Day 27 - Going home, sort of...

It is 3pm and after a long wait, a new tire has been located and I am off to get it fitted. Just in time too. I am 1900km from home and cannot really afford to hang around till Monday. The journey (at least the aimless wandering part of it) is done and now it is time to make tracks. Now I have an excuse to come back :-) Adam (pictured) is a good bloke to meet when the chips are down. He and his dad picked me up last night, got me sorted in a hotel, found a tire, even organised some mates of their to come out and take a look to see if they could get me fixed at the roadside or if they could get me a second hand tire through the grapevine. In short, all round excellent blokes. Small wonder they all ride bikes too.


I booked a Eurotunnel crossing on Wednesday night in hope.....and then we went to put the new rubber on. Everything went went well until at long last, it was time to roll the bike out and would you believe it, it started spitting rain. I couldn't flipping believe it! I decided to go west, shortest route home but after about 30 minutes, the clouds in front of me convinced me to go south. I couldn't stand another soaking. Everything stinks the way it does when it has not dried properly for days. I need a new helmet cos this one is fetid inside. It doesnt owe me any money as I bought it to do the south american trip a few years back and a lot of sweat has seeped into it since then. I threw away the remnants of the waterproof leggings I bought in Trondheim. They were totally shagged. I feel a shopping trip coming on....


I decided on Krakow about 300km south and from there I will bumble along home in 4 days. Not much to note about the journey. I skirted Warsaw which is a little 'american' in that it has lots of strip development extending for miles out into the countryside. I was driving through urban sprawl for ages. I guess this a result of having been completely rebuild from scratch after the war. Dusk was pretty with a mist forming strange cloud shapes. I stopped about 30k short of Krakow in a small town in an exceptional little hotel.A a real find and all for 110 Zlotys a night, about 25 quid. Mad wedding band in the background as I write.

Day 26 - To Poland

I left Vilnius in glorious sunshine after a McDonalds breakfast....purely for the free wifi you understand. Actually, McDs are quite rare so far on this trip. I have only seen a couple so far and they are usually in capital cites. I backtracked to see Trakai Castle about 20km west of the city. Very picturesque and it hauls in the tourists by the busload.


Next on the agenda was Grutus Park near the Belarus border. After independence in 1991, most town squares in Lithuania had one or more soviet era statues. What was to become of them? Some of them were destroyed there and then by the crowds but the government removed and stored them. Along came the local mushroom magnate Viliumas Malinauskas who bought the lot and created a sculpture park, complete with fake guard towers, soviet era piped music and a genuine cattle truck used to ship people east. Strangely compelling, it has caused a but of a controversy here but still 200,000 people a year come in and pay 20Lt (about 4 quid) for the pleasure.


Not much time left I thought, so I decided on a short cut to get to Poland and take the wee roads rather than follow the signposted route. The road surface disappeared with the signs and then it got a but squirmy and sandy (a pet hate of mine). I began to wonder if I might be straying towards Belarus on the farm tracks, but a quick zoom out on the GPS indicated that the border was a good few klicks away. One more farm track and I started seeing polish number plates. Nothing to mark the border at all.

My GPS data for Poland is not that good so I headed for the nearest campsite about 65k away. As usual in the evening, the flipping rain started and this time it was a real bugger. The heavens opened and I couldn't see a thing. Proper biblical stuff with an inch of water on the road. I should have pulled over and sheltered but my boots were filling up....and then it happened. A kerbstone right in my path and I hit it doing about 30mph. Front tyre went down in a couple of seconds and I was wrestling the bike to the side. A close one.


Checked the tyre but there is a 2cm gash right near the rim so it is finished. It was just about shot anyway so no real loss. Called the recovery people and stood in the rain for an hour and a half getting hosed by every truck that passed. They have a lot of trucks here. Guys come and haul my baby onto an ordinary flatbed recovery truck and I wince with every manoeuvre. Not sure when or where I will be able to get a tyre tomorrow, possibly have to go to Warsaw. If nothing available, then I have a problem......

