From my little forest wild camp, I pushed on across Germany to Wuppertal and friend Hanno’s place. I met Hanno at the Greek Horizon meeting, in fact he was the first person that I met there, in that as I stopped in the village of Pramanta he came bounding around the corner and invited me to join him and Dimitris for a beer, which of course turned in to two beers and hence part of the reason that I dropped the bike on the track up to the Refuge! Anyway, as I had to pass reasonably close to Wuppertal, it seemed silly not to pop in and say hello.

The ride was the antithesis of the previous days ride, not least, the sun was shinning again and inspite of the temperature hovering just above freezing as I hit the road, I was soon stripping off first my fleece and a little later my thermal vest. The roads were superb, nice and twisty with not too much traffic and the scenery wonderful, real picture postcard stuff. I stopped for a few supplies at a Lidl store and later enjoyed a lunch of Salami and cucumber croissants followed by a nice ripe nectarine. I finally arrive at Hanno’s door at around 4.30pm after a run of nearly 400km which left me feeling quite exhausted! I really am getting old, I used to do double that and still be looking for more!  For dinner we went down to the local pizza joint hoping that they would have WiFi, but no luck, so afterward we went around the corner to The Golden Arches restaurant (otherwise known as McD’s. They always advertise free WiFi in all their outlets… not in Germany though apparently, they are too afraid of someone hacking into their server after a bad Big Mac!!! So giving up on the WiFi quest we grabbed a couple of bottles of beer at the local petrol station before heading back to Hanno’s to talk the night away!

On the way in to Hanno’s I ran through Wuppertal and one cannot help but notice the rather unique overhead tramway with the carriages suspended below an overhead track which is held up by huge gantry arches over the center of the road (and it turned out, the river in some places) It seems some forward think person way back in the Kaisers day sanctioned it’s building and it has run as reliable as clockwork ever since. It also apparently has the record of being the safest passenger transport in the world, at least according to Hanno… note to self; must check up on that !!! So over breakfast, as we were discussing the day ahead, I asked if we could go into town so I could get some pictures of it. However first there were a couple of little issues on the old girl to sort out. For some time there had been a loose wire somewhere on the main beam/spotlight circuit causing them to work erratically and often, not at all; and I was also still suffering with the intermittent misfire that had plagued the entire trip. I was now fairly certain that it too was an electrical problem but just to satisfy myself before I start throwing new parts (and hence money) at it, I wanted to take off the tank and drain it completely just in case there was something in the bottom causing fuel starvation. Hanno produced a 10 litre container, funnel and one of his famous “tea stockings” to filter the fuel to see if there was anything in it…there wasn’t, so that one was back to square one! Next we tackled the light problem, getting at the wiring isn’t easy on the GSPD as you have to remove the entire crash bar/headlight fairing assembly to see what’s what. With parts from an old wiring loom that Hanno happened to have, we fitted a new headlight bulb socket and neatly soldered all the joints, made sure that the other plugs and sockets from the handlebar switches were properly seated and lo and behold, it now all works as it should…except for the misfire of course but that will now have to wait until I get home.

Time then for a quick bite to eat before chasing Hanno and his flying KTM around Wuppertal. I’m sure he kept forgetting that I was riding a fully loaded (well, less a few clothes) Airhead, as we bounced up kerbs, did u-turns across central reservations, rode along pavements… well, I’m sure you get the picture. I just hope the Wuppertal Police didn’t get all out antics on their CCTV cameras. I certainly took a very deep breath at one point when I saw flashing blue lights and heard sirens coming our way rather rapidly. Thankfully it turned out to be an ambulance which I was quite relieved to see making rapid progress through the city traffic as I had a notion that I might well be in need of one before I left Wuppertal if I continued to try to follow Hanno! Fortunately however, that was not to be, so photos taken we headed off first to see Neanderthal man , which it seems was discovered just up the road and then to gawp at a few bike in the local park. Altogether a great day(if a little stressy at times). That took us nicely to tea time and time for one of Hanno’s special currys and a couple more beers!

Which brings me nicely around to today and a 300km ride across Germany, a small corner of Holland and into Belgium to Ypre or Ieper as the Belgiums like to spell it just to cause confusion! Courtesy of Mr GPS I easily found a camp site about 8km from town, Ypra Camp Site, which has the huge honour of being the only place during my 3 month, 9 country trip to charge me for WiFi ! Everywhere else I have enjoyed free access (except for McD’s of course) but here it cost 2 euro; OK it’s not a fortune but given that I’ve just paid 10 Euros to put my tent on their overcrowded  site, I still think it’s a damn cheek, and have had the pleasure of posting it all over Facebook, just because I can!

