Just a quick note here. If I go missing again, and by that I mean no updates for a few days or whatever, go to the top right of this page and click on the link :SPOT tracks of Where I Am: this will show you on a map page where I am currently riding, failing that, assuming I am not riding and there is nothing to see, click on the one above it, Facebook because if I get WiFi I update that regularly. If there is nothing new on both, then it means I am out of contact, but I do send out OK signals every day to a select few people. If they get no OK then I am custard!

Wednesday 30th May
I had a bit of a mad dash around this morning, because I knew I would need passport photos for my visa application and could not find them. I ripped through the bike twice and finally found them in the last place I looked. Which makes sense cos I stopped looking!!! So, off I trundle up to the embassy and found a cleaner doing maintenance, that was all I found, the damm place was closed on Wednesdays, bugger!!! Now I had to make a decision. Do I stay here at the price they are charging(98E) or do I get out of town and return through the rush hour morning traffic tomorrow morning. Well, it looked like a moot point, because they seemed to be booked up but the manager said he would call around to see if all rooms are confirmed.

I started to write some blog entries and was called back quite a few hours later by reception, saying I could keep the room if I wished. By now I was in ‘who cares mode’, so I accepted and spent the day on catch up, might as well make use of the fast internet while I had the chance eh

I wandered down to the local supermarket and bought some meat and buns etc for lunch and probably dinner as I would need to make up for the sudden cost overrun! Funny place that supermarket, I could not find any Vienna Sausages anywhere and although I could buy a single tomato I would have to buy a whole bag of onions, even though I wanted just one!! I bought a tube of mustard instead, easier to pack And drinking black tea from the billy on the back porch of my room went down well, I am getting used to no milk now.

That pretty much wrapped up that day, all day writing, with a few nanny naps in between, to make up for the early starts and late nights

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Thursday 31st may

It was raining when I woke, not good, but I may have a chance to try out my new waterproof gear. As I was ready yesterday, I had no need to rush nor panic today. Until I got to the embassy of course, now I had to jump through hoops, with the midday hotel checkout as my deadline. First off I had to go and pay a fee into the Bank of Austria, only 35E for a 30 day single entry pass, so quite cheap. Lucky for me other people were there because the Kazak lady did not speak English, unlike the guy I spoke to the other day. I also had to fill out an application form, so she printed me out an English version and I took a pre-typed deposit slip down about 5 blocks to the bank and deposited the money.

Then I went back to the hotel where I could fill the application out with the info I had there, then I asked the hotel lady to write an explanation in German abouty part 18- I do not have a Letter of Introduction, because I was told as an Aussie I do not need one(left that line blank) and part 24- I do not yet have a visa for my exit point(Kyrgystan), because I need to apply for the Kazakhstan one first, but I gave them my probable entry dates

With that I went back and handed it all over, including my vehicle details, she accepted it all and said I will see you next Thursday, a whole week without a passport!!! But, I had prepared for this and have 4 colour copies of it in case the police need to see it. It is time to get on the road, but where too?

I had quite a few contacts and 6 days to see a few of them, so I decided to head to Switzerland and see if I can catch up with Simon, we road to Prudhoe Bay together the other year. There was also the chain which needs doing, and a friend of Anthony’s called David who had access to a workshop and is a rider himself, had invited me up, but that was north Germany, plus a few others in Germany also. So, I packed and headed west around lunchtime, even getting lost in the switchbacks up a small mountain, so I stopped for a feed. What I mean by this is, when the roads are so close to each other, the GPS cannot tell if you are on the one that is higher or lower, so sometimes it gets confused, mine having this issue in normal traffic lately and will need to be replaced when I get to England in a few weeks or so.

I spotted a sign to add to my collection, it has been slim pickings over here, mainly cows and deer, I reckon Lesley would like this one for her frog collection

I was using the back roads rather than the slab but that was not a problem as I had a sort of destination in mind, but on the way I noticed a cache coming up so I decided to stop and grab it. They must be jokers who placed this one, I could see where it was, up on the back wall but could not reach it, so I found an old stump nearby to stand on. But, the hint said something like, “send a small cacher around the corner” I reckon that must mean a “tall” cacher LOL, anyway I ticked off Austria

Then just a few kms up the road another right there, so I had a look for that one too. This one was hidden in an old connection box, quite tricky and you needed a key or a coin to open the door, but another checked off Two for the day, now to make tracks, it has taken me 3 hours to get about 60km!!! It was slab time.

