Ulaan2015 Clifden to Mongolia and back in aid of Temple Street Children's Hospital

thecivvie

My Delorme inReach Tracker allows two communications. This was a locked function but thought why not allow for a day or two, anyone to do it. So for the trip from Krasny to Barnaul, I have opened it to ye all. Cannot guarantee that I will reply and please allow for time differences and the fact that it could take 20 minutes for the message to arrive to me, then I need to see the message

Anyway goto

and you will get this page:

Click on Message and then fill out the form

once you press send, I should get it within 20 minutes. If the tracker shows me as stationary then it maybe a few hours before I get it as I turn the tracker off at night

thecivvie

Currently down in Biysk. Sadly I cannot go further so heading north and then west and then south. Novosibirsk, Omsk and Volgograd major cities on the route






Hard life this adventuring lark

Why a Minibus?

thecivvie

Route home is a little undecided. Want to take in the Balkans but also a village in Austria is calling me

thecivvie

Drove from Ufa to Samara in blistering heat and promised to get hotter over the next few days. Keeping an eye on the situation in Tbilisi but things seem to be ok. Not camping Though

miamee

Love the pics

thecivvie

Now in Stavropol. Was a gruelling journey in the heat, 32c+. Morticia and I were melting and the thermostat for the fan has failed. New pads, oil and filter will be all done today.

I did 1380km in about the 2 days but it was hard going

thecivvie

Yesterday a friend and I changed the oil and filter, and all brake pads. The rears are a concern as I am getting less than 4000km out of a set, but that is due to one pot being stuck or something.
Today, drove from Stavropol to Vladikavkaz. A short 360km day. Lovely warm weather and plenty to see. Plenty of police and armed units, but I guess that is due to the breakaway republics. Bike is ok, not running so warm, but fan still not coming on. Grounding the rad didn't switch the fan on, so guessing the fan is kaput

thecivvie

Travelled from Vladikavkaz to Akhlcikhe in Georgia. The boarder crossing took less than an hour and I enjoyed the trip down. My last fill of petrol in Russia seems to have been a dodgy one so some carb cleaner needed
Went out for a walk and was shown a man who makes fires, cowls, drain pipes and the like by hand and with such skill it was amazing









Updates from me will be a little scarce as I won't have access to wifi for now on unless I find a MacDonald's. Their coffee is about fine and buys an hours access

thecivvie

Akhlcikhe to Turkey
Left Lova and Irma this morning excited to be back on the road.Lova came part of the way and was saying that I should use the short road and not the long road. But I wanted to go in via Batsumi and that was a problem.
The road just became a track and a really horrible one. I did a stream crossing and next stream was out of the water but didn’t notice a rock and the bike went over. No damage other than an indicator bulb.
The track was 82km long and was part of the main road but it was serious work. 3 hours it took me.
Got to Batsumi and filled up and headed for the boarder. You cannot enter Turkey unless you have insurance so I bought my 42Tl or €15 for 3 months worth of insurance.
The rains took over so I decided against it and hoteling it tonight

thecivvie

After a 20 mile round trip back to the hotel to get my passport, I was on the road to Sinop, northern Turkey. The road the whole way up is a dual carriageway and there was little to see. In fact between Rize and Samsun, the road appears to be one long town, with the only breaks being for the town name plates.
After Samsun the Black Sea became alive but sadly there is no real historical places to see. Hopefully tomorrow.
The plan is to continue along the Roller Coaster road, to a camp site 40km from Istanbul, it is about 500km but the last 100km is gravel mainly

Richard tea

The fact that you know that the last 100klm of the road is gravel shows how much planning goes into these adventures. Fair play

thecivvie

Today was a trip that changed due to the weather. I had planned to do the Roller Coaster along the Black Sea but heavy rains were forecast and the last 100km is gravel or after rain MUD.
So I took the easier option and sat on the bike for 7 hours in mainly rain. Coming into Istanbul, the skies lit with lightning and the rain just emptied onto me. Thankfully I managed to get into a petrol station and put the storm gear on.
A quick photo to a friend confirmed my worst fears, the chain and sprockets are knackered. So trying to find a mechanic as I type. But it will be a large chunk of change from the trip.
An Australian couple at the campsite gave me a can of Tuborg, going down well with the noodles

Skill Magill

Hey man, Its great that you were able to reach a petrol station and put proper rain gear on before the skys opened, but what do you do when the sky opens and you are in your tent? Looks like a festival tent, the type you'd buy in amy bargains for 30 quid? (I'm no expert on tents though )

serious3

Skill Magill wrote: »

Hey man, Its great that you were able to reach a petrol station and put proper rain gear on before the skys opened, but what do you do when the sky opens and you are in your tent? Looks like a festival tent, the type you'd buy in amy bargains for 30 quid? (I'm no expert on tents though )

its a top of the range field candy tent, can't get much better!

