Gwilym's Adventure Blog

After a 2 hour blast from the hostel in Brussels to the Calais Ferry Port, I didn't even stop, I flashed my passport and rolled straight onto a ferry. 5 mins later after strapping the bike down I was in the club lounge drinking coffee and eating a sausage sandwich. Doing a quick google check I discovered the M20 was closed from Dover so I had to take a longer way round before getting onto the M3 and 303, and it was raining. Good old UK! I spotted a broken down bike and did a quick U turn and went back to see if I could help. He was a Swiss biker riding a BMW GS 1200 (this bit is important) that had run out of fuel. I went off and bought 5 litres of petrol and brought it back to him.  The bike started straight away and when he offered to pay me, I refused his money and made him say "Triumph bikes are needed to rescue broken down BMWs". Very silly I know but it made me laugh and he smiled so all was good. He took my picture and we went our separat...

6.45 on the road and yet again very cold at 6 degrees. After about 50km of Czech roads and another 100km of German countryside, I pulled over, stuck a few extra PSI in my tyes and hit the Autobahns heading for Brussels. After 6.5 hours and 3 fuel and toilet stops, I entered Brussels and rode through the centre and past the EU Commission building on my British bike, however being 4.30pm on a Friday afternoon, no one was there anyway. I met up with Andy (who I met on my last tour) at the hostel and after a quick shower, we headed out into town to get some food and chat about our different journeys. The 2 of us have had some amazing adventures and successfully navigated our way around Europe on two wheels. The Brussels underground system however was somewhat challenging but we managed to get back to the hostel with only one stop in the wrong direction.

A long day today. Leaving the campsite at 06:15 it was so cold, about 7 degrees in fact so  I had evey item of clothing with me on. At 7.27 am I entered Czech Reublic and it was somehow even colder at 6 degrees. I gave up and grabbed a coffee in the nearest petrol station and waited for the sun to warm up a bit. Entering The Czech Republic was the last country on my list (number 36 in fact) of Mainland European Countries and so it was a case of Europe Complete. I will justify my selection of countries in a later blog post. Once I got going again the route I chose seem to contain all the roadworks so it was a little stop start but in between the roads were very good with plenty of interest. Any way, 9 hours of riding in a westerly direction has me here , near the border at my last campsite. I have a hostel in Brussels booked for tomorrow as it will be a long ride to get there.

It was cold in Hungary this morning. Single figures when I got up and in the first hour of the ride it was actually unpleasant. I had both heated seat and grips on full. It started to warm slightly but never the heat of the day before. Once into Slovakia (new country so I earn a sticker). I found some amazing roads and headed for the Tatras (on the Polish border).  The temperature was now mid teens so actually very nice for riding. I spent a few hours on the road that runs along the flank of the Tatras and had a few coffees to admire the view before pushing on west which is the way I must always be heading now. My campsite here has a bolted climbing crag but I have no gear and no one to belay me so will put it on my list for a revisit some time. Yesterdays blog has now had the map and additional pictures added.

What a great day, yet again Romania delivers! A 6:45 start and I was heading up the 7C by 7:30. "I am so great, I have missed all the traffic" thought I as I came round the corner and had to stop for over 10 minutes whilst about a million sheep , a few donkeys, dogs, a couple of horses and 4 farmers wandered down the road. Once I carried on there was a trail of sheep poo for 5km so they must have started early to move them that far. Once past this however, the road was virtually my own. I saw about 4 cars on the way up. I was riding South to North so the classic picture was my descent. It was pretty cold up to at 11 degrees as the sun was only just starting to touch the road in places. Once down the other side it was coffee and croissant and a chat to a group of British bikers. Staying true to my plan, I headed North without using the A1 (woudl have saved 3 hours riding) but used the DN1 which was a pretty good road in itself with fast sweeping be...

I left Kiev at 6am and yes the roads are as bad as I was told. Huge holes that a bike could disappear into, random grooves that track you off into the verge and truck/car drivers that still want to be doing 90kph. It was stick with them and hold on tight. Glad I have off road setting and comfort suspension. Even so, I spent a fair part of the day standing up.  I got to the Moldovian border at 10:42. This was a much smaller and more relaxed affair than where I entered. Behind my in the queue was a horse and cart! It was also my quickest border with me out the other side by 12.10. However, that my be because they don't do things inside the border!  Once out I had to go  and get some local currency and sort insurance (5 euro) and a road vignette (86 lei about 4.5 euro). Once out the other side,Ii was off to find some food and coffee before heading to my campsite here for the night. Duruita Camping That is where things got better. Not onl...

