So those of you who have been paying attention will know that our two heroes (Thats THREE heroes, Edwin) are in Murrat Camping, Doggy Biscuit Eastern Turkey, and the darstardly villians out to destroy the world are only in your imagination.... So what happens next ??? Absolutely nothing exciting at all, we legg it off to Istanbul again... three days 1600 kms and in the process discover one of the finest riding roads the world has to offer... The E80 which goes all the way from the Iran border to some where in Germany is a magnificent ride all the way to Istanbul... it may be the main TIR Truck road out of the Middle East, but it is not crowded, it swoops and curves giving us major mountain views, forest, fertile valleys and two big grins on our faces...

The Border at 'Doggy Biscuit' the ques of trucks is at least 2 miles long

But there is one final piece of sight seeing to do..this fortified mosque
sit about the town and makes for a great walk to clear up a hangover!

The saddest moment is crossing the bospherous agian but from the wrong way!! There is a welcome to Europe sign which Chris promply stick a finger up to, I am just depressed to see it, ... especially the huge neon Macdonalds sign just beyond ..

Blimey we are in Bulgaria ... One stamp in the passport, a quick look at the vehicle reg docs and we are in.. No carnet, no Mr Fixers and no ques... yippee... though there was one bit of naughtyness on leaving Turkey - Yep we got nicked for speeding again - 169 400 000 lira this time (Thats £70 - the Bar Stewards!!!)...

....and Bulgaria uses the cryllic alphabet just like the Russians, can we read the roads signs?, well NO not a lot... about 4 o clock we stop for coffee and ask the waitress where we are... till then, at every junction that was doubtfull we either took the biggest looking road or waited to see a foriegn truck come the other way, we are still trying to follow the E80.. we are not where we think we are, but that OK, its an adventure and we are not far off.. Hotel time, a good dinner, a Bulgarian beer and the world is a nice place again

... In the morning we make it to VT - I dont still know what it is really called, but it its two words - one starts with a V and the other with a T - Some of the guys in the ghetto in Esphahan told us about it.. very pretty old town, great big castle, lots of medieval type buildings and some of the finest looking women you could ever want to see... and its bloody cold.. I dont think 6 degrees is much of a mid day high, I mean what are they using? There must be more powerful stuff then that about! Have you tried Amsterdams finest Aggie Puntjes???

So its cold wet miserable weather and so are we.. we walk up to the castle.. Be nice in summer we say.. We are staying at Rossas Pension which is quickly renamed the Asylum.. This women is Mad Mad Mad, and is in serious danger of mothering us both to death... the place is full of religious icons (the orthodox kind) and paintings by her husband Alexis - now he is a good painter with a great imagination, a lot of the figures are artistic nudes, excellent nubile lythe feminine forms, but all unfortunately with Rossas head on them.. let just say that when they where handing out beauty rations Rossa had already bunked off to get some more cream cake vouchers!!! If everything has an equal and and opposite then she is the opposite to many many of the beautiful girls that VT has to offer...

In the internet cafe we look at the weather for our route .... Its snowing in Romania !!! Not good on two wheels that - Edwin is spending more and more time as it is at the bottom of the tank bag - he is a bear and hibernating is natural to him - especialy when there is any work to be done!!! We have a conference and come to the unanamous conclusion that this would indeed be lovely in summer but we are going home by the shortest route first thing in the morning.... we both go buy thermal undies, and are very grateful for them later on...

Yikes its Yugoslavia home of the Yugo.... Holly Mackeral thats Hungary - Golly we are in Germany already which is where we stay and rest for two delightful days with the utterely utterley Georgous Uli -- and unfortunately her boyfriend Clems as well.. only unfortunately becasue Uli is one of the most beautful women I have had the pleasure to meet that was not pretentious or 'prissey' - we met in Iran, she was backpacking for three weeks with her Mum Liza.. Clems is a fine chap actually - I am but a little bit jeleous - with an amazing grasp of the English language, well he would have really, if you are a PHD in corpus lingistics and your theasis was on the development of Aussie Slang then it is a fair bet that you can split your infinitives and place your pronouns just fine thankyou.. and he learnt his appreciation of the English sense of humour from Blackadder!!!!!!!! Good Man....

"Blackadder, I want you to treat this airplane as if it was your girlfriend"

"Do you mean take it home and introduce it to my parents"

"No Blackadder, I want you to climb inside of it 5 times a day and take it to heaven and back"

Oh, and the most depressing thing yet was in a service station in Hungary, for only 4 Euro you could get 4 litres of Coke and a free Friends DVD - If only I spoke Hungarian... We are back to the Homogenized lands now, but I for one refuse to be pasturized!!

.... and then before you know it, it is late, its dark, it raining and we are waiting for the ferry at Calias!! Why does it always rain when I am in Calias???... But the best bit is the bike wont start, Oh yes boys and girls, Ladies and Gentlemen, Rodders is dead.. For some time he has been loosing power and wont idle.. he gets towed on to the ferry by Chris with the GS and a luggage strap and towed off again... With some fiddling he is coaxed to life and ridden despite protests back to addlestone, our start point all those weeks ago.. when he is switched off thats it, he ablsolutely refuses to go again... Chris recorded 9,463 miles (15,141 kms) and I recorded 9,436 (15098 kms).. I dont know where he went that I didnt????

.. It turns out that I have just paid my dues to the philostines Mechanics Club - The day before we left I thought it would be a good idea to re-tighten the cylinder head bolts (Which in fact was an excellent idea) I just forgot to re adjust the valve clearences as well..so for all those mile he has been running with the valves not fully shutting - by the time Dover came around again there was just no compression left as the valve seats slowly deteriated... But we love a happy ending, this afternoon I have had his heads off, re ground the valves and he is now as happy as a happy thing on happy day - you just cant get away this this kind of stuff with a Japaneese design...

So we have had a tale of hereo-ism, adventure, food, sickness, debauchery death and more.. so how to end ?... well let me tell you this..

The other day I was clearing out some stuff I had stored at my Twins Place (probate has been granted and its up for sale soon).. Now I always thought that you where not old till your pubes went gray, then I saw a note on her wall that said..

You Are Only Old If Your Regrets Out number Your Dreams....

..that was a sweaty eyeball moment I can tell you...

"If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same" - Rudyard kipling

So dream on dangerous dreamers,

Richard

PS . So whats next.. well I have a business project to get finished, (Would you like to be financial free some time in your life?) .. and then I rather fancy Deadhorse Alaska to Uashia Patagonia .....