of the rest of the group had already arrived and had pizza on the way. Pizza was eaten, agonising 470 mile commutes were compared, and sleep came easily.
(https://i.ibb.co/FHb7h1h/20230617-160215.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/N6nX5PX/20230617-195027.jpg)
Day Three
This being the final commute stopover before our first destination, we were up and out before 9am. Martin, Richard and I took the route kindly created by David which was about 212 miles and set to take 6.5 hours before adding in lunch and other stops. This was also the first route that would bring us to some cols, or passes. The first one was Col du Meraillet and the first time I had to remember how to ride. Snow capped peaks and a nice lake were the eye foods to go with the great roads. The second col was shorter - and I am pretty sure this was the one I did a few years back when every other route was still closed with snow - and called Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. More hairpins were the theme here but still a lot of fun and a nice twisty road back down to the east side. After this the route was pretty much just straight lining it to the hotel in Baveno on the west side of lake Maggiore.
Hotel Rosa was a great place with friendly staff and most importantly air conditioning. Or maybe most important was bike parking. I forget as I was so hot. In the evening the three of us went for a walk and had dinner at a lovely little restaurant called Posta, complete with little piazza and view of the lake. Amusingly as we we walked over to have a look at the water after dinner I spotted a couple of bikes and my spidey senses said "that's Tom and Philip!" And then my voice parts said out loud "that's Tom and Philip!" And it turned out it was Tom and Philip. True story!
At a pass
(https://i.ibb.co/hWc4DFf/20230618-104153.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/MfDQtng/20230618-110248.jpg)
Sorry Charlie, Piazza.
(https://i.ibb.co/bvKRcK3/20230618-193115.jpg)
Friends!
(https://i.ibb.co/vw07Wp2/20230618-212452.jpg)
It's got a lake.
(https://i.ibb.co/HCdjb8y/20230618-212600.jpg)
There were a lot of painting of a guy that looks like he got in no end of trouble.
(https://i.ibb.co/ySdgWqx/20230618-233937.jpg)
To be continued...
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Excellent. Better pictures than mine!
> We had our first new experience here too, being pulled into the customs inspection area. Thankfully this consisted of less than 5 minutes of some guys looking at and brushing the bikes for some assumedly drug sniffing machines.
Darn, I thought it was for firearms. As if. I mean where am I going to mount them?
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Great start Matt. I'm looking forward to the full trip report. Please send me a copy and I'll post it up on the Old Gits site.
I think the wipe is likely to have been for firearms and/or explosives as Cliffy, who was City of London police bomb squad, used to have to be officially verified. :D
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It is indeed explosive stuff and decades ago I was wiped in the car at Eurotunnel about two days after I had been out shooting. Powder residue was found all over the steering wheel (and therefore on my hands) and in the boot. Luckily I had a few photos of the event in my phone as well as still having my shotgun certificate in the glove box. The guys were highly agitated in that way that proper police offers get highly agitated...icy cold, very professional and very polite. Luckily they didn't make me empty the car as we were packed for a month in le Lot. One younger tyke officer was a bit persistent about why I had my certificate with me if I wasn't carrying the shotgun but one of the more mature types led him away on some distraction errand and the other one told me to scarper. Apparently the residue can remain on well-washed hands for days and on softish surfaces like steering wheels for more than a week, assuming you never clean your steering wheel...
Apparently lots of shooting types who take their guns abroad also try to take lots of cartridges (which is/was verboten) cos they were cheaper in Uk and probably better quality than buying them at French shooting grounds.
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Day Four
Somewhere between our arrival the day before, and breakfast this day, we discussed and agreed our first actual 'rideout' to some passes. After a while all the passes seem to blend together in one's mind, so what follows is my best guess at the route we took. It was a roughly 220 mile day and again about 5 and a half hours before breaks. We started after breakfast by heading north west on some main boring roads to get to the Simplon Pass. This was our first run into Switzerland and I duly rode slower than a goose for the run up to the twisty roads. We stopped here for our first coffee and pastry. We were one of the earlier cool dudes, but more arrived shortly after. We continued on round a town called Brig and north east up a road that got better and better, eventually taking us to Furka Pass.
However! Before the Furka Pass we turned left and went via about a dozen hairpins right up the Grimsel Pass! This was a short run but at the top we discovered an incredible viewing area, showing off an impressive dam. This was one of two days we had a bit of rain, although other than a bit of drizzle making the nearby roads slightly greasy, it had no impact on our ride.
More hairpins and there goes Furka Pass. Next was St Gotthard Pass, lots of fun roads! We pulled over at a spot called 'Punto Panoramico San Gottardo' for a break and photos. There was an incredible view of either Airolo or Quinto. A town. Having completed our list of passes we headed south on boring roads which eventually took us along the west side of lake Maggiore heading south to the hotel.
It's a big ass lake and a long ass road, and some way along here we realised we'd got into the rush hour traffic. Thankfully Richard bopped us into a little cafe where we spent an hour or so enjoying the local coffee and snacks and young lady asking us for English words such as 'sparkling'. This was referring to water, not my eyes. By about 7pm the traffic had gone and we set off. I think this was the first time we (or maybe just for me, the others being better at the biking thing!) started to actively 'do as the locals do' and make progress in 50kph zones. It's quite satisfying keeping up with a filtering scooter when you're on a laden wide arse litre plus bike!
Ok. Back to the hotel, shower and walk into town. This time we bumped into a couple of our group enjoying dinner at a place called Fratelli Rosso dal 1981. Down a tiny narrow alley but looking lovely, so we went in and got a table. This was good food and being the resident poncy person I insisted on some slightly more expensive wine which I'm sure everyone enjoyed (just as much as the cheap wine but shush)! After this we may have bumped into the larger group and had more drinks but i'm not sure. We often bumped into the larger group and had more drinks!
I mean if you need me to tell you where this is we've got bigger problems.
(https://i.ibb.co/hdrvk0v/20230619-110658.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/25G8LN3/20230619-110706.jpg)
Grimsel dam.
(https://i.ibb.co/MR7Y0KB/20230619-142557.jpg)
It's not what it looks like.
(https://i.ibb.co/SmrjYG6/20230619-142642.jpg)
That strangely named viewing area on the way down.
(https://i.ibb.co/RN5B8PY/20230619-154101.jpg)
Day Five
Richard has wisely suggested a day off the bike for himself, and I limpeted my way along with him. Meanwhile Martin - just as wisely! - suggested he ride yesterday's route the other way round. I believe he had a nice time and didn't die even once.
Meanwhile Richard and I took a little boat to some islands in order to stimulate the local economy. First we wizzed over to Isola Madre which is about 3/5ths of the way to the other side of this little bit of the lake. On it were some gardens and a rich family's house. It was either here or the next one that I had a Cornetto. This is worth mentioning because it was about twice the size of your UK 'export' Cornetto! Stock up, travellers. The second island we got to by lake bus boat because we missed our little boat. This was Isola Bella and had a much larger house we went inside of, full of old stuff and high ceilings. There was also a little village type thing going on with food and clothes and gift shops etc littered around. It was here I got my hat that I'm certain everybody thinks makes me look like not at all an idiot but a cool dude. We also had lunch at some weird music themed cafe called Lemontree. Nice enough. We got back on our little boat, didn't bother getting off to explore Isola Superiore because ugh, and headed back to the hotel.
I then had a little walk into the town and somehow met the larger group and had more drinks, before meeting Rich and Martin and going back to Posta for dinner. I think it was this night I went to the little DIY shop opposite the hotel and got an adapter plug so that I could charge my electric toothbrush. Spoiler alert: It was a piece of poop and broke before I got chance to use it.
The hotel is there somewhere.
(https://i.ibb.co/CQwXp0V/20230620-095452.jpg)
Godzilla!!!
(https://i.ibb.co/WVhPDMj/20230620-103732.jpg)
I believe this one is called 'Richard's Lament - The Price of Bikes' :D.
(https://i.ibb.co/Yh52jWg/20230620-111605.jpg)
Watery bits.
(https://i.ibb.co/6PLkvyR/20230620-123221.jpg)
Day Six
Onwards to the next hotel! This time all the way east to a decent altitude (which means cooler better temperatures) town/village called Fondo and a hotel called Lady Maria. The town was lovely, the hotel was acceptable. Note to self: the guy was dodgy.
The ride there was mostly boring. The trouble with northern Italy is it is the most industrialised part. It also has the great mountains but to get to them you generally end up passing through an Italian version of Slough. And about 10 times as long.
After we cleared Maggiore though we headed cross country and had our first mid morning/lunch stop at a pass/place called Culmine di San Pietro. I believe others in our group stopped here too, a little before us. There was a St. Bernard dog with signs saying don't pet him. I had a lovely bit of pasta and i believe chips were also involved.
The section we took over the north of Milan was the Slough part. Eventually we got out of this and took San Marco Pass for some fun, followed by more boring roads, followed by Mortirolo Pass, followed by more boring roads and finally Fondo. Dinner was at the hotel and some sort of buffet followed by set menu type affair. It contained calories, I believe.
Dog.
(https://i.ibb.co/vms58jH/20230621-120357.jpg)
Restaurant.
(https://i.ibb.co/VH6jYb3/20230621-122259.jpg)
Bikes yay!
(https://i.ibb.co/WGHrrhw/20230621-210223.jpg)
To be continued...
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You describe it so well it's as though I was there with you. Keep going - I'm enjoying this. :thumbsupgood:
> Note to self: the guy was dodgy.
His joke whilst serving from behind the bar to thirsty tired Brits:
'What would you like to drink? Tea?! Hahahaha."
Two days running. And he didn't sell cider. Grrr.
'You will sit in the same place every night, and write down what you want to eat.'
Er, OK.
'I lock the bar at 10pm.'
Er, OK.
At 9:45 we come in for the last drink and the bar is locked.
Let's call him a colourful character. He certainly amused us. I think he was called Basilio di Faulti.
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Day Seven
The Dolomites-tee-hee! Because I am a pain in the arse I kept out of rout discussions for this day. Richard and Martin either copied or came up with the route which took us north out of Fondo on a sweeping winding road (SS238), Gampenpass. It then took us west and oh look, we're doing the common as muck Stelvio Pass! I don't really know why I wasn't keen to do this one, possibly a mix of knowing it was very popular - so people and cars to get in the way - and knowing it was mostly famous for the number of hairpins. Something like 46. Anyway, far be it for me to get grumpy (I get grumpy) and actually it was a lot of fun (it was a lot of fun). The longest part of it is twisty stuff, then some hairpins, then some twisty again, and then a crap ton of hairpins to the top. Good times. It was on the first hairpins where a VW camper type thing decided to stop 2/3rds of the way round an uphill right-hand hairpin and our Tom, who'd joined us along with Phil and Alan for the day - had a bit of a coming together as he had no way to put his foot down in time. No damage other than brains.
We summited the bugger and joined the millions of other bikers for lunch somewhere. I think it consisted of cake. And coffee. We played count the GS here and realised it's a popular bike. Also, Martin went to pay, paid, but somehow the waitress interpreted it as him paying for a new order up front (he must look untrustworthy in the thin air), so we made a swift exit as someone started asking who wanted the coffee and cake. Stelvio economy: crushed.
