The Final Frontier and the Voyage Home

Our gentle bimble back to Europe took us across Ukraine, into southern Poland and the Tatra Mountains.

At the border with Russia the Ukrainian post was entirely staffed by the military, weapons were in full view and gun emplacements were dotted around. By contrast the Russian side was fairly relaxed, no major search, and no weapons evident. Tensions are still high between the two states, but possibly the Ukrainians are more tense. While the panniers were being searched we heard a loud gun shot type noise. We jumped and looked around, but the soldiers just grinned and carried on.

Some (most) of the roads in Ukraine can be rough with large pot holes, but from past experience I knew by keeping to the major "M" roads they would be fine. As with all border crossings there is a change in landscape, immediately more trees appeared lining the roads. It also started to rain, the sort of rain we normally associate with being near a coast, that feeling of a being dipped in sea mist. This may be caused by the 110km long lake to the north of Kiev. Another long hot spell had ended for us. Now it was warm and wet.

By keeping to the major roads we sampled their motels, beer and food. Our diet improved with beef steak, stuffed chicken breast and succulent kebabs. We started to fatten up again, after our diet of camca (Russian meat or cheese filled bread pasties), goulash, and plov (Russian pilaf). Washed down with Georgian (to make up for not going there) sparkling wine.

The Ukrainian motels had some quirky designs, a lot were made to look like castles.

The Ukrainian/Polish border crossings are awash with vodka and cigarette smugglers. There were reports of 4 to 10 hour queues just to get to the border gates. We chose to employ the motorcyclists prerogative: ignore the queue and ride to the front. No one objected as we rode past the 3 kilometres of vans and buses; not even the policeman at the front holding everyone up. When we arrived at the border with only 3 vehicles in front of us, the guard started to collect slips of paper from the ones in front. We presumed this was a check that you had not jumped the queue. One car was pulled out and sent back. The guard then just asked us for our passports and waved us through. Motorbikes rock !

Once in Poland we detoured from a straight path home, unpacked the tent for the first time since Mongolia, and set up camp for a few days near the town of Zakopane (think Windermere in the UK Lake District for popularity). Then into Slovakia to do a full circuit of the beautiful Tatra mountains, the highest range in the Carpathians.

We entered Germany at Bavaria, from the Czech Republic, and being mapless we asked Google to plot is a non-motorway route to Heidelberg. It must have known we were on motorbikes as it took us on a fantastic journey through small "chocolate box" villages, sweeping bends, green hills and valleys. 

All the time on perfect asphalt. Even where it was repaired it was smoother than some countries freshly laid roads.

On this section the bikes were running well on to the smooth surfaces. Nothing was dropping off or breaking. Until we were  interrupted in Slovakia when my radiator sprang another leak. The addition of fresh sealant got us moving again. Until Belgium, and then France as the process of add more sealant and coolant was repeated.

Our decision to cut the trip short was looking better each day. I knew that we could attempt to repair the radiator, but that would require removing it and possibly making it worse if that failed. We preferred to keep performing the sealant and fingers crossed routine.

On top of that I was still keeping an eye on oil usage for my leaking bike: go slow no problems, take the revs over 4500 and use loads. Also Jean's chain was now kinked with more bends than Brands Hatch. 

Definitely time to head home, reassess, fix and head to the Caucasus mountains another time.

On this trip we have made more repairs in more countries than ever before. It would be shorter to list countries that no repairs have been carried out in. (Kyrgyzstan, Czech Republic and Ukraine).

The conditions were far harsher on the bikes than we expected, they have robust engines but a lot of the ancillaries are weak, possibly due to Italian "prettiness". Especially the front fairings which bounced around separating from the fixing arms on many occasions. And then there were the radiator issues. 

But the most important thing is that we have completed what we set out to do, returned with both of us in one piece, and managed it once more without any punctures. And confirmed that Outer Mongolia is indeed a very very long way away!