THE DAILY POST

Day 44 of 80 :

Some moments you never forget, like this moment when you’re speeding down a hill at full throttle and crouched down, concentrating so hard on the potholes that you don’t notice the rusty, clattering minibus rushing 20 inches from your left elbow. The driver is looking you straight in the eye, grinning a fat grin with 3 yellow teeth and a gold one, and giving you a thumbs up while his wife is taking a video and his 4 kids in the back seat are just ecstatically cheering and waving.
Probably the loving father thought it would be a good idea and an entertaining highlight for his family in their otherwise rather boring backwoods life to scare a little scooter rider trying not to get run into the ditch by a big truck.
But then the adrenaline level drops back to normal and you smile because you survived another Russian road challenge 😂!

Then you come to a bend in the valley and suddenly the road runs parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway and the goosebumps and joy you feel when by chance you are driving alongside this train at that very moment is hard to describe.
In Ulan Ude I tried to find the finish line of the Mongol Rally because I wanted to know if I was faster or slower than the teams with which I crossed the Caspian Sea. However, I failed in my navigation via Google to finish a race I never started. When I finally left the city, Google decided to send me down a back road, and suddenly I was all alone with no traffic in the wide open countryside. I was first delighted and then a little worried and it just had to happen! The road simply turned into a dirt road with deep sand and rocks. What was shown on the map as a national road simply turned out to be a dirt road. On the way down from a hill, in the soft sand mixed with stones, I almost fell.
I survived that too and found a hostel in a very small village where I might be considered the first German in 75 years. With a beer, a piece of bread and ham from the village store I sat then in front of the house with two drunken Russian truck drivers and I was glad that I may also experience the next day full of small challenges !

Quote of the day :
Around the world in 80 days – how do you do it? Do you Tinder?

(Lesson of the day : I’m going too fast for Tinder).
I managed to meet today with 2 wonderful souls and members of the great worldwide Vespa community in Irkutsk Siberia – yes you heard right – Irkutsk has 5 Vespa riders! One of them is a young and very nice and cosmopolitan man and also a prosecutor in the city. He has been following me on Instagram for several days and contacted me not to miss the opportunity to have a coffee together. “Colorful people like you enrich our otherwise gray life here in the deep east.” Those were his words. Amazing! We met at a rest stop outside the city and he came with his girlfriend, a passionate photographer and owner of a gallery. We drove together a few kilometers to Lake Baikal, drank coffee, ate a good meal and had a nice chat !
And on the way we also met a couple from Czech Republic, who were riding a big motorcycle on Pamir Highway 🙂 ! We exchanged briefly, took photos together and then we parted ways again

P.S.: Day 43 ends at 15174 km and still about 3600 km to Vladivostok

August 4th, 2018

I can rest when I am dead!

That moment when you’re eating lunch at a truck stop and you’re dirty and tired and your whole body aches.
The last 3 days have been tough. I rode 1350 km on my Vespa and today I’m trying to pass Omsk.  Bumpy roads with lots of road works and a strong, very cold wind from the east blowing in my face all the time. The temperatures have dropped 25 degrees since Kazakhstan. The road and the surroundings are rather boring and uneventful. Swamps, fields, and forests alternate in a flat environment.
However, the people were very nice. I shared a meal with some truckers, got a bottle of home-distilled beverage at a gas station in case I got cold, and even the police who pulled me over today wouldn’t end up fining me (even though they were obviously chasing and pulling me over), but helped me figure out the best route to take.
Then I remember – I’m on a mission! This is no joyride and I knew it would be the biggest challenge of my life so far. I put in my headphones, put on my helmet, and sunglasses, put on winter gloves (yes I have those with me), and head out of the truck stop with AC/DC in my ears on Rosinante! Siberia is waiting.
Still 17 days and +-6600 km. My ferry leaves in 18 days and in 19 my visa expires.
I can rest when I am dead!

I have slept very long today because was drop-dead tired and thank God I  have found a halfway decent hotel for 20$.

I  still run a bit late! I am now approaching the Russian border at Uralsk but the high temperatures of the last few days have taken their toll: I have a red, inflamed back from constant sweating, and I am also covered with mosquito bites and generally feel a bit down at the moment because I probably can not make up for the delay and I may lose Mongolia and then go directly to Siberia. The plan is 8500 km in the next 23 days to Vladivostok, where I should take a ferry to Don Hae. At breakfast, I finally decide to skip the route through Mongolia and move only through Russia because I’m afraid because of the lost days in Turkey to violate my visa and not get my ferry to South Korea. Also, I heard that during the spring many of the roads in Mongolia have become impassable because of flooding.

I met Silvio from Switzerland in the hotel and arranged to have lunch with him at 12. He was just on the way back from the Pamir Highway. We had a nice chat during lunch and he can not believe what I do on my “trashcan” there.

When leaving the city it was then already very very hot and after about 70 km there was suddenly a strange noise from the engine.