Now it got fun as we trundled further along a little bit and then turned right and flew along a less populated but slightly damp road onto the Umbrail Pass. This took us briefly into Switzerland until we turned around, did it again and then took the south west road out of the Stelvio zone and into a town called Premadio. Or Molina. Or Bormio. Yeah. Oh! Then we headed south along the SS300 and did the Passo del Gavia which was great, and god knows what else was there with a bunch of hairpins until we ended up going east and back to the hotel. Great day. Oh what a feeling, when you're riding on the ceiling.
At the top of Stelvio. Considering i've (humble brag alert) climbed the tallest freestanding climbing wall in the western world i felt a bit iffy on our balcony seating here.
(https://i.ibb.co/VmDmwtH/20230622-114505.jpg)
On the way down we stopped here for a lovely lunch. If only I could remember what I had. Something lovely i'm sure.
(https://i.ibb.co/SnySftT/20230622-144336.jpg)
Glacier. At the above location. And pictures in the place showed the depressing receding gums issue it has.
(https://i.ibb.co/vZGDZfj/20230622-144402.jpg)
Ah sweet memories of a better time.
(https://i.ibb.co/Y2p5WHM/20230622-152021.jpg)
Lovely bit of tarmac.
(https://i.ibb.co/j5zvFK7/20230622-152125.jpg)
Day Eight
Weather! The talk of the town (table) at breakfast was the predicted watery drops due in the morning. As each group chose their tactic we went with 'ignorance is best' and took off at the usual time. We headed east. You know what they say about heading east, right. By 10:00 the rain started in earnest, and after a short while we pulled over and hid at a building with a nice brise soleil to shelter under. Or it was just the falling apart overhanging roof section for loading grain or something of a disused building. One of those. Twenty minutes later we waterproofed up and rode on. The worst of the rain had stopped and pretty soon everything was fine again.
The Dolomites have a different character to the Alps which were near the last hotel. Far more spikey and other words I forget. Richard made this route. Or customised this David route. Or this entire trip was a dream. One of those statements I'm almost certain is most likely true. Anyway it was great.
We followed the route and hit the Lavaze Pass. Good fun! They're all good fun and difficult to differentiate to be honest. The eastern most extent of this route took us to the Pordoi Pass and then the Campolongo Pass. These two were pretty close together. In fact the whole route was only about 160 miles and so a fairly nice length after a few stops. Let's say 7 hours all in. We stopped somewhere here for lunch/brunch, where we found sleet on the road and had a fun 3–5 minutes ride after, where we had to stay on the tyre tracks to avoid the sleet on the road.
As we started the day we ended it, via that super Mendel Pass. The first/last section of this is narrow cliff-side road with a 40kph limit which for once was a pretty sensible limit given we shared the road with bikes, cars, and pedal cyclists, all taking seemingly random entries and exits to corners/obstacles.
This evening I convinced Martin and Richard to join me in eating 'off-site'. A high risk endeavour! I started us off by really entering the danger zone: a drink that isn't in a pint glass! We had what I suppose is technically a cocktail, the Italian favourite an Aperol Spritz. And this came out to us along with some strange sweet pancake. I think we all enjoyed it, but who knows the mysteries of a man's mind! Next we walked about a bit and found a pizzeria. This was excellent food and excellent beer. We then had a nice stroll about the village/town and finally made our way back to the hotel and either more beer or bed, I forget.
Rain.
(https://i.ibb.co/cTnDZ9m/20230623-101946.jpg)
Sleet/hail.
(https://i.ibb.co/gyVrgRB/20230623-112942.jpg)
Mountainy bit.
(https://i.ibb.co/8B8dwPt/20230623-130537.jpg)
Bike.
(https://i.ibb.co/rZTw8HD/20230623-130936.jpg)
Stranger drink!
(https://i.ibb.co/8XZy7qb/20230623-181406.jpg)
Pizza food!
(https://i.ibb.co/k8m9twx/20230623-200243.jpg)
The number of photos taken of this guy no wonder he has no soul.
(https://i.ibb.co/VwbpX45/20230623-211723.jpg)
This was the end of the first trip for me, and after this I set off on my own.
To be continued...
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Again Matt, a great write-up and some great pictures. Like you, Roger and I went east on day 8 but managed to avoid the rain. In fact, the waterproofs stayed on the bike for the whole trip.
The whole trip was just mile after mile of wonderful roads, punctuated with coffee and cake. :D Roll on next year!
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Day Nine
We started the day together, for one last ride! As per the will of the FSM I planned to leave the group after the Dolomites stage and head off on my own into the Balkans. Like a brave little soldier. Soldier of peace.
As Richard and Martin were going north to Germany they came with me towards Bolzano before heading proper north and me turning east. Just as yesterday when we got stuck riding round a lorry car park at the outskirts of Bolzano, I did the same thing immediately after we parted company, again managing to go the wrong way down the autoroute. We're missing something but I'm not sure what. Anyway after much cursing I got onto the target road SS12 heading north east. Boring and hot. Then east. Bit better. Then into Austria where I picked up a vignette for 5 euros and 80 cents. I took the road called '100' towards Lienz and had a nice time. It gradually got less busy, less developed, and more sweeping bends. I immediately noticed in Austria the standard of driving went up, and the adherence to rules also. Pleasingly the A road speed limit in Asutria is 100kph, up from 90kph in Italy. Every little helps.
Somewhere along a mountainy bit I stopped next to some bike that looked nice and had one of those Austrian sausages with cheese inside, with some mustard and bread, and a coffee. I think here was where I was given a map of the region and briefly confirmed that my route through the country hit at least a few of their recommended roads.
Anyway I continued heading east and a bit south until a very uneventful crossing into Slovenia on a mini pass type road. I pulled over to take some pictures and then rode down to the hotel in Podkoren. It's a tiny village with a couple of cobbled streets and that appears to be all. Vitranc Boutique hotel was nice and my room had a view of a snowless ski slope (used for some international competition I think the chap said) plus massive rocky mountains with some clouds shuffling over them. Beautiful! It was only one night here as I wanted to get to Croatia for my first break of two nights and perhaps a chance to edit some videos [me: or not, have you tried editing 360 videos? Maybe next year].
For this trip (and NZ later in the year) I bought a 360 degree action camera, the Insta360 X3, and strapped it to the bike in various places at various times. It makes great footage but what it saves in framing shots - ie there's no framing as everything is in shot - it cancels out in requiring a large editing effort later. Still, by the time I had left the group I'd got several hours worth of mainly me, Richard, and Martin doing definitely high quality riding in incredible locations, so something good should hopefully be achievable. Eventually.
My first stop on my own, in Austria.
(https://i.ibb.co/RgvCQjG/20230624-125510.jpg)
Austria nice.
(https://i.ibb.co/88YChLY/20230624-135450.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/N68Gy7M/20230624-135504.jpg)
Slovenia nice!
(https://i.ibb.co/4S2prVN/20230624-150133.jpg)
The hotel was a beaut' and a bunch of bikes appeared later too.
(https://i.ibb.co/HVgP60J/20230624-151253.jpg)
Ski slope and mountainy bits.
(https://i.ibb.co/SKvx7fD/20230624-151936.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/BNWtJ7s/20230624-205309.jpg)
Dinner was great, and breakfast was good too, although self-serve machine coffee.
(https://i.ibb.co/BfTN83L/20230625-073502.jpg)
Day Ten
Moving on again today I rode from Slovenia down into Croatia. Being a lazy sausage and booking the previous hotel in the north-western most part of Slovenia, most of the day I rode through Slovenia where I enjoyed quite an abundance of fun roads, mostly 90kph limits, and no Slough-like depressing sprawling (insert negative adjectives x10) industrial places anywhere. I suppose that 88th largest economy vs 8th largest economy has something to do with that. And with a population of around 2 million it's going to struggle to be busy anywhere.
In the afternoon I crossed the border near the village of Babno Polje, which is about 30–40km inland and one of the smaller crossings. I expected - although Croatia did recently go Schengen - there'd be some kind of stop here, but I rode straight through an empty set of border paraphernalia.
The last part of the day took me into Croatia to a town called Tribalj, south of Rijeka and opposite the 'island' of Krk. Croatian country roads are strange. Some are twisty as anything and stay at a 90kph limit so off we go, where others are about the same degree of twistiness yet have a sign warning of "challenging road for motorcyclists" or something, and then a 50kph limit for the lot. Oh, also there are signs for bears.
Anyway, as I came down from the mountains to the east I got two things: an incredible view of the coast, and a return to high twenties celcius. My hotel - Hotel Balatura - is up a little tarmac track and has a delightfully treacherous gravel parking area with differing depths. That wasn't incredible. Later on a German couple arrived on HDs and enjoyed the parking ordeal almost as much as me.
The first surprise (or maybe the only one, it's a mystery to me as much as you right now) was when the young man showing me around stated "this is a vegetarian hotel sir." And then asked if I wanted to stay for dinner [still]. Given the temperature and my renowned ability to be so picky as to never choose somewhere to stop, I agreed. Turned out alright! I'd love to list what I ate but I can only recall lentils involved in the starter, and a deep fried green thing with mash potato for main. And some peach cake thing for dessert. There. I ate it all. Like a good boy. They also served a pilsner from what I understand is a local company that currently outsources the actual making to somewhere on the other side of the country. God knows. But it was unfiltered which makes a nice change. And it was nice enough, as pilsners go.
Then I went to bed. My room/apartment/suite thing was lovely air conditioned, nice solid stone thing with a roll-top tub and nice little balcony seating area with a great view of the sunset.
A nice desolate border crossing.
(https://i.ibb.co/T2k7V3B/20230625-135934.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/n0hmc66/20230625-135943.jpg)
Excellent hotel.
(https://i.ibb.co/BqvW6XK/20230625-163702.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/BrP88Vq/20230625-171929.jpg)
Hurrah for beer!
(https://i.ibb.co/2dCmfqC/20230625-173404.jpg)
Day Eleven
Oh yeah, tyres. Today is Monday, so that's why I didn't address this yesterday afternoon. I noticed my rear was getting well used and yesterday noted the remaining tread depth to the wear marker at about 1mm. Motorcycle dealers etc get fewer the further south so first thing this morning I set about internetting somewhere to go. The first place I spotted on my way into town and as it had scooters etc outside I popped in. They couldn't guarantee a tyre would arrived by tomorrow AM. I need it by then as I have at least 7 hours riding down to the south tomorrow. The second place, Motofix, run by a guy called Cristian, was much more helpful. He's a great guy and spent a long time trying to source my exact tyre. This didn't work as the main warehouse for most stuff is in Poland and would take more than a day to arrive. So we broadened our search for "anything with a name I know" and as luck would have it a Bridgestone of some variety was not too far away. So he ordered that for tomorrow, and we cross out fingers.
It's not over yet though! Having had this issue myself I mentioned the huge 60mm nut holding the rear on, just to check he has the tools. He has not. So another good while was spent sourcing a 60mm socket, which he's also ordered for tomorrow. So fingers crossed for Croatian logistics and that new borderless border!
