Austria – Vienna, 09 – 10 September 2018

Posted on Monday, 10-September-2018 by Chris Desmond

Budapest, Hungary to Austria, Vienna, just around the corner, only a 3 hour ride. Fine and cool with blue skies and being in the Schengen area now no border crossing to worry about  today or so I thought hahaha, think again this was the worst one so far. As I neared the border I saw a queue of cars a long way from the border and I thought No, No, No, “an accident” up ahead, this is going to take ages because they won’t let anyone through until the debris has been cleared. Anyway I did my usual and slowly filtered through the traffic, down the emergency lane and when that ended, through the middle until I got to the front and discovered the Austrian authorities had setup a temporary border and were checking cars and pulling some over for further scrutiny. If you are in a car be prepared for long delays, I was told later that this has been going on for a while. The Police ignored me as I rode past taking a picture of them. Lesson – motorcycles are good for crossing borders but useless when it comes to protecting you from bee stings hahaha.

Immediately you cross the border there is a Shell service station, stop here and buy your Vignette, 10 days for a motorcycle cost 5.20 euro. I tried to buy the Vignette online but for some weird reason it can only  be done 3 weeks in advance.

First thing I did was buy a one week pass for the public transport which consists of trains, trams and busses, cost 17.10 euro and for some reason it is a Monday to Sunday ticket only (Quote – Valid for unlimited travel in Vienna within the specified calendar week Mon-Sun. This is not a 7-day ticket!). This worked perfectly for me as I arrived on a Sunday, not so good if you arrive mid-week but there are other options. The ticket machines at the stations speak English.

The fuel consumption on my bike has increased by 10-15% and I am hoping it is due to the air filter getting clogged. So I found a Bike shop and ordered a new air filter and they gave me the bolt I needed for the chain guard free, in fact they gave me 2 sizes just in case.   Bike City gets a thumbs up from me. After that I walked to the nearby Technical Museum, I find these museums fascinating and never miss the opportunity to visit them. This place is huge and had a cafe with very reasonable prices. Entry 13 euro and lunch 6.40 euro, I spent about 3 hours looking around the 3 floors of exhibits.

 

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Hungary – Budapest, 08 September 2018

Posted on Saturday, 8-September-2018 by Chris Desmond

Kragujevac, Serbia to Budapest, Hungary another transit stop in a motel close to the highway on the outskirts of the city. While you pay your tolls on the road in Serbia, you have to buy a vignette for Hungary. This can be done online, there are a number of websites, this is the official one and you have to register and go through the rigmarole but you can pay with your credit card and it works. https://e-autopalyamatrica.hu/en

At the first fuel stop I smelled something burning and looked around my bike and noticed the chain guard had come adrift and was rubbing against the wheel. So I parked and saw that the bolt holding it in place had fallen out. I checked my spare parts and saw I had a bolt of  the right diameter but it was too long, after trying to saw a bit off it with a hacksaw blade I decide it would be quicker to use a temporary solution and buy a new bolt of the right size at the next opportunity, 50 min later I was on my way again. This is the first problem I have had with this bike in 4 years and 57,000 km.

If I thought the queues at the borders were horrendous upto now I was soon to be disillusioned when I arrived at the Serbia/Hungary border. The queue was even longer and the checks more stringent because we are now entering the Schengen area and once you get past this point there are no more border checks, you can go anywhere in the EU. My tried and proven method of getting through borders was really put to the test here hahaha. There were cars everywhere and I had to park my bike and scout around on foot until I saw there was place in the truck lane for me to sneak through. I turned around and started to ride past the stationary trucks in the small space available until I got to a stranded truck that had pulled over onto the divider leaving very little space. I beeped and the truck in the other lane turned his steering and moved just enough to let me through, no place to manoeuvre and then he got out of his cab and guided me through the gap watching that my panniers did not scrape against any of the other vehicles hahaha. When I got to the front all the vehicles were stopped a few hundred metres short of the Hungary border and were only being let through 2 or 3 at a time to the Hungary Immigration booths up ahead, they waved me through hahaha, another half a day border crossing reduced to 20 minutes.

When I arrived at the motel in Budapest I took my jacket off and a bee hiding in the sleeve jumped out and stung the back of my hand.

