Driving West - Simon's final thoughts

So after waking up in Gdansk, running out of petrol on the outskirts of town and going on a 3 hour orienteering exercise around the shipyards ( and losing Will in the process) I headed west out of town on the 27. I waited for Will on the 27 and we eventually found each other again.

The Polish highways were by and large single lanes with intesting scenery and colourful towns and they took us quickly to the German border. We decided to try and get to the western side of berlin to try and miss the worst of the commuter traffic going in the following morning. I was sure that we would be able to find something like a formula 1 to stay in so we could get an early start.

Needless to say, we couldn't find anything really, let alone a formula 1. At around 1 in the morning we found a hotel near Brandenburg. Will decided to go for it. I decided to keep going for home. I headed back to the autobahn and west towards Hanover, Will headed for bed. Unbeknownst to us both when we parted, the hotel was closed.

I kept going for about another hour before pulling into a rest stop, draping the outer from my tent over the bike and getting in to my sleeping bag underneath it. I had 2 hours of fitful sleep - very itchy due to the mossie bites - and I was back on the road at 5am.

I didn't look back, stopping only for fuel and food, I rode another 500 miles through germany, holland, belgium and france in torrential rain. I had a little celebration on crossing in to france just east of dunkirk and I was on the pride of dover by 4pm. I grabbed another 30 mins sleep on the ferry and then settled in for the 200 mile ride from dover to clevedon. I stopped once for a celebratory kfc at membury services and juxtaposed it with the russian roadside experience just a few days before.

So all in all an amazing trip. Some fantastic highs and aweful lows - the hallmark of a real adventure I think! I'll echo Mikes sentiments - I learned a lot about people I thought I knew (myself included).

The bikes were great, my buckled wheels seems to have repaired itself and the only other thing that went wrong was an auxilliary light bulb blew on the last day. It even withstood being crashed in Lithuania without even breaking a sweat. I don't think I'll be able to part with it easily.

A few places really made an impression on me: Norway for its natural beauty, Russia for its apparent contradictions and craziness and Parnu, Estonia for its laid back grandeur. In fact the baltics states in general for the feeling of a more innocent and generally joyful way of life. Poland surprised me - I expected a grey and uninteresting country but saw quite the opposite.

I have a number of issues that remain unresolved. The one that I will share now is "so where next?". For the others, buy the book.

Its been great riding with you? Cheers Simon

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The Scores on the Doors

The route according to Simon's GPS

Total Distance: 4,886 Miles (Excluding Ferry to Norway)
Overall Average Speed: 28.9mph
Moving Average Speed: 46.7mph
Total Trip Time: Too big for the display, but a calculation says 169
hours!
Moving Trip Time: Too big for the display, but a calculation says
105 hours!
Maximum Speed: A rather modest 89mph (due to the panniers)
Country country count: 13

TeekondHOME

After an uneventful ride from Folkestone I met the kids from school as planned which was nice, lucky for Gus there WAS a calendar!

Bike was awesome, considering its gone 4K miles over the last service interval. Leaky rear shock and shagged back brake disc seem to be the only slight niggles.

Punctures - none
Breakdowns - none
Drops - none
Crashes - none
Near misses - several
Miles - lots

Apparently I smell like someone from the great unwashed, although I did shower this morning my bike clothes didn't!

Back to the real world now!

Mike

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Eurotunnel

Well now safely on the Eurotunnel, bit the bullet and paid the extra as opposed to taking the ferry to Dover. Got another drenching between Antwerp and Gent, had to empty my 'waterproof socks' in Bruge and swop them for plastic bags and dry socks. Barring any major disasters I should get back as planned to meet the kids from school this afternoon which will be a surprise for them as they aren't expecting me until at least Friday evening. I made the decision to gun it home on Tuesday when in eastern Poland, I could have headed south to Slovakia but speaking to Gus on the phone he told me he was going to make a special calendar that would tell him how many days it was until he saw me (obviously he will be in the shit if there is no calendar and I rode the thick end of 1800 miles to see it!).

The last 19 days have been a bit of a whirlwind, it seems longer than that ago that we battled the gale force winds on the way to Newcastle to catch the ferry to Norway.