Having done all I could do I rode out and decided to see what this Krk island place is all about. Turns out it's all about getting to 32c and being full of German tourists driving huge campers at slow speed. After a loop of a couple of little towns there I got out and back to the hotel. Too hot!
The day ended with beer and another impressive vegetarian/vegan dinner.
(https://i.ibb.co/kQXwNJQ/20230626-174850.jpg)
Day Twelve
Whew. Long day. As I ate whatever vegetarians eat for breakfast my phone lit up with a WhatsApp from Cristian letting me know the tyre had arrived.
Side note: In the past I've always found it overly burdensome trying to re-pack every morning, cramming all my stuff into the bags/panniers and then trying to squeeze my panniers closed. Also on this bike the panniers don't like to open if they're under pressure/overly full. Fun. For this trip I did two things differently. First I bought proper lightweight trousers and tops, and a pair of Freet shoes (barefoot type things with bugger all sole). Secondly I put all clothes into several zip-lock bags and squashed the air out. These two decisions made it a lot easier each morning to just roll stuff up, put it into the zip-lock bags, squash the bags. I did look into the various stuff sacks and packing cubes etc, but they respectively had no control over thickness and didn't actually compress.
Oh yeah, lastly I took a dry bag and some bio-degradeable washing liquid so I could wash my clothes on the go. And some paracord and 3d printed clothes pegs. Because I don't own clothes pegs and my whittling knife is dulled.
Back to the excitement. Bike all packed I had a nice checkout chat with one of the owners (who was more German than Croatian, which informs this statement), "we think of you British as our younger brother, always making silly mistakes" (guess the topic where we're talking idiotic decisions) and got going directly to the garage.
Both the tyre and the 60mm socket thing had arrived. After a little while of chatting with him and his mate we put the bike on his lift and he tried to loosen the nut. And tried again. And got a bigger lever. And had me hold the rear, and tried again. Eventually he got the thing off. It's on with about 260Nm and I know it was at that torque as I bought a lovely new wrench and was the last to do it. Our K1300Ss take 60 ish Nm for each of the 5 or 6. Mad. All in the name of style. Maybe. But then my hub doesn't corrode at the edge so harrumph.
He nipped off round the corner to get the tyre replaced and some paint scratched off the edge of my rim. Because apparently it's really difficult not to be shit (to be clear this was not his fault, it was the tyre shop he took it to). When he came back he exclaimed about my chain being dry as a bone and pretty much insisted he clean and wax it. I checked the tension which was fine. As were the pads all round, and my final drive wasn't leaking because I don't have one. So all good.
Somehow it was midday by the time I left. And it was hot. For the whole ride it varied between 31 and 35c. I took the coastal roads, but was stressing about speed limits for the most part ("oh a slight bend, we better add a 30kph sign!" ad nauseam), interrupted by tagging onto an occasional passing vehicle. Did I mention it was hot? I'm so glad I got my new mesh type stuff as my old Halvarssons Goretex stuff would have boiled me.
I stopped for a late lunch somewhere with a non-neutered cat and amazingly didn't get poisoned from the seafood risotto I wisely chose from the menu.
Somewhere possibly near Split I jumped onto a toll road to get me the rest of the way. If I recall correctly this toll road issued a paper ticket which I handed in at the end and paid a small bill. No worrying about sensors!
I got to the hotel (re-assured weeks before with the response "don't worry we have secure parking for your bike sir!") to find nothing in the way of special parking potential. This was possibly the first time I covered the bike and used the disc lock. Mostly because I viewed this area as a bit of a border crossing town/village. The hotel was nice though. It appeared to be a recently built cafe/bar with a few rooms above to aid in revenue generation. Speaking to the young lady who checked me in, it's a quiet town and not a lot of opportunities. I imagine that's the case in a lot of places (/me waves at everyone in the north).
After unpacking and checking my pockets for detritus I realised I'd taken the key and delightful wooden keyring from the previous hotel! Being a silly goose I went downstairs and after a bit of a chat the lady rang my old place and arranged to send the key back. Good stuff.
I have a feeling my dinner here was a Twirl and some biscuits as they didn't have a restaurant and I was too tired to walk anywhere.
Bike ready to go!
(https://i.ibb.co/pws4dW5/20230627-101430.jpg)
Tyres time.
(https://i.ibb.co/jZ2hZSm/20230627-193908.jpg)
I must have taken this to illustrate either mileage, a dying battery, a faulty oil temp sensor or I don't know why.
(https://i.ibb.co/jWNQnp0/20230627-121833.jpg)
"will someone please sterilise me!"
(https://i.ibb.co/6YyrCMv/20230627-144756.jpg)
Lunch stop with a view.
(https://i.ibb.co/fS9zHfy/20230627-144855.jpg)
Hotel stop with also a view.
(https://i.ibb.co/fS0cDCx/20230627-190709.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/t37bH1x/20230627-190713.jpg)
To be continued...
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It might have been bloody hot, but it makes for good photos (again) - and good write up!
When do we get to clutch time - Monsieur Shaft-drive-rot Mickey-taker?
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It might have been bloody hot, but it makes for good photos (again) - and good write up!
When do we get to clutch time - Monsieur Shaft-drive-rot Mickey-taker?
Haha it's coming! We've got... 3 countries to go! Although I imagine all these thirty plus days didn't help.
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Well done Matt, another great read.
Your comment about unpacking/packing every day strikes true. One of the main reasons the Old Gits trips tend to involve staying at the same location for 2, 3 or more days is to avoid the requirement for the daily pack/unpack routine.
How many miles had your rear tyre done when it needed changing?
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Well done Matt, another great read.
Your comment about unpacking/packing every day strikes true. One of the main reasons the Old Gits trips tend to involve staying at the same location for 2, 3 or more days is to avoid the requirement for the daily pack/unpack routine.
How many miles had your rear tyre done when it needed changing?
Yep, I really did appreciate that, and it informed my longer stops later too. My Roadtec 01 SE rear had, hang on let me check... 4,165. I think i'd have got another 500 miles before wear marker.
And to add to that I had tried the Metzeler M9 RR immediately prior and that got 3,995 and was proper done.
The front 01 SE is at 6,000 ish miles now and still fine. The Bridgestone T32R is at about 3,500 miles and looks to have about 2mm before wear markers.
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Blimey, your 1290GT get's through rear tyres! :o I get over 6000 out of a rear 01 SE on my H2 SX and it's a good few kgs more that the 1290GT. I also think I'm probably a kg or two more than you! :-X
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Day Thirteen (28th June)
Woke up this morning, got myself a mug, mamma always said I'd be the chosen one. What a show. Anyway, breakfast here was a proper coffee and then a tray with bread and pastry stuff and a bunch of little plastic jam/honey things. Again, what with the hot weather and my diet of air (wasn't there a cult or something who insisted humans could survive on air only?) I ate little. The bike was still outside and covered, so I packed up and got going.
Today was a short riding day just across the border into Bosnia and to the well known town Mostar, of bridge fame. And finally this was the first non European Union border, ignoring our moronic one. As far as I recall I crossed at the modern looking Nova Sela. I stopped at the little booth thing and heard "<gibberish>… you want stamp?" "do I need one?" "you go" "ok bye". Job done. It was about half ten by now and I rode straight to Kravica Waterfall… car park. As I arrived I spied about a dozen massive coaches half unloaded and immediately turned around and left. I've seen water before, I know its game (its game is to lull us into a false sense of security by making up most of our mass, and then killing us by taking the rest too).
I got to Mostar about 1pm via a pretty direct and uneventful A road. Even more walking pace speed limits for normal radius bends here. It gets worse the further south. The 'hotel' Hotel Hana wasn't really a hotel even though it has hotel in the name and calls itself a 3 star hotel. It was rooms with en suites. No restaurant, no bar, no daily turning down or wtf. And my view of the mountains was the bit of the mountains above the council/soviet looking block of flats literally right opposite. Still, it had air conditioning. And greasy prints/marks over much of the furniture. I'd wanted to stay at Kriva Cuprija after seeing Baron Von Grumble stay there and it appealing to my desire to stay at poncy ass places. Unfortunately that place being the best place in town fills up quick.
Unpacked and showered in the tiny damp dimly lit shower I took the 5 minute walk from my wrong side of town into the old town to try and spy the bridge. It being summer end of term here and also it being a world famous landmark does not make for empty streets. It makes for full streets. The streets were full. Matty don't like no full streets. Full streets? Not for me thanks I'm fine. I crossed the bridge, walked past a few of the shops selling Chinese tat and turned back. Found somewhere just about acceptable for lunch, although being partly outdoors there were smokers aplenty. Gobbled lunch, paid with euros, went back to hotel to write and plan.
The morning, leaving the hotel.
(https://i.ibb.co/GtxN2Wg/20230628-095049.jpg)
Mostar views.
(https://i.ibb.co/DCpGSRN/20230628-123147.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/dG393cN/20230628-124155.jpg)
The bridge.
(https://i.ibb.co/9yLNGHf/20230628-125915.jpg)
Day Fourteen (29th June)
Ok the main things annoying me that I wanted to sort were:
1. Tourists
2. Petrol
3. A SIM card
4. Cash
I solved point one by going into the old town at 0800, when the only other people present were the shop owners setting up their displays of tat. Being a much sunnier day it was an all round pleasant experience. I got to walk across the old bridge without anybody else there. I then happened across a little stall and got the exact MNO SIM I wanted, 30Gb for 30 days, valid across all the non-git (ok ok git leaders) Balkan countries (i.e all but Serbia). On my way back I went to a cash machine and got some BAM (right in the kisser!), the Bosnian currency. This I used to pay for petrol half hour later at what reviews called "the best petrol station in Bosnia." It was a petrol station. Incidentally we're now at the petrol station stage that parts of Italy had about ten years ago, when you're never certain if the guy standing there is going to try and fill your bike for you or not. At this one, one day no, other day yes.
So, having solved the 4 main mood detractors I rode off east to get to Sarajevo and see about the Tunnel of Hope. This is a tunnel dug by Bosnians during the siege of Sarajevo as the only way in/out. It went under the UN occupied airfield and so was somewhat safe from total destruction. It allowed for humanitarian and military supplies. Anyway, read the Wikipedia page to learn more.
After the unsurprising and all too frequent experience of stabbing buttons at a toll booth was resolved I got there in a couple of hours of nice enough riding. The first half - well, once I'd got out of Mostar outskirts - was basically an 80kph single carriageway for miles and miles, skirting a wide and beautiful river, backed by impressive hills and mountains. Awesome. Then came some villages and speed cameras not in my DB. So we'll see how that goes. Then the toll road. Then Sarajevo. I saw a few buildings with bullet holes on the way. It makes things real for sure.
The museum and tunnel experience area is right next to the still working airport. As I rode up to the car park I was very relieved to note not even one coach had beat me there, and it was already 11am! I imagine getting here from your cruise ship parked at Split is more an overnight thing compared to the waterfall by the coast yesterday. Must help. So I jumped off the bike, paid the lad 2 BAM to stop the Germans nicking it and went to the ticket kiosk. 10 BAM. By the way, it's always 1 BAM = 0.5 Euro. Doesn't vary. It was a nice if short 'museum', with a couple of sections of tunnel, some rather low res videos in rooms, and very light explanatory text on some posters. I suggest reading up on the whole affair beforehand as you'll get more out of it than going in cold.