 

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Serbia – Kragujevac, 07 September 2018

Posted on Friday, 7-September-2018 by Chris Desmond

Lyubimets, Bulgaria to Kragujevac, Serbia in reverse this time, almost the same route as when I was coming the other way but they appear to have finished the road works in the intervening months. Managed to go around Sofia on the bypass but not sure if it was any quicker hahaha, after that 2 lanes through the mountains then the border and the road through the gorge. Thousands of Turkish German cars (D) still on the road returning to the EU which makes the borders a nightmare if you are driving. By now I have perfected my border crossing technique hahaha, first rule is ignore all the signs that say “EU passports”, “All passports”, “Busses”, “Trucks”, etc. just find your way to the immigration booth. The fastest route is around the outside of all the queues, if you try to go between them you will get stuck at some point, when you get to the front, poke your front wheel in between 2 cars and they will let you in. This time a Turkish guy gave me a lecture on how he had been waiting for 2 hours and why should he let me in and moved his car forward to block me hahaha, I ignored him and the next guy let me in. At the Batumi border an immigration officer ordered a couple of cars to reverse and let me through. Besides this one idiot everyone has been friendly and done their best to help me get through the mess, sitting in the hot sun or rain in full riding gear is no fun. All up I was through in 20 min, good 4 lane road after that all the way to Kragujevac. Serbia is on EU time so this will be the last time I adjust my various clocks (bike, phone, 2 cameras, laptop). This is just an overnight stop, a place rest my weary bones.

 

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Bulgaria – Lyubimets 05 – 06 September 2018

Posted on Thursday, 6-September-2018 by Chris Desmond

Sile, Turkey to Lyubimets, Bulgaria. First I went across the new Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge , it is the second tallest bridge in the world after the Millau Viaduct in France. This bridge crosses over the Bophorus strait at the north end as far from Istanbul as you can get thus avoiding the the mess of traffic around the metropolis. There is a toll after the bridge, 18 lira and you have to pay in cash, the HGS card does not work here, I had changed all my lira to euro and after the girl called someone she allowed me to pay in euro and gave me change in lira which I used at the next fuel stop so remember to carry some lira with you. After the bridge you travel south to join the main east-west freeway and go from 120kph to 50kph for about 50km and then no traffic until the border with Bulgaria. The bridge was not shown on my 2017 Garmin maps so I just followed the signs to Edirne which is the closest city to the border.

There was the usual queue of Turks returning to the EU, each car has at least 4 people in it and they all get checked by immigration and customs on both sides. I rode to the front of the queue and got through the Turkish border in 5 minutes, next Bulgaria and an even longer queue opening every boot probably checking to see there were no illegals hiding in there. There was even a gate you have to go through which was spraying something on the underside of cars and me as well. While riding through it an idiot Turkish driver bumped me in the back, how these people get driving licenses is beyond me, their total lack of discipline and inability to follow rules is mind boggling. After that a stamp in my passport and I was through both borders in 20 minutes, if I had to wait in the queue it would have taken 2 hours.

Lyubimets is a village, just the right place for a rest day. Absolutely nothing here and it also happens to be Unification Day which is a public holiday and most places are shut. I did not have any local currency so I just paid in euro’s and at petrol stations I used a credit card.

 

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Turkey – Sile, 03 – 04 September 2018

Posted on Tuesday, 4-September-2018 by Chris Desmond

I rode from Amasra to Sile about half through the mountains and half on the freeway, good road, with lots of traffic around the cities. This is the most densely populated area in the country.

Sile is a seaside resort only an hours drive from Istanbul and a popular weekend destination for Istanbulites.

 

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Turkey – Amasra, 01 – 02 September 2018

Posted on Sunday, 2-September-2018 by Chris Desmond

Sinop to Amasra along the coast, D010 a route that I was told not to take hahaha and I can see why, in a car it would have been hell. Twisting and winding through the mountains and along the coast, rough and narrow, on an adventure bike it was fun, only 323 km and it took 5:50 hrs. Very little traffic upto Cide and then cars, trucks and even a few tour busses, not fun anymore, that was the last hour and a half. The closer I get to Istanbul the busier it gets. Anyway a great ride, reminiscent of the E65 along the Dalmatian coast in Croatia.

Amasra – its been around since BC, the Greeks and Romans were here, small seaside town, very quiet, this is the weekend so there are a few local tourists.

 

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Turkey – Sinop, 30 – 31 August 2018

Posted on Friday, 31-August-2018 by Chris Desmond

Trabzon to Sinop, once again along the coast but the sea is not always visible, quite busy  for most of the way with many towns and local traffic, good 4 lane road so overtaking was never a problem, many tunnels and a few bits through the  mountains away from the sea.

Sinop – the birthplace of Diogenes and now a seaside holiday town, I wonder what he would think of it if he saw it today hahaha, an interesting character, follow the link.

 

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Turkey – Trabzon, 28 – 29 August 2018

Posted on Wednesday, 29-August-2018 by Chris Desmond

Batumi to Trabzon in Turkey involved crossing the border from Georgia to Turkey. It took about 20 minutes to ride from Batumi to the border, there were about 10 cars queued up but no movement.  After 10 minutes in the hot sun I left my bike and walked up to an Immigration officer at the front and asked what was going on and he said the holdup was on the Turkish side and just then it cleared and I got my passport stamped, walked back got my bike and rode on to the Turkish side where there was a longer queue, being on a bike I rode to the front, the people in cars do not object to this and in fact expect it. As this was my 4th time crossing a Turkish border I was in their system and they stamped my passport no questions asked, next Customs and same thing here, I already had Turkish bike insurance, carry on, total time taken 45 min to cross both borders. There was a German biker waiting with me but he had German bike insurance for Turkey and this would have to be verified which meant going through the rigmarole, probably took another hour for him. Advice – Get your insurance at the border of whatever country you are visiting much cheaper, simpler and quicker. After that it was a relief to be back on Turkish roads, good quality 4 lane road all the way to Trabzon, mountains on one side and the sea on the other which meant many tunnels and beautiful views. What surprised me was the number of large towns along the way, I was expecting it to be less developed.