Notable highlights, Pulpit Rock in Norway, the second and third day riding through Norway, fantastic scenery and technically challenging roads. Arriving at the Arctic Circle, gravel tracks in Finland, the whole experience crossing the border into Russia, the shocking roads (or lack of), the shocking driving and the chaos that was driving into St Petersburg!

Disappointing not to go through Kaliningrad 'just for the hell of it' and sorry I didn't get to Slovakia or Austria, its unlikely I will get the opportunity to undertake a trip like this again in the foreseeable future due to family and work commitments but hey not everyone can say they have ridden their motorbike to Russia!

Hats off to Will, for someone who has only been riding for less than 12 months to take on some of the riding conditions that we experienced and still stay on two wheels takes some doing, especially on a big lump of German metal that has all the agility of an elephant!

I think we have all learnt a lot about each other - perhaps too much! :-) we met some great people along the way and at the time of writing haven't had any major problems with the bikes considering the hammering that they have taken! No trouble to speak of anywhere with the exception of the minor squirmish in Finland. We didn't get ripped off (knowingly) and we didn't have to bribe anyone!

TeekondBELGIUM is now TeekondFRANCE and in about 35 mins should be TeekondENGLAND!

Mike
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TeekondBELGIUM

TeekondHOLLAND lasted for a trundle around Amsterdam and a meal then hit the road to Belgium.
Got dumped on tonight and got the first real soaking of the trip, got pulled by the Police in Antwerp wasn't sure what I had done, was more intent on navigating the wet cobblestones, whilst trying to look for somewhere to stay. Pulled in and a plain clothes cop got out of his car, explained he was a biker and that I looked like I needed something. Explained was looking for somewhere to stay - 'expensive or sheet?' He asked, 'quick and dry' was my reply, 'follow us' with that they led me through antwerp and out the otherside for 5 or 6k's and deposited me at a Campanile, 'if there are no rooms tell them the police sent you', luckily there was room, with a bit of luck I will be on the Eurotunnel before noon with the aim of picking the kids up from school tomorrow afternoon.
Mike
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TeekondHOLLAND

TeekondPOLAND is now TeekondHOLLAND and is in Dam Square, Amsterdam.

Obervations from Germany
They drive very fast and there is lots of wind turbines.
Mike
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German roadside accomodation is simple yet effective

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Observations of Poland and all things Polish

Having left the town of Elk in eastern Poland I rode cross country and now just west of Berlin in another odd guesthouse, luckily got the last room just as the heavens opened.

The roads all the way across were surprisingly good.
The drivers were surprisingly courteous and very bike aware even though I didn't see many bikes, they also tip you the wink before you get to the speed traps.
They have topless car washes!
They have fruit sellers on the side of the road which in itself is not unusual, they also have prostitutes lined up in between the fruit sellers which I thought was.
The cemetaries are very colourful, amazing flowers (not the kind of thing I would normally notice).
My Polish is as good as most peoples english I met today.
There are lots of lakes.
I disturbed a hooker and her client when I stopped for an 'adventure p***' by the side of a road.
I didn't do too much for Anglo-Polish relations when I stopped for another 'adventure p***' in a deserted lane, it actually turned out to be someones driveway and he waited patiently in his car while I finished up as my bike was in the way, the shake of the head said it all.
Mike
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TeekondPOLAND!

