Day 8

The day started off with a short ride after breakfast around the spectacular Meteora pinnacles where we went to a viewpoint for photos of these wonderful rock formations which unbelievably had monasteries built on the top of a few of them by some monks in the 14^th century. After this short but amazing stop we continued our journey on towards Turkey, although we weren’t going into Turkey today as we will stay another night in Greece not too far from the border so that we can ride as a group through the border tomorrow morning.

We did some reasonable back roads then some more peg scraping twisty mountain roads which was fun but tiring before the long boring motorway part.

David has been finding it difficult to engage 2^nd gear and upon looking into this in a motorway service station, I noticed that his gear lever was hitting on the engine casing. Bending it out slightly instantly cured the problem, but we are not sure why it moved in the first place so we are going to need to monitor this closely.

The hotel was excellent and the all you can eat buffet left many of us ready to burst! I had a quick stroll around the car park before going to bed as we have an early start in the morning.

Day 7

It was our last day in Albania and I still hadn’t got an ‘AL’ country sticker for my panniers. I stopped at yet another fuel station to see if I could get one but the chap inside the shop said he did not have any. Well, that is the gist of it I think. Then whilst I was back outside a couple of older gentleman were talking about my bike and pointing to it. I pointed to the Ace to Ace sticker that had the union jack on it and said that I was from the UK, then pointing to the China flag said I was going to China via the motorcycle. After a couple of attempts the taller guy with the smart jacket nodded and spoke to the other guy explaining this. I then pointed to my GB sticker saying that I wanted one for Albania. The taller guy said ‘AL’ and wrote this on the pannier over the GB. I said yes, that is what I am trying to get but cannot get one. He said, in a round about way, ‘I will get you one, follow me’ and then walked to wards his car. The other old chap said yes, follow him, so I explained this to David my riding companion and he was a bit apprehensive of this. I said I was sure it would be OK, so we followed the tall guy in his Merc up the road, down a side street where we parked up and whilst David kept a watch on the bikes I followed the chap to a shop in a back street. It was kind of like a motorist discount store like we have in the UK and sure enough, on a peg board behind the counter were some ’AL’ country oval stickers just like wat I was after. The chap behind the counter picked one up after being prompted by the tall guy. I said can I have two, holding two fingers up so he picked up another. I got my wallet out and got one of the local currency notes out, but the tall guy pushed it back into my wallet, shaking his head, say no, I get this for you. I felt bad about asking for two now, but thanked him very much. As we walked back to where he packed his car and David sat with our bikes he pointed back in the direction of the garage that we had came from. I said we had to go in the other direction so he shook my hand and I again thanked him. It is moments like these that I really enjoy on these trips, it doesn’t always matter if you speak the same language, you eventually understand each other, exchange smiles and maybe have a laugh over something and it doesn’t have to be long, just a few minutes gives good memories that will last a long time.

From there we rode towards the border where we checked out of Albania and entered Greece, which was a painless procedure and motorcycles even used a separate lane to the cars, which actually looked like a foot patch for pedestrians so we didn’t have to wait in the queue. There was a god half dozen of our group that turned up just after David and I did, and we all got through fine.

We rode some fantastic Greek mountain roads today, and opted for the longest route out of the three (2+1) route options that GlobeBusters gave us in the route notes. This made it a long ride but the roads were generally in good condition with decent amount of grip so I was a happy bunny today.

Day 6

It was a short ride of about 24 miles to the next border where we left Croatia and rode into Montenegro, with an even shorter ferry ride in between.

We were only transiting through Montenegro in order to get to the next country of Albania. The locals were all driving very slowly, or at most to the speed limit which soon became apparent,  as there was lots of police about in Montenegro with speed guns but every time I passed them they just looked disappointed with my steady speed, but I did give them a nod as I rode past!