I visited the Hagia Sophia / Ayasofya which was originally a Greek Orthodox church, then a mosque, then a museum and now its back to being a mosque. It dates back to the thirteenth century and has some very interesting murals, all from the bible.

 

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Georgia – Batumi, 26 – 27 August 2018

Posted on Tuesday, 28-August-2018 by Chris Desmond

Tbilisi to Batumi was not a very pleasant ride. The first 70 km or so was on a good 4 lane highway, after that 2 lanes through the mountains which would normally be good but there was too much traffic in both directions making it very painful as there were many slow trucks, tractors, cows, horses and even a pig. Constant overtaking gets tiring after a while and it got hotter as the day progressed. Near Kutaisi the main highway was closed and there were no signs directing me where to go so I headed for the town, stopped for petrol and asked the attendant and he told me in sign language that I would have to follow a secondary road that almost parallels the highway. This road now had to handle not only the local traffic passing through small and big towns but also the highway traffic and it wasn’t doing very well hahaha, pot holes and ruts were the order of the day but there were a few good stretches as I neared Batumi. Finally got to my hotel dripping and an air conditioned room after 5:40 hours and 383 km. This is the busiest road I have been on this whole trip.

Batumi is a seaside resort town with many casinos, all the major hotels chains have a casino attached to the hotel. Popular with the Russians and Turks who come for the sun and sand sorry rocks at the beach and to make a fortune at the tables.

 

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Georgia – Tbilisi, 24 – 25 August 2018

Posted on Saturday, 25-August-2018 by Chris Desmond

Yerevan to Tbilisi, this time I followed a different route, first to Sevan and then onto the M4 all the way to the Georgian Border. Overall it was a much better road than the  M6 which I had to go on because I visited the Haghpat Monastery. About half way to the border, I was in third in a line of cars and we came across a very slow truck being followed by a very slow battered old Lada. The first car which happened to be a police car started overtaking and the rest of us followed, just as I came abreast of the Lada the guy decided to pull out and overtake obviously without looking and he bangs into my right side pannier, I wobbled along for a bit, did not stop and then carried on with only minor damage to the pannier. This is not an isolated instance, it happens all the time, no one looks before they merge with traffic, overtake, pull out from a side street or when parked etc. But I did learn a trick that I heard other drivers using, blow you horn as a warming before and a couple of times as you are overtaking. I have a built in reluctance to using my horn at all but I had a very good incentive now to overcome that resistance and I had no trouble at all blasting away after that hahaha.

It took 3 hours to get to the border 35 minutes getting through both countries Immigration and Customs and another hour and a half to get to Tbilisi. When you leave Armenia you have to get the Customs form you were given when you entered stamped before you can go through Immigration. The guy pointed me at a building and I went in and stood in a queue for 15 minutes and then got told that it was the wrong queue and to turn around and go to Customs which was behind me hahaha, walked over there and there was no queue at all, the guy stamped the form and I was out. Rode my bike and joined the queue of cars for Immigration and got stamped out of the country. Georgia again took only 5 minutes, no one checked my panniers on either side and if it hadn’t been for me being in the wrong queue the whole process would only have taken 20 minutes. After that it was quite a busy 2 lane road all the way to Tbilisi.

I booked a hotel on the other side of the city because that’s where the bike shop where I am getting my new tyres fitted was located. I had ordered the tyres on 4 August 2018 when I was in Turkey, they had to come from Germany, arrived on 14 August and I had them fitted on 25 August 2018. I cannot speak highly enough of Graham who is the owner of Rushmore Motorcycles, he is from the UK and answered all my questions within an hour or two. The Showroom and workshop are immaculate, up to the standards of any developed country and he is a nice guy. There is no other facility like this in Azerbaijan, Georgia or Armenia and it is very reassuring to know that you have someone who is reliable and you can trust.

After initial contact I used WhatsApp to keep in touch +995 557 188 484.

His email address is graham@rushmore-motorcycles.ge
Facebook – Rushmore Motorcycles Georgia LLC
Webpage – https://rushmore-motorcycles.business.site/

 

So this visit was just a pit stop for new tyres and an Oil change which I did myself. The oil came from Rushmore as well, finding motorcycle oil is not as easy as it sounds, especially in these countries where there are very few motorcycles.

 

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