Initial blog from the newly formed TeekondPOLAND group. After yesterdays parting of the ways I am now directly north of Warsaw. When we got out of Russia it started to become apparent that things were not rosy in the Baltica team. In hindsight we probably should have split up earlier and then I wouldn't have said some of the things I did but where would be the story in that? The local Latvians wouldn't have been treated to the sight of two English guys dressed up as storm troopers have a frank exchange of views whilst being watched over by a bewildered Irishman dressed in a yellow high visibilty vest and a cowboy hat! Simon wouldn't have been able to ride gravel tracks through the arse end of Lithuania, catching a ferry across to the Curonian Spit, riding to the Russian border and pitching a tent at god knows what time of the night. Will and I wouldn't have found ourself in a weird town, staying in a weird antique kind of hotel that sold gas masks, egyptian paintings, catapults and Virginia State Police badges! Followed by dinner at midnight in the Bumbling Bombier sat next to a table of extremely drunk Irish soldiers who did their country proud!
After leaving the Curonian Spit I headed for the Polish border in the pouring rain, stopped on the road to help some Lithuanian guy fix a puncture, then with some trepidation and a bit of a buzz I arrived at the border, lots of trucks and iffy looking truck drivers but the roads were nowhere near as bad as expected, heading south to Augustow and turned west and ended up in the town of Elk, sorted a room with secure parking and breakfast for 50 dollars (no Polish dosh and they didn't take cards but the american money seemed to do the trick). Nice meal by a lake and a good kip, booked breakfast for 7.30 and was disappointed to find the dining room in darkness and no one around, was about to go and express my disappointment when I twigged that I hadn't put my clock back.
On the road at 8am, great ride through the countryside, Poland so far has been good! Very colourful country!
Exchanged texts with the others this morning, everything seems to be cool!
Mike
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Legendarny Smak!

Poland mint! After a wet start in Kaunas, like mike an hour early cos we forgot about the time change, we had a great breakfast - best and cheapest yet, served by a smily waitress.

A bit of a shclep to the polish border, but then good roads through suprisingly pretty countryside. We hit the 16 which is 200 miles of good road. To augment mikes urinatiion story, I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep on the same driveway for an hour. I was surprised by the dewey grass at 2 in the afternoon!

Will saw 4 accidents and was compelled to flick the bird at an incalcuable number of motorists - the teekondTwo have encountered less courteous road users than the teekondONE

We headed for the north east of gdansk because the lonely planet listed a good place to stay. We went through about 20 km of what felt a bit like african coast - shacks and sand - reminded me of kenya a bit.

We were a little perturbed by the memorial by the chain link ferry (that was such a rubbish chain link ferry that it needed a tug) that had the number 60 on it - we're assuming that that is the number of people that died last time is sank.

Anyhow we eventually found somewhere resembling pontins to stay in. The shipyards tomorrow and then to berlin!

Night night.

Simon and will

Ps will is talking complete nonsence because the only food we could find were some pretzel sticks called legenary smak!

Pps stalks are quiite nice

Ppps we found 7.1 percent beer!

Pppps we're being thrown out of the bar.
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A wet start.

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An interruption to our normal programming

Those of you out there avidly following the schenanigans of teekondBALTICA will have noticed a reduction in the frequency of blogging in the past few days. As Will announced earlier today, this can be best attributed to a structural failure in team dynamics. The united front that prevailed through scandinavia and russia has faultered due to differences of objectives. The Baltic states have always been devicive in geo politics and so too in the teeko politics!

Will and I turned North again to The Hill of crosses in Lithuania - an amazing hill covered in thousands of crosses and religious symbols. I'm far from a devout christan but it was an impressive spectacle nonetheless. Apparently the whole area was once flooded with sewage by the communists and was dismantled frequently during Russian times, it keeps coming back though.

We parted with Mike at a petrol station Kleipeda with a handshake and a nod. He's off to the South of Poland

We are now in Kaunas, Lithuania. We will cross in to Poland tomorrow after extricating the bikes from the very tight hotel lobby that we squeezed them in to this evening. Next stop the shipyards of Gdansk. From there we will complete to circumnavigation of the baltic sea via germany.

For the record, the last couple days went: Parnu biker bar, nude beaches, gravel roads at 50mph, beer at camp, losing each other on the way to Riga, Simon crashes his bike, blazing row at the roadside in Latvia. Mike and Will's weird hotel, Simon's computer game ride up the curonian spit in the dark and rain.

Cheers

S

Ps crazy Lithuanian kids doing donuts in the car park outside

Pps According to the recptionist, Kaunas is dangerous at night!
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The teekondTWO at the Hill of Crosses, Lithuania

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The wheels fall off both the wagons!

It is with great regret and a certain amount of relief that I have to announce the disintergration of team teekond Baltica. The people have spoken and decided that they want different things from the trip at this point. Mike is off to Auschwitz to cheer himself up! Simon is off to Gdansk for some solidarity! Will is, as the old song goes, stuck in the middle with himself. More later.

