Updates

3.2.1 Their Off

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Well its now been exactly 2 years since the lap of Australia and the team are off again! This time with a little bit of differance. Mike stays home and Colin takes up the reins and guess what? Colin and Henk are also joined by their wonderful adventerous wives, Fran and Pia. Also the choice of land is the large continent of Europe.

BIKES AND TEAM ARRIVE

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Well the bikes arrived and the team caught up with each other at Henks brothers in Holland. Before being allowed into the country poor oll Henk had to be subject to hard interigation from customs! Perhaps they new he was an allien and didnt trust his real motives of being in a strange place like Holland?
Then his bike wouldnt start! Apparently all the fuel had to be removed for safety while been shipped over and someone had reconnected the fuel lines back to front.

MEET UP WITH THE RELLYS

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April 29th, Oostende - Belgium To Rouen - France. Distance today= 377klms. The team enjoyed breakfast in Dunkirk then rode to the beach memotial site and museum. Dinner was had in Rouen where everyone caught up with Frans Sister Deb, and Brother in law Alistar. They then rode on untill they found a camp site in the dark and procceded to erect their tent.Thunder and lightning was all around them so Colin and Henk stayed hidden under a big tree for safety while the ladies put up the tent!

30/04/10 HOW THE WAR WAS ONE

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Today The team travel from Rouen- France to Carentan- France. Distance 275klms.
At the morning pre ride bike check Colin found serious play in the drive shaft. He quietly rode the bike to a reputable repair shop found via the G.P.S and had it checked. Colin was very impressed with the service there as it only required an adjustment and the whole fiascoe only took 1 hour!

28/04/10 EURO BIKE, NOT BMW!

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Its now the 28th April, and the team are off from Rotterdam to Oostend. Total distance ridden today is 258klms.After only 1klm into the ride Henks bike ground to a halt and he felt this warm sensation running down his leg! He quickly remembered what happened to Mike in Australia when Mike had peeded himself, thinking ooh no not my turn! But Alas it was fuel, much worse than pee! After a quick check they found the fuel line was not secured correctly the day before and procceded to fix the problem. They carried on and enjoyed a neat ride to Oostend.

3RD MAY TIME FOR A SIESTA

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May 3 Biarritz F - Sabinanigo Spain 274 km Left late morning for a slow cold wet ride over the Pyrenees 1250m. Past a lot of Santiago de Compostela pilgramge walkers. Continued onto Pamplona. No sign of tomatoes in the street, in fact no sign of anything much. we had arrived during siesta. Almost everything closed between 1pm & 4 pm. Walked into Sabinanigo for Paella & Vino Tinto.

4TH MAY POLICE GUNS AND SNOW!!

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May 4 Sabinanigo Spain - Saillagouse France 474 km Heading across North Spain in the foot hills of the Pyrenees planning to get to Deb & Alistars nr Perpignan for dinner.
Have seen loads of barley, peaches and pig units. Spain looks very different to F almost eastern europe looking, very industrial, a lot of subsistance agricultural. People look sad. Looks like a lot of civil money being spent on roading. Planned to ride back over the Pyrenees through Andorra. Now snowing and the higher we get the more snow.

6 TH MAY BRING ON THE GOAT CHEESE

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Today the team is in Vernet Les Bains. They all checked out the local produce at the markets and went to check out the wine and apple producer. They spent a very entertaining afternoon in the wine cave learning about and sampling different wines????? They then went off looking for a goat cheese producer who they had met earlier at the markets. They wandered all over the place eventauly ending up in the mountains! They then had to sramble up on a very rough track on their bikes to get to the farm. The dude was milking 65 goats and the dudess was making the cheese.

7TH MAY TO WALK OR TO RIDE?

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Today the team have stayed in Vernet. Colin had an early morning swim then they went up into the village for a Pastice. ( not a Danish, but an alcoholic anaseed drink that is consumed any time of the day.) Well thats what they tell us! This was followed by a coffee at a cafe then to the Patteserie for fresh croisants and bagettes to take back for breakfast. They all then went to see a monastary. This should have been a 1.6 k walk up a steep path but alistar managed to force the barrier arm up so they could ride up.

8TH MAY THAT FAMOUS VIADUCT

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Today saw the riders and their pillions travel from Vernet to Milau a 300k ride. The main point of interest today was seeing the massive viaduct that the Eifle Tower could just about fit underneath! What a site that would have been. I hope they got photos.