Day 25 - Vilnius Old Town

I decided to bumble around Vilnius for the day, the last of the three Baltic capital cities on the tour. It has been raining off and on all day and I don't fancy riding in that. The old town is positively stuffed with churches of all persuasions and it seems that many of them at some time have been Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox, used as grain stores or even a 'Museum of Atheism'. The place is an orgy of baroque. Apparently pre WWII, it was even more so. If overdecorated churches is your thing, this is a place to see.

The old town itself doesn't have anything as much party life going on as Riga or Tallinn. It is a lot more laid back and 'european'. The other two have lots of pubs, taverns and night clubs. Vilnius has a more easygoing cafe feel to it. Not the place I would pick for a wild night on the town but still good fun. What it does have is 'high culture'.....theatres, three full size orchestras and a couple of smaller ones.

Heard of the 'Free Hugs' idea? If not, look it up on youtube or google. These kids were wandering round the centre today offering them to any takers. I had it in my head that it started in Australia....but they seemed convinced that it was a Japanese thing. Anyhow, I felt a bit awkward as they were so young so I just took the pic.

Later, I went to visit the ex KGB HQ. Part of it has been converted to a Museum telling the story of the horrors carried out in Lithuania by both Nazis and Soviets. In the basement is a prison which was in regular use up till independence. Some of the cells have been preserved in their pre 1991 state and include soundproof torture chamber, water torture room, isolation cells and execution chamber. Approximately 1000 people were shot in the basement between 1944 and 1991. The names of some of them are engraved on the granite stones of the walls on the outside. What is really weird is the casual nature of the official correspondence about the executions and disposal of the bodies in hidden graves around the city.

Day 24 - Curonian Spit

After a diet busting breakfast at the hotel (breakfast is usually included here) I headed for the Curonian Spit. This is a sandbar about 100km long and maximum 4k wide and bridges the corner of the Baltic between Lithuania and Kaliningrad which is Russian territory....German East Prussia as was until WWI. The border is about half way down. The spit itself is home to the largest sand dunes in europe, the biggest is 50m high. So there. Actually, the kids playing in these water zorbs was more fun to see. A long way down and back to see pines and sand as I don't have a visa for Russia I had to go back via Klapedia.

By the time I got back to where I started from this morning, it was 4pm. I decided to visit an ex Soviet Nuclear missile bunker . Only 50km away according to the map and there was a tour starting at 5pm according to the book of knowledge. It was 630pm before I found it....no roadsigns...no roads....and finally no exhibition. Sign at the gate said closed till 2011. Bugger. All this way for that. I ducked the fence and got as close as I could before the man turned up. Not much of a picture but there are a bunch of these large concrete caps on rails that cover the missile silos. Underground, is a large complex of tunnels and bunkers which allegedly you can tour. Next time.

I decided to make a run for it, and try get to Vilnius about 250km away. Like clockwork, the clouds boiled overhead, thunder, lightning, the full monty. My waterproof leggings are totally shot now, no arse left in them at all.

Day 23 - Kolka, Ventspils to Klapedia

It was a lot cooler today, a nice riding temperature of 22C so I decided to go west along the coastline to the Kolka peninsula to see the Baltic as I have not really done that. must be over a hundred miles of pine forest and beautiful sandy beach. All mostly empty it seemed. Right at the end, someone wanted payment to park the bike for a few minutes.....they are catching on fast here.

Further south, the gritty port city of Ventspils is trying to re-invent itself as a tourist destination. Until recently, is was major gateway for russian oil exports but that has all gone in the last 10 years. What is left are lot of soviet era 4 story apartment blocks, a lot of dockside cranes and a big port.....and somewhere in the middle is an older cobbled street town with a castle. They are being ambitious, to say the least. Actually, the guidebook says this is the number one day trip destination for Latvian schoolchildren.

In the late afternoon, the weather started to close in. This seems to be pretty predictable here. I took shelter from the thunder & lightening under the porch of a shop in a small town and waited for it to pass. And I waited. After about an hour, a smart guy turns up in his car and starts chatting and tells me he has a KTM Adventure and invites me to stay and tell me about my trip. Seems I am the most interesting thing to pass through for a while. Like an idiot, I declined. For some reason, I thought I wanted to keep going, that the rain would lighten. I spent the next 2 hours riding south in the rain cursing myself. A golden opportunity missed to meet some locals with something in common. Plonker.

