Greece - the final frontier !!

[nethen1]

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[nethen1]

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[Tonibe63]

Loving it, keep it coming

[PHILinFRANCE]

EPIC feckin EPIC ....................;love it guys, proper run out

[SteveR]

A great ride and a great read!

Maybe better in early Spring, late Summer for us English roses??

[nethen1]

Day... on our way home ish

I've been working away all august so the last part has taken some time. So apologies for the delay.. if you were at all bothered

After a great meal in a local Greek Tavern, Epic meat feast as usual, we were invited into the rear of the restaurant... probably only used in winter as it was stifling in there... low and behold an ancient church just through the rear door, the restaurant was built on to it, it was a little weird to say the least, albeit very very beautiful. I tried to take some photos but they just didn't do the tiny church any justice. Good food, amazing place. !

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Followed by a few drinks by the harbour, right nice it was too


The morning after the night before... with sore heads and a slightly heavy heart we decided we didnt want to ride bikes and we wanted to play in the sea some more lol..... unfortunately Bulgaria was calling so we dithered around for as long as we could... well after lunch then took the plunge to go sort ourselves and the bikes... its was rather warm.... protocol involved wearing as little as possibe within reason whilst packing the bikes for riding, then a quick dash into our riding gear and on the bikes and moving before the sweat really started to pour. 38+ C I think it was.

We opted for the scenic route of course, via the mountain passes towards Bankso then onto Samokov, we so far had missed all the threatened thunder storms and torrential down pours but only just....

onward.... after about an hour or so we started to follow the mountains then drifted into the middle of them... snaking and winding our way along for what felt like hours... it was hours !! the tarmac smooth, grippy, hardly any cars just mental lorries that had to be overtaken....if you dare.

Finallly reaching the border, documents needed, no toll and back to the land of in my opinion, better food and of course much much cheaper.
The border guard was confused by my sticker on my bike, "what is bike " yamaha i replied, " no !! YSS " ? " huh?" i said in my best Bulgarian.....

"YSS??" then i noticed he was pointing at my tank stickers .... luckliy the yanaha badge is still there so all was resolved... back to the twistys.......... miles and miles of them.... Scott spotted a go kart track at the side of the road,,,, very VERY posh. Better than any UK one i have visited !
and a 3rd the price too... That was it... the race was on.... well for a lap.. Scott then told me he has 2 racing karts at home and left me like I was going backwards.. still great fun and a good break from the bike... we were sweating cobs after tho !

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[nethen1]

Onwards to Samokov. We had about an hour to go, The weather was looking grim, texts from our mates on the coach had warned of torrential rain and debris on the roads...

We pressed on, seeming to miss all the rain.. we saw the after affects and we could see if all around us, black and ominous but nothing directly on us... I knew as we entered the forest part of the road that it could get a little slipper... my word, the road was like ICE !!! 10 miles of terror, gravel and muck washed onto the road at any junction, they had had some serious rain, We were both glad we had been so hungover to ride early an opted for an after lunch start..

Entering familiar territory and the road drying off, the sun on our back, ish we entered Samokov and proceeded to the hotel, Appartely a feast awaited us.. We had to options... road ride the final part, or take the trail to the hotel.. we took the trail obviously.

Started easily enough, well the 1st 30 yards, then as we started to climb.... the Mitas e09 and XT644 tryes beacame slicks and i was on a bucking bronco ride. Needless to say i binned it , nearly slipped down the banking , Scott on his trail tyres were even more useless. !!

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It was obviously at this point it started to rain, and some how went dark within seconds.... A little disconcerting to say the least... The big muddy push up the hill for both bikes and we slithered our way over the top and back down to the hotel... were a feast was duly served. Well earned !!

and great to meet the gang again

our last day tomorrow before we load the bikes for shipping home........ relax or ride........??

[nethen1]

We obviously chose to ride.. To Black Rock. This is the place up in the Borovtz mountains where they used to throw partisans off the top... after some torturing 1st of course !!

"The Black Rock (Cherna Skala) is a natural phenomenon in the Rila mountains, about one hour on foot from Borovets, in the direction of Zavrachitsa mountain lodge. The distance from the summit of the rock to its stony base is about 135 metres forming a gorge with a sheer cliff. Dozens of men were killed here after the 9th September, 1944. They were victims of the new “people’s power” from the region of Samokov and the villages of Iskar and Belchin.

The victims were wealthy people – traders, craftsmen and wealthy villagers from the region – killed without trial and sentence.

After the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria began to talk freely of the men from Samokov who disappeared without a trace in the autumn 1944"

http://pametbg.com/index.php/en/memoria ... black-rock

Horrific histories !!!

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Feels wrong having photos up there and smiling for the camera now knowing just how bad the place was.

RIP x

[nethen1]

The old Ottoman trails to the rock after the recent flooding had washed away completely in parts and took some serious negotiation on the trusty XT, Scott's CCM and Matts KTM even struggled a little.

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A great little route of about 60 miles ish and, pretty big bike friendly,

But it was soon time to go sort the bikes ready for shipping.

After loading the bikes and a quick shower it was time to go eat food with the locals. Our guides from our enduro events Venci and Fury. Pappa , Larry to help translate and drink with us and also a random bulgarian bloke who just played on his phone, We ate local and drank local till we were stuffed and pretty pissed too.... £70 for all of us all in !!

Great night, Great crack ace food
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restauran ... egion.html

If ever your in the region, call in. it wer right nice ... as they say in wigan

All in all
2000 kilometers covered
approx £10 in tolls ish
1 litre of oil " scotts bike"
half a litre of Tsipreo ( greek spirit)
half liter rakia ( bulgarian sprirt )
80 cigarrettes
We ate cheese of some description almost every day for 10 days.
3 international borders
1 unintentional border
bike drops 1 - me
girls numbers asked for 3 - all by scott
numbers received = 0
scary moments - a few
crossed words, odd one
laughs had - loads and loads
Smiles per mile 99%
trails 10% roads 90%
epicness 100%

Bikes shipped with www.bulgariabikeshipping.com approx £500 per bike return. each bike was under 120cm tall with all bags removed.

Hope you enjoyed the read, hope you can forgive my bad spelling and loose use of the English language

hopefully I'll make a video with the silly amount of footage I have.

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppp

[nethen1]

Here is the link to the 4 videos I have produced ( quite a strong word for my editing skills )

Hope you guys enjoy watching our little adventure. 10 days off work, 2000 km covered.






Braaaaappppp