Mesrine65

Hydrostatic head 3000 rating I hope?

thecivvie

Skill Magill wrote: »

Hey man, Its great that you were able to reach a petrol station and put proper rain gear on before the skys opened, but what do you do when the sky opens and you are in your tent? Looks like a festival tent, the type you'd buy in amy bargains for 30 quid? (I'm no expert on tents though )

FieldCandy donated the tent for the trip. They are around £300 and have been in some downpours. Not the usual adventure rider tent I know. The hydrostatic head is 3000 on them

thecivvie

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Hydrostatic head 3000 rating I hope?

Yea it has

thecivvie

Today Morticia was fixed. New Chain and Sprocket and Cush Drive rubbers. And also the lads in BigBoys Moto Istanbul also fixed my indicators which one had been smashed in the accident in Siberia. A friendly shop with plenty of chat, laughter and coffee, what more do you need

thecivvie

Travelled between Istanbul and Idilevo in Bulgaria to stay at Motocamp Bulgaria. Mainly motorway so no real pics. Customs in Turkey were very suspicious of my short stay and insisted that Morticia was X-Rayed, poor thing.
Tomorrow is Romania and the Transfăgărășan highway. I can tell you now that there will be even less pictures than today. Do you think I am going to stop and take pictures on that road

Maybe a video then

thecivvie

Drive through Istanbul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DABQY0GYXRA

Skill Magill

Sorry man, doesn't count

Check this dude out

thecivvie

Skill Magill wrote: »

Sorry man, doesn't count

Check this dude out

one way ticket to somewhere lol

thecivvie

Travelled from Idilevo to somewhere around Carta in Romania. I was supposed to camp but all afternoon the weather was horrible. So I gave up and ducked into a motel. Tomorrow is Hungary then a dash to the ferry at Calais and over to the UK for a day or two R&R

Skill Magill

When you say ducked into a motel its like reverse auto-correct for me

thecivvie

Travelled from Romania to outside Budapest. Motocamp Hungary to be exact. Lovely place and the owners are lovely. The day started misty but after 150km, the mist lifted and the roads became crap, roadworks. But hey the sun was shining. And the boarder guard in Hungary saluted me

thecivvie

A rainy day with no real sights. I travelled from Motocamp Hungary to Grein in Austria. Tomorrow i move on a little north then head for a camp site in France, well that will take 2 days so plan to stop early tomorrow in Germany. Jut watching to make sure it is not a Natural park

thecivvie

Travelled from Austria to Germany. Came across the fighter plane, amazing to see, oddly growing wild was some poppies. Visited the village of ****ing, Tarsdorf, Austria. Several locals laughed as I took photos, guess they are used to it. Headed for any camp site. Tomorrow no destination other than Calais on Wednesday at some stage. Plan to be in England for almost a week then return to Ireland. Have a few jobs and people I want to see

thecivvie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMcTaZftDlA

thecivvie

Triefenstein to Belgium, a day too hot and bothered
Leaving this morning was a pleassure. Dont get me wrong the campsite was lovely but this morning the weather was amazing. Blue skies, sunshine and birds singing. What was there not to like.
I had again not destination in mind, I am slowly wandering to wards Dunkirk and the ferry to England. So I put in the ferry port and set the TomTom to no tolls and no motorways.
Travelling, I entered both Luxembourg and Belgium. Luxembourg was a surprisingly rich country. But sady I didnt get much time there. But enough to know that I will pay a return leg.
I did have a ferry trip, acorss the Mosel which was a higlight for me. Has to be done and well recommded part of any trip out here
My mind wandered around the trip and what to do after. I have a few ideas, Murmansk being one and another that I dont want to mention as it is a biggy.
So arriving in Belgium, I headed for a campsite and pitched up and did the usual, had a beer
Tomorrow I goto England and there a rest for a week or so

thecivvie

Belgium to England. What a blinder
The campsite was shrouded in heat when I woke up. The sun was already beating down and so I washed and took the tent down. The coffee was brewed.
Thankfully having had access to wifi I was aware how bad the situation was at Calais and realised that it would affect Dunkirk so a quick decision to remain on the motorways
This of course was boring but added with the heat, now hitting the 30° mark it was hard work.
I pulled off the motorway to fill up with petrol and passing a chemists seen the temperature had reached 36.5°. It made travelling hard but was also enjoyable
The queues for Dunkirk were almost from the Belgium boarder. There was lorries everywhere. About 15km from Dunkirk it started to be hard work moving around lorries and other slow moving traffic.
I finally got to the ferry terminal around 2pm. And then queued and queued for the ferry. I was talking with a couple of other bikers and also some people in the queue.
The ferry crossing was nice but the Sky Lounge was closed so I had no wifi but with a few other bikers we past the time fast.
On docking I quickly got moving and arrived at Charlene's my cousin. It was good to see a family face after so long on the road.