Instead I headed for Lithuania. I had spent all my Latvian money & given the last few coins to some local kids while I was waiting. By the time 11pm came, I was soaking and still no sign of a campsite so I played the Visa card and write this from the comfort of 4* hotel complete with wifi.....but it could have been so much better. Idiot. I will say yes next time.

Day 22 - Riga

Riga is a city of 750k people and is the biggest city in the Baltics. The population is split about 50/50 Latvian-Russian and the evidence is everywhere, Notices, Food, Newspapers but you especially notice the conversation. This is the first time I have really noticed a large Russian influence. The place itself is stuffed with every sort of architecture from the last 500 years, but especially Art Nouveau.

There was a real buzz on the streets when I was there. I guess summer is short here so they party when the weather is right. Lots of open air temporary pubs/bars in the squares (with temporary loos too) Live music. I can see whey people get on a RyanAir flight for the weekend. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any Stag parties in town. Perhaps on weekends only? These lads were breakdancing for change and were pretty good. Not as good as me.....but still good ;)

I went to the 'Museum of Occupation' and got the potted history of the place. All the Baltic states had a crap deal over the past 500 years but especially since about 1939. Waves of repression first by the Russians, then by Nazis and then again by Russians. I went to visit a memorial in Bikernieku forest which commemorates the thousands of people murdered here between 1941-44. The numbers are staggering. On November 30 1941, 28,000 people were brought to Ronumbula forest to be shot. Each mass grave is marked by a raised bed and a jagged rock rising from the middle. There are a lot of these graves here.

Further down the roads is the main Holocaust memorial. There is a central canopy in the middle covering a slab with the inscription "Oh earth, cover not my blood and let my cry have no peace". Around it is a garden of jagged stones radiating out. Each plot is inscribed with the name of city where the victims came from. It is a very moving place.

Walking home that night, I saw this moonrise over a bridge.

Day 21 - Tallin, Tartu & Riga

I packed up and left Tallinn this morning knowing that I will be back. A great place to lose a weekend or two and pick up some culture while you are t it. I set off with no real plan in mind other than I would not look for hilly twisty roads so I would therefore not be disappointed. It was a hot sticky day with the temp varying between 29 and 32 all day so there was no respite. I first headed East along the coast to the Soviet Unions first ever National park. It is a big thing, 725km/sq and as it was Sunday, quite a few locals were out hunting for berries in the woods. Quite a few of the roads are gravel so not much to see if you get behind traffic.

I turned south and seems like I This part of the world is pretty flat and relatively treeless for once. Lots of cereal fields. Wheat, Barley, Rye, the lot. The temperature and humidity was taking its toll and I had to resort to Ice-Cream and soaking my shirt in water to try keep cool.

I passed through Tartu, Estonia's major centre of learning. It has had a university for over 300 years and allegedly 1 in 5 people in the town is either a student or faculty. Lots of chocolate box buildings but I didn't hang around as it is just a bit too close to Tallinn. I might never finish this trip if I don't get a move on.



Every now and then you come across storks foraging beside the road or else sitting in their nests atop telephone poles. They are canny buggers and don't mind you going past quite close in a vehicle but of you stop or turn round down the road, they take notice and wont pose. Bastards. Only place they seem happy to do that is in the safety of they nest.

In the end, I decided to take the 'motorway' to Riga and there I had my first encounter with the Latvian overtaking manoeuvre. It is: drive 6 inches from the car in front, wait till there is oncoming traffic, floor it and just scrape in the gap in front of the car you just passed. Repeat. Apparently, the death rate on the roads here is appalling. Wonder why.

Day 19/20 - Helsinki To Tallinn

I woke this morning in my palace of a hostel to discover my roommate had turned up sometime in the wee hours. He had been out juggling for beer and had been moderately successful. Bar is on a 2 month ramble around europe before he has to go back to Israel and do his military service. As I was leaving, he was attempting hitchhiking north to Jonsuu for a juggling festival.

After wandering round all the ferry terminals in Helsinki (there are a lot of them) I managed to squeeze onto a ferry for Tallinn without a reservation. They get very full, especially at the weekends. These big ferries are enormous floating bars and everyone heads straight for the booze. Just a quick 2 hour blast across the 80km wide Gulf of Finland with St Petersburg to the east.


