Alot has happened since my last entry. We travelled down as far as Split in Croatia. The old town was pleasent enough so we chilled out for a few days, window shopping and swimming in the clear water. We had intended to continue on down to Dubrovnik, but time was pressing on and we found that our cash wasn't going as far as we'd thought it would so we decided to head back up into Slovenia and then Hungary. Back in Slovenia we happened accross a great motorcycle museum. It was owned and run by a local guy, Peter, who had started the museum 12 years ago after returning from Italy. He is also in the involved in the building Slovenia's first Grand Prix circuit nearby. There were loads of British bikes, Harley's, Indians, BMW's, and other makes that I'd never heard of. He told us the Mr Puch (pronounced "Poo") had started his company close by and there were a few examples in the museum. Unfortunately I haven't got any details of the museum 's location, but it's signposted from the motorway headind towards Hungary (no help at all I know, but everything got wet one day including the maps and the guide book which was all binned!)

Hungary was like going back in time. The vehicles, specially in the more remote areas, consisted mainly of CZ's Trabants and very old Skodas. One evening I phoned home and recieved the news that my father had become very ill. I flew home leaving Julie and the bike in Hungary. Having assessed his condition we decided that we would have to a very premature end to our trip and return home, permantently, to care for him. I flew back out to Hungary and over the following week we rode back through, Austria,Germany, Switzerland, France and back to the UK.

We're now sorting out our lives and are returning to some form of normallity. My fathers condition has improved significantly, but he will need long term care. We have rented a flat for the time being and will probably buy somewhere within the next six months or so big enough for us all to live in. We both return to work on Monday and by Tuesday it will probably feel as though we've never been away.

So thats about it. We both enjoyed the two and a half months of the trip we managed to complete. The bike went like a dream and proved the ideal mount for two and all our gear. We saw some great places and met some great people. We learned alot and feel confident that come the time of preperation for our next trip we know how to go about it. We're not sure how far in the future it will be, but we're definately going again.

Anyway for now, good luck to everyone and happy travels....