Europe, Morocco and Turkey 2007

Our stock reply to any question regarding our trip has been "It'll be fine..."Getting ready for our 6 month trip has been one long catalogue of decorating the flat for renting out (yes, re-grouting tiles a bonus item), getting our gear sorted and checking that the bike (our lovely Africa Twin) is tip-top. I think we had assumed that it would all sort itself out as if by magic, letters would be forwarded, books would pack themselves, and the flat would be inhabited by lovely people willing to pay top dollar (well, pound).

OK, so we managed to finish sorting the house and loaded up the bike. All our smug ideas on how little we have seem to have not quite materialised and the panniers are full to bursting. A wave off from Shirley, and Imogen runs to meet James, who has sensibly ridden up the ramp to collect her. A momentary embarrassment as Imogen can't quite get her 5'2" arse up onto the bike, but a good leg over secures success.

Poisson d' avrilHaving a fantastic time here in France apart from the non querty keyboard nightmare.... muchos fun with the april fools day fish (choccy!!!) thanks mum, and the obligatory vast amounts of wonderful normandie cookery. In an email from James's pal Paul: "Imogen - remember to keep James' feet on the ground.
James - Do what Imogen tells you."
Nice one Paul!!!

Yes, this is our arrival in France

…… next move, south!

fleeing owners of our free camping spot and now chillling in the mountains in northern Espana...It´s been a fun time of snow, snow and more snow, oh, and VERRRRY windy bridges going over to the Ile de Oléron, but now we´re in northern Spain, enjoying the delights of super twisty roads through the Picos de Europa.

We spent a few days in Arcachon by the Dune du Pyla (all those aiki types who went to Bordeaux a couple of years ago should know this one!)

Yes, for some reason we found ourselves on the Camino de Santiago da Compostela, so made that our destination for northern Spain. Yet again, there were snow covered mountains (normally near our campsite!) and one memorable day there was a nice thick layer of frost on the tent, hoorah for the Softie 9.

Still heading south to try for the warmth of more Mediterranian climes...First stop Donana for another birding spot and LOTS of sand. Spotted some purple chickens (one for Paul and Jane there), short-toed eagle, glossy ibis (even Imogen thought they were cool) and purple heron (what is it with this colour?!) Typically, we got fantastically lost, ended with a 15km ride through deep sand with Imogen walking, luckily James remembered a groovy tip from Chris Scott about letting air out of the tires and hey! it works - result.

Arrived at the great Erg Chebbi, which is as amazing as everyone says. Needless to say, James and his pal Gunter (on a DR400) did the 40km circuit around the dune on piste (and off, when the bike got dropped!)

We declined the offer of a 5am watching of the sunrise over the dune and opted for the far more civillised 7pm version....

This latest offering sees us out of Morocco and back in the land of supermarkets and toilet roll....

The Atlantic coast is quite different from the rest of Morocco and, to be honest, not that exciting, other than the world's 3rd largets mosque and the thrill that is Casablanca (but you do have to think of of as 1940's rather than now) and it's the only part of the country that we saw that didn't have donkeys as regular road-users.

This latest offering sees us out of Morocco and back in the land of supermarkets and toilet roll....

The Atlantic coast is quite different from the rest of Morocco and, to be honest, not that exciting, other than the world's 3rd largest mosque and the thrill that is Casablanca (but you do have to think of of as the 1940's rather than now), and it's the only part of the country that we saw that didn't have donkeys as regular road-users.

Phew, what an effort finding internet cafes here! Weÿve been island hopping and volcano watching (yes, we did see smoke coming out of Etna!), firstly to Corsica, a bikers paradise with fantasic scenery, great roads (but a tad `rustic`) and we both fell in love with the relaxed attitude and azure beaches....

After a brief spell in Croatia (expensive!) we legged it to the more hardcore countries of Bosnia and Albania. The borders for both were suprisingly easy, the Bosnian one took a few of our hard earned sheckels for (needed!) insurance but got a free import docket from them (result).

First stop was Mostar, staying in the weirdest 'pansion', where much dodgy homebrewed moonshine (loza rakia and orahovaca) was drunk, accompanied by the bingo, which was avididly followed by our ex gymnast host (also saw footage of uber floods in dear old Blighty!)

The Turkish border is quite a thing... jaunty waves abounded from the armed 'kids' on the bridge but then we hit the big guns.

Since our last blog we've been having a great time in the Balkans and Central Europe. Bulgaria was very interesting with a lot more horse and carts on the roads, no shops (where do they buy food?!) and of course, the delights of everything being written in Cyrillic (cue the purchasing of 2 identical maps, one in Roman, the other in Cyrillic, but IM's reading coming on a treat!).

Ahhh, the delights of a villa in the Tuscan countryside, friends, food, wine, beer, a pool, a BBQ, and of course a wedding. A week was spent enjoying the high life and the wedding was beautiful in its simplicity and the 7 course meal that followed was out of this world, so congratulations to Ben and Jane!

JB as 'official' photographer here....

From leaving the harrowing Auschwitz and Birkenau, we hit country no. 21 1/2 (thanks Republika Sprska for that one!) and the Czech Republic. Rain, rain and more rain meant fairly miserable riding and a trip to a bike shop for emergency new boot purchasement, the old ones being consigned to bio-hazard and the fact that toes were peeping through in a rather unsatisfactory manner.