Cheers Will

Ps. We're on a world heritage sandbank in lithuania and its pissing with rain.
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Pig' Ears!

The Estonian delicacy of pig ears (including hair!) Were not a roaring success!
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Latvian Forest Track

I fell off for the first time about an hour ago. The road turned to sand and a lost the front and buried the bike in some Latvian guys lawn. He was mowing it at the time. He was a little suprised to see 400 kg of german engineering embed itself in his garden.

I lifted it straight back up though, even with a full tank of petrol. He had to help me pull it out of the rut it was stuck in. Everything is now mint.

Simon
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No mans land!

They like to queue!
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Services!

We are definately not on the M4 at Membury services!
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Not mint!

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Correction!

Its far from beef jerky, try salty fish jerky! I will pass!
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Russian road food!

Croissants (shrunk) filled with chocolate, beef jerky and some weird sausage like things! Oh and nescafe!
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Goodbye Lenin (out of the wilderness into the wild)

A long day today and I'm too tired to write this really, but in the spirit of our journalistic responsibilities, we'll give it a go.

Leonid met us at 10 and we started the drive out of st petes. Tram lines and crazy traffic and we were on the M10 towards ivangorod and the estonian border. The roads were great for a while, better than we get at home but quickly degenerated as we left st petes in to a melee of transversal cracks. I got bored driving slow and decided the best way to get over the potholes was to stand up and nail it.

The border crossing took a good 4 hours. Strangely, getting out of Russia was a doddle but getting in to Estonia took ages. One redemptions was the friendly border guards in estonia.

We then had a pretty boring schep to parnu on the coast. We didn't get here until nearly midnight. One of the symptoms of my approach to the russian potholes is that I have buckled my rear wheel. We had it off and tightened some spokes. Got to use the toolkit at least. I think it may have done some good cos its a bit better. I hope it holds out.

We were all pretty tired when we got here and due to the employment of an emergent planning strategy we had nowhere to stay. Luckily the first person I asked knew of a biker bar with a campsite. Its all a bit surreal, its like a small village with little cabins with Finnish choppers parked outside.

Mike managed this time to have a friendly conversation with a Finnish guy and got in o a converstion about football - riveting! Anyway don't know what we're doing tomorrow. Night night.

Simon, Will and Mike

Ps. Estonia is flat and has straight roads. According to Will and Mike there was a massive castle that was interesting. I completely failed to see it though. I think I might be travelling around the world looking at my gps screen.

Pps. Mike thinks that driving through estonia is duller than the M6, we'll report tomorrow on whether this opinion persists.

Ppps. Simon loves his bike cos its broken and it still works!
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Carlos - the adventurer's adventurer!

Luckily he is riding the road to Estonia today,taking the route we are proposing to take tomorrow. We have had differing reports on the state of it once you get out of St Petersburg ranging from 'the road is good', 'the road is ok', 'the road is great', 'there is no road'! It is the last one that has made Will a little twitchy - think Bambi on Ice on a motorcycle and you wouldn't be far away. Carlos is going to put some pictures on his blog and let us know how the road conditions are, we will then decide what we are going to do, we do have the option of going to Helsinki and then catching a ferry to Tallin and onto Parnu in Estonia which is where we propose to stop.

Insurance is all sorted, we stumbled across a company called Elite Holdings who have absolutely nothing to do with insurance but had english signs in the window and the receptionist spoke great english. We were helped out by Natasha who when we explained what we needed spent 20 minutes on the phone sorting everything out, she wrote all the details in russian to hand in at the other end and gave us directions to walk to a brokers. We did, they did and now we have! Mint!

St Petersburg is an incredible city, we have had a good rest but I will be happy to get on the road tomorrow. We met up with the guy who rode us into town last night and with a bit of luck, if he gets a pass from his wife he will guide us out of town in the morning. Another stroke of luck!

Mike
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Carlos - the adventurer's adventurer!