It’s getting on for 6pm now so time to get myself together and head back into town to the Mennin Gate for the nightly ceremony at 8pm, where I will pay honour to our Sam killed in Afghanistan just over 2 years ago. For us, his family the passing days make little difference to the grief we all bear daily. The pain for us all is just as raw today as it was the moment we first heard the tragic news.

The Mennin Gate, Ypres

 

Sleep Well Proud Welsh Warrior, Your battle is over, Your War is Won.

Monday 10^th September.

Last night’s ceremony was as very moving and emotional, made all the more so as a Dutch choir was in attendance to sing two hymns during the service. I made up my mind that before I left Ypes for home I would return and lay a wreath at the memorial in memory of our Sam. So first thing thing this morning I headed back to town, where having purchased a poppy wreath at the tourist information office I quietly laid it at the Mennin Gate memorial arch. I could have stayed and laid it during the evening ceremony, but preferred the peace of the early morning for my solitary, quiet, short vigil.

Sam's wreath bottow row 3rd from left

So as I now leave Dunkirk aboard the DFDS ferry, I sit in contemplation of my first (but not last!) extended trip.

Did I achieve everything I set out to do…No, not by a long way! Did everything run to plan? No, nothing like! Would I do it all over again? Hell yes, tomorrow in a flash! Most of the trip has been a piece of cake mainly thanks to my two travelling companions Taz and Joel. Inspite of having travelled many thousands of miles on motorbike over many, many years, they taught me so much and gave of their knowledge so willingly. Hopefully I was able to return the favour with a few little gems from the way I travel. One thing I do know for sure is that Taz will never again be worried about wild camping and the joys of an open air, cold shower; to say nothing of digging a hole in the woods!

Has three months on the road satisfied my lust for travel? Once again I must answer, Hell no, I’ve hardly started! It’s taken me three months to see just a tiny bit of France and Italy, and a goodly portion of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, so at this rate I guess I’m going to be struggling to get round the rest of the world before I shuffle off this mortal coil, but one thing I do know is that I’m going to give it a damn good try! Hopefully I’ll not be travelling solo next time, but either way, there will definitely be a next time and it won’t be long acoming!

I cannot believe just how little one can live on whilst travelling. Fuel is by far and away the biggest expense, but by travelling slowly, as Joel has taught me, you travel for twice as long (at least !) on the same amount of money, with the added benefit that you see an awful lot more, meet more fantastic people and avoid reality for longer.

Hmm, reality, a word that keeps cropping up but what does it actually mean? To some it means a huge house with a correspondingly huge mortgage; to others it’s a career that keeps them away from their loved ones for far more of their lives than they would really like. It may also mean scrapping a living and just about managing to cover the bills (or not!) each month, with, in this day and age the ever present threat of redundancy. However there are a few, an increasing few, who manage to live their dreams every minute of every day, who never know the anguish of being made redundant or of kissing their loved ones goodbye on Monday morning and not saying hello until Friday night. These people aren’t “lucky”, they have just made different life choices to the norm; to them “reality” is kicking off almost every day with a smile and the knowledge that anything might happen, good or bad, although generally the good outweighs the bad by about 100 to 1! It means never knowing quite where they are going to be sleeping that night, or indeed where they are going to be eating their next meal. Anyone can do it, all it takes is the desire and the courage to try something completely different, something radical: To live YOUR dream!

And remember as I posted in an earlier post, you don’t have to be complete homeless, there are numerous web sites where people are looking for folk to housesit for a few weeks or even a few months.., in one case recently , for up to 2 ½ years! So if you wish, as Taz puts it, to “nest” for a while the opportunity is there, in more or less any country you fancy! So stop saying “if only” or “maybe next year”, if you want to see the world there is no better time than right now; yes ,the thought is scary, however the “reality” is that it is an awful lot easier than you might imagine.

One thing I do know for sure; Life will never be the same again! 

Later this afternoon I begin what is really the final episode of this trip as I land back in the UK at Dover. Next stop is Climping in West Sussex to stay with niece Helen and her hubby Terry which effectively closes the loop, as I stayed with them on the way out. Then probably a couple more stops before I arrive back at my little cottage in wales, to find no doubt that the weeds and spiders have just about taken it over… Am I glad to be back! I’m afraid you’ll have to wait just a little longer for the answer to that one as at the moment I honestly don’t know!