Chernobyl challenge day Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen (ish)
Raciborz - Prague – Kassel
September 6/7/8 – 2007
Wednesday 06 – 09 - 07
We leave Raciborz in the rain, getting a bit familiar this.
Just how many days can it rain. We stopped to get directions from a geezer name of Noah, he stops building what looks like a boat and he tells me it could carry on raining for up to 40 days and nights, some help he was. These locals are ..........?
Prague is a fine city, when we got there, with to many cobbles. It was a bitty day really and very cold and wet, this is getting to be a drag now. I cannot recall much of it, the journey that is, to be truthful. This blog is written, for the most part, on the night the guys are going home from Rotterdam, Holland so by the time you read it it will be reference only. The drive from Raciborz to Prague was wet, very wet. Or to quote John G, “water ain't this wet” By the time it ended we had done three days and near on 730 miles in the rain and all that we had with us was wet and smelly. It was past funny. The only real break was the visit to the church of bones in, let me get this right, Kutna Hora, but as Dave 'K' said the journey and the pain will be gone in three months but the memory of the visit to the church will remain. Clever, that lad, he'll go far?. Why people would chose to display bones as an art form is odd but it is amazing, and all because the grave was to expensive to buy. Google it and get the story.
Prague is, or gave the impression of being, a lovely city. For us it was somewhere to get dry and sleep. Most of us went to bed early that night. I was in bed by 22:30, two hours early! For Allan and Dave it was a different story. Allan and his bike came back by support truck. His generator / rectifier has gone, we think. For Andy however it was a double hit, Natalia left us that morning to return home to her family in Belarus, which she did eventually, he took her to the railway station hoping to come to Prague by a different route. Which he did, but not the one he thought he would take. So he has had a very long and tiring day also.
Hence the lack of blog, he had the confuser in the back of his truck see.
Thursday. 07 – 09 - 07
James left us today, he flew home, he has business somewhere else in the world on Wednesday and needs to do his hair,................apparently!
Good morning Prague, wow blue sky! That won't last. Wrong.... for the most part it did. We again went our separate ways to get to Kassel in Germany. For some it was the motorway most of the way. Other's, well me, John and Tim, chose the GPS route. Mmmm ok. We went over the mountains on Route 4 via Chemnitz, (where?) it is just over the Czech / German border, but way of where the other's went. Did we have a map, well no it was in the truck with the confuser, bugger!
Ok follow the GPS, at this point it had a different name, why, because we were in the rain in the mountain and not to sure where we were. It was damned cold to boot. As John 'G' said, “we ain't lost just seeing things we wouldn't have seen going the other way” a bit of philosophy was just right at that point. When we got out of the mountain and further up the road it did improve a lot. Then we (I) had a GPS moment. We stopped to sort it out, I thought we could do a 'U' turn and pick up from where we left of, simple eh? Come on, first Tim does a 'U' turn in the road and squirts it a bit hard, oops he's of, AGAIN! Thats twice in as many day's. “what happened” well you went through a trough of mud and,............oh, never mind eh. He gets himself sorted, with our help. Mean time I drive over the bridge to go back on the other side of the motorway, did they see me leave?, it seems not. Tim and John went back on the same side and away up to Leipzig. Diversion Number two, of three, at least. We finally get to Kassel by 19:00 ish. 4 hours behind the rest! Not once was it mentioned, no, loads more time's. Still we were ok and alive. We had stopped for 1 hour to have a very nice dinner at a road side service so it wasn't so bad. Rumour has it Dave 'K' broke his personal record, it cannot be confirmed however, he was going to fast!
Mark 'T' has been hit by the “Imodeum” bug it seems. He was unwell this morning but we have all been there to some degree or another on this trip, however he does seem to be worse than anyone has been so far. Worrying.
Saturday. 08 - 09 – 07.
The end for me and the guys.
We rise to a dull overcast day, fine English drizzle (in Germany) the kind that drenches you without you realizing. Over night there had been a group of young German Kids doing some fancy dress thing, we had smurfs and power rangers, NOT Allan, we had Cleopatra and some young lady in a VERY short nighty. 'orible it wuz! Spoiled me breakfast, took me a while to get the jam out of my ear!
Mark 'T' is still ill, result for Allan that, he gets to ride a proper bike, well Marks Blackbird at least. Not so sure Mark was ill though, that fine English drizzle that soaks you slowly etc; as we dressed the machine's, then it tipped it down. Mark is in the truck, Allan doing the drowning rat! Hey!
The rest of the guy's went on away to Rotterdam, via the Mona dams (Dam busters et all, well that is what they told me.......honest!) in the RAIN! Again. I left about 30 minutes later only to pass them on the motorway, fine weather riders the lot of em! 60mph what is that all about, give it some!
Me 'ikkle 650 whooped um, then ran out of gas. Ho Hum, (that should stir them up!)
Me, well I did get to Holland, not Belgium, to find my friend was still in Germany, it happens (be nice if it was someone else though). So I went to Calais where I did meet some old work colleagues. We had a grand night and.........................I got a rear lamp.........I blew mine back in the Ukraine.....result!
Enough now, I am home. It has been an adventure. We have laughed, cried and sworn at life and each other, but it has been an adventure.
I am told the guy's who had the tiff made up, if that is the case I makes me happy, we met as strangers it is only fitting we part as friends after all we have shared. Whether it happens again with the same guys, I doubt it, but when all is said and done it was fun.
Give us time and you will hear every version of this there can be, but for now our aching bodies and tired minds need rest, well mine does, humility, sadness, joy and pain.
We never did sit and talk “meaningful stuff” (Tim W). We drove, ate, drank and laughed at life. Each one of us will have our own take, this has been mine.
Thank you for reading this, but mostly to our wives and partners, thanks for letting us do it, without to much addo!
Mostly for the children,.........may their god be with them all,...... however they persieve him or her.

Martin W