The worst part about this was I could see mountains to the south a bit, that would be where all the good roads are, but with the chain the way it is it would be too dangerous. I have already tightened it once today and can feel it loosening again, so when I go around tight corners, I can feel the chain riding the edge of the sprocket and slopping around, not a good feeling, hence the slab. Anyway, as I was riding in the late afternoon I decided I would try and find a place to stay and look for a mechanic and for some reason I decided this little town of St Georgen sounded right, so I dropped off the slab and ended up riding past a shopping center, and right there was a biker riding a Translap, so I stopped to ask for some advice, re cheap hostel or B&B, and a workshop space. It was a choice decision, because the bikers name was Richard, which meant he was alright, and he showed me to a mechanic, who had closed for the day but he should be able to help out in the morning.

I now had a GPS waypoint marked and while he did his shopping, which I had interrupted, I had a great dinner at this small joint he frequents. These sausage and chips are different, the snags have been cut lengthwise, cheese inserted then closed up by wrapping bacon around it then BBQ’d, they tasted brilliant Nothing wrong with the beer either

The guesthouse he had in mind for me was closed today, but a friend(Christof) of his who was also there called one he knew of then got me to follow him there and I booked in, thanks m8. It had no internet, which was a bummer, but the main thing for me now is the chain, so I had been fed and had a bed and a plan, roll on 8am tomorrow

Cheers from Austria
TravellingStrom

I was up around 5.00 and started to write a blog update, I figure I can write one then post when I get good internet. I heard Ant get up and when I checked a bit later he had already gone, slack bugger, never said goodbye, never mind, he had a long day ahead. I could sleep in, if my brain would let me, every day I am awake at 5am, regardless of time zone changes, that is real weird and a bit annoying sometimes too as surviving on 5-6 hours sleep can get a bit tiring!! So, after brekky and posting a blog entry, I chuffed off around 9am and headed to the shop I had seen. I had to wait to speak to the service chap, nearly an hour, but when I did he said he had no parts, but just down the road was another shop where he orders them from. He spoke good English and also tried a number of times to call them, but they were engaged each time he tried. He gave me directions and an address and I made the decision to head back east 75km and see if they had a chain kit in the town of Tatabanya.

The place I was looking for was called Pink Motors, but it took me a little while. If I had turned left instead of right at the T intersection I maybe would have found it, but it was the wrong colour so I am not sure about that!!!

http://travellingstrom.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?&cap#cap

Some good news and bad news, they had the parts I need and after doing some currency conversion on my phone, found that they were quite cheap. There were non OEM, but the mechanic back at the Red Baron told me they had good quality sprockets and DID chains, so I bought two of each. Well, why not eh! And when I asked about fitting they said no problem and no extra charge, wow!!! The thing was though, no credit, only cash, so I needed to go find a bank and get out some local currency. I only wanted to do this once so I started to check out what else I needed for my upcoming journey. I ended up buying brake pads(two sets of sintered front and back), three oil filters, one set of top and bottom wet weather gear and both clutch and brake levers, all for 142,000 Florint, which is $600. I thought that was a bargin myself, because a chain and sprocket set back home is about $300 by itself and I have two and all the rest as well

So, I packed the bike which is now lower to the ground with all the extra weight and headed back east again. I was a bit disappointed as there had been a misunderstanding and there was no mechanic there to fit the chain, but I guess I could see that chap at Red Baron, I would be going past again soon. On the way back I stopped for fuel and food. I had been using a lot more than normal because I went real fast back east then the same back west, this time I decided to stop at an Aqip servo, well, never again I tell ya. The dunnies were disgusting, the food was basic and crap and the service abysmal, I will stick to OMV from now on! I did see a strange sight, a mini moke, with no side covers and the occupants wearing full bike type gear

During that rest stop I made a decision. I had seen how busy the Red Baron shop was and decided not to get them to fit or even ask to use their workshop and do it myself. I would instead make a run for Vienna and get the visa sorted out. If I could get there this arvo, I could find the place and a hotel near it, apply for the visa first thing then go looking for a workshop at my leisure, but first I needed to find my Hungarian cache That one was just down the road and on my way west, with a small diversion then a short walk to the Abda Chapel, a place of very bad history, so you probably won’t want to read about it, lets just say the site of a mass killing in the former years. The cache was right inside a thicket of thorn bushes, but lucky for me, other cachers had recently been here and blazed a trail and the find was an easy one

Job done, now it was time to hit the border. I got there a short time later and made a mistake of going past the money exchangers. I had rounded up the figures for my parts when I took the money out of the ATM in town, so that way I would not have to go back, this meant I had about $100 worth of Florints I did not want. I noticed in the other direction across some barricades other money exchangers for those traveling east, so I rode the wrong way back though to there and swapped my money out. I met a chap in a red van who is from Germany and liked the bike, so we chatted a while before he headed to Hungary for 3 weeks work, nice meeting you m8, of course he was a biker himself Once i got my Euros, I did some more sneaking through barriers to get the bike headed west again and went through a sort of border, nobody stamped me in nor out, so I guess it is all EU!

