Chernobyl day four. Poznan to Siedlce
28 Aug 2007
To finish yesterday. We experienced our first tiff! James and John went in to Poznan for a beer, like you do, got back got back a bit after we had all gone to bed. Jame's promptly fires up the computer to mail his other half. Mike 'C' who's room he was sharing was unhappy to be disturbed by the dulcet tones of the windows opening tune and pointed this out.......the rest well, they did make up?
We did have hells own job getting James to wake up this morning, its as well he wasn't driving.
Today was hard work, to drive in London, Paris or Rome are no worries now, we are sure these guy's drive with the will of some god we have not heard of, it is insane!
To the start. We, the “slow bunch”, left with the “Fast” boys. We filled with fuel then promptly lost each other, problem was the sat nav got dizzy as well and we had to rely on Andy and Nattalia to get us out. Which they did admirably. So much so that the “slow bunch” got ahead of the “fast boys” again, well most of them Dave 'K' and John broke away and we met them at a service station / garage. The remainders did get there a short while latter, te he (we didn't gloat..............much).
From here it went scary, from fast good roads to a mass of road building, repairs, works and some serious traffic mostly lorries. You know I am sure most of the lorries in Europe are in Poland!
Pot holes and ruts the like of which are not seen at home unless on a dirt track, the country is coming along in leaps and bounds, the money coming in must be in large numbers, judging by the investment in the road system, but for now it is SCARY! Two lanes of traffic, mainly big truck's, would open up and become three or four lanes with lorries and cars playing chicken. The road got no wider the vehicles just got closer..........aaaaaaaaaaaahh! Bonnet mascot we aint!
Andy, the lead vehicle for us “slow bunch” decided to stop and show us a traditional Polish church, nice thing to do, only he didn't tell us until we were 50 yds of the turning, from a hard accelerate to a dead stop in 25yds is dodgy (we were to do this on at least 4 more occasion's, not because of Andy however)
The actual day is hard to relay as a journey beyond the above, sorry, but Dave 'K' did give us the joyful moment of parking and locking his bike, emptying the over night gear, sorting his room etc only to be told he was in the wrong place and had to go move the machine to the HOTEL car park! It was a long day for us all.
Allan has done us proud again the hotel is grand, the town not so good. In Dave 'K's words “a bit like a scene from Oliver Twists London, dark and menacing”. We were hustled by kids on our arrival begging, that is not a happy thing.
Any way it is goodnight from him, sorry it is a bit flat today. Tomorrow Belarus and the border guards, mmmm. Then on to Gomel.
GPS reads 1038 miles covered now (+20 from the A12 to Harwich)