I immediately pull the clutch. It is immediately clear to me: Piston stick! From then on I was really wide awake. I let the engine cool down first and finally helped with the canister and octane booster. After about 25 minutes I start again, let the scooter run at idle speed, and hope it doesn’t jam completely. But after the fresh fuel and the additional octane (cools the combustion) ran my little Vespa again without problems. What a bit of luck. At all gas stations, you are asked where you are from and I have Google Translate already open to allow some small talk. Also, in every village and town, people look at me as if I’m riding into town on a pink unicorn. Vespas never existed in these regions and travelers from out of town only get through here with heavy and expensive touring enduros or off-road vehicles. I finally see the first trees after 1500 km and rode again until dark. The fat Kazakh in an old Audi 100 guides me to a hotel and suddenly something squeaks terribly and I get scared. Was that Rosinante? Luck had it were only the brakes of the Audi! Thought already I am that. The whole place is the purest dusty mogul track. The owner accepts no cards and sends me back to the town center because I have no more cash. Then I have a delicious dinner with soup and chai.

I end the day with Kazakh beer and chips before going to sleep.

29.07.2018

Important Life Lessons from yesterday night:

when a Kazakh road sign says danger ahead, they mean it! The beautiful road suddenly turned behind a bend into a sandy track with big rocks. And if there are camels during the day, you can almost run over them at night! I came with nearly 70 things over a slight hilltop and there it just stood on the road. Pretty indifferent. I, on the other hand, almost wet my pants because it was so close.
I started my day at 6:30 by loading the bike in front of a truck stop that could have been from the movie “From Dusk till Dawn” or the Hitchcock classic “Psycho” and am now riding my first few hundred miles before lunch.

Important life lessons from this morning:

1. Kazakhstan is really big and the distances between gas stations are really so big that you can’t make it to the next gas station with a full tank of gas and a spare can of 5 liters plus a 1-liter bottle.
2. always have your hose ready (not what you think).
3. a mouthful of 92 octanes is not an alternative to a good Cappucino
4. even if you sucked 3.5 liters of gas out of a truck, it won’t be enough to reach the gas station.
5. sometimes you repeat things until they work out

Goodbye Spain! Hasta luego ! Gracias
After 403 km yesterday and the visit to Barcelona I spent the night in Tossa de Mar after I made a short round through Lloret de Mar for a cold drink.

In the morning there was a big spectacle as I started to stack my luggage next to the scooter in front of the hotel, just next to the breakfast terrace,  and then step by step load. One should have handed perhaps popcorn and beer to the People. In the end, they have even clapped as the “impossible” worked out and my scooter was fully packed and ready to go. I bowed out and drove off. Around noon I reach the border of France. I take a short photo stop and then quickly enter France.

I strictly follow the coast and then head towards the Camarque. Suddenly some things seem more familiar to me than I would like. Google Navigation has led me directly to St. Marie de la Mer. A tiny town in which I am stranded in 2016 once with a hole in the piston. I take a quick photo of the place, but with a queasy feeling I quickly speed on. Those were no memories I am fond of. I was stranded there for 4 days and 3 nights until I finally got a spare part and had to repair my engine at night on a gravel parking lot.

Now better continue briskly towards Italy along the coast! In the early afternoon, a truck cuts me and shows me then directly several times the finger. In France on the Vespa, this is, unfortunately, not uncommon with a German license plate. In 2014 just after the lost Soccer World Cup, a french family tried to ride me into the ditch and two kids showed me directly the finger from the rear window.

Later on the expressway, I had then strangely two misfires, but could not find a cause. Well, it is very hot and I drive the whole day at more or less full throttle. So far it was a total of 1450 km and 0 real problems!

I drive again until it gets dark. Unfortunately at Mallemort in the dark in search of a campsite my taillight fails. The Navigation asks me 3 times while I search the camping at the same spot to turn where the guardrail is pulled through. No joke. I capitulate and withdraw directly opposite the place in a field way and set up my tent in the darkness behind the bushes at the highway. Not overly idyllic, but I want to get off the road with the broken taillight. I fall asleep exhausted.
Keep your fingers crossed for me 🙂
Thanks to my Spanish friends for a great time, support and hospitality. Let’s see what France has to offer 🙂 !
Hello France! Bonjour!

In the morning first breakfast with Manu and then a meeting with some people of the city administration at the city hall for a short meet n greet and a photo. After that, he accompanied me for about 80 kilometers, had lunch with me, and gave me another tank of gas. I continued my way towards Barcelona along the wonderful coastal route and met a dear acquaintance at Plaza de Espana. Richie had been following me on Facebook for a few years and was eager to meet me. He came with Pedro one of the oldest Vespa riders in town and owner of a small but good workshop. We drank drove for a photo to the Sagrada Familia and had a drink next door in the pub where we were still randomly addressed by a Vespa driver from Cornwall. Afterward, he drove some kilometers with me along the beach to the north and we ate together in a beach bar. He did not miss the opportunity to give me some tubes of 2-stroke oil for the road. Towards evening I reached then Lloret de Mar and sat down still on a cool drink on the beach promenade, to look for me online a place to sleep. Camping was today none free and so I decided for a small pension in the neighboring town of Tossa de Mar. A round and successful day!