It did not take long to get to Vienna(Wien) on the super slab and I was soon working my way through the traffic network when my GPS froze up. It has done this a few times and I need to get it replaced, but I cannot contact Garmin from my mobile because when I tried once before I was put on hold and it can get a tad expensive. So, I stopped in a likely looking spot and frigged around with it and reset it to default before it would give me a map again and give me a line to follow Once that was up and running again, it did not take me long to get to the Kazak embassy, a very nice looking building it was too

I pushed the intercom buzzer but they said they were closed and to come back tomorrow(I thought that was what he said, he had pretty good English), that was no problem, I then dialed up a hotel on the GPS and one was just around the corner. I was lucky and they had a room, very expensive, but the lady said that was the going rate throughout Vienna. Well, for one night I could indulge I guess and took what was on offer. Booking out was midday, so witha bit of luck I could get the embassy thing done at 09.30am then pack and leave well before 12. I had time also to get down to a copy shop and get some nice colour copies of my passport, because I would be without it for a week, which may make it difficult to check in anywhere! That done it was time for an Austrian beer, the first one was a house brand homebrew, it was nice

Once that was sorted out, I went and grabbed some cash out as I knew they would probably not take credit card at the embassy, then I sort of found another bar place and met some people and went to another and just lucky for me managed to find my way to the hotel around 11.30pm! Lucky because the night clerk was off soon and I had not taken my key but left it at the desk

I had a good night and met a couple of nice people, this is me and Georg, taken with the iPhone, no chicas though.

Well, wonders of wonders, he got up early That meant we got away on time and as it was fine weather I tried to run without the wet gear so my pants and jacket could dry out a bit, but we did not get far before the rain started again and forced a stoppage. The rain did not last and we were really getting some distance done for a change, 100kmh with only the 50kmh villages to get through and the sky finally came clear, what a great change to the day the sun makes, there should be more of it We stopped for fuel and food after about 200kms and once again I adjusted my chain, then had chicken schnitzel and chips, a bit processed but was great for a much needed breakfast.

Not long after that we left Romania and entered Hungary, it took me a tad longer to get through because I was non EU, but there were no big hassles and we were on our way again soon after

We were now on real good fast highways and we were heading north to Budapest, but intended to bypass it via the ring roads and head west. I had a single cache that I wanted to find right on the road we were travelling and had spoken to Anthony and he agreed with me, it would be terrible if we did not try at least one Hungarian beer, so we decided to stop somewhere near the border and stay overnight, we could do another long day the next day easily. We did get caught out by rain but found a flyover to don the gear, but later when we found a fuel stop and stopped for some tucker we were boiling again! My first McDonald’s of the trip, but they had chicken wings and chips and internet, so that was good

We were getting close to the city of Gyor when we could see the rain clouds ahead of us again, we talked it over and within 5 minutes I had found a hotel just up the road using the GPS, it looked great, nice and quaint with some chaps having a beer and who offered us one We had money issues though, they had no credit card facilities and we did not have enough cash, so we had dodged the rain by coming here, but now had to ride into town to find an ATM where I got some local money out and we got a bit wet on the outside before getting back and getting wet on the inside!!! I had misjudged the currency amount, so we scraped together enough for both rooms and some beers and he even threw in a plate of chips later on, this is the strange dude with a squint who was serving us, weird bloke I tell ya!!!

The internet was slow and non existent in the rooms, so for the second night in a row we had separate rooms, but crap internet, go figure! I was way behind as you know, in writing some updates, about a week, but I hoped to get that sorted over the next few days. Tonight was our last night together, Anthony was planning a real early start, around 6, he had a 1000km to get to Calais and would make the attempt. I had seen a bike shop here in town while coming back from the bank and I had also seen that in Vienna, there was a Kazakhstan embassy, so, rather than run to Bern, I would try there instead, it was only 150km away. If I could get my chain sorted tomorrow, it meant a worry free ride to wherever I decide to go.

