Preparations have finally begun - only 18 days before we leave!

Well our original 'plan' was to head east and get to Yalta in the Crimea (Ukraine). This looked kind of interesting and would have taken us somewhere a bit different. Then it all kicked-off in Ukraine so we eventually chose to do something a little less exciting, but arguably better as a motorbike trip.

 So what's the plan now?

1 x Yamaha XT660Z Tenere (Spiro)
1 x Honda XL600V Transalp (Dino)
2 x Human Beings (Spiro/Dino)
2 x Tents
8,000 - 10,000km to cover in 17 days

We're probably catching an early ferry from Dover to Calais and then blasting through Belgium/Netherlands/Germany/Austria/Hungary into Northern Romania. From there we are looking to do a loop/crescent of Romania and after that it's anyone's guess. We might head down into Bulgaria to dip our feet in the Black Sea, we may come back via Serbia/Bosnia/Croatia or we might just take it easy and just spend all our time in Romania sampling its delights.

Distances are likely to be from 300 miles/500 km per day on average (higher on the days travelling out/back, but less whilst further East). This shouldn't be too bad compared to some of my earlier iron-butt endurance trips.

Still, it's quite a trek for two sub 50hp bikes, (one of which is a little elderly) especially as we intend to be mostly self-sufficient and wild-camp - thus we'll be carrying a lot of gear.

 

Well I finally started digging-out my tools/camping/motorbike kit over the weekend. The Tenere is booked in for a service, MOT and new rear tyre. Dino's Transalp is currently at the garage waiting on new front brake disks. Hopefully the garage will do a good job as we're a little short on time to do much fiddling on the bikes prior to departure. The Tenere was set-up for Nordkapp and did a great job on that trip so I'm not really planning on changing anything (other than getting an Airhawk seat - gel is rubbish). Dino's got a bit of tinkering still to do on the Transalp but it runs like a champ so should be fine even if he runs out of time.

We have a roughly planned route designed to get us to Romania quickly, but very little else. I have an idea of some of the interesting places I want to see in Romania itself, but beyond that we hope to play things by ear. We certainly don't want to do the same route there and back so will have to work something out. We have yet to book a ferry, sort-out paperwork or properly plan where we are going and what to take.........

 

Bring it on. 18 days and counting.......