In Conclussion............

I meant to do this immediately the I got back to Oz, but life gets in the way.

Spent a few days around London, and then up to Benington to catch up with Richard and Susanna for the night. SR500 Club member Chris Smith drove down and we both spent a few hours putting the finishing touches to the XJ, which was still getting bids on eBay.

Had to kill a few days before Rob and Andrea were due to return to Benington, so jumped on the bike and headed north to meet Marcus, another English member of the SR500 Club at Saffron Walden. Stayed at a hotel in Cambridge which turned out to be the most expensive place I paid for on the whole trip; 65 GBP! Caught up with Marcus and had a few ales with him and his wife Barbara.

Back to London and grabbed a room at the Bridge Park Hotel, Hillside, near the Ace Cafe. Another room that you can touch all four walls without getting out of bed.

Made contact with Rob and Andrea and met them for breakfast at the Ace. We then rode together back to Benington, where I was to have my last night before flying home. It was a shame not to have Dave with us, but he'd finished the Trans Siberia Rally in 13th place overall and was on his way back to Oz.

Another great night at the Lordship and late in the evening Richard dragged out quite a few bottles from the cellar which we all sampled and sampled and sampled................

Next morning after farewells, Rob dropped me at Stevenage station before he and Andrea headed off for another week's riding in the UK. I spent the day in London and flew out to Melbourne via Korea that night.

My last view of the old girl in Richard's shed awaiting her new owner. The new owner was very pleased with the bike and the price that he paid for it.

Some facts and figures:

Bought a 1992 Yamaha XJ900F ( 26,225 miles on the clock) on eBay 900GBP plus 100GBP for delivery

Givi E34 Panniers and topbox, eBay for about 100GBP

The XJ needed 2 new discs and a speedo cable , about 110 GBP

I bought spares including cdi, ignitor, cables etc which I sold on ebay and got most of my $s back

Sold the bike on eBay for 685GBP

Travelled around 17,500 klm over 63 days through 20 countries ( if you count Isle of Man and Scotland) for a daily cost of around $135AUD when the Aussie Dollar was buying around 50 pence and 97 cents US.

Would I do it again?................ Tomorrow!

Same bike? Why not. The XJ never missed a beat. Well, once in Damascus it stalled and wouldn't start in the middle of a huge traffic jam... possibly bad fuel.

It cruised all day at at around 75-85 mph and when needed would hit the ton or more.

Didn't even get a puncture. The old Continental tyre on the front must have done 23,000 miles and still had legal tread. I guess there was so much weight on the rear that it was hardly making contact with the road!

Shaft drive was the thing that had us sold on the old Yammies. However, any decently maintained bike would do, even the good old SR500 would have got us around, it'd just take a bit longer.

What would I do differently? ..........................Not have a finish date.

London............ made it!

Wednesday 16 July



Rode on to Calaise and jumped a P&O ferry to Dover. Was expecting the local by-laws officer to be waiting to collect the £50 parking fine that I received on the way thru a few weeks ago, but got thru OK.
There were about 30 bikes ( groups of between 3-6 mates) waiting for the ferry, mostly big tourers with all the right gear. Serious tourers, some had been as far as southern France, one group had even been to Spain. They were shocked to realise that the old Aussie on the battered 1000 quid XJ had made it to Damascus and back in only 5 weeks.


Back to riding on the left side of the road came back much quicker than learning to ride on the right! I only had a few scares in Europe.

Rode on towards London and found a grotty B&B in New Eltham, near Greenwich which had off-street parking for the bike. Only 30 minutes into London on the Metro.

There's been a bit of interest in the bike on eBay.



I guess 'The Big Ride' is done.

I hope to catch up with Rob and Andrea in the next few days and get back to The Lordship to pick up my bags and do the final clean of the bike ( and replace the broken flasher that happened when the bike 'fell over' in Greece. Well, more of a slide than a fall. Lack of concentration on a fast downhill bend can do that!

Sedan and onward.............

Tuesday 15 July

Left my charming motel and headed west towards the Somme where I wanted to visit Viller Bretoneux, site of one of Australia's greatest battles in WW1. On the way I went thru several other famous battle sites such as Marle and St Quentin. This part of France may not be the most picuresque, but the villages are just beautiful and simple. There's a real pride in the way the towns are kept. Service stations are generally well down a side street, so not to spoil the look of a place.

Got to Villers Bretoneux and the place is adorned with references to Oz. Avenue Robinvale, rue du Melbourne etc. There's even a school funded by Victoria in the town. Good to know that we're still thought of highly somewhere ( well, the Turks like us as well!). Went to Corbie, another battle site. all good!

Pic of town hall at Corbie. The picture quality is dropping off, the camera has been thru a bit of rough treatment lately.

Delayed leaving Wallensdorf...........

Monday 14.

Packed the panniers and snapped them onto the bike. The sun was shining and breakfast ( hard boiled egg, rolls, cold meats, coffee and great German jams) was wating down stairs in the basement. Incidently, there were a number of strangely locked doors down there and I kept thinking about that nice Austrian father who loved his children.

I thought I'd check on the eBay auction and discovered I was locked out of the system. eBay had picked up that I ( or some imposter) had accessed my account from Germany and placing an ad for the UK. I took me 2 hours to sort ( via the net to Oz) to sort it. I then had to redo the ad. So it wasn't the early start I'd planned.