Cheers from Hungary
TravellingStrom

Breakfast was at eight and not long after that we were off, it was foggy as heck, but as it turned out we were right at the top of the mountain so as we descended the air cleared and we could see what we were doing. There was no internet last night so I never got to update my status nor upload any photos, maybe tonight where ever we stay. The roads were still slick but when you can see them and it is not raining, it makes it easier to ride. There was a cache just up the road about 10km, so we stopped there for two reasons, my chain needed adjusting, it is on its way out. It has done 22,000km but with my automatic chain oiler having failed it has been running a bit dry and when we do stop and spray them, the rain washes it away quite quickly. The oiler is about 5 years old and has been moved to three different bikes and been running flawlessly for 220,000km plus and only on this leg of the trip has it been playing up, intermittent then nothing. Normally I can get over 30,000km with it working correctly, but anyway, I had some chain lube and tools, so I adjusted my chain while Ant continued to learn to use my GPS, and found the cache again, well done. This one was waterlogged and in a dangerous location, crazy place for a cache!!! Where Ant is standing, you have to lean down below the road level though that gap in the wall!!!

So, while it was drying a bit, I added a new logbook and plastic bag while Ant cut a small tree down and made some anti vampire stakes

The plan is to let them dry out and if I can get it into Quarantine, maybe I can bring a bit of Transylvania home with me We shall see, being a fresh young tree it should not be a big issue, but we shall let AQIS sort that out on entry. After saying bye to the nasty doggy we continued on and eventually arrived for our first view of the castle It has taken us 7 days to get here, I really did not think it would take so long, but the slow roads, traffic and the wet, plus stopping for caching all added up time wise, but we made it safely

Sorry for the blurry one, I had used the zoom. We found a car park for the bikes and also a bank to get some money out then paid entry and went for a look around the castle. It was quite impressive with the tour following a certain path which started at the bottom, of course, but soon via a secret stairway, took you to the top floor then back down to the second floor and out again. It seems Vlad the Impaler was a bit of a Robin Hood hero to the local villagers and not the blood thirsty vampire as portrayed by the Germans who were trying to discredit him.

After getting outside, I started to look for the Count Dracula cache, it was uphill from here 200m and meant jumping a locked gate(a short one), Ant did not want to come(lazy so and so) so I did it by myself, it was an effort, nearly straight up the hill through the forest, but at the top I found a grave site with a large cross in it with the words “Killed by Hanging” in English across the crossbar. I did not get too close because it was muddy and slippery and did not want to end up in the pit, it may be a trap!!!!! But, I found the cache, whew I was knackered after that, but downhill was a bit easier, if I did not slip.

Then it was tat time, tat being tourist crap, which there was a lot of, but some of it was nice. I did indulge and bought a Tshirt and one of them wooden head things, maybe it will get through customs when I send it home, maybe not, it looked clean with no borers anyway. I even found stickers!!! Graham Whittington and myself went mad in South America trying every shop for stickers to put on the bike, we did find them there, but over here I have only found these, but they were nice ones.

We grabbed a quick feed in a small shop after taking a photo of the tall werewolf talking on a mobile phone In the shop was Innola, she was our server and was very nice and fun Hi there girls

Now we wanted to make tracks, Anthony had a basic plan, head to Wien(Vienna) as a start. I would follow him and I seriously needed to sort out my chain. He had army contacts who could help with supply and workshop space but that was in the north of Germany, in Hohne, but it was a plan, and could be modified over the course of a few days. I also now needed to be thinking of my visas for Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and China, the first goal for me was Bern in Switzerland, if the bike could make it. I need to do some shopping for the upcoming adventure next month when I enter Russia, I need the following:

New chain oiler
New Heated Grips (both these units are over 5 years old and have both failed at the same time)
New brake pads(sintered) plus spares
Oil filters, extras
Brake and clutch lever
Chains and sprockets – one fitted now and one spare set
Tyres soon
WET WEATHER GEAR – extremely important

So, I would be spending some big dollars soon, but that should see me through to the far east, I hope.

Anyway, back to the ride, we managed to ride for an hour before donning the wet gear again and we rode for about two more hours in the rain and as usual I was getting wet. We found a town that on entry had some sign for hotels and we discussed it and agreed we would check it out and found the Pensione Jorga, where the bikes were brought inside the courtyard and we snagged a couple of rooms, for the first time in a week, Anthony could sleep without my snoring rattling the walls

Of course, as soon as we stopped and doffed the gear, it stopped raining and looked like being a lovely evening! We were low on cash again because we had bought TAT, so Ant went and grabbed some more local currency while I would get Eruos in Hungary tomorrow, and we had a beer(nothing different) and a feed just around the corner which was quite nice. The internet in the rooms was a bit slack, so I spent a few hours down at the reception area until midnight uploading a few days photos, but I could not do a post as it was a bit slow and balky! We had planned on a long day tomorrow, get to Wien on the Austrian side of the Hungarian border, but we still had a fair bit of Romania to get through, although it was a pleasure today to finally get some speed up on the straighter roads. WE have enjoyed the slow challenging journey to get here, but now we had different goals and our time together was coming to an end. The thing is though to get an early start, it was 700km to Vienna and if he would get out of bed earlier, we would be arriving earlier Seriously, we decided on feet up at 7am, no brekky, just get a few hundred kms under our belts until the first fuel stop then we could add food

