Kirst and Henry's Big Trip 2008

Day 1
The setting off was liable to be somewhat chaotic with lots turning up to see us off (make sure we went more like). Trip down with Raymondo in the van was just nice to chill out. Dragged bikes out of van to find first problemo- i had left my topbox keys on the kitchen worktop- so now was unable to access the topbox to retrieve my helmet and gloves. Oh how we laughed. Arranging with Dave by phone to send the keys to Bilbao we boarded the "Pride of Bilbao". Air con on the boat killed me so i was an unhappy bunny, so enough of that, Kirst put up with me very well.Day3

All we have ever wanted is for people to do what is asked of them.Engine builder? Build me an engine to travel the world without stupid effin problems. Wheel builder? Hows about a wheel that will do more than 350(ish ) miles before self destructing. JUST DO YOUR FOOKIN JOB!!! But to answer your inquiry, no, no wheel yet.

11th Jan

Monday January sometime,

After spending an exteremly unrestful night in Ceuta (dont care how cheap the hostel is- make sure it is not on the local cruisers route- fookin ambient house music), we finally made it into Morocco. For the most part Spain was great and we met some great, helpful, interesting people. It just wasn't where we wanted to be- well not for 22 days anyway.Coming through the border we collected an exteremly affable helper who we couldn,t get rid of- not that we tried to hard. We just paid up and went with the flow. Got completely stiffed for the insurance though- our fault not checking details.

What a day. Riding the Rif was rumoured to be fraught with possible incidents. Well we're obviously lucky cos it was awesome. The roads, the scenery, the ride. All worth the irritations, and there were some. We (I) took the slightly more minor route of Quezzane to Moulay-Idriss and Meknes because of the green route on the map. Stopping to take pictures or go to the loo in a seemingly unpopulated area would prompt a handful of heads to pop up out of nowhere and make a beeline for us to try and bum a bonbon, a Dirham - fookin TEN Dhirams on one occasion! Anyway they got fook all.

Between Errachidia and Merzouga, the first 'ooh aah' moment of the day was seeing the Oasis du Ziz, a splendidly green valley in what was now becoming almost featureless desert.

Oasis du Ziz

22nd Feb 2008 – Out of Morocco and to Udine in Italy

We’re in Udine in Italy. The top end of the XT has just been bored, bushed and new piston.
Out of Morocco to Italy to fix that Rattly Motor

Got out of Morocco…

Ferry back to Spain

Did some fine roads on the way to Italy

Snow

Slovenia - in the north, very "Sound of Music" , only with snow........ and no nuns. At picturesque Lake Bohinj (yet another mountain pass to get there - I'm a bit mountain-pass'd out now) we got more strange looks off the skiers as we head up the steep hill to see the waterfall at Slap Savica - a word to the wise - don't climb up hundreds of steps in motorcycle gear and Tech 8 boots. It's not big and it's not clever. It is however, very sweaty. And it amused the girl in the ticket office highly.

We are now in Mostar and finally the realisation we are getting somewhere hit's us. It's been solid adventure and delays for the last few days. We left Rijeka having been warned the roads south may still be shut- we went anyway. Sure enough 50 odd kliks later the road is barracaded and the "BURA" (a vicous unpredictable wind" warning signs are up, as eveyone else was ignoring them so did we. We got as far as Senj before i rounded a left hand curve and the bike vitually stopped dead as the BURA hit. I was just lucky it hit head on.