I freewayed into France to make up some time and headed to Verdun which was a terrific little town. Stopped for coffee, spoke to some French bikers who told me that the road to Sedan was a beaut. So I headed off.

The road was great ( ie., not many cars, good sweeping bends and no sign of police) and went thru, strangely enough, some nice little French villages, Mouson being my favourite. I know the pic's just of a river, but I know where it is!

I was right in the centre of the Ardennes, great farming area criss-crossed with canals.

I continued on the Sedan and went thru the usual panic of finding a decent place to sleep. This place had no pensions....... really weird. So I stayed at a crappy motel on the edge of town. Showered and rode back in for a good meal at les Halles restaurant. Had a great local beer as well.

Covered about 380 miles, a good day.

Exit Prague, enter Germany

Saturday 12

Found my way out of Prague quite easily.... must be finally getting it! As I approached Germany it started to drizzle. stop and on with the wets. Then it rained and rained. Its not long before the rain has seeped right up to my chest. Miserable ride. After a few hours and not enough kms travelled, I'm looking for a dry place to stop. West of Nurnberg of stop at Ansbach and then down a small road to Wallersdorf to a pension. Get dry and sit and watch le Tour. Cavendish wins the stage............ A Manxman!

No restaurant in the village, so later its on with wet wets and ride into Ansbach. After the meal (mediocre) I continue past the pension and come to a charming little village.... with a great pub. almost English style village.

Sunday 13

Had planned to ride on, but the rain had started up again. Decide to stay, give the bike a good wash and put it on eBay so it'll be sold whilst I'm still in UK. The pension has the net, so I'm set for the day. Also the MotoGP is on so I can sit and watch that too. and I know where there is a great pub!! Result!

Nice clean Yamaha XJ900!!

Budapest to Prague

9-11 July

The 'farewell' meal, Budapest.

Saw Dave off in taxi morning of 9th and wished him a good Rally. Rob and Andrea headed west towards Austria and I headed north to Slovakia. The ride out of Hungary was good through farmlands and forests. Truely beautiful. It got hillier the closer I got to the border. and with that...cooler.. colder and then the rain set in! I was still wearing the same riding gear as Syria.

The houses in northern Slovakia were a mix of fairly new and some great older timber houses, almost log cabin, but square section timbers. People still working the fields as they've done for ages.... lots of back-bending hand work.

Crossed into Poland with no checks, the EU working well. If only the buggers would all use euros, it would have made the whole ride much less of a strain. Notes are easy to shed as you leave a country, fill the petrol tank. But coins are starting to mount up in the back pack.

The Poles now hold the prize for bad roadwork practice. 100 km from the border to Kracow was partially dug up, either one side of the road or the other. A bit like Albania, they decide to do the whole length, not just finish a piece at a time. 100km took almost 3 hours and by the time I rode into Kracow I was wanting a shower and bed. Couldn't find a pension\hotel with secure parking for the bike, so at about 6:30 set out riding west into the darkness.

Finally got to Kapowice (?) which looked very dodgy (or at least the part of town I stumbled into), with sleezy bars and people weighing up the bike for a quick sale, so I headed to the outskirts where I stayed at another Russian inspired office block which pretended it was a hotel. But at least it was clean and the bike off the street and being watched all night by Doris! Walked into the darkness and found a pub and had a beer and bratwurst... simple food, but just right for the time.

After ham and eggs for breakfast I was on the road to Prague. Freeway most of the way, but not before the Poles played at being roadworkers again. Along the road were many historic sites to visit (if you had the time), most appeared to be old coal mines. Every now and then I would see a beautiful castle on some craggy clifftop, real fairytale stuff.

No one at the border into Czech Republic so in I went and continued to Prague. Like most of our entries, I headed straight for the centre of town. There's always a sign to "centrum". I finally came to a hotel that didn't look too expensive (the main criteria) and had off-street parking. It was only 2 metro stops from the Charles Bridge and 66 dollars per night.... result!

A walk around to check things out, some dinner and a beer and the day was done. ATM ate my card!

Friday,

Did some overdue work on the bike. Its fine, but trim and stuff is showing wear and tear ( or is it tare?). Its going to need a big cleanup before it goes on eBay. Spoke to folk at bank. Seems that they'll send my card home. Luckily I have have a back-up card.

Went for a huge walk through the old quarters and up to the castle, supposedly the largest castle complex in the world.... I tend to believe them. Unbelievable. do a Google. I'm now typing this and then I'll slowly head back to the hotel, fold the washing that I washed in the shower this morning and pack to be ready to leave in the morning and head into Germany.

Buda and Pest continued

Tuesday 8 July

Dave headed to the airport to have his bike shipped back to London as he flies off to Moscow tomorrow to ready himself for the Trans Siberia Rally. He's co-driver in the Porsche Australia Team's Cayenne. They didn't manage to finish last year, but have big plans for this one. The rally finishes in Mongolia. I think the flight out of Mongolia will be the most adventurous part.

Visited the main market. Great building and lots of good produce, but our QV Market is every where as good. This one just has more varieties of Hungarian salami. Did some more walking, this time to the top of another damn hill to see another damn Citadel. Great views of Budapest.

Pic of a relaxed and tanned newbold. The dark clouds are a bit of a worry. Not looking forward to riding in the rain again.

Tonight will be the "farewell Dave meal". Should be a good one. It'll be sad to see him leave the ride, I'll miss the continual piss taking and his wind problem, but I wish him luck.

The ride tomorrow is not planned yet. North to Slovakia or west to Austria................?