10TH MAY JUST ONE MORE TOY

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Today saw the team ride from Niems to San Maxine 289ks.
They all stayed at a youth hostel last night. A tyre was replaced on Henk and Pias bike and Colin and Frans bike had the head retorqued to attempt to stop an oil leak. This is the 2nd time now in a BMW shop and the guys are pretty impressed with the exceptional service given.

13th MAY BY BOAT OR GONDOLA?

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Today is a touring day. They got on a bus and went into Venice and spent the day walking around all over the place. Then it was off to see the Grand Canel. They debated on weather to go by gondola or by boat, and chose the latter as the gondola was far too exspensive.

8TH MAY WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT

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Today the team rode from Milau to Niems, 200klms
They rode through a very picturess gorge. Its hard to believe some of the places people live and where they build their homes and tend their plot of ground. Henk has been up to his old tricks again and was trying to see how many ks he can get out of a tyre! This is at least his 2nd world record attempt in as many years! The steel belt was showing through after 8000ks which is pretty good for rideing 2 up. They had to make a dash to a bike shop in Niems to remedy the problem.

12TH MAY MORE HAIL THUNDER AND LIGHTNING!

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Today was from Rappallo to Venice, 435ks. Sounds like sore bum territory to me! Again the 2 bikes got seperated on the motorway so they just carried on and met up again sometime just before Venice. They had to contend today with hail thunder and lightning and to make it worse the forcast aint good! They all found a cheap hotel 4 the night as the ladies really didnt want to put the tent up again by themselves.
Mike C

11TH MAY ITALY HERE WE COME!

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Today the ride took the guys and girls from S Maxine France to Rappallo Italy.350ks. Colin started the day off with a refreshing swim in the Mediterranean amoung lots of jelly fish! They then rode through Monarco just as all the teams for the formular one GP were arriving for practice before the race on 16th May. The teams got seperated on the motorway which took quite some time to get back together. The roads here are amasing, one minute you are in a tunnel the next you are riding over a viaduct, often with nothing in between. They all went out for pizza at Abdulas Lebanise Italian.

14 TH MAY ALWAYS TRUST IN YOUR GARMIN G.P.S

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Today the riders left Venice Italy and headed for Ljubljana Slovenia. 389ks. The weather was mainly fine except for one heavy hail storm. There is lots of farmed land near Venice that is below sea level. The G.P.S has told them the land is actually 9 meters below sea level! They all lost a bit of time getting out of Italy. Some of the roads on maps dont exist! Henk and Pia ended up in the Dolimites North Italy while Coilin and Fran spent their time going around in circles in between 2 motorways.

16TH MAY, TOO DANGEROUS TO RIDE!

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Today is a ride from Ptuj Slovenia to Szekesfehervar, 276ks.
It is now very very very wet! It is Extremly windy and the roads are covered with branches and silt washed off from nearby crop paddocks. There are lots of trees down and it has become far too dangerous to continue riding! Henk and Pia stopped after only 30ks up the road and they decided it was time to spend another night in a bed. there are big floods all over Europe!

17TH MAY, STILL WET WET WET!

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Today the weather is just the same. There is no getting on the bikes again today. The team caught a bus then metro to Budapest. They all did a hop on hop off bus tour of the town. There is lots of amaising archetecture and monuments to see and they learnt heaps about recent history.

20TH MAY, MEET UP WITH MR BULLS EYE GUM BOOTS!

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Prauge Cz.
Caught a tram to city centre. Went through communists history museum then did a guided tour of the city by bus walk and boat. It has been good to get english comentary on city tours. The team met up with Paul Wallace ( Mr Bulls eye gumboots) Paul is from Otorohanga and now lives in Prauge where he manufactures boots and distributes around the world.

22ND MAY, NOW SPEEDO PROBLEMS!

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Bamberg to Heidelberg Den 286ks.
Today good weather so the drysuits are packed away.The team have been back in tents since leaving Prauge.Today they had to find yet another B.M.W dealer as Henk and Pias speedo cable broke and required replacing. They camped by the river Neckar, caught a bus into H/Berg and walked around the old town. They had bratwurst and saurkraut for dinner.
MC

26TH MAY, TIME TO SHIP COLIN AND FRANS BIKE BACK TO NZ

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Poortugaal / Rotterdam
Today is a quiet day as can be expected. They went into Rotterdam this morning to clean up Colin and Frans bike ready for shipping back to kiwi land.They sampled Dutch snack cuisine, eg pattat, crocket, fricendale and raw herring.On their travels they have always wanted to eat what is traditional for the country, which hasnt been too challenging anywhere in Europe, although Colin did struggle a bit with the raw herring. Henk and Pia were holding them up by the tail and letting them slide down just like the seals do at marine land!