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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