Speaking of dogs, this is the first country I've started to see dogs just standing in the middle of roads. They have neither chased me nor given me rabies yet but this wasn't happening further north and I've seen about 3 instances today, one where I had to take avoiding action as he just nonchalantly looked at me as if to say "I can't believe Boris's list [me: I assume i'm talking peerages here] is being accepted." Neither can I buddy, neither can I.
The whole walking round thing was done in about half an hour. I bought a couple of as-2D-as-possible (packing) trinkets from the gift shop and got back on the bike. I'd spotted a couple of potential lunch places on my way out, and stopped at one called Lamb about half way back. I had chicken biriani and conversation with a young waiter guy who was pretty good at English. The view from the outdoor'ish restaurant part was of the aforementioned amazing river and hills and mountains scene. As luck would have it I finished my lunch by the time the first smokers sat behind me so my meal wasn't ruined. Smoking. The aliens will never believe it if they see it.
Back on bike, "good luck!" from some random dude sat in his car next to my bike with his door almost touching my pannier, and off I went. There's an odd mix of cars here. A huge number of mk3 and mk4 Golfs. Literally, it's like GSs in the Alps! Then there are some nice old Merc 190E and other rare classics. After that we have some old rubbish, and then a bunch of modern fancy stuff like at home. What amazes me though is even with new looking stuff I see smoke puffing out their exhausts when they even gently accelerate, never mind their hilarious overtakes everywhere and anywhere. It's as if any catalytic converters or DPFs get removed at the border! You'll notice it if you're a car or two back and feel like you're breathing smog. I don't understand why there are so many modern cars making such visible emissions.
I got back to the hotel mid afternoon and that was the end of that. I've no desire to 'walk into town' and suffer the tourist thing again. I'll keep my 0800 memory of an empty Mostar. I'll probably go in early tomorrow morning so I can get enough BAM to pay the hotel bill. Not sure what I'll do with the rest of the day. Srebrenica is too far unfortunately. It'd be a 9 hour day at least. I've got no other Bosnian destinations on my big planning map, so maybe I'll try and get off the main commute roads and see what else is out there. I'm looking forward to getting to Montenegro and a nice quiet place. This hotel is worse than a Lenny Henry job and dirtier than his mind.
Mostar.
(https://i.ibb.co/myWBF5W/20230629-080357.jpg)
This is the bridge. It's quite slippy stone hence the annoying ridges.
(https://i.ibb.co/BzzxRtK/20230629-080928.jpg)
What a view.
(https://i.ibb.co/4sCVYTz/20230629-080940.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/YBv5WhT/20230629-081004.jpg)
Bridge.
(https://i.ibb.co/vcmB7JV/20230629-081218.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/3k26pLC/20230629-083322.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/hFWfv4x/20230629-083326.jpg)
Sarajevo tunnel.
(https://i.ibb.co/ZHrfRGF/20230629-112200.jpg)
Some knowledge.
(https://i.ibb.co/KNLmVJB/20230629-112536.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/yNpJYV3/20230629-112651.jpg)
Bike.
(https://i.ibb.co/48HfWJw/20230629-115637.jpg)
View from Lamb restaurant.
(https://i.ibb.co/SmF08f8/20230629-133534.jpg)
Day Fifteen (30th June)
Bit of a rest day, mostly planning and internetting. First thing though, nice and early, I headed for a cafe I'd found online that looked great. It was on the west side of town, where I read that there is still an ethnic/arbitrary split between Bosnians on the wast side of town and Serbians on the west. But then there was a university type affair there too which must have everyone.
Anyway, on my way to the cafe I walked through a park that had a statue of Bruce Lee. I had hoped it was a park full of Bruce statues but failed to find Forsyth or Willis. The cafe itself was great, sat outside, quite studenty/young so no smoking was apparent, and the cheesecake thing I had was great.
Oh! I did go back into town too, but only over the first bridge, the crooked bridge, and to the place I'd actually wanted to stay, Kriva Cuprija hotel. I had lunch there instead. And it was amazing! After my first lunch effort I assumed all places were just mehh, but this was my kind of poncy place. And also almost empty so I could chat with the waiter. I wanted to try something local, something with an animal involved, then he mentioned something something "slow cooked" and bam, that was me sorted! Slow cooked veal with some damn fine little roast potatoes sat on some green… stuff. I dunno, maybe peppers and other things but cooked to be awesome. Then a dessert of Bosnian baklava which was as great as I could hope for. Plus a coffee which was actually properly made, and finally some grape based spirit I forgot to get the name of. Whew! After mostly disdaining the entire town this one experience got me pretty much daining the heck out of it. Or that little bit at least. If ever I come to Bosnia again i'll stay there and spend way too much money.
Nice walk.
(https://i.ibb.co/vVVxqvL/20230630-080331.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/XWBjDQQ/20230630-080452.jpg)
Bruce.
(https://i.ibb.co/kcLFWp2/20230630-080623.jpg)
Cheesecake.
(https://i.ibb.co/jRRY8Th/20230630-083522.jpg)
Impressive football team thing.
(https://i.ibb.co/ky7GRFW/20230630-094253.jpg)
I loved this restaurant.
(https://i.ibb.co/VNh0tqX/20230630-135352.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/4KdqhJZ/20230630-141802.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/YT3DKj6/20230630-144403.jpg)
To be continued...
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Blimey, your 1290GT get's through rear tyres! :o I get over 6000 out of a rear 01 SE on my H2 SX and it's a good few kgs more that the 1290GT. I also think I'm probably a kg or two more than you! :-X
Yep, having spent way too much time browsing KTM forums recently it does appear par for the course, and not just me. Which is mostly a relief! On the K I always got pretty decent miles from the rear. I'm getting the Track Pack fitted (ahem, enabled) tomorrow, which brings 9 levels of TC, so I might start to get a better feel for when it's tearing the tyre apart. Maybe.
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is judith chalmers on the run with you?
that is quite the ride review....and why i can't see me ever trying to do one. thanks a bunch matt i'm staying at home from now on.
seriously, it's a bit awsome so far!!
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is judith chalmers on the run with you?
that is quite the ride review....and why i can't see me ever trying to do one. thanks a bunch matt i'm staying at home from now on.
seriously, it's a bit awsome so far!!
She was on the back at the start of the trip but her perm caught the wind. She could be anywhere by now.
Thanks man :). I like writing gibberish when the mood takes me.
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Fab pics of the bridge. You were right to get up at the crack of dawn. Excellent writing.
Although you had me on two visits to Kriva Cuprija. Now, it's difficult to tell with your sense of humour, but did you go twice, or just accidently paste the same paragraph on two different days. Enquiring minds need to know.
I also like the murder scene cutlery. But where's the knife - with Miss Scarlet in the Billiard Room?
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Haha oh damn it! Glad I've kept you guessing but yeah, copy paste error. For ages I thought I'd lost a day somewhere and it was one of the Mostar days when I did bugger all and skipped an entry. Realised in creating this and failed to copy paste it all in the right place. Ta for the heads up, I shall correct once home :).
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Day Sixteen (1st July)
Finally I get to leave the rubbish 'hotel' and role the dice on the next place (spoiler: it's alright (double spoiler: it had bed bugs)). I got up early and walked into town at 0730 to get the BAM I needed to pay the bill. Then I went straight back. Checking the phone - and the sky - I spied dark clouds, and the phone showed little lightning bolts off the coast too, so I decided to try and outrun it. Even though it was in front of me. I don't play by the rules.
I packed the bike, paid the smoking woman (she smokes), and got going. Firstly to the petrol station and then south. Fifteen minutes in and the rain started. I could see lightning roughly where I was heading. To the hills. Where stuff traditionally likes to precipitate. It only got worse from there. Torrential rain, roads flooding, me getting too wet before finally stopping and putting on waterproofs. And finally I regretted not bringing waterproof gloves, though after 6 hours I think they'd have given up anyway. The first 3/5ths of the ride was in Bosnia and generally uneventful other than the storm and answering calls from the vets at home. Apparently my cat has stopped eating.
The border was easy! Getting out I showed passport and then the V5 when asked. Less than a minute and I start riding through no-man's land. Getting into Montenegro took a bit longer as there was a queue of maybe 7 or 8 cars. When I finally got there the guy took my passport, then V5, a minute or so later returned them and finally said "nice bike". Off I went. In the rain. I switched from my lightweight - entirely soaking - gloves to my leather gauntlets at this stage, forgetting that they bleed colour like … I dunno. A huge fucking thunder crack just went off overhead and I lost my train of thought. Ok so yes, two by two, hands of blue. Or black. Because the ink from the gloves runs.
Montenegro seems made up of lakes and roads by lakes. And mountains. If it wasn't raining it'd be glorious. Although their roads are a bit iffy, some dodgy foundations, land slips etc. Also I came across my first bull in the road, herd of goats in the road, and actual roadworks going on where they literally dug up a nice bit of road in front of us, pushed it out the way, then ushered us along the newly uncovered foundations. I suppose it beats closing the only road going north-south for a week!
Ok, some 6 hours since I left I got to the place. Ethno Village Moraca. It's some lake-side (almost) wooden shed/cabin type affairs on concrete stilts down a cratered gravel track. When I arrived nobody was here to let me in, and it was still raining heavily, so I was about to set fire to it all and ride back to Brian's. Luckily just then the guy drove up and showed me to my hut. It's alright. A bit dark but so is the day. All nice new pine though and no neighbours. Dinner at 7. The booking.com site has people saying dinner and breakfast are large and great, so fingers crossed. The weather is still insane and I think the storm is… whatever 5 seconds away is. I'm sat on a covered veranda type thing typing this as the rain hurtles down so violently it occasionally finds its way onto the monitor screen. Huge flashes and thunder louder than I've ever heard. Oh, and the power just went out. Pretty dramatic until you remember everybody poops.
At 7 the guy turned up in his 4x4 thing and I wandered over. Think flat roof building, a smoking chef, and a watery view out some big windows. The menu had… not a lot, but for mains one item was Chicken and one was Pork. So I asked for chicken. But my spider senses were tingling so I went over and asked for chips too. Just as well as Chicken turned out to be chicken and nothing else at all. So I had some hammered chicken with slim chips. And some local red wine. Thank Noel Edmonds for alcohol, I'd be lost/a lot more annoyed without it.
Goodbye bridge.
(https://i.ibb.co/KzYmSZz/20230701-073215.jpg)
Hello damp Montenegro.
(https://i.ibb.co/zJk473w/20230701-114711.jpg)
Rain rain rain.
(https://i.ibb.co/zGn9zY3/20230701-191215.jpg)
Wine!
(https://i.ibb.co/5YjfZ2F/20230701-193455.jpg)
The End of Rain.
(https://i.ibb.co/kMxJyTx/20230701-193936.jpg)
Day Seventeen (2nd July)
Today I had breakfast. Some strange sausages, a boiled egg, some bread and cheese, and a fried maybe potato type thing. Did the job. There were also a few bike guys from the Czech Republic who I chatted with for a while. Then I rode into the capital city Podgorica which was rather easy, and got petrol and bottled water because Montenegro. And Albania.