The old city of Tallinn is a beautiful place (and it it stuffed with very attractive girls too!). Where Finland is all dull and modern, Tallinn is a mix of dazzling shiny new and quirky and old. Think of a mini Prague meets Tokyo and you wont be too far wrong. Booze and food is relatively cheap and it is not a big surprise the Finns and Swedes come here to party.


There are plenty of communist era architectural horrors as well outside the old city. Look at this thing. What were they thinking? And the building beside it looked like it was modelled on a child's lego house.


Wandered home to my tent and saw yet another sunset across the Gulf of Finland. During the summer, the waters are ice-free so there are always ferries out there. Different story in the winter. The sun is still setting more north than west but I guess that will start to change now.

Woke up a bit late and it was pissing rain so decided to be sensible and go for a wander in town instead of wandering the countryside on a bike seeing nothing. Another day here is no problem at all. Pizza for lunch...and then another one for supper. Old habits die hard. I will be good tomorrow and head for Tartu or Riga, depending on the weather.

Day 18 - Fin Finland

I decided I was done with Finland this morning. One too many tree I guess. I set a course for Tallinn and gave the back roads one last try and would you know, Finland came up trumps. I have a fine time but there was bugger all to photograph so I just rambled on. Occasionally the road surface would just disappear and I was on packed dirt & gravel but it was fine to ride on.

It was warm today, mostly about 30C and I suffered a little. God knows what Poland will be like, being even further from the sea. This heat makes ski jumping impossible so the stadiums look a little unloved at the moment. There are not many hills here so they build these huge gantry structures on the nearest mound of earth, climb to the top and launch. Looks bloody high when you are standing at the bottom.

Off to Estonia tomorrow morning and I guess it will be a bit rougher there but I will be glad of a change of scenery. Finland is a bit bland for me. Maybe I am being harsh on it and it is suffering in comparison to its western neighbour. Dull and dependable is a fair description. It is a safe, clean and honest place....but it doesn't have much of a wow factor. Maybe winter is better...


Beer O'Clock...dinner tonight is traditional elephants' foot kebab with a scandinavian twist....no pita and on a plate. The culinary highlight of my trip so far....it tasted fab! I have been living off freeze dried crap and snacks for too long.

Day 17 - Russian Border

I was determined to find some biking roads today. Something with a hill and a few bends at least. How can a country with so many world class drivers come from a place that is so flat and dull (to drive at least)? I looked at the map and saw that along the border with Russia, there were more wiggles on the map. Problem solved, I thought. And sure enough there were bends and hills... but not much tarmac.


Then the road ended with this sign. Within a couple of minutes as I was taking a picture, the border guards arrived and started quizzing me. It wasn't a problem being there but I was not allowed to go any further. This is the edge of the 3km wide strip between the two countries, the actual border was just over the hill.



Like yesterday afternoon, the clouds started piling in from the west and soon it was as the french say 'raining like a cow pissing' so I took shelter with most of the Finnish motorcycling fraternity in the first available petrol station. And some of the even talked to me. I am putting the others grunts and avoidance of contact down to the GB sticker on the bike or the fact that not that english is not as widely spoken here as in the other scandinavian countries.


All day, I had been heading in the general direction of Savonlinna in the lake district and it's famous castle in the lake. I have to admit being a bit underwhelmed by it For sure it is pretty and in a great location but I was expecting something a little grander. They have an annual Opera Festival which runs between mid July and mid August and tix cost between E35 and E180....if you are interested. Apparently the acoustics and setting is excellent...but you have to book a long time in advance.

Day 16 - Mid Finland

Had a good sleep and was in no hurry to leave Rovaniemi. Remember Lordi? The Finnish group who won Eurovision dressed as some sort of characters out of 'Lord of The Rings'. The people here were so proud of them, they renamed the main square 'Lordi Square'. They do like their Hard Rock up here...and the do like booze. So much so, that you cannot buy take away alcohol after 9pm. This guy keeps the booze theme going by converting a barrel to a luggage compartment for his trike.


