With friends in Augsburg

We’re in Augsburg and today will be our last in Western Europe for some time. Tomorrow we head off to Czech Republic and onto Poland. After Poland we finally start truly heading south and will continue south till we reach South Africa. I feel excited when I think about it – even though we have been on the road for 3 weeks and the novelty of travel should be getting a bit less novel. Western Europe has been the easy bit and a time to sort out our gear and get used to the bikes and generally being on the go constantly.

So far, here is our advice on the gear: the things we are really loving

Thermarest sleeping mats – we got the thin light-weight mats but they are brilliant. We have slept in what is practically a quarry and not felt a single rock.

Ortlieb roll bags – we have got more of these because they are just so handy, waterproof, strong and affordable . We use them to keep our jackets and shoes strapped to the boxes so we can easily change when we stop.

Metal Mule boxes – These are costly but really good boxes. They are very handy and easy to use. I dropped my bike (avoiding hitting a van) and the box just popped off as it’s supposed to do, so as to avoid damage, not even a small ding. Also protected my legs and the frame of the bike.

Camel pack water carriers – I strap it just behind myself so I can grab the hose and drink as soon as I feel slightly thirsty. We dehydrate very quickly in the heat.

Floating compass – We do have GPS that is useful and interesting to use but I really do find that a good map and a compass are just the ultimate navigation instruments. What is really handy is a floating compass that I can see while I’m driving.

Big groundsheet – We have a big groundsheet that fits under the tent and also gives us an area of about 1m to sit on just outside the tent. As we don’t have chairs or tables this is really comfortable and helps when cooking etc. When it rains, we can also turn the end up and cover our gear.

Pack Safe mesh net – What we do is stick all the valuables that could get snatched under the Pack Safe and lock it to the bike. This means we can get off, grab the tank bag and walk off for a coffee with out too much of a worry. When we are boiling and get off the bike we are able to quickly strip off our bike gear, chuck it into the Pack Safe, lock it to the bike, put up the tent and within 20 min we are ready to go again and don’t have to worry about it while we eat out in a restaurant.

Bungees and cargo nets.

Resealable bags – nearly everything is in a zippy bag to keep it from getting wet or drying out or leaking or lost…

Assortment of bags in various sizes to pack things into so each bag contains a set of items eg. The cooker, matches and fuel bottle.

In general, camping has its pluses and minuses. It’s not all easy but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than hotels. So far we have found European campsites easy to find, always have spaces available and the facilities are usually pretty good.

The upside is that we don’t have to lug our gear into a hotel room and we also have the bikes close by to check over and do any maintenance work right there.

The downside is that we have to set up and pack up every day. We also are rather scruffy. Having said that, we would be scruffy anyway because we would still be limited on wardrobe and laundry facilities. And we would still have to unpack the bikes when we stopped but then have to worry about safe parking as well.

So camping it is then!

We have been in Augsburg since Friday evening and it already feels like we live here. It’s really time to go! Paul is busy trying to fix the god-dam walkie-talkies. We desperately need communications on the bike. If our relationship is to survive, we need to be able to talk! It becomes a control struggle because we will be sharing the GPS and the good maps. The person at the front is usually completely focused on not getting lost which means they are stressed out but in control and have the maps and GPS. They tend to miss all the lovely little sights en route. The person at the back gets to follow which is frustrating if you want to stop to take a photo of one of those lovely sights you’ve seen and the leader has missed – but you don’t know where you are exactly and worry about getting left behind and lost. I’m a bit more laid back when at the back although I can have a ranting session but by the time we stop I’ve forgotten about it. Paul gets mad when I miss “perfect photos” and stays mad with me for the whole day. This is why we are in Augsburg and I don’t want to leave until those walkie-talkies get working.

Since the last blog…

Italy is full of scooters. Normally I think scooters are cute and convenient transport but in Italy, they are more like swarms of wasps dressed in Gucci and Prada. All cloned in the same stores and drive equally badly. I would hear the buzzing and then any amount of scooters would blast past in a winding, swerving, erratic fashion – exactly like a swarm of pradagoochies. No protective gear, flip-flops, bikinis and those popular big sunglasses…

24 July we went to Pompeii

En route to Pompeii we drove around the Amalfi coast. This is a beautiful coastal route with windy roads, hair pin turns, steep dropping cliffs and deep, blue ocean dotted with yachts and rich-man’s boats. As much as it was beautiful, it was hair-raising too. The roads are small with a lot of traffic. The traffic is manic. Tail gaiting, over taking anywhere with no view of on coming traffic, swerving all over the road… and this is when I dropped my bike trying to avoid a van. I think they swerved to avoid hitting Paul and then over compensated to get around the very tight corner. But I was there unfortunately, and leaning right over into the corner and so when I grabbed the breaks to avoid an accident the bike dropped over. I was so mad. I don’t doubt that those guys had no problem at all understanding exactly what I was saying. The two beefy contents of the van jumped out and tried to lift the bike. I could tell they didn’t expect the bike to weigh as much as it did. I shouted something along the lines of, “You see, it’s not a f>$%ing scooter, you w@*&^ers.” They were very apologetic and left me at the side of the road in an absolutely steaming mood. A kind American who was driving behind me drove to alert Paul I was off and then even came back to check I was fine. Besides being unable to put a sentence together that didn’t contain mostly expletives, I was fine. The bike sustained no damage. All in all we were fine but THAT WAS IT. I didn’t want to see any more of Italy!