Next I spent some time trying to get my Bosnian BH Telecom SIM working here again. It looks to be impossible. Email support told me I needed at least 0.08KM credit on the account in order to be able to then use my included data GB in other Balkan countries, and apparently when selling you a 'Tourist' SIM they don't think to either include or mention this. How do add credit? I call their helpline and find out that it's done in shops. In Bosnia. Yeah I'm in Montenegro, how can I do it? "you can't".
So, BH Telecom is shit. In my highly valuable opinion. If all the above is correct then I should have bought a SIM and then gone direct to another shop to add credit, even though it was pre-loaded. Weirdos. And this is supposed to be an agreement even simpler than our EU roaming one. Except it isn't.
It's hot here today and the storm looks to have buggered off so I've done some washing and stuff is on the line with my 3D printed clothes pegs that were totally not a waste of time. I'm not riding the bike again today, and am also drying gloves and jacket etc from yesterday.
Addendum alert! Addendum alert! Duodenum alert! They all talk rubbish. I created an account online with BH Telecom, but couldn't link it to my MSISDN. However, after holding my phone with Translate open at their website I found where to do the equivalent of anonymous top-ups to any number. Which I did. And bam it's working. So no thanks to the help desk lady who having learned English forgot to learn how her network works.
I didn't want to hang these on the line to dry so they were left here to dry.
(https://i.ibb.co/mrs8MzF/20230702-090031.jpg)
Much nicer morning view.
(https://i.ibb.co/WVLW3gg/20230702-093816.jpg)
A little while later, beer.
(https://i.ibb.co/Fbj8Z2n/20230702-193544.jpg)
Getting darker.
(https://i.ibb.co/V9KMRMn/20230702-202926.jpg)
Dessert of some pancakes with Nutella and i dunno, goose gravel.
(https://i.ibb.co/r7r9ycX/20230702-204727.jpg)
Some party was going on down the way. I slightly expect to see James Bond on a speed boat.
(https://i.ibb.co/cygfjXV/20230702-205705.jpg)
Day Eighteen (3rd July)
Ok. Something bit my back. I waited for his 0900 breakfast but by then it was hot and the breakfast was not going down well. In hot weather I lose my appetite quicker than an instagram model loses their clothes. So I rode off and after passing various road-inhabiting animals etc got to the Albanian border. Another easy crossing. Hani i Hotit, north of Shkodra lake. I should mention this was the first time I paid more attention to working out where to cross, as reviews/reports of corrupt border staff started to be a thing. For future reference the two that came back as decent were this one and the one near Muriqan, south of the lake. But that one had more heavy traffic apparently.
I then rode a simply awesome mountain pass (The SH20 to Brigdje then Grabom is my best half arsed effort at saying where it is). New smooth roads, proper barriers, incredible views I didn't stop to photograph, and almost no traffic. Other than the ridiculous speed limits regularly appearing at bends it was road excellence. Then I came back down and got on my way.
Unfortunately after the above delightful new tarmac almost the entire rest of the trip was on either stupidly busy arrow straight roads or falling apart roads that looked like multiple earthquakes had hit them. I was in 1st gear and below trying to find my way through these, and also avoiding cars/lorries doing the same in the opposite direction. The SH6 which basically crosses the country as the main road was this nightmare. And about three quarters of the way through I noticed my clutch lever had developed about an inch of free play at the start of the pull.
For the rest of the journey I tried my best not to use the clutch, whilst imagining all the fun things it could be. At this stage I was overtaken by a couple of Czech bikes, one two-up. As ever, having a pace car helps a great deal in a foreign country so I tagged on. This lasted a good while, and then I lead for a bit after we took two different routes through a town. Eventually we went our separate ways.
Oh yes, just before I get to the end of this ride I finally see a petrol station with the MasterCard and Visa logos. I'd seen a few of these on the west side of the country but nothing but cash since, and Albania is the country of cash. Having few Euros and no Lek I stopped. The attendant nodded when I asked "card?" And as I stood next to my bike a guy by the main building, sat at some plastic chair and table setup nodded at me and asked "coffee?" Being half dead I accepted his invitation and went and joined him. Then I spied the impressive looking gold watch. And the overtly showy rings on his fingers. And the deferential attitude of the other guys present toward him. So then for a while I thought i'd soon be full dead. No English, he had a bit of Italian. And then he made a call to someone and I heard "moto" and that was about it. Who needs kidneys anyway? Then my espresso and a bottle of water arrived and the guy who brought it said "you have a friend," and nodded at 'the guy'. So 'the guy' paid for my refreshments. Kidneys work better hydrated.
Then his 10 year old daughter turned up who knew more English, and we finally established that 'UK' on my plate wasn't for Ukraine (maybe they were planning an extraordinary rendition). As she didn't ask my blood type I started to feel safer. Then I asked "quanta, euro, fuel"? And it turned out cash not card was accepted. Luckily they intimated Euros were ok and I had enough of those. After a while of listening as they talked away, occasionally nodding at me - and one guy in particular seeming to not like me much - everyone got up. We all shook hands and 'the guy' got into some people carrier and was carried away. I got on my bike and rode another fifteen minutes of shit roads to my hotel. Upon coming to a halt I found the bike didn't want to stop! So finally the clutch was no longer fully disengaging.
This and my cat is on hunger strike, and they've spent nearly the cost of this trip already on investigating. And then on getting into the hotel and showering I found I'd come in contact with some bed bugs, probably at the last place. Brilliant. I spent the evening eating some local food and drink, and working out what to do. My easiest solution was to try and ride to the next stop, Ohrid in Macedonia - about 60 miles away - where I googled a mechanic who looked to have experience dealing with foreign idiots on big bikes. Oh, and some old boy here kept coming over and showing me photos of weird stuff - some hospital corridor; some famous woman - and saying maybe Italian words I didn't understand. Then he invited me to his house tomorrow. At this time I was contemplating going straight to Ohrid so I politely declined. Or at least I hope I was polite.
I should add, this hotel is really nice. It's only existed for a year or so (check street view for Nëna Dashuri Agroturizëm south of Peshkopi. The room is lovely, the views are great. There's air conditioning and friendly staff. Only downside is their massive guard dogs keeping my bike safe also like to make sure every other animal within a few miles knows they are there. All night. All night long. Except i'm not singing or dancing or losing myself in wild romancing. So shut up!
Welcome to Albania, what a nice road.
(https://i.ibb.co/zX810vW/20230703-115549.jpg)
And a nice hotel. Yeah no rubbish road photos, I was too busy.
(https://i.ibb.co/SwqXN4G/20230703-175333.jpg)
View from room/restaurant. Awesome.
(https://i.ibb.co/sRf69sb/20230703-190455.jpg)
Day Nineteen (4th July)
Breakfast. Then feel dodgy stomach. Then google some more about my issue - oh yes and my brain trust helped a great deal the night before here, thanks Martin and Rich - and started to think it's a bit stupid riding when the only way to stop - if the clutch won't disengage - is to lock the rear wheel by using the kill switch.
I finally called my insurance (BeMoto Titanium cover) breakdown cover and got the ball rolling there. This was an ordeal in itself, as I was trying to use by supposedly Balkan-wide SIM which surprise surprise wasn't. In the end I had to keep upping my spend limit on my UK SIM.
A few disconnections, return calls late and we have recovery just about arranged. Maybe. My suggestion and preference was still to take me into Macedonia where I already have accommodation and can likely wait however long is needed. This caused some challenge as they don't usually cross international borders with breakdowns. I'm currently waiting for a call back to confirm the plan, as I suspect they might try and keep me in country. This will mean they incur accommodation and possibly rental costs, so seems a bit short-sighted. We'll see.
After another call the plan seems to be agreed. A local partner company quoted them to do it (450 odd Euros I think), which I am trying to confirm isn't my problem (i.e why does he keep telling me the cost if it isn't my problem?). Other than now being overdue a call back to confirm we're sorted, I'm relatively confident. I have a fallback if the place in Ohrid can't solve it which is the breakdown cover I have with KTM directly as a benefit of servicing it with them. It's only a recent offering but should get me… somewhere else should I need it.
The day ends with it all agreed, i'll get picked up "to get towed to Macedonia" in the morning. I did twice say to the English speaking French call centre guy "just to check, when you say tow you mean on the back of a truck" and I think he understands. To be fair the standard of their English in that call centre was much better than any conversation i've had with a French person in France before.
Dinner tonight was steak and chips and was very good, and a heck of a lot of chips! There may have even been dessert but I can't remember now. Let's say yes and it was great. I also spent way too long examining all my clothes and bags for bed bugs. It would appear I got away without bringing them with me, or perhaps riding in 35c weather and having most stuff in black panniers got them to the killing temperature of over 40c.
Breakfast with a view. Pretty big sky round these parts of the firmament.
(https://i.ibb.co/2yy9nj3/20230704-081325.jpg)
A much more appropriate vehicle for these roads.
(https://i.ibb.co/T8Bx62X/20230704-084430.jpg)
Why are these things so prevalent?! God help me the tick tick tick of that thing accompanied my whole childhood.
(https://i.ibb.co/vhPC5wb/20230704-184525.jpg)
Now we're talking. I wonder if it came from a road-cow.
(https://i.ibb.co/7jfW4d0/20230704-192236.jpg)
Clouds are getting busy. Wide angle lens makes for dramatics.
(https://i.ibb.co/dm89w8h/20230704-201328.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/Yb8083z/20230704-210706.jpg)
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Day Twenty (5th July)
Woke up and packed. Breakfast. A different but too large breakfast. Then feel dodgy stomach. The recovery guy turned up just after 1000 and without fuss got the bike on the back of the not-very-low loader (with the help of me and some other bikers). Then strapped it down via engine bars and two across the saddle. Then off we went on the horrific Albanian roads. We caught up another low loader carrying a high roof transit which didn't fly off, so I assured myself the 300kg loaded bike will be fine. And that following about 2m behind the thing was super fine. And it was. Even though he was on his phone half the time. Half hour or so later we got to the border (again, I'd picked this one (south of Peshkopi, work it out) because it appeared the least corrupt). It took 5 or 10 minutes to get through Albanian customs, and then about the same to get into Macedonia. The driver was handing our fresh cherries left right and centre like some kind of facilitation payment. Off we went on the far nicer Macedonian roads. Almost the entire time he's either texting or calling people. I'd say there was an average of 7/10ths of a hand on the steering wheel at all times.
After finding and ignoring a road closed barrier we got to Struga, the town on the northernmost tip of lake Ohrid. Even now he's still parping his horn and waving at people he knows. We have intermittent confusing conversation in various languages neither of us knows enough of, but he seems in good cheer. Another half hour and we finally get to Ohrid after a little police diversion off-road. The mechanic's garage looks less inviting than my Croatian duder but still, I went in and called out his name. He was helping some guy so I waited patiently. Then we all go outside and unload the bike. I expected more stress as 99% of the 'bikes' in the balkans are scooters weighing 60g, but they/we managed ok.