I tried my best to find a bend in the road but was not very successful. Still, the weather was fabulous and I resorted to singing show tunes in my helmet. Finland is definitely a flat place and the only thing the roads have to avoid are the lakes. In my quest for local knowledge of 'biking roads', I got chatting to two guys in Oulu on the Baltic coast who told me that they go to Norway when they want some fun. They were actually Iraqi but had been here for 20 years.


I decided to head east towards the Russian border to see what that side of the country looks like. I stopped in a gas station and got chatting to the manager who got out his map and showed me the places to go, even wrote out a suggested route for me. I waited till a rain front passed through then set off behind it and the colours were just amazing. Evening light, just after rain is pretty special.


The sunset was spectacular with all the moisture in the air. It is a pity that I only caught glimpses of it through gaps in the trees until quite late on. This is the tail end of it. Camping wild tonight about 60km from the Russian border as I didn't stop until 11pm. Might even get dark tonight. That's a novelty.

Day 15 - Visiting Santa

After my stinky experience at Nordkapp, I decided it was bath day so made a short day of it and went looking for a campsite equipped with a washing machine. Rovaniemi seemed like a good place to head for as it is the only big place for hundreds of miles around. It is also where Santa 'Officially' lives.....in this nice big Christmas theme park open all year round. Tasteful. The entrepreneurial Finns have spotted a use for all that snow and winter darkness. I went there looking for an Arctic Circle photo opportunity because I couldn't get one going north as I was on a ferry. Not quite what I was expecting.

One the way there, I saw lots of roads like this....one mile is the same as the next. Lots of mild bends, mild hills and millions of trees. One thing Finland is not short of is trees. Apparently 69% of the country is forested and there are 187,000 lakes. That means a lot of mozzies.

The endless forest is enough to make you do strange things.. I have been told that the Finns are a pretty taciturn lot. So far, I can't confirm or deny this rumour but certainly nobody is walking up to me and saying hello at gas stations.

At the campsite I met this incredible Japanese chap Nozomi Watanabe who is touring the world solo for two years on this little bike. A little 200cc Yamaha Djebel which looks just about perfect for the job. I might take a serious look at one for a trip in the future. He left Japan in May and has so far traversed Russia and next he heads south to South Africa via the eastern side but not before he heads down to Spain, Portugal and then back up southern europe and then through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel.....ll the way to Cape Town....Then over to South America and up to the US.....you get the picture. He will have one hell of a story to tell by the time he is finished. He has a blog at www.4wanderer.net if you read japanese.

Day 14 - Heading South

The tent was baking and very smelly this morning and for once, the stench had nothing to do with me. You have to skip a shower here and there on a trip like this but I am still relatively clean. Nope, I am afraid the only piece of ground on Nordkapp suitable for pitching a tent is green and lush for a very good reason....and I didn't smell it last night because the wind was blowing. Seems like they haven't done a very good job with the drainage for the main visitor centre and it is now producing a very lush green poo field.


Time to head south to Finland today and the weather broke about an hour into the trip. Not before I popped round the the local 'big town' to take a look. The spanish barman told me that he loves working at the Nordkapp centre because 1) the money is good 2) there is nowhere to spend it during the week. He said he heads to this place to let his hair down. It is also the dropping off point for cruise ships to let their punters stretch their legs.


People have been asking for pictures of Reindeer, so here is the last one. They are a bloody nuisance on the roads and should stick to pulling sleds and delivering Xmas presents.


Seen a few forlorn Sleds & Snowmobiles rusting in the fields, waiting for colder weather. Had a soggy ride over the Finnmark plain today. Luckily, I had purchased new waterproof trousers to wear after losing the old ones coming into Trondheim. Unfortunately, they were pretty flimsy and repeated mounting & dismounting has ripped the arse out of them so I am pretty familiar with how a baby with a wet nappy feels and why they cry.


I wasn't intending to rough camp tonight but necessity made it so. No Youth Hostels near, Huts all full and cant find a campsite within 50 miles so decided to brave the mozzies and camp next to a small road in the woods. They are right feasome little buggers but this net thing over a hat works pretty well. It was a bit of a military operation trying to get the tent up, put my gear in and not let any the biting bastards in with me.