Luckily he is riding the road to Estonia today,taking the route we are proposing to take tomorrow. We have had differing reports on the state of it once you get out of St Petersburg ranging from 'the road is good', 'the road is ok', 'the road is great', 'there is no road'! It is the last one that has made Will a little twitchy - think Bambi on Ice on a motorcycle and you wouldn't be far away. Carlos is going to put some pictures on his blog and let us know how the road conditions are, we will then decide what we are going to do, we do have the option of going to Helsinki and then catching a ferry to Tallin and onto Parnu in Estonia which is where we propose to stop.

Insurance is all sorted, we stumbled across a company called Elite Holdings who have absolutely nothing to do with insurance but had english signs in the window and the receptionist spoke great english. We were helped out by Natasha who when we explained what we needed spent 20 minutes on the phone sorting everything out, she wrote all the details in russian to hand in at the other end and gave us directions to walk to a brokers. We did, they did and now we have! Mint!

St Petersburg is an incredible city, we have had a good rest but I will be happy to get on the road tomorrow. We met up with the guy who rode us into town last night and with a bit of luck, if he gets a pass from his wife he will guide us out of town in the morning. Another stroke of luck!

Mike
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Simons new best friends!

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Simons new best friend!

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Punk Drunk

Hello peeps, a slow day today on account of the balticians all suffering from a vodka and beer hangover after a lenghy session outside our hostel talking bikes and then moving on to the alternative bubble bar then moat bar. We met a russian couple who were really cool, we necked a few vodkas and talked about house music, a subject that I am not well versed in. They seemed impressed that we had decided to go to a music bar rather than embark on the usual tourist trail of lapdancing clubs and brothels.

Will and I finished the night moshing to rage against the machine at 4am figuring that we would only get the opportunity once. Mike was unconvinced about the merits of jumping around so he went for sitting at the back of the room, no doubt mezmerised by the stylish shapes that Will and I were cutting on the dancefloor.

The Russian punk girls are worth a mention, seemingly gettting paraletic and falling asleep on the bar with their legs in the air and their skirts over their heads is de rigour!

We were rudely awakened by the lovely Marsha at 11am banging on our bedroom door with clear and concise instructions to get out. We all sprang(!) in to action to move all our stuff to a dorm room upstairs to sleep off the hangover.

Spent a couple hours in the park writing my memoirs, a tome that will no doubt become a best seller if it ever gets written up.

My hand and leg that had swollen to the size of a small russian township have started to look a little better, clearly the bugs were discouraged by the attempted alcohol poisoning.

Carlos left this morning for the estonian border and we heard from him a little later in the afternoon. Apparently there is a road - mint. But it's quite potholed - not mint (but minter than if there were no road at all). I think we all feel a little happier about this, not least Will who was really rather worried about it. Thanks Carlos.

Another result is that Leonid is going to meet us in the morning to lead us out of the city. Thanks Mrs and Baby Leonid for giving daddy the day pass. We are much indebted to you both. Leonid has not only been a lifesaver but a very friendly and interesting bloke to boot.

There was just a fight outside the hostel window, but because the balticians are in bed early they missed it. We were however informed by Shaun the American that it was 'mint' - mint!

We have a very lucky Polish girl, Juliette sharing our room tonight. She seems unperterbed by the, as Will described it, 'fruity' aroma of our biking gear.

Anyhow, bon soiree les tout.

Simon (for teekondBALTICA enterprises)

Ps the collective baltic bowel is not at all well, probably a result of the Giardia and heavy metals in the city water supply!
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Nice roads!

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The church of the saviours and those in need of salvation!

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The Finnish Mossies come out fighting.

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Cont....

It's morning, very needed sleep.



Our hostel is mint, it's right on Nevsky Prospekt - the main drag in st petersburg. Main drag is the right term to we sat by the side of it last night watching the full spectrum of society race their respective forms of transport down the strip. From woman on horseback to kids on the back wheel of their 50cc scooters, to pimps and pushers in hotrod corvettes and ferraris. This place is like the wild west.