My mechanic guy says he just wants to bleed it first and that may sort it. I'd told him of my agony Albanian atrocious activities and extensive clutch work, which seemed to satisfy him (but not me) as root cause. He got his bleed kit out and did the do, and sure enough air bubbles come out of the slave end. To me this still could mean the slave is buggered, and indeed once done, and I'd test ridden successfully round the block, he said "try it for a day or so, and come back if it gets worse again." Bless him. As if I don't have a frigging cat on hunger strike to get back to.
I rode to the hotel and the clutch felt far more like it should. And for the first time in about 4,000km I could get it into neutral. I then checked into the 'villa' and showered and internetted. Next was a walk into the old town, down the cobbled streets and into a fairly busy little touristy area, but nothing on Mostar thankfully. I tried a cash machine and it failed after timing out. Then I went into the next child-staffed restaurant and had something that was veal and onions in a sauce. With bread. Was good. But why is that grandma sitting at a table with her daughter and grandchildren and chaining it? Then I walked back to the hotel and sat on the balcony with a lake view to write this. And this.
My plan at the moment is to enjoy an expensive tour of this area tomorrow. I cancelled my original one when cat news happened, and now just re-booked as I may as well make the most of this. I'll either stay the full 3 nights or leave after the 2nd and get as close to the Greek port of WTF [me: Ingoumenitsa] as I can. I'm not going to ride about and see if the clutch gets worse again. If I need parts here it'll take 3 days at least, if I can get to Italy before it starts showing symptoms again I think I'll have a much more efficient logistics chain to get whatever parts. Once I get to northern Italy, bike being well, I'll choose the fastest route home. So more toll roads. Hurrah. TICKET!
I should add, although I was plenty distracted by cat and bike at this stage of the trip, Ohrid looked beautiful. Mostar had made me feel uncomfortable for most of the time, but Ohrid I felt far happier and comfortable walking about and exploring, and even just existing. Although I was in another not-hotel, it was much nicer, had an incredible view (best in the town I think). Probably most importantly the place wasn't half as busy as Mostar.
A hearty breakfast is a great start to a day. Unless you're me.
(https://i.ibb.co/pJrCnbW/20230705-083311.jpg)
They got a nice looking countryside.
(https://i.ibb.co/4t2LJNV/20230705-094807.jpg)
On it goes.
(https://i.ibb.co/DC0vj69/20230705-101403.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/fvjy98R/20230705-101415.jpg)
We were both taking pictures possibly for the same reason.
(https://i.ibb.co/3v3FFNN/20230705-101417.jpg)
The border and the first time I stopped holding on for dear life long enough to get the camera out.
(https://i.ibb.co/fQZBRhr/20230705-103949.jpg)
Macedonia! Finally!
(https://i.ibb.co/ryHC9Pk/20230705-110249.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/R4pGg50/20230705-111318.jpg)
It's another lovely looking place. Vastly better roads than Albania just up the road.
(https://i.ibb.co/YbNqQym/20230705-115409.jpg)
Garage dude doing the bleeding.
(https://i.ibb.co/Sv2g279/20230705-125034.jpg)
Lovely view from my balcony.
(https://i.ibb.co/Nryyr9K/20230705-133924.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/r7Vnnyc/20230705-201904.jpg)
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Is the cat thing contagious? Richard's cat had a cone of death on its head last week.
Somehow I think a GS, any GS from the last three decades, would have fared better on those roads. My old R1150GS would have loved it.
And any problem with an old GS can be fixed by the girl from the local chippy using nothing more than a fish slice and a dollop of chip oil!
Nice trip report young sir!
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I packed the bike, paid the smoking woman...
Lucky you didn't go to Transylvania:
(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F97%2F6b%2F60%2F976b6054cab7b32fd097435ad85ba47a.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=7f894efb79357f0021755f64ec6e0cba63649e660a546cdd8fb13d963efa9817&ipo=images)
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i see your recovery truck is of scottish descent ....perhaps that's why you couldn't understand each other.
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Hahaha I never even noticed that at the time! Even as I nervously glanced behind us several dozen times!
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Is the cat thing contagious? Richard's cat had a cone of death on its head last week.
Somehow I think a GS, any GS from the last three decades, would have fared better on those roads. My old R1150GS would have loved it.
And any problem with an old GS can be fixed by the girl from the local chippy using nothing more than a fish slice and a dollop of chip oil!
Nice trip report young sir!
Thanks :)
Yeah I was standing a lot but the GT even with my bar back riser things isn't the right geo for extended standing periods or the correct balance. At least now I've got my Oberon thing it should be mechanically capable though!
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More great updates, thanks Matt.
Perhaps it's just my reading of it but it feels like you weren't enjoying things as much as you did to start with. :(
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More great updates, thanks Matt.
Perhaps it's just my reading of it but it feels like you weren't enjoying things as much as you did to start with. :(
Glad you're paying attention at the back there! :D
Yep, the cat and the clutch were stressing me out a fair bit there. And the flipping phone issues doubled that.
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What on earth brought on that change of strap line?
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What on earth brought on that change of strap line?
You've lost me! What what what?
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What on earth brought on that change of strap line?
You've lost me! What what what?
I think Rich means the IT Crowd quote.
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What on earth brought on that change of strap line?
You've lost me! What what what?
You've changed the quote at the end of your posts...
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Ah haha yes sorry I was watching the IT Crowd whilst posting one evening and fancied a change. Plus your riding is pretty good :p.
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Day Twenty One (6th July)
Well the expensive tour was awesome. I expected a group affair but it was just the two of us. First we walked through the old town. Architecture, history, a small church or two. One church where everyone brings the tortoises they find about town, Church of St. Sophia I think. To be looked after not eaten, though some tourists from <insert your choice> were taking a keen interest.
Amazing history! Then a walk up to a fortress. I'm not doing this tour justice at all, but anyway here's some upcycling: some of the gatehouse stones are gravestones they repurposed because getting new stone was a bit too difficult. When I recall/imagine being told if we get buried in a cemetery in the UK they only give you a set time (was it 10 or 100 years?), then a castle curtain wall that happened to mostly survive being invaded lots is far more permanent. Unless you are infamous already and hoping to be forgotten. Maybe then just get burned and scattered in the face of Paul Daniels.
Sorry, got distracted. After the castle we made a meandering route past some new buildings that Macedonia says are in keeping with the world heritage site but UNESCO people say WTF TAKE THAT DOWN IT'S RIDICULOUS. Bit of a shame as other bits and churches have been reproduced to stunning effect, matching the few old ones in style. We then went through a little forest and discussed education systems, languages we'd learned (or not learned in my case), and cats and dogs. This led down to another church that had been re-built recently after the Ottomans tore down the previous one and built something else there. There's so much history built on history here that it starts to get difficult to discern what should be preserved versus what should be torn down to preserve/re-create what came before. Will we tear down the O2 building one day to recreate the mud huts on stilts that some few thousand year BC original population used? I hope so.
Ok it was quite a long walk, and whilst we were discussing at this site that the swastika on a multi-thousand year old stone had nothing to do with the sign-appropriating mid-20th century bastards (and some ultra morons since) my guide sorted out the next stage of our day, a little catamaran boaty thing. Next was a tiny church that the Ottomans apparently didn't bother destroying because it was too out of the way and only little. The Church of St. John the Theologian. This is a beaut' of a little place and is sat on a huge rocky outcrop.
We finally walked down to the coast and to what used to be a little cafe. From what I could understand it's now a dead building due to some more UNESCO disagreements over untouched landscapes versus people actually making money and serving tourists. We sat here waiting for our ride and enjoying the dappled shade and amazing views across the lake.
Five or ten minutes later a funny looking technically twin-hulled motor taxi boat thing turned up. It had a flat deck with - I assume - vinyl sofas along each side. Our guy took us first up the coast to another bit of the coast I'd not seen, and then back past that Thologian's place we'd explored earlier. We ended up at the town centre and off he went after I bunged him 10 euros. Or twenty, I forget. My guide liked to haggle. Though incidentally most of the churches etc we visited, although having entry prices, just waved us in. Although when the bigger groups come they start charging. This made everything feel far more human, and less money money money.
On our little ride my guide had called her friend to pick us up in town with his car. So we sat under a tree for a while before he arrived. We headed off down the east side of the lake (the west side is in Albania) past a bunch of semi-decent looking hotels. Somewhere along here the country's leadership still takes advantage of the land the previous much-more-corrupt ones nicked and built stuff on.
Next stop, The Bay of Bones! This is a reconstruction of a prehistoric village they discovered that was built on stilts in the lake. This whole lake has very clean water, their only problem being algal bloom due to the severe sun - though I imagine modern farming might be adding something too. Anyway, my guide chilled inside whilst I did a brief walk around the thing. It was about a dozen or so huts with holes for fishing/pooping etc. The original was further out with a bridge that could be lifted up. Must have looked incredible. As we left the place a young couple were having their wedding photo on the grass outside.
Now we got back in the car and continued south to pretty much the border, and a monastery 'St. Naum'. This gets a bit touristy but having my guide with me helped a lot as she directed us into the monastery first, which surprisingly was pretty quiet. We had a chuckle at a mosaic of a bear that looked like a dog - recently made, representing a story from St. Naum's life. We then picked one of the few restaurants that sat right at the edge of a wide, shallow river that was one of the sources of lake Ohrid. Here I finally had the local fish. Naum help me I can't now remember what fish it was, but there were two varieties, an overfished version that was very expensive and a river version from slightly further afield that was sustainably fished. I went with the one that in theory helps the world AND my bank balance surive. And I had a beer. My guide had a coffee and commented how she never eats but subsists on coffee during these days. So I had another coffee too. She helped me with a few Macedonian words too, which I have since forgotten. Bonjour.
Back to the car, avoiding tourist tat shops, then back to Ohrid town and the day was done. It was a great day and will no doubt inform how I plan future trips, where it's all too easy to ride, sleep, ride, and fail to see so much else. Time to get packing anyway. I'd paid for 3 nights here but with my cat Crunchie having a feeding tube in and needing 4-hourly feeds, I had to get back to relieve my cat sitter. She'd already gone above and beyond by having Crunchie go back to her house after the feeding tube surgery, but to ask her to continue with such an onerous job was unreasonable.
Yeah I didn't take any photos of the tortoises but they're real ok.
(https://i.ibb.co/z8Ys67s/20230706-093523.jpg)
Inside this same place. People scratched out the eyes because carrying eyes brings you good luck. Yep.
(https://i.ibb.co/SBW9r03/20230706-094001.jpg)
Here lies Gordon the Gopher.
(https://i.ibb.co/mv1mGZF/20230706-101328.jpg)
Also the old people fly a different flag to this. Because politics.
(https://i.ibb.co/XzjbwBm/20230706-110824.jpg)
This one is new.
(https://i.ibb.co/pbsX428/20230706-111714.jpg)
This one is old.
(https://i.ibb.co/wB8R0p9/20230706-115509.jpg)
This is the old one from the lake.
(https://i.ibb.co/BPMjWQP/20230706-123451.jpg)
Stilty village.