I screamed at passers by, cars, vans and Paul a few times before we got to Pompeii. We (no I) decided that we would just camp right there as I wasn’t doing any more driving for the day. It was a good decision as we got to walk about the city of Pompeii at our leisure. Again, this is something worth experiencing and I can’t truly take you there. All the documentary films I’d seen helped but I was still amazed by the sheer size of the place. Unfortunately a lot of the artefacts, furniture, bodies of people and animals are all in a museum in Naples. Leaving replicas in situ would be a lot nicer but it was still utterly amazing. (There was no hope in hell I’d drive into Naples). That evening we had a little run in with some dodgy scam guys – we got out fine but Paul didn’t lock his Pack Safe up so his trousers fell on the road and when he went back to find them, they had already been nicked.

We were checking into the campsite as I heard a familiar sound as a Dakar version of the F650GS burst into view. The fellow gave a huge smile and then came over to chat as we were setting our tent up. We were literally in the site of ancient Rome and had met a genuine, real archaeologist. He was a fit as could be and because I never asked his name, I remember him as the original Indianna Jones. We chatted as he watched us with all our gear, clearly amused. He said he travelled light… and had only two shirts. It was my turn to be amused because clearly it must be the swooning first year archaeology students keeping his two shirts so spotlessly white. When we said goodbye in the morning he said he was envious of us having each other as travel companions. He was going to take it easy but we chuckled as his wheels left the ground as he cleared the speed bumps… and I was envious of his super stream-line luggage.

Putting the day before behind us we took to the motorways avoided cities and headed north. We camped at Lake Garda. Pleased to say it was uneventful and pleasant. Then we stopped at Assisi and were relieve to find it significantly more peaceful. But we were not to be disappointed by the Italian tourist rip-off mentality even in this idyllic setting that inspired Saint Francis to be a saint… You could use the pool – included in the camping fee – but when we got to the pool we both observed that the people wearing funny caps were swimming but everyone else was watching. So we wondered if there was a game on – No. The deal was: you had to buy a silly hat in order to swim but it cost 5 Euro. So why was the pool free then?! I ask you. On principle we were not going to pay and we were going to swim so we got our buffs out (tubular material neck protector) and tied a knot in the end and wore those. Well. It was great. We swam and laughed and laughed. The polite people tried not to stare too much but we didn’t care.


27 July – Austria

Austria was welcome as were the good roads and calm drivers. We did the Brenner Pass that is supposed to be really a tough bit of mountain road with no hassles at all. Not even breaking into a little sweat. I could feel myself starting to relax again and even hum along to my ipod.

Real bikers were back on the road. They were driving real bikes and wearing protective gear. They used indicators and didn’t drive head on into on coming traffic. I loved them all.

The mountains were truly beautiful and the setting for “The Sound of Music”. I wish I could sing because I would have at least given the hills are alive with the sound of music a bash. Paul was distraught that I might try.

31 July and we are still in Augsburg

The nicest thing about Augsburg is Susanne. I used to work for a German company and so Susanne came over to gain work experience and learn English. I was kind of her “manager” and she was very supportive while I suffered at work (it was a lousy work environment) and we have continued to be friends. She helped tremendously by ordering the fuel pump that was leaking. BMW will always take a number of days to order a part and get complicated about it too which makes it very awkward when you are on the road. I finally was able to fit the new pump and so far so good - will really test it and my mechanical skills tomorrow. Actually, it’s not that hard doing mechanical work but I’m pleased I did a mechanics course and I think my tutor would be proud of me. The manual is brilliant but you have to buy a copy off the internet because BMW doesn’t supply such useful stuff. Let’s face it; I bet even rocket science is doable with a good manual.

Augsburg is one of the oldest cities in the area. It’s an old Roman city and dates back over 2000 years. It doesn’t look that ancient but apparently it’s near impossible to build in the old city area because as soon as someone digs up foundations they find archaeological ruins and building is halted. Paul and I have really enjoyed this little bit of our trip because we’ve got to go out with friends and really enjoy where we are and Weiss beer every day. We’ve been to Ammersee (a freshwater lake) and to a medieval festival but mostly we have enjoyed the company of Susanne, Gabby and Yannick.

Last night I had a dream that I was really missing my friends so much so that I cried, so please will all my friends out there send me emails and photos. I do miss you all. I wish you could all fit on the back of my bike because we’d have so much fun.

In conclusion, Italy has a lot of Roman ancient history worth seeing, but not worth doing it on a motorbike. If what you are doing most of the time is driving a bike, you want to enjoy driving. It’s like going to the beach to laze in the sun and then it rains all the time. Disappointing. I’ll be making future trips to see the bits I wanted to see but didn’t want to drive through. I’ll fly in and out and stay in a nicely packaged hotel (plus I’ll get myself some blinged out Gucci big sunglasses so I can fit in and get better customer service).

Paul has just got back from a bike shop that does stock the walkie-talkie system we need but only tomorrow at 9am. So tomorrow 9am we will be there. And then off to Eastern Europe.