After a pretty good (if a little weird) breakfast. Cucumber is not a breakfast item! I was on the road at 07:30 heading for the border. After negotiating a main road closure and thick fog, I arrived at the border post at 9:42am and a que was starting to form The Belarussian border is very smart with everyone in uniform and the very large Russian style military hat. However, they were very pleasant and the guy dealing with me said. "Do you have a gun"? I replied "No" Cocaine"? "No" He seemed happy enough with that though took a casual look in my panniers to be sure. I then moved onto the Ukrainian side. What a difference. Still in uniform but mainly camouflage t-shirts and baseball caps. Again very pleasant chap dealt with me, wishing me well on my journey but the system was shambolic. He went down a line of 10 vehicles collecting all the passports and documents. We then waited like lemons and a different guy came and gave them...

Having left Lithuania early this morning, I passed through Lativia and into Estonia. I didn't follow my arbitrary rules (stopping for a meal or camping) so can't count Latvia today but don't worry, I will be back in Latvia tomorrow to make it count. I did however manage to drive through the outskirts of Riga, Latvia's capital due to a mis programming of the GPS! Again, I was generally following the coast and got a few views today. The roads are much better here with fast A roads with some sweeping bends. Only 2 rail crossings today as well so a much more flowing ride. My finish for the day was here in Parnu at around 2pm as I needed a supermarket to restock on food and get a few other bits and bobs. The first campsite I tried was in someone's back garden and a note which said, "pitch your tent, we will collect 8 euros later". I looked around but it was a bit crap really so moved on another 15 km to Solar Camping which is a whole site p...

The title says it all. Both Poland and Lithuania just delivered straight roads and level crossings. Just as you wind the bike up to speed a crossing appears. Every so often there was a bend and that had a crossing on it too! It is brakes on, stop, look left, look right, doubt yourself so look left again, right again, wonder if you would even see the train if it was coming full speed, rely on your hearing (wearing earplugs and a helmet) and think sod it, shut your eyes and open the throttle. Only a few km until you do it again Basically the route today was going around the little bit of Russia that is Kaliningrad . I considered getting a visa etc but would have had to go in person to London, get biometrics done and paid over £125 just to do about 100km through it. In the end it was time that decided against it as my Belarus visa only came back the day before I left. So after 400 odd km of riding I got to my campsite here at Karkle near Klaipede which is n...

Today I left the coast and headed inland towards some of Poland's Lakes. A quick stop at Deccathlon to get some swim shorts and the punishment for this was having to ride through the centre of Gdansk which is a pretty major city. Once I got out of there, it was back on a mix of fast A roads and narrow incomplete country roads. One road just stopped in a pile of dirt blocking the way but fortunately it was ony a couple of km back to another route. There were some good biking roads but they were short lived and as a rule, I am not impressed with northern Poland's roads. I travelled through lots of villages today and saw the same stork nests that I saw in Hungary although no storks were in them when I rode past. Still hot today and hoping that turning North tomorrow will bring some cooler temperatures. If not, early starts and hiding in the shade are the plans. After around 450km of riding, the last few kilometres of the day were along some sand tracks ...

…. is pretty poor. I would describe it as 200+ km of Butlins holiday camps interspersed with belts of trees so thick you can't see the sea and roadworks that have half the highway missing so even if you could see the sea, you wouldn't be looking at it as you are too busy trying not to fall off your bike into foot deep gravel pits. From the campsite in Germany I headed north straight to the coast and then turned east and crossed into Poland by land. A ferry was required to get across a river. A free ferry at that! My plan to have a breeze and keep cool also failed with temps low to mid thirties again. Those trees and camps stop any wind making it to the road. This may sound very negative but it was also 9 hrs of riding and exploring a new country so still fun in its own way. On the positive side, the roads have more corners than northern Germany and the prices are low (and I mean super low). Yesterday's camping was 11 Euro. Today's campsite here was 2...