A 10,000 miler in 7 parts

[exrm193]

Back in April, Two of us did a 10,000 mile trip through Europe, Turkey & Russia. It was a 50th birthday present to ourselves. I did a daily blog, and I’ve now joined up all the video clips into a 35 minute movie. The daily blog is a warts ‘n’ all report, so apologies for any rude words!!
The riders were myself (Si) & Milly. We’ve known each other since primary school and have ridden together since then. The bikes were a 1985 Honda XL600 and a 2007 Honda XR650L.
Apologies for the music on the video clips, it all had to be royalty free otherwise Youtube pull it down.

Anyway, its in 7 parts. Here we go with part 1

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DAY 1 - 18/4 257 Miles.

Hemel Hempstead to a small village near Mons, Trahegnies. No plan survives contact with the enemy. The tunnel was full so we had to go to Dover for the ferry.£100 return. That has delayed us by 2 hours. Tried 2 camp sites before 3rd time lucky. Intermarcher only 1km away. Both pulled out on wrong side of the road. Nearly 2 x head on. €20 to camp, bargain.

Both bikes ran faultlessly. XR doing 12.4 miles per litre.
Milly is totally in awe of Gerbing heated kit....AWESOME. “How did I survive so long without it??”
Si’s tactical error....Tent WAY TOO SMALL. Millys - Stool WAY TO UNCOMFORTABLE.
Milly forgets to buy food at the Supermarche & he didn`t bring his money with him......COCK
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Day 2 - 19/4. 311 miles. 568 in total.

Another day where it didn`t go to plan. DAMN YOU FATE!!! You are a cruel mistress.
Boring motorway miles hoping to catch up some time from yesterday. 311 miles to cheap campsite €20 near Pforzheim. Stopped for a cuppa at 1500hrs. XR has a split header pipe & the XL has a small oil leak.
Milly broke his helmet trying to fix it!! Honda bike dealer 100m up the road but....closed.....BOLLOX.
Exhaust repairs tonight. Hope to get it fixed Tuesday. Bank Hol weekend remember!! 152 miles behind the plan.
Slight fuel leak on one of the XR fuel filters...new pipe required.
camping in the Black Forest...good site 1st one we tried. XL doing 13.5 miles per litre - not been onto reserve yet.
Milly converted to Si’s noisy cooker. (MSR) After all the previous slagging off, he realises it's fast and runs on anything. All in Curry Car crash for scran. going to miss out Dachau and head for Budapest 600 miles away.
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Day 3 - 20/4...............187 miles 755 in total

Bikes temp repaired and set off. Exhaust repair lasted 5 minutes.
1st fuel stop at 50 miles. Si cut his knuckle open and stabbed himself on safety pin. Spoke to German couple on a BMW 1200GS who spoke to another guy who knew a local Blacksmith. We followed him to the Blacksmith who welded the XR pipe for €20
Took a couple of hours in total so we missed out Dachau. Rode mainly motorway miles again today. cruising at 65-70MPH. Boring but we must get the miles done. Fantastic hotel in Kronwinkle. Next to a pukka castle. €78. Beer garden full of English ex-pats!
Heading for Budapest tomorrow. Stopping in Vienna
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Day 4 - 21/04....................254 miles. 1009 in total.

Great roads through Austria to camp site in Vienna. Very pretty Austrian Villages. Followed the Danube for a while - all good. No more issues with the bikes...
Met a young couple at the campsite who have been away for 14 months on pushbikes. 50 miles a day......Restepa!!
Budapest tomorrow only 160 miles...an easy day hopefully.
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Day 5 - 22/04........................162 miles. 1171 in total

A wet day on back roads to Budapest. 1 x fuel stop per day is the way to go!! XR tank = 273 miles. XL = 384 miles!
The tactical error of the small tent has been rectified at a Tesco scran stop. €30 for a 3 man tent...bargain. Blow up pillow bought by Milly. Bit of a faff finding a cheap hotel in Budapest.
Ended up in an IBIS. €203 all in for 2 nights.
Stats so far: Moving average = 46mph. Overall average = 29MPH. Max speed 74MPH. Sat nav on for 40hours 58Min. Moving for 25hours 31min.
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Day 6 23/04............................day off

Loads of bars and cafes right outside the hotel...superb food last night...chatting to more Brits (Druids)
Breakfast in an indoor market. Milly gives away a €20 note thinking it's a 5!!!! Blind twat.