I briefly mentioned the insurance in the last post. None of our insurance is valid here at all. In russia it is sensible to buy 3rd party insurance in case you take someone else out on the road - a very distinct possibility. The border people said we could buy it at a petrol station and when we rocked up there 50m from border control, there was indeed a buxom russian insurance sales girl in the lobby. She had no english and my now fluent russian was still a bit rusty yesterday!!! We managed to get to - yes they did insurance, and it was 500 roubles, about 15quid, but they only did it for cars - bugger. We tried plans B and C to no avail, I phoned Rosa in Real Russia's London office and she spoke to buxom russian, but it just confirmed what we already knew - that we were scuppered. But many thanks to Rosa for trying. Then Mike phoned the british embassy, they said that they had had a similar query a couple of days ago, but were ultimetely useless. So we made a pact to be careful and we hit the road.



It also means that our bikes aren't covered for theft. Our hostel has a locked compound. Which is cool but when I asked Alexander whether they had any problems he said 'I don't, but you might'. So we might be coming home on Aeroflot yet!

We're hitting the city today, we have to see the hermitage, some palace and the Church of the Spilled Blood. Although to be fair we walked past that twice last night from a distance so it feels like we have done that to death.

Uri gave us the name of a biker bar we we might try and find later on tonight.

Cheers



Simon

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From Russia with gLoves (and a helment)

This morning found us with apprehension. After being reintroduced in to polite society in Joensuu, Finland with an expensive italian meal last night, we awoke with good intentions of getting an early start. An early start to Russia. We had heard mixed reports of the road across the border and the amount of hoop jumping that we would have to endure. It ranged from 'no problem, good roads' to 'many passport problems, no road'.

Mike wanted to stop for breakfast before we left town but I wanted to get going, we fuelled and headed South for Imatra and the Russian border. I was in front and I thought I better stop after 50km. I was soon informed that had we not pulled in I would have had my head kicked in - these boys and their calorie requirements.

It was another 150km on good, if boring, Finnish roads to the border. One quick conversation is important here - we decided not to stop and get 3rd party insurance in Finland, being sure that we could get it at the border.

Customs and passport control were straightforward and luckily there wasn't much in the way of a queue. After a customs declation and a cursory glance at out luggage we were through. The border guard said 'good luck in Russia' and we were in.

Then it all went wrong - imagine a 60 year old road that hasn't been repaired in as long with 30 tonne logging trucks hammering it all day. We went from perfectly paved black in Finland to foot deep potholes in the space off 200 yards. After 50km of this we hit the main highway to St Petes. 'Mint' we thought but it soon became clear that the Russian motorway etiquette is somewhat different to our own. In true 'if you can't beat them join them fashion' we got stuck in. First refuelling stop on the motorway wasn't too succesful as they didn't take plastic, cash only! So it was 5 litres each as we only had 500 roubles between us (20 quid) and hoped it would be enough to get us to St Petes.

We stopped to gather our wits and get wired on caffeine as the whole day had been pretty tiring. Stroke of luck when our new best friend Uri pulled into the petrol station (maths and computer science lecturer from boston but a st petes native befriended us) followed shortly by our new, new best friend Leonard showed up on his 400 Bandit and kindly offered to lead us into town, result as we would never have found our hotel without him. Following him in was probably the craziest 60 minutes on a bike ever!

More tomorrow - tired!

Finnish final frontier!

Another day of interesting roads (if you are on an LT - mint if you are on a GS). We have spoken to a lot of people today garnering opinion about the best border crossing to use and they all contradicted each other but the common theme was that the minor roads are shocking if you are on an LT but mint of you are on a GS. We are going have a punt a Imatra.

We ate reindeer sat by the side of a road and then drank coffee in the pouring rain at some kind of council recycling centre which seemed like the equivalent of ebay for non-internet users. Simon bought council issue waterproofs that made him look like a cross between Trigger from only fools and horses a Finnish lollipop man. We then ended up on an unpaved road in a mozzie infested birch forest about 5km from the russian border with only a bunch of trees separating us, we didn't see another car for a good few hours but chuckled at the fact that there were numerous bus stops but no people or buses in evidence, all a little odd.

We got striped up for 80 euros for basically sausage and chips and a pint of beer and then got lost in another mozzie infested forest walking back to the campsite. Finnish people ride bicycles into lakes and go swimming fully clothed.

There is still no sign of it getting dark!

Later

Will

Ps. The more south we get the more normal things seem to appear but Mike is still generally weirded out!
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