My Story

Our group consisted of 3 Land rover Discoveries and 10 people, I was the only one on a bike
I was looking bling, almost like a factory rider about to start the Dakar, brand new bike still shining, new kit, new helmet, even my tyres were still hairy, Now this is not the right way to start a 20000 km trip, all the experts would tell you that you should at least test all your gear prior to departure, so many times have I heard that preparation is the key to a successful journey, and they are all right, HOWEVER, my theory is if a journey is too well prepared then nothing will go wrong and that is when the true adventure starts, like a good friend of mine said in the last issue of Enduro magazine "Just set a date and Do It", or you probably won’t, and he is so right. Sometime circumstances just don’t go your way and that chap Murphy is always around. The delay due to the transportation incident cost me 10 days which were planned to get all the gear and bike tested with some short trips in Germany, but I had set my departure date and was sticking to it.

Germany and Austria

so hit the German autobahn and let her rip, I was itching to open the bike up and see what it could do, with cars flying past me, some in excess of 200kmh but with only 50km on the clock the bike was still in the running in stage so had to keep the rpm and acceleration to a minimum. Trust me to end up on a German Autobahn on a bike I cant rev over 4000 rpm GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Man was I unprepared for what lay ahead, it’s not supposed to snow at this time of the year, famous last words because it was and it had a grievance with somebody, Picture an African boy from SUNNY South Africa riding into an oncoming blizzard, I had the sense to invest in a good helmet, jacket, riding pants, gloves and boots and was now justifying the thousands of rand’s I had paid for this equipment, visibility was zero and I was having problems clearing the build-up of snow on my visor, the new Shoei helmet was great and comes with an anti fog system that works, I did not want to scratch the new visor so early on in the trip but had no choice but to wipe my finger over the visor every few seconds, within my first 100km my fingers and toes were frozen to the point they started to burn, the roads had become very slippery as I gained altitude going up and over the Alps and it kept getting colder. After a while you get used to numb fingers and toes, and the cold is not so bad, as long as it’s not snowing or raining its actually fun. I found myself enjoying the new experience, it was a first to ride through stunning passes, with mountains of snow on either side of the road, needless to say I was the only bike on the road and was getting strange looks from the locals. Austria is a small country and easily traversed in 2 days, we arrived at our first stop a beautiful mountain lodge high up in the Alps, all I wanted was a hot shower and some gluwein. We departed early the next morning with 380km to our next stop, a beautiful town named Bled in Croatia but first did another first, this was to become a regular occurrence on this trip doing something for the first time, riding a motorbike through a 8km long tunnel is quite an experience, after a few minutes it seems to close in around you, and the feeling of tunnel vision is a reality, 8 km is a long way and it never seems to end, finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel takes on a whole new meaning and is like being reborn

Slowenia

What a beautiful place, words cannot describe how pretty Slovenia is both in nature and history, I could have spend loads more time exploring Croatia but if you plan to do 20 000km in 90 days you have to keep on moving, I decided to leave the convoy and do some exploring by myself and follow a bike trail I had found on the internet instead of the main road, so downloaded the GPS track, the ride took me through some scenic mountains with interesting little villages en-route and some great winding mountain passes, it must have been done quite some time ago as the road soon deteriorated and there were only footpaths left, exactly what I was looking for, being alone was my only concern when venturing off the beaten track. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride The KTM was not really made for this especially fully loaded, and i was pushing the limits on some of the tricky paths but was having so much fun just being out there and doing it.

Croatia

Next was Croatia there is so much to take in, from the rich cultural to the amazing history dating so far back its hard to believe that these buildings still intact and in use, the Croatian Parliament building was built in 1849 and there remnants of buildings dating back 8000 years, Oh and something the guys may be interested in is there seems to be a whole lot more girls than guys here.

