11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

The black art of moving from A to B on foreign soil
BurningGiraffe
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

Post by BurningGiraffe »

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http://BearingsUnlimited.blogspot.co.uk
BurningGiraffe
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

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Day 54 - 25/06/10
End Location: Rochefort, Belgium
Days Mileage: 204
Total Mileage: 7660
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Up early and into town. Booked my return Eurotunnel ticket for the day after tomorrow and had breakfast before heading up to chateau Haut-Barr which was very ruined but had good toilets which I tested thoroughly. Headed for Trier on the autobahn thanks to the satnav and pulled off when it started to rain, only to find them closing the road I wanted to take. Bugger! I whipped through the gap anyway and found absolutely nothing wrong with the road. That's German efficiency for you.
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Entering Trier, which seemed a nice leafy city, I soon found the black gate and very impressive it was too with its monster blocks of cyclopean masonry. Looked around then hit the cathedral and enjoyed the carnival like atmosphere but I needed to be away.
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Visited the Luxembourg national military museum which has a good collection of vehicles and wartime memorabilia but was soon on the road looking for a campsite, which I found in Rochefort. Had delicious burger et frites at a roadside shack and gathered supplies in town before spending the evening chatting to my neighbour in the campsite. A nice little town.
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http://BearingsUnlimited.blogspot.co.uk
BurningGiraffe
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

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Day 55 - 26/06/10
End Location: Gravelines, France
Days Mileage: 192
Total Mileage: 7852

Had breakfast in a lovely cafe in the town where the waitress panicked when she heard my English accent and went off to fetch the manageress, despite my order being entirely in French. Oh well. Probably Flemish speaking types. Straight back on the bike towards Beloeil passing Dinant and finally finding a new speedo cable!
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Arrived at Beloeil early only to find that it wasn't open for another hour and a half! Retired to a very friendly and idiosyncratic cafe with a heavily stocked fish tank and a life-size sculpture of a very sexy looking Betty Boop astride a motorcycle. Had a lovely lunch and then was literally the first guest at the Chateau, greeted cordially by a gentleman of asian extraction whio hailed from London. It had a lovely faded glory and a lived in feel, much like Highclere castle in the UK. The gardens were huge but dull so it was time to move on.
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Hit Ypres only to find that all of the roads were closed so I parked up and walked in anyway. The cause of the closures was the Ypres Rally. What are the chances of that? Last year when Roger and I visited the roads were all closed because of. . . correct, the Ypres Rally!! Had a good wander and checked out the Flanders field museum that was closed on the last two occasions I visited.
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Cracked off the last forty or so miles to Gravelines just over the French border and found a nice campsite near the beach. Celebrated with a final steak at the beachfront cafe and mulled over the ups and downs of my trip in the cool evening light.
Link to my travels webpage:



http://BearingsUnlimited.blogspot.co.uk
BurningGiraffe
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

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Day 56 - 27/06/10
End Location: Bournemouth, UK
Days Mileage: 196
Total Mileage: 8048
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Back via the Eurotunnel. Stopped for a proper full English as soon as possible on the other side then a relaxed run cross country back to Bournemouth. Home.
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BurningGiraffe
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

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Postscript: May 2021

This is how it started out!
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After the trip the Tengai would barely pull 55mph and smoked like a chimney. The ethanol in the fuel on the continent had affected all of the gaskets and seals in the carb and the various other faults and damage meant an ignominious end - sold for spares or repair on Ebay for £400.

After 4 extended periods with no speedometer who knows how many miles it had racked up but after four trips abroad, including this one it was probably upwards of 70,000km.

My greater goal was to ride to Turkey (Morocco, although fantastic, was a secondary destination to fill up what I had assumed would be ample time) within the three month period that I had secured as unpaid leave from my job and it was clear with the seemingly constant breakdowns and bad weather that the bike wasn't going to make it.

On my return home I booked an airline ticket to Antalya airport in Turkey and hired a car (Turkish bike hire was prohibitively expensive) and set off to tour Turkey on four wheels. The car hire company was not particularly overjoyed when I returned the car having clocked up 8000km in just two weeks. However I still had a hankering to return on two wheels and set off again on a more modern machine in 2013, with about as much success as this trip.
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11 years on what I felt at the time was an ignominious failure ( given I didn't get the bike to Turkey) has clarified in my mind as the single best bike trip I have ever undertaken and I came back genuinely a different person to the one that had left just a couple of short months previously. Despite all the setbacks and aggravations it gave me a sense of perspective, a resiliance and a way more relaxed approach than I had before I left. On subsequent trips I always feel this kicks in at about the three week mark which for me is when you stop being on holiday and really start to just living from day to day on the journey (man!!).

Also notable was the 'telescoping' of time by which I mean that cramming so much experience into such a relatively short time, where everyday is memorable, has the effect of pushing back everything that preceded it so that although I had only been away from work for three months it seemed literally like years had passed. None of the petty workplace bullshit had any relevance to me although others were clearly still engaged in some kind of power struggle from before my trip which I had no recollection of.

It was a cheap trip, and actually cost less than if I had stayed at home for the equivalent time. I spent just over £2000 for the whole two month period and that included at least 3 four-star hotel stays which could easily have been avoided. This was somewhat offset by the cost of driving 8000km round Turkey on my return with some of the worlds priciest petrol - the two weeks in Turkey cost me more than the whole of the bike trip.

I had 13 breakdowns on the trip although none were insurmountable, 2 sets of tyres and brake pads, 2 speedo cables, 2 oil changes, 4 clutch cables, one replacement clutch lever, two broken plastic panels, a lost handguard and a recurring electrical fault that would just cause the motor to die ot not start, which I never identified the cause of. No punctures although I was cautious whenever I went off road for precisely this reason.

Anyway, its been great to revisit this trip and re-assess what I felt was a failure at the time. I hope the words and pictures have provided a little entertainment to those of you that have persevered through the rantings and minutiae of my diary.
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Link to my travels webpage:



http://BearingsUnlimited.blogspot.co.uk
PHILinFRANCE
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

Post by PHILinFRANCE »

Words fail me , i've lived in France for 17 years and you've seen more then me in a month than all my time here ..................feckin epic trip , thanks for sharing and prompting me to see more of my adopted country

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chunky butt
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

Post by chunky butt »

That was a great ride report, really enjoyed that, thanks for posting.
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Mactavish
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Re: 11th anniversary of Europe and Morocco trip - Review

Post by Mactavish »

Thank you for taking the time to write out and sharing a cracking trip . Brilliant.
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