Cheers from Romania
TravellingStrom

WE had a good nights sleep and woke up to another wet day, not fair. I really need to do something about my gear, it is taking the enjoyment away. Anyway, we saddled up and rode about 200m, because according to the GPS, we had a simple cache right next to the hotel But, although we looked hard, it could not be found, it must have been muggled

We understood it to be from the hint ‘under a rock next to the bench’ as being under that rock on the left of the bench, but it was empty, oh well, onwards, we had plenty of day left. And a wet day it was, I was going to stop and inspect a couple of biplanes we went past, but the roads were narrow and wet, not a good combination, and then later on we flew past a jet, mounted by the side of the road, once again in a bad location. We did stop at the site of another cache that was supposed to be an easy one, I was fixing a broken tool tube strap while Ant looked for it, but he came to a locked gate and fence and could not get around. I had a go and decided that the only was to go around at the bottom of the hill and climb from around the other side, which I did do. It was a bit of an effort, but I did after much hunting find my first Romanian cache, well done me

I went back down the easy way, straight downhill and ended up on the back porch of the nearby diner, they need to modify this cache location so it is easier to get to, or change the wording, but never mind, it all ended well We traveled through mainly crop lands for a while and we once again stopped at an OMV station (I think I said OSV yesterday) and had what they called pork ruffy and chips, basically some pork meat, it was hard to work out beforehand, so we ordered it

It tasted alright and after another hour or so of riding we arrived at another church place for another cache. I looked after the bikes while Anthony went ahead and arrived back successful, then it was my turn and I found it also. This time the description and hint worked a treat

There was a major tourist vendor selling going on here, lots of cheese products and other home made stuff, but we continued on north and east without any. We started to see some wonderful views in amongst the rain showers as we entered the Carpathian Mountains, and some of the houses were very old and interesting to look at. We stopped at another scenic view with a cache a while later and here it was that Anthony succumbed to his beliefs and bought some cheese from the little old cheese lady. He actually believed she would put a hex on him if he didn’t, lol. But the views were worthwhile and while he was distracting her, I grabbed the cache

I decided to give the old lady a couple of my little Koalas and she let me take her photo, she was quite nice really, it must be a hard life. A group of Romanians turned up and bought some cheese of her and we spoke to them and they gave us a small sausage and bread roll each, after I had handed out more Koalas, then the old lady gave me some cheese as well, lots of giving going on, check her out

We were not that far from the town of Bran and Dracula’s castle, only about 20km, but we had 10km of tight twisty roads in the wet to get to the top of the range then ten down the other side, and now it was foggy as we went higher. Once again, prudence made us keep an eye out for accommodation, it was the lack of local currency that made the decision and the fact the roads would be safer if we could see them. Anthony had spoken to a local lady and she said 7 Lei for a night in her house(I was ahead and knew nothing about this at the time), but we had no Lei’s so in the end at the top of the mountain, we found a hotel that took Euro’s, which we had some of and we booked in. Beer was the 2nd thing, a nice hot shower the first as I was wet again, our boots were leaking still, although his wet gear worked , so he was drier up top.

We were the only people staying there to start with, although a few more did pop in later, but for once we had an early night, tomorrow, we wanted to visit the castle, get the cache near there then hit the road and head West. His time was nearly up and I personally have been riding in the wet for 4 days straight and wanted out of it, so maybe back to the coast or something like that. Anthony brought up the point that until I got either new or better wet gear, my whole trip would be stuffed because I needed to get used to wet weather riding as all of Europe was like this. As my gear was designed for Australian conditions, wet but not cold, I agreed with him and would have to do something soon.

Cheers from the Carpathian Mountains, Romania
TravellingStrom

Well, we survived the night with no problems from the truckies and grabbed some breakfast before hitting the road again, it was mighty cold, but dry at this time, but who knows for how long that would last. Check out the truckstop/whorehouse/motel/pornoville place

Well, it was not far up the road when the rain started so we stopped and donned the wet gear, his gear works well apparently, mine is crap and in the real hard rain I get wet, not too bad in light stuff, but it eventually leeches in. But, there are no bike shops that we have seen, so no chance of doing much about it yet. It was about 5 hours later that we reached the Serbian border and one fuel stop. The OSV brand servos are great, they are extremely clean, have good tucker, have WiFi and friendly staff, it is a nice place to have a rest and a hot drink and food before going back out into the weather So, farewell Serbia, hello Bulgaria again

Yep, we have picked a corner border crossing on the direct route to the town of Bran, and it means we cut through about 50km of Bulgaria, with their very observant police speed checkers, if the town says 50kmh, you better do it or get booked! It was still only a short time later that we were at the ferry which will take us across the river into Romania itself. It had dried up a little bit but was still cold, but we had to wait for the ferry to leave and we also found that we had lost an hour due to time zones again.