Serbia

Serbia was next and the difference is clear, until recently this country had been in a civil war and looked something like Angola, most buildings riddled with bullet holes, the attitude is different border crossing was expensive, had to pay 120 euro for 2 days insurance for the bike, most of the buildings are grey and dull, I had to do my Bulgarian visa in Belgrade, this is one of the most annoying thing about doing multiple country expeditions, VISAS, some are so easy to get others become major missions, this was to be the latter, I was told by the Bulgarian embassy that I had to have my Turkish visa first, I explained to them in 2007 and 2008 I had travelled from Romania through Bulgaria and obtained my visa at the Turkish border, they still insisted that I do it before they were going to give me a visa, so I raced off to the Turkish embassy, they were very helpful and showed me that it is there policy that they will only issue visas to people with permanent residence, luckily for me my trip was seen as a major undertaking and they agreed to do one regardless, when I went back to the Bulgarian embassy I was then told that the visa would take 5 working days the hell with this, Plan B, I shot off to the Macedonian embassy to see if they would be more accommodating and was told that I could use my Schengen visa to enter, my route would then take me through Greece and on to Turkey, so it was set, I left the convoy again and headed south, problem was I had just added 600 km to my planned route and had to keep up with the convoy and not lose them altogether, they had 900km to do my route was 1500km in 2 days. I like a challenge and was up to this one so set off with the intension of being there before them. I decided to set my gps to the shortest route not the fastest, this way you end up on mostly side roads, the last stretch before the border, about 200km was mostly on dirt tracks so was having a great time.

Macedonia

Macedonia is this tiny little country easily crossed in 1 day with time to spare, it is less than 200km from north to south, Having left Serbia and my and my cell phone behind. I crossed the border into Macedonia, My cell had slid out of my tank bag when on a rough stretch of dirt road, I noticed my GPS had lost its Bluetooth connection with the phone so stopped to see what the problem was and discovered that the phone was no longer where it was supposed to be, I spent 2 hours riding a 6km stretch of road at walking speed several times looking for the phone without any luck, mad with myself I had to abandon the search and carry on direction Istanbul, Border crossing was a formality and again the Insurance issue, 70 Euro later for 2 days 3rd party insurance, hate being ripped off but have no options now so had to pay up. At least it was almost a third of the cost for Serbia a total rip off, Was not able to do too much sightseeing lots of Kays to get behind me so rode and rode, stopping to make a cup of coffee and eat some sardines for lunch then ride some more. there was lots to see but had to enjoy the sites at around 100kmh, it was still worth it, I was almost through but would not make the border in time, I was close the Macedonia - Greece border was 50km away but had to spend at least one night in the country, ended up on a wine estate and was looked after like a king, light was almost gone and saw a huge establishment in the middle of nowhere so decided to find out if I could camp, it turned out to be a wine farm so ended up drinking lots of different wines with some great people, eating great food and sleeping in a nice soft bed, one never knows how the day is going to end when you are out of your normal routine, sometime these end up being the best experiences you will have.

Greece

Greece, man is it a pleasure when you don’t get ripped off at a border, no funny little insurances that are not worth the paper they are written on, no taxes or border charges……… Nada Thank you very much.
Greece is great, but I had a huge cloud that that had been following me and it found its target….ME… I camped that night and the cold front that was close on the tail of the rain clouds caught up, I pulled on my thermal underwear (FANTASTIC stuff) and had a good night’s sleep, Following day rode along the coast visiting some small fishing villages the headed north to meet with the group coming in from Bulgaria, stayed at a hotel a few Km from the border, 1300km in 2 ½ days. It was great fun. And I did get there before they did.

Turkey

The Group arrived at the border at 2:00 and we were soon on the last leg of the first tour, 245km to Istanbul and the end/start. Again we had a horrible looking cloud formation chasing us lots of lightning and it almost caught up, while stopped for coffee break it started raining so we had to cut it short and were out of it after a few Km. I had unloaded all my baggage into the Landy so was enjoying the ride, what a difference without the weight, The group had a few days to tour Istanbul and left after a evening of song and dance on a boat cruise along the Bosporus river, all were very happy and thoroughly enjoyed the trip, we now have some time to rest, get visas, and organize the vehicles and bike, we have a problem with one vehicle and have done the diagnostics tests and established the problem, parts have been ordered from Germany and are on the way.

HTML Comment Box is loading comments...

Ride the Silk Road PART 1 Germany - Turkey followed by Turkey to China