(https://i.ibb.co/L018Scb/20230706-133319.jpg)
The/A source of lake Ohrid. Some say it is never diluted and runs straight to the exit at the other end.
(https://i.ibb.co/nrGxg7f/20230706-142718.jpg)
Dog or bear? It's actually a badly behaved bear that got shackled into forced labour.
(https://i.ibb.co/mHx0RYH/20230706-143616.jpg)
Day Twenty Two (7th July)
Today was time to leave and begin the race back to the unwell cat. As usual I skipped breakfast and got going pretty early whilst tentatively using the clutch and enjoying the accompanying paranoia. Last night I booked a ferry from Ingoumenitsa in Greece to Ancona in Italy. Something over 300 quid for a room with a window. The cheaper options - in order of not cheap to cheap - were a room without a window, a seat, and find some space on the deck (or somewhere). So I paid extra to get a timelapse of the boat sailing into the night. Which I did!
The ride to the border with Greece was uneventful. Although the last few km had temporary limits on the variously resurfaced and mid-resurfacing single carriageway that everyone just ignored. At the border there was the usual confusion, this time with a lane for motorcycles that was lit up as open, but which had a closed barrier and nobody at the kiosk. So I queued with cars in the "EU only" queue. Until some other bikers came, pulled up in the closed-open bike channel, then just walked over to the "EU only" queue and butted in. So I did the same after one of them waved at me. Another 10m further on there's some other kiosk where a uniformed ladyappeared from, walked up and after looking at my plate asked "do you have green card?" "I'm from the UK, my insurance covers me for all the EU" "show me" and so forth, until eventually her superior set her straight. I'm thinking it may be similar to the Albanian mafia situation where everyone sees "UK" and reads it as being a Ukrainian. Brilliant. Whatever happened to "GB" eh.
The ride for the next hour or two was utterly boring as I passed through endless baking farmland, the most excitement being waving nervously at a couple of Greek policemen pointing a radar gun at me. One waved back. Eventually I stopped for petrol, snacks and drinks, then headed into Ingoumenitsa proper. After getting slightly lost, waving at more police, and noticing my clutch going spongey again, I found the 'terminal' building and did the check-in thing. Thankfully they had a little coffee shop there so I sat for an hour or so eating unhealthy snacks and rehydrating. And worrying about stuff on my bike getting lifted. Which didn't happen. The building had air-con too, which was very much welcome with yet another mid thirties day.
Finally it was time to ride onto the runway or whatever they call the bit the boat pulls up to. I followed a more confident looking German guy on an RT and we stood around and chatted for the next hour whilst waiting for the Greeks/Italians to let us on the boat. I think, even though the boat was there and almost empty, they somehow slipped behind schedule by at least 45 minutes. My German mate employed country stereotypes to explain it.
It was a fairly big boat. Bigger than any boat I've been on before. And I've been on the ferry from Skye to Raasay. Finally we rode on and parked up. I was nonplussed to see no tie-down stuff, but my new mate who'd been the other way a few weeks before seemed fine with it, so off upstairs I went. Shower, quick pint, back to room. Plan, book next hotel, get rinsed forgetting the ship uses its own satellite-backed cell tower, sleep.
Oh! I almost missed the weird encounter. On my way for a quick pint I was accosted by a compact woman who was still wearing dark sunglasses IN THE HOUSE. In broken English she asked if I had a room. I said yes of course. She asked "just you?" "my room? yeah just me" And after a couple more back and forth my confusion started to be replaced with another thought as to her intent. So at her next "so, just you?" I gave "yeah, just me and my friend" "oh, friend?" "always a friend" and I got the heck out of there. Other than that little highlight, I was the first person to the bar, paid for an - as I recall - not too expensive a pint, downed it pretty quickly and went to hide in my room for the rest of the trip.
Big boat.
(https://i.ibb.co/WFBRSks/20230707-164441.jpg)
I'm on top of the world!
(https://i.ibb.co/9sS5Kqs/20230707-173436.jpg)
Sunset.
(https://i.ibb.co/kQg5FGy/20230707-214312.jpg)
Day Twenty Three (8th July)
Disembarking was a predictably tedious affair. Ship announcey thing says "GTFO and give your keys back." I go to reception, hand key back, and noticing the stairs to the garage is still closed, sit down. TWO HOURS LATER we finally go to our vehicles. I'd had to put up with a pleasant German couple and their dog on my left, and a bickering British upper middle-class couple on my right.
The bikes were still upright and none of my luggage had been stolen, hurrah! Another fifteen minute wait as people piss about and finally we ride off. Into what felt like the middle of a town in an oven. Ancona. At about midday. It was hot. And molto traffico. So of course I'm using the clutch and swearing like a trooper waiting to turn left off the main road in a big queue. Finally I get out of town and to the first toll booth.
My new plan - after spending too much time googling "wtf am I doing wrong" and similar - was to approach it with self belief. That and staying in the middle of the lane. Previously I/we had kept near the machine, predicting the need to press the Help button when the barrier doesn't open. It seems that the sensor is best recognised if you're in the centre of the lane, and I had an almost perfect success rate for my entire ride home with this new approach. Or it was the belief.
Off I go. On this day I stuck cruise at 100kph and just sat there trying to stay cool. Incidentally this got me an indicated 62mpg. The next day sticking at 130kph got me indicated 52mpg. Anyway. About half way through the day I gave up on wearing my very lightweight gloves, in the name of trying to keep cool. This resulted in hilarious/terrible hand sun burn which I should have predicted. In any case, as everyone knows, northern Italy outside the mountain bits is boring as hell, so there's nothing else to tell of this bit of the journey.
I'd booked a hotel just outside Chamonix, in a village called Servoz. Auberge Les Gorges de la Diosaz. I'd picked it as a mid priced non-fancy looking place that wasn't a chain. That was my 'pragmatic' approach to trying not to spend lots on the return journey. I'm never going to stay in an F1 or a Lenny Henry am I. I am not.
Turned out it's quite difficult to not find fancy places in France. I discovered this when the drinks menu appeared at my amazing-view outside table and it was bigger than the bible in big print. Then the food menu came out and it was either a 5 or 8 course taster menu, with or without wine pairing. And a fair chunk over 140 euros to play in the major league. Obviously I went for the 8 courses with wine because, as I said to my friendly waitress later on, "well my cat just cost me over 3 grand so this is bugger all compared to that." Man logic win.
It was incredible food anyway, just amazing, my best meal of the trip and great service. They also had a massive St. Bernard dog who was a nice fella. The only other people there, an older couple had two handbag dogs and the interactions between the three were entertaining. I ended the evening at the little bar inside, talking bits of English, Italian and French with the young student couple doing their holiday work there. Good times. Oh yes and the view of - I assume - Mont Blanc was a great companion for dinner. Highly recommend.
I loved this view. Still waiting for the epiphany though.
(https://i.ibb.co/r5BkWHd/20230708-202819.jpg)
Food.
(https://i.ibb.co/cCjZddb/20230708-205521.jpg)
Not food.
(https://i.ibb.co/VCWKNq6/20230708-210306.jpg)
Food.
(https://i.ibb.co/q15yGsD/20230708-210653.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/Px4pcrK/20230708-212252.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/fXzP5vZ/20230708-214017.jpg)
The eating went on for quite a while.
(https://i.ibb.co/8NK13Gp/20230708-221323.jpg)
And finally one of the two dessert courses.
(https://i.ibb.co/ZS96djK/20230708-221947.jpg)
Dogs being dogs.
(https://i.ibb.co/zxX44xT/20230708-222610.jpg)
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Another excellent write up Matt. :thumbup: However, £3k for a cat???? Really??? The replacement costs are way less than that!
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Day Twenty Four (9th July)
A light breakfast of pastry and coffee. Off I go north again, after very gingerly putting my gloves on my burned hand - only the left for whatever reason. As ever I'd failed to stick to the good training from EuroK trips and left filling up until the morning. The Sunday morning. And due to getting rinsed on the boat for cellular roaming my phone was no longer working for data. And my two travel accounts had less than the 100 odd euros the auto stations normally reserve. Or rather, one had just over, which I used at the first fill. So for half of this day I was worrying about not being able to fill up again. Hurrah for drinking too much and forgetting to sort these things on hotel wifi!
After 200 miles or so I stopped at a service station that happened to have an attended kiosk for payment, and so my worries were for naught. Off I go again, this time to Auberge Le Relais, again what I hoped was the equivalent of a pub hotel, in Reuilly-Sauvigny. Basically half way between Reims and Paris. I got there around 4pm and collapsed. I'd booked the biggest room because the price difference was negligible. It was a lovely room with a nice view of the hills on the other side of the river Marne.
When I went down for my dinner at about 7pm I got my first de-ja-vu when the - older and much less amenable to blending English and French - waiter plonked down a wine menu that was about 3 inches thick. The menu was more difficult to translate but the essential detail was the same: lots of euros please. I stuck to fewer courses and less wine this time. It was great food, though not as impressively presented or inventive as the last place. The service was also less attentive, although if it had been I'd have probably drunk too much again. Bed.
Bloody nice view to wake up to.
(https://i.ibb.co/hfMZfb9/20230709-093630.jpg)
And not a bad one to say goodnight to several hours later.
(https://i.ibb.co/pxM7ZJg/20230709-173619.jpg)
I really like a weeping willow, for some reason I feel better when I see one.
(https://i.ibb.co/N3gS26q/20230709-184956.jpg)
Part of dinner.
(https://i.ibb.co/5x8r9hN/20230709-194802.jpg)
Day Twenty Five (10th July)
Some kind of breakfast that I forgot I'd had to pay for. Lots of stuff was put out but I ate almost none of it. Must remember this next trip, either buy my own before or just skip it and get coffee elsewhere!
Onto the toll roads again. Today I kept the speed up, though I was only about 3 hours from Calais, so it was less soul destroying than the previous day. I got to Calais around midday feeling pretty good for a change. Through passport control, hat off and a nice brief chat with the UK border police guy, no inspection this time. Bumble up to the queue area and doze for a while. Finally the light goes green and the dozen or so bike start moving. In front of me were two old guys, one on a GS and one on a Bonneville or some other old style Triumph. They were unable to ride slowly. The Triumph guy came about half an inch from smacking his panniers on the bollards, and the GS guy just wobbled and weaved constantly. I kept a way back! And cursed. We then sat on the ramp for a minute or so before riding onto the train. Here the giveaway of a nervous nelly (just like on our way out if I recall) as these two are ever so gingerly riding on with their feet tapping the ground like the train deck might be made of ice. After we get on they're weaving again, almost hitting the 'kerb' at the side. Joy. Thankfully they get separated, the Triumph guy being in the carriage ahead, so I didn't have to listen to them pretend to be humans.
Leveraging the invaluable skills I'd picked up from Martin on the way out, I perched in front of the cool air vents and chilled for the half hour or so trip. Then the wobbly boys repeated their performance as we got off the train.
I rode home avoiding motorways, heading for and via the A272. This took twice as long but kept me in a good mood, as opposed to using a busy UK motorway, which would have been a depressing way to end the trip. There are some nice villages in that area south of Royal Tunbridge Wells, but i'm buggered if I can remember where now. I stopped in at Alton Bahnstormer after I rode right past, remembered they had a cafe and so turned around. On a Monday. The day their cafe is closed. But I rescued it by having a sit on a low chassis GSA to see if I fit. I did. Feet down easy. Then I rode home.