Once we crossed over, it was another simple procedure to get stamped into yet another country, and here we made a joint decision to find a hotel. Although I don’t usually stay in border towns, it looked like rain again ahead and it was getting late and I did not want to get caught out again like last night, once bitten twice shy. The truckies on the ferry had said it would take about 2 hours to cover the next 100km to the next towns, so bugger it, there was Hotel Panorama right there and it was not long before we were tasting the Romanian beer in a hotel that has beds for about 150 and a dining room decked out like a wedding reception We met some pommy and scots push bike riders, who were riding down the Danube, they have been doing each leg for a number of years and they were also heading to Bran, it would take them a week Now, this country has 4 beers, three lager style and one dark. I tried all three lagers and liked th Urses beer best, I forgot to take photos of the others, naughty me, but was too busy drinking them

As you all no doubt know I have been lax in my blogging, well after a few beers and a feed and chatting with Anthony, it is low on my agenda, I still try to organise my photos each day and upload them when I have internet, but to sit down and actually write is a struggle. I will catch up one day, you will just have to ursus with me

Cheers From Romania
TravellingStrom

QUEENSLANDER – Go the Maroons, sorry Becsta, you lose once again, well done the lads, I never saw it but managed to get some updates as I rode today, thanks Shirly

So, while you guys watched the blues suck eggs, we went looking for a way up that mountain, and after asking the hotel chap, it was easy to get up there, to a place called Rorovi. This is a memorial to the war days, and the location of a cache, so we walked through the area, checked out the tank and found the location of the cache, but nothing was there!! It was covered up and nicely done, but empty? what a bummer!

So, we continued on eastwards through the valleys of Bosnia with some great scenery. It was a shame to not find a Bosnian cache, but every other one was a long hike, or well off our route, but because we found the actual location, I am going to classify in my own mind, that is was a find It was cold and looked like rain and after a while we entered Serbia which was a mere formality, nothing was asked about any insurance nor road tax, so a passport quick stamp and we are in

We had noticed a lot of cemeteries along the way through Bosnia and now again here in Serbia, and you can tell the new war graves because they are all shiny new black marble affairs, this one even has a quaint church in it.

We stopped for some lunch and another sign of something happening in this country, we had noticed a lot of the cars had branches in the front of the grill but we could not find out anything about it at the time

We chose the home made smoked snags and chips for lunch, my cousin hoovers that tucker up, I was only half way through and he had cleaned his plate, I chew my food, he blames it on the big boys stealing his food, he is a big lad himself

Now, we were taking a small detour north here, because there was a cache that had been placed last year and NEVER been found, so this would be my opportunity to acquire a First To Find or FTF, a sort of personal goal in cacher terms. The road was twisty and winding, just what we liked, but very slow going and very cold, not quite raining yet, but very close. We got to the turnoff as indicated by my GPS and rode for 2km up this crap dirt wet rocky road and we were still 300m away, but it looked like it was straight down, what a bummer! And trying to get directions because of a routing error was an experience

I only have the video of that track, too rough to take photos and I forgot anyway Well, we had come this far and there was still plenty of daylight so we continued onto the next town, trying to find a back road in, the actual cache description said a paved road, before a walk, so we had the wrong road anyway. We went a few places back and forth, but I was nearly about to give up, so we stopped at a group of bikers, to ask them. They were from Slovenia and we had a bit of a social chat, hi there fellas, nice to meet you

The best part about it was that while re-reading the cache notes, it mentioned the Monastery Celije, and just next to where we were stopped I saw a tourist sign, Monastery Celije that way, bang, new found enthusiasm, lets go Anthony and see what we can find And lo and behold, after some tight twisties, we arrived at the Monastery and parked up.

Now we had to park the bikes and use the feet, because according to the GPS we were now 2km away from it? So, we hiked this trail/track, which took us up and down the hills and along the river, it looked like a well worn track and when we got to the cache area, we could see why because it looked like it is where people come and camp and play, in the summer!