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Day 7. 24/4 255 miles 1428 in total

Left Budapest at 9am. Soooooooo Flat. Sooooooooooo boring. Far worse than northern France.
Crossed into Romania at 1400. Instant change of feel to the place. Border town was very run down and seedy. It's either falling down or being built. No motorway as such. Single carrigeway into city called Club-Napoca. 5* hotel for €100 because we're worth it. Road into town was lined with shop after shop selling wicker baskets, gnomes & beach balls...Weird!! All the town/villages look the same...brown! People seem friendly enough but very poor. Plenty of horses and carts on the road. All car drivers looney!!
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Day 8. 25/4 182 miles

Ended up camping at an orthadox monastery on a hill with 24 nuns!! They fed us within 10 minutes of arrival. Sausage, mash Beetroot with Horseradish + cake.
It was a big loop through the mountains some good off road 1/2 way through. Our pre bought food fell from the cargo net into a puddle.
Still thinking of something nice to say about Romania as a country. The people are nice, but the place is a shit hole. Rubbish everywhere. Lots of buildings half finished or falling down. Very depressing. Before the monastery, we tried castle Dracula hotel €195 per night!!! Twice the price of a 5*....the reception bloke suggested we try the monastery, hence the nuns.
We have promised to go to mass tomorrow as a thankyou to the nuns.
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Day 9. 26/4 181 miles

Mass at 0800 then breakfast with the nuns. One of whom worked in Watford 3 years ago. They range from 19-44 years old. We had a quick tour of the monastery. Awesome story about the monk who set it up. Forced to dig his own grave by the Germans. Shot in the back of the neck. fell into his grave. He survived and escaped the next day...
The nuns gave us a packed lunch & gifts before we left.
We rode 181 miles ending up in Sibiu. Milly had contacted Enduro Romania & asked camp in their garden, but when we arrived it was a no go. Small residential address. Evening meal at The Golden Arches and a 3* Hotel for €35 all in.....bargain.
The south seems nicer than the North. Seems much cleaner & not so many half finished buildings. More motorcycles & less gypsies!!!
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Day 10. 27/4. 126 miles

Small trip to Vampire camping in Bran. We planned to do the Transfargarason road, but it was blocked with snow. We met 3 x Czech riders on BMW 1200 GS's at a concrete barrier on the way up. They had kinds given up going any further but Milly rode over a lower bit so they were inspired and we manhandled them over. We rode a bit farther up, but deep snow stopped play.
We must have been the first people up there this year. Big rocks all over the road. Scenery was awesome. Very similiar to the Stelvio.
Arrived at an Empty Vampire Camping. Some German 4x4's turned up later and we didn't mention the war. Well I did, but I think I got away with it.
Luggage failure of my ATK panniers. Big split!!!! sewed up with emergency housewife.
Still a full phone signal......like everywhere!!!
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Video here -

[Mosel Bikes]

Enjoying this, thanks. Kind of Ride Report I like, quite succinct but with interesting anecdotes rather than long rambling text, backed-up with nice videos to make sense of it all and make it real. I like videos like this - not overly long, tieing in with the narrative, varied with onboard/stills/telling the story.
Looking forward to reading and watching the rest.
Well done yous (thumbs)

[Elle]

great summary, nice video! I'm saving the others until I've read your next report

[Brenhden]

I love this kind of report. Its the combination of breakdowns, mistakes and insults that makes it funny. please post the rest

[exrm193]

Cheers folks. I'll post day 2 up tomorrow. This editing lark is a PITA!!

[Phil]

great report and video.

Just beeing nosey....what editing software did you use?

[Spike941]

Thanks for posting. Just watched all 7 vids back to back, and what a trip. Shame about the rain and punctures, that can't have been fun.

[daytona-supersport]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. (thumbs)

[exrm193]

great report and video.

Just beeing nosey....what editing software did you use?

It was put together with iMovie on my Mac. The Chad Valley royalty free music came from Youtube audio library.

Oh...I forgot to mention. At the last minute, we thought we'd do it to raise some dosh for MacMillan cancer support. We raised £1300....not bad for a last minute thought. The just giving page is here if anyone's feeling generous;
https://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Millhou ... ion-mobile

[Brenhden]

I made a video recently with music that had copyright, I went into the youtube royalty management area and it asked me to confirm that I'd used the music and that I wasn't using it to make money. Once I'd done that it worked fine.

great report and video.

Just beeing nosey....what editing software did you use?

It was put together with iMovie on my Mac. The Chad Valley royalty free music came from Youtube audio library.