When we got passed the Alanian border, several members of our group had gathered so we stopped to see what was occurring. Julia said that some people were inside the restaurant exchanging money so we went inside to see if we could do the same. It was not an official currency exchange and I was the last one the guy could help as he had run out of the local currency. David said afterwards that we actually got a better than normal exchange rate so that was a good start to this new country. You soon notice how much poorer Albania is than Croatia with kids begging at the border, lots of litter about and poorly maintained roads.

Not only was there lots of pot holes in the roads, but the surface was very well worn with a smooth shiny surface which gave little grip on the corners which after a couple of twitchy moments had me slowing down, which was not a bad thing as there were several police  about in this country too.

The temperature was also getting very warm and we soon started to open the vents on our suits.

The ride through ? was hectic city traffic, yet I quite enjoyed it as it proved to be an interesting challenge especially when the normal rules of the highway code seem to be ignored and it turns into a free for all from any lane and it just seems like it down to the first one there has the right of way!

Towards the end of the day, I was getting tired so let two other riders continue on whilst I pulled over for a rest when a photo opportunity arose.

Another bunch of riders from our group passed by as I was trying to make conversation with a couple of old chaps who didn’t speak English and I never spoke there language either but we seemed to chat for several minutes with me pointing to the stickers on my bike trying to show them I stated on London and was heading to Bijing in China. At the end of it I am not entirely sure they understood but we had a laugh and I think they got the impression I was a mad Englishman on a long motorcycle ride.

The rest of the journey to the hotel was a slow journey with me waving some of the crazy car drivers passed and once again I was the last to arrive at the hotel, but still in plenty of time for the meeting.

Day 5

It was another day following the wonderful Croatian costal road with not too much traffic allowing lots of wide grins as we chased the limit point bend after bend. Of course having this much fun means less stops to capture those great focal points, but that is the trade off and riding run takes priority for me.

However, there was one photo opportunity that I rode past initially, but then after a mile or so thinking about it, I road back again because it really was quite amazing. This was a small boat yard where there a fantastic old skeleton of a boat sat just waiting to be photographed. ‘How often do you see this sort of thing’ I thought to myself. I also took this stop as an ideal time to remove a layer as it was now starting to warm up.

Today also saw another border crossing, this time into Bosnia for a short while until we passed back into Croatia heading to Dubrovnik. It was very straight forward, just a matter of handing over the passport for a short while then we were off on our way again.

As it was a relatively short riding day, we had time in the afternoon to have a brief walk around the old town of Dubrovnik before our evening meeting. It was an interesting place and I managed to get some good exercise in walking up and down several flights of steps. 

  

  

 

The bottle was empty when I got here.

  

Day 4

Despite the weather forecast the previous evening of 50% chance of rain, the day thankfully started on the 50% dry side.

There was more motorway to begin with which was fine until I saw a few of our group all behind me. 'Oh shit' I thought to myself, 'Do they know who they are following'. Thankfully after several miles of me gradually getting slower, my plan worked and one of the more experienced riders over took me. But then a few miles up the road I noticed he was turning off the motorway and yet my sat nav was telling me to carry on. Unsure of whether to follow him or my sat nav, my in- decision meant that I missed the turn off and carried on following the wishes of my electronic navigation system. When I looked into my mirror, I momentarily couldn't see any other riders behind me and thought they must have followed him. However, a couple of minutes later I did see two other riders so this relaxed my thoughts of me making the wrong decision, but there again maybe they made the wrong decision in choosing to follow me!

The border crossing into Croatia was painless and once we turned off the motorway the roads got better, and once we was riding along the coastal road it was a pure delight. I must say, that the Croatian coastal road is one of the best coastal roads that I have ridden. The road surface was in good condition, there was lots of lovely sweeping bends and just the right amount of really tight ones to challenge your riding skills in making sure you didn’t get to complacent and go wide. Also due to being not fully in the tourist season, very little traffic to hold us up.

There were a few nice stops for photos and refreshment breaks throughout the day but time spent enjoying the ride meant we was a little on the late side getting to the hotel where we found the GlobeBusters support team anxiously waiting for us.