But, the cache was there, it was a virgin and I claimed it, yippee, a lot of effort and an hours hike to get there, not to mention the 3 hours so far in this quest, but well worth it

So, job done we headed back with the horrible sound of thunder overhead and before we got back(around 45 minutes) we were a bit wet and the rain set in, with lots of lightning and thunder, yuckety yuck! The road up was interesting in the wet and we took it very easy on the tight bends. We had planned on heading to Cacak, where the other bikers were staying, and also it would put us back on the road to the east we had planned. But the rain was making us very slow and my waterproof gear is not so waterproof now, it must be too old and is not designed for these conditions.

We persevered, and when we arrived at the top of the mountain, we added some warm layers. I asked Anthony if he wanted to stay here, there were a few hotels, but he said lets keep going, next time, I will ignore him and stop! He needed fuel and after another 80km or so of slow going, it was getting dark, we found a servo and fueled up. We stopped for a warm drink, then it was back out into the rain, this looked horrible and even though we were only 20km from Cacak it was extremely hard to see. My visor was useless, it kept fogging up, I tried to ride with my clear glasses but they were the same, in the end I rode with the visor half up and the glasses on, and looked through the gap and followed Anthony’s tail light. It was a stupid thing to do riding in that weather and what makes it worse it was at night, my brain hates doing that and if things turn that way again, I will stop early rather than riding on. Here you can see what we were faced with, in fact I think it is easier to see with the camera!

Anyway, we managed to drip our way along until Ant spotted a likely looking hotel, well, any bloody place would be good right now and they had a room, great stuff and it was cheap too. It was not until we got into the room that we discovered porn mags in the cupboard, I do believe we are at a truck stop!!! In fact Ant heard someone going for his quoit when he came down for a beer We had a couple and a small feed before hitting the sack, the weather was looking lousy for the morrrow as well. Funny thing, well, not so funny, we both have the same boots, only new and they both leak, they are waterproof!!! His are worse because his gear lever has worn a patch on the top, mine not so bad and only scuffed. I may have to contact the manufacturer and see what they can do, but first I need to inquire of the forums as to whether I should have done something like sealing it prior to riding, I doubt it, but I want to find out first.

Don’t get me wrong, we did some great riding today, great mountain roads, and I got a FTF, so the day was a success and I lived to write about it

Cheers from Serbia
TravellingStrom

Well, in the morning it looked like great weather, a tad cool mind, but mr fisherman was off early to check his catch. We packed and left the Family Radic place. For those interested it was very nice, contact senkaradic@gmail.com . The hills were shrouded in mist a bit higher up but there was some great riding following the coast, except for the traffic of course, I can imagine this place in summer! But, it was only about 30km or so before we stopped to look for our first cache for the day, next to a religious place, and although the co-ordinates were off and the ‘hint’ was useless, we managed to find it, job done

That was all we were doing in this country. Near the town of Split we now headed inland towards the Bosnian border, this was only a short distance away, but my GPS map stopped at the border, so it looked like being fun riding through there. And in fact we got through very easily, although we did have to fork out for a green card insurance, and you can see on my GPS screen in the photo, no roads at all!

We were now in a recent war zone, one place where if you camp wild, you may end up with a land mine going off, so you have to be careful. The road was great, nice smooth bitumen and as it climbed the mountain foothills, the rain started to set in, so we stopped at a convenient spot for some tucker which was goulash and chips and donned the wet weather gear, we expected this so no surprise, but it still makes the roads less enjoyable because you have to slow down!

After that it was more of the same, wet roads but in some cases when we went through the hills, they had used the road scraper across the whole road, this is yucky to ride on as it makes the bike twitch all over. It is a mind game, there is more traction so better speed is possible, but with the bike twitching on wet roads it is hard to overcome the reluctance to speed up.

As we travelled through we could see many houses left to fall into ruin, if they had not been damaged by the war. It seems a lot of folk just packed up and left, they had no choice because of the ‘ethnic cleansing’ so although the houses still belong to them, they have relocated as refugees. Many still show bullet holes, like the white house on the right below, but we also saw ones where the holes had been filled and many new paint and render jobs with people living in them and it does not look as desolate as I had imagined.

We had skirt the major city of Sarejevo and kept on heading though the mountains to the east, it was slow going with a lot of traffic at times and with the wet slippery roads, but it was not a big issue.

We eventually arrived near the location of a cache I had wanted to find as it was actually on the road we were travelling. But, it(the GPS) was telling me to turn right with no roads there, so we asked some people and we ended up finding a room at the local hotel, it was quite nice and had a great river view, this was in the town of Gorazdo, the location of some major conflicts during the war.

So, after a few beers we wandered over the bridge and found a kebab shop with real nice food, I could do with another in fact! In the morning we were going to try and find that cache, I had a feeling it was up on the mountain and we just needed to find a road up there.