Nice sunrise.
(https://i.ibb.co/sgF3cCc/20230710-075411.jpg)
Goodbye tree. Goodbye disabled parking sign.
(https://i.ibb.co/RBYZj8S/20230710-075424.jpg)
The End
And writing today I should say the GSA debacle way namely due to my horrid couple of long distance autoroute days and my stress-induced shoulder muscle pain thing coming together to make me want to change something. After a while of engaging my brain, and also having a couple of brilliant rides with some esteemed forum members, I'm sticking with what I have. I've got the Track Pack now too anyway, so I need some good Pyrenees roads to try all that out on.
Oh yes, and an update on the cat. She kept the feed tube in for abut 3 weeks. The first week was very frequent feeds and daily trips to the vet as she clawed away at the bandage, and several times started swallowing loose threads. Eventually I worked out how to fold the bandage so she couldn't get to a loose thread, and things got easier. Gradually she got back onto her food and we had the tube taken out. She's mostly back to normal now, though not as eager to meet new people as she was.
So that was my trip. I learned a fair bit about what I enjoy, I got out of my comfort zone, and I managed not to run away. On to next year!
Somehow the actual tube didn't seem to irritate her as much as you'd expect given it was poking through a hole in her neck.
(https://i.ibb.co/dMBW0Xf/20230710-185216.jpg)
Ok that's not going to work. Off to the vet for a new bandage.
(https://i.ibb.co/WHCJN32/20230711-134529.jpg)
And again, off we go! Lucky they're 2 minutes drive away!
(https://i.ibb.co/9HKLPjg/20230712-083804.jpg)
Erm. I think she turned into a magpie briefly that day.
(https://i.ibb.co/TRKKHFf/20230713-142023.jpg)
And finally a happy cat.
(https://i.ibb.co/K7DQQ82/20230805-221541.jpg)
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Another excellent write up Matt. :thumbup: However, £3k for a cat???? Really??? The replacement costs are way less than that!
I was somewhat constrained as to my actions by having to do everything via a cat sitter, so "nah she'll be fine" wasn't really viable. And "tell me my dear, do you have a spade?" doubley so :P.
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I really don't get the expensive cat thing. I wouldn't spend that much money on me...
But, great write up and a lovely time was had by all, apart from the wobbly old gits on the train perhaps. Oh, and the compact woman who wanted to have her evil way with your bedsheets :thumbsup:
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I really don't get the expensive cat thing. I wouldn't spend that much money on me...
But, great write up and a lovely time was had by all, apart from the wobbly old gits on the train perhaps. Oh, and the compact woman who wanted to have her evil way with your bedsheets :thumbsup:
Ship's prostitute. Didn't know that was a thing!
Yeah I don't know how I'd have taken things had I been there in person. But from afar I felt like I didn't have much choice.
Anyway thanks :)
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Ship's prostitute. Didn't know that was a thing!
Captive audience and all that. Oh, hang on - you have to pay extra for that, sir.
Very glad to hear the cat is well. Just consider her to be the price of a Sports Pack. I'd rather have a plain bike + cat personally.
But for next cat take some puddy insurance out when they're young. Extended warranty and all that.
Also glad you're sticking with the KTM. Give the R 1300/1400 a couple of years for BMW to iron out the wrinkles and then consider one.
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Well, go and try a GS anyway, I mean, someone has to.
And they have not done the usual thing and made it as big as an Old Thing and twice as heavy. It looks weird not being humongous, so we need to know for sure.
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Giving this thread an update as - after about nine months - I have finally
given birth edited my stupid amount of Insta360 X3 footage.
Oh and to answer Brian's post above (and as he knows having seen me variously since!) I had a R1300GS for a week in Portugal off and on road. It were great.
Now most of this will be boring I'm sure. I tried to keep them concise but - especially when I got on my own - it got more difficult so there are a few 6-minuters in there.
Here are the ones so far. Apologies for the licence-free stock tunes.
- Grimsel Dam (https://youtu.be/5RK-8L62fHA) - 19th June - 2 minutes
- Italian Alps (https://youtu.be/Murk-6vmXO4) - 21st June - 2 minutes
- More Italy (https://youtu.be/pg37Miai-ns) - 23rd June - 2 minutes
- Leaving Richard and Martin (https://youtu.be/KRf5hfsEIUU) and setting out on my own - 24th June - 4 minutes
- Slovenia to Croatia (https://youtu.be/NjRKAIRBokc) - 25th June - 6 minutes
- Croatia top to bottom (https://youtu.be/1dn5MEKlNJc) - 27th June - 5 minutes
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I just loved the Croatian Corniche ride. Especially the random sign on a passing house that read 'Wine Rooms' or vice-versa. Either way, my sort of ride and my sort of place.
The random shoulder checks that the 360° camera does are just so dizzying I almost fell off my armchair. ;D
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Nice videos Matt. :thumbsupgood:
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'Demanding road for motorcycles". James Bond eyebrow(s) raised. Shades back on.
Love it!
Four things come to mind:
- fantastic weather
- fantastic roads and scenery
- zero potholes in Italy/Alps (some tarmac cracking here and there, admittedly, but then again they have more extreme weather to contend with)
- was the Benny Hill chase music not available?
All in all, great work, and well worth it.
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Thanks :)
Yeah watching this all again reminds me most vividly of the heat! And also how paranoid I was about speeding for way too far into "we've only got enough money to worry about important things" countries.
Oh yeah, this Insta360 Studio thing makes it very difficult to find good music! No search, just very badly populated categories.
Also, next time I have a job I think I'll just get a GoPro and have one very high res camera instead of two semi decent res cameras. Not that YouTube makes the best of any of these, but the X3 sacrifices too much I think. Plus the lens protectors are noticeable when panning between sensors.
Here are the next lot. This ain't Netflix, there's a lot of labour involved :D
- Bosnia. Mostar to Sarajevo day trip (https://youtu.be/uSOHAOIogac) - 29th June - 3 minutes
- Montenegro to Albania (https://youtu.be/JgnB6uBDNNo) and the associated terrible roads that helped kill the clutch - 3rd July - 12 minutes
- Lake Ohrid, Macedonia day off (https://youtu.be/Mef33uBhDG4) - 6th July - 1 minute
- Macedonia to Greece (https://youtu.be/w8G3iH0gDE8) - 7th July - 4 minutes
After this it's properly into "get home fast" and not much to see, but I'll put something together so I can remind myself in future! Annoyingly I deleted one half (each sensor generates a file) of the last ten minutes into Servoz (near Chamonix) for the first night after the ferry. I can't even see the half I do have :(. That place was the best/most expensive food I've ever eaten, but damn worth it. And a nice dog. That I did not eat.
Oh, but I will probably take the drone this year and see if I can finally, after several years, get some decent birds eye views of bikey stuff.
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Can you do things like press a button/tap screen to mark the vid, so you know where to come back to because it was a good section of road, etc. (You can tell I have never edited a video in my life, can't you.)
Hang on - what's with the dead horse in Sarajevo at 2:22? (https://youtu.be/uSOHAOIogac?t=142)?
Some very nice turquoise lakes in that one.
Roundabout - what roundabout (https://youtu.be/JgnB6uBDNNo?t=490)?
Dear Mum - I have found a friend (https://youtu.be/JgnB6uBDNNo?t=507).
Nice bit of straightlining (https://youtu.be/JgnB6uBDNNo?t=624) whilst your 'friend' keeps wriggling.
But you're right about the Albanian potholes - they beat the UK ones.
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Hahaha! Now I want to say that horse was just chilling out on some late morning dew because of the 35c weather. But then going by what I saw further down this bit of the planet, it could quite easily be dead.
And yes, the river stuff in Bosnia was incredible! They've got a lot of water!
The new friend bit was fun. Finally got to good roads, had no use of the dodgy clutch so just went for it. I think they were Croatians.
Re the camera, it's just hit record. I think it records the previous fifteen seconds if it's already on. I had the remote last year which helped. Though another thing to keep charged. As the trip went on most of my clips were about 2 minutes long. So I'd say I was hitting record every time I thought something fun might happen.
Dashcams are the loop types where you just tag some timestamp.
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Can you do things like press a button/tap screen to mark the vid, so you know where to come back to because it was a good section of road, etc. (You can tell I have never edited a video in my life, can't you.)
...
I have a bike "dash cam" fitted. It starts recording as soon as I switch the ignition on and stops when the ignition is switched off. It records front and rear simultaneously in 5 minute segments (segment length is user definable from 1 min to, I think, 20 mins). When the memory card fills the unit simply loops around, over writing the oldest files. I can change the current file being written to read only (so it's not over written) by pressing the remote button on the handlebars.
The videos are no where near as interesting as Matts. Form the whole Old Gits trip last year I think there was possibly about 4 files worth looking at for a second time and only a total of about 2 minuts of interesting stuff from those files. My cameras have a 120 degree lens which means even close things look far away.
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I think the whole biking with cameras stuff is vastly underrated when it comes to the amount of effort involved. Those who are making a decent living off YT are treating it like a full time job, which it almost is, apart from doing the bit you are filming, which is what the followers are there to see, not to admire your editing skills. Although the good editors do get great comments about their production values.
Itchyboots had to cut down the number of videos she as putting out this season from three to two as it was grinding her into the ground. Most other 'pro' YT'ers use professional editors at least for some of their stuff and the quality reflects that but if they are not from the genre they are editing then sometimes the content suffers as they don't understand the nuances involved.
I think two cameras makes for a more interesting video and three is the bees knees. Of course, when you have one on the helmet filming what you see, one on the bars filming you, a 360 one doing dizzying stuff, a stick cam for those awesome 'Watch me fall off now' shots and then a drone thrown in for good measure, then you are talking loads of money and even more loads of time editing.
I like the stuff you are putting out currently Matt.
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Thanks Bri. I agree, this effort has shown me what a pain in the buttocks it is! I'm sure the others are using proper paid for tools that are better, but it's still laborious. And as you say, context and some eye for what works is needed too. And patience. As the day goes on I lose this and start rushing a bit more with a "that'll do" attitude. But then I'm not monetising :D.
I wonder if I could mount my Insta on top of my hat.
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Hi Matt, Not sure how I missed this thread but thanks for the link. Those trips look amazing! Lovely places! which one would you recomend the most? Im still to venture into Europe so looking for recommendations...
Im somewhat 'in the trade' with video editing. Am in the music biz, and run my own business so have had to learn how to do it over the years. I do enjoy it though and find it tickles my creative juices more than music these days. Probably because I don't do it for a living. So since getting back on 2 wheels i decided to combine to the activities and see what happens.
The insta studio editor is super limited and fairly cluncky compared to pro editors, but its also pretty convenient way to get quick and decent results out of the footage. Ive not tried editing/reframing the 360 footage within Final cut yet but will try for the next edit and compare.
and yea the music within the app isn't great. Its also not free to use outside of personal use. I subscribe to artlist that gives you access and rights to use music from their library.