Cheers from Bosnia
TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

It was raining when we got up, so after a bit of research about weather patterns, we decided to stay here another day. Anthony had been riding hard from England to Bosnia, then a long day to meet up with me and a few late nights as well, and I had been doing long days with some great technical riding and some hiking, so battery recharge time The rain did ease now and then which made for great opportunities to take a short walk down to the harbor wall and check out the boats and views

I liked that little boat and met the owner who is a professional fisherman, the only one in this town, basically it is a net fishing boat. I was doing some research and stuff because we had to make some choices on a riding direction. I only had a basic plan of riding through the nice roads and seeing where the caches would take me. Bernie(Anthony’s nickname) was enjoying learning about geocaching and was impressed by the locations and would bring his family to some of these spots in the future. I doubt I will be back myself, this is a once only trip (Gold Lotto maybe?) Bernie only had a few weeks before he needed to be back home, he is texting with his kids every day, and each time they sign off , they say “your orphan child” LOL . We did not have any exact plans individually, but Anthony mentioned that he would like to see Count Dracula’s Castle, over there in Transylvania, in Romania, so I thought why not, it would be a blast I used the GPS software and we both planned a route that would take us through Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria then Romania, around 1300km or so, a few days ride. It was a bit hard to judge because the road networks in Bosnia are a bit missing on the GPS maps we both had, even googlemaps could not work out a route. But eventually, with many small individual way points, we mapped a way across and would chuff off tomorrow, regardless of weather, it was wet everywhere!
So, after some planning and blog writing, it was now mid afternoon, surely it is beer time!!! We planned on an early start around 8am, and having a few beers now would mean an early night The rain had stopped and it was looking fab outside and it did not take long to bump into one of the locals down the pub He thought we had something in common, well, under the chin we did, but above we were way different

The evening progressed and between us, we decided that we are at that age where solid food is a requirement, so we grabbed a feed near our place, mine was a simple spag bol. Here we met Ann and Jerry from Sweden, nice chatting with you both

It was an early night for a change, only about 11 or so
Cheers from Croatia
TravellingStrom

Check out the view from our apartment, it was great, slept good and although we made some noise, we could not scare anybody up until around 9 for brekky!

Once we had eaten we headed around the lake. We would be working our way north and grabbing a few caches along the way and enjoying the ride. The first one we came to we needed a boat, it was next a church that had been built on a man made island, it is the on to the right in this picture, we did not attempt this one, bikes don’t float!

It was a bit slow going due to traffic, but we were soon being booked out of Montenegro, I liked my time here, a great little country Then we were stamped into Croatia where what greeted us was about 10km of really crap dirt and loose gravel road, a few slippery moments and I can say it was not fun! It reminded me or my entry into Guatemala, at the Belize border the road turned to crap.

It was a good learning curve though because it gave both of us a chance to view each others riding ability and we both proved competent. Anthony had mentioned that Dubrovnic is supposed to be nice so we made that our first goal, we may decide to pull up there for the day, who knows, see what happens, if there is a lot to explore. It was only a short way up the road and we soon spotted it from the heights, with a massive fortress and walls for old time protection, and the new town spread out and around. But, we could get right inside, which was way cool, but first I had a cache in mind and we jagged the parking location and found that in very short order Then we stopped for lunch right next to the old walls, parking was a bit rough, I hate trying to ride up tall kerbs and nearly knocked someone over waiting for a bus because I got a bit out of shape, with no Green card on me either!!!

That was the weirdest pizza I have had, we took the choice with egg, and it had an egg on it all right, slightly different to what I was expecting

Anyway, during lunch we decided it was going to be too expensive, we had checked out rooms, but most were over 40Euros, outside of our budget, so we continued north where we had some great fun amongst the fast sweepers of this great coast road It soon turned inland a bit and this is where I had picked another cache to find, this is on top of a hill and just a short detour off the highway, great views from up top and a training course for Ant to teach him how to use this GPS, the Garmin Montana, but we had success once again before heading back down the steep hill and back to the main road

We had planned on getting to the town of Split, but as we made our way north, we knew that was a bit far especially getting caught behind lines of cars behind trucks on the twisties, and decided to keep our eyes open for a place to stay as we rode on. Every little village had heaps of signs about rooms for rent, so it was just a matter of finding the right place. It was around 6pm that we dropped down into the village of Gradac and as we rode down the twisty roads, nearly every building had signs about rooms, but after a look right down at the small harbour, that was where we found a great room with a great view, cheap and with wifi, what more could you ask for

Well, what more could you ask for indeed!

We had a few of those, we were still meeting each other and had a great feed next to a nice view, a great time was had by all, that means both of us

Cheers from Croatia
TravellingStrom