12th June 2011

I am sitting at the Ferry terminal in Calais, the ferries leave every hour and mine is at 01h30 but it’s a lot cheaper than the 17h00. I have saved R1000 by taking the later one, or in this case the very early one… this morning I decided to cook myself Bacon and eggs the bacon turned out to be Palma ham and my eggs were frozen , I should wear my glasses when I go shopping but I don’t understand the frozen eggs?? Another on my to do list check fridge!!  

10th June 2011

 I have received the shipping time, and there is a ship sailing to Durban on the 22 June so I have decided I would like to get my mog on that ship. That gives me just 12 days to get to the UK and have the things sorted out at Atkinson that I need done. I also want to try and sort out the DVLA as Rita is the proud owner of frits not me … then I will be on the next plane to SA as I have seen enough and had enough fun and experience’s to last me for a while, Also I have made quite a dent in my finances most of which has been the cost of fuel the average price for a litre of low grade diesel is R14.00 and I can tell you that Fritz has quite the healthy appetite and makes it through a tank in 500km my consumption is around 4.65 km per ltr and I have driven 14000km since the 1^st of March and visited 18 countries admittedly some for a day like Andorra and Switzerland but the rest I have seen and enjoyed the best part was I never got lost, just on a different road!  I have also been lucky to had a beer or two in each country and visited my Uncle Dave and Babs in Cyprus , not bad in 3 months

I am having difficulty downloading my pics again but they will get there when I get a good WiFi connection.

9th June 2011

Again it has rained all night and it still is which makes going to Vienna a no no as I will not be able to take any photos and the thought of catching a taxi then the train …no not to day so I am heading to Salzburg which is 300km towards Germany, it`s still raining and the roads are twisty excellent on a 950 KTM but a bit of a grind in a 7500 ton truck but all`s well and I find a camp next to a lake and it`s got Wi-Fi to send these last few blogs …they are charging R20 an hour okay not to bad but by the time I down loaded the pics and send them to my blog an hour was up and the guy was off home …

8th June2011

I was up very early today as there was a seriously big storm , the lightning struck so close to Fritz that it blew my switches .And two light globes, and also blew the internet modem sky high, I felt for the owner Eva as she isn’t that busy and can`t afford this expense. It was still raining a bit when I left the camp and my route was right through the centre of Budapest across the Danube, But then the fun started first it was road works so I have to detour my route then it started to really rain hard boy did I drive around Budapest or what I think I spent over an hour getting out of this really large city and was quite happy to be heading to Austria and Vienna. Due to my latish start and my getting caught up in Budapest morning rush hour or I should say it seems it always rush hour there!! My arrival in Vienna was late so I decided to see the city the next day…I found my camp site which is lovely but 26 km outside the city what a mission.

7th June 2011

Yesterday’s drive to Hungary was easy, it was quite a way I drove just on 300km and arrived at Arena camp at 16h00. The owner a lady by the name of Eva gave me directions to the city, and so I was off to see Budapest… The Danube River flows down the middle of the city and one side is called Buda and the other is called Pest. I didn’t know that!! From the last three block countries this is by far the most developed and you can see the EU influence. Just the currency is a bit of a mission to many noughts. The upside is that the women are very attractive here but to be fare Europe has just as many nice girls (but SA has the best) as well. I suppose it I am not used to seeing so many white people … the building are amazing and there is still the communist feel to the city. I have clocked over 12000km since I left the UK and have about 2000km still to do so I am off …

6th June

After my tour of the castle, I found the camp as I had said, then I walked the 1,5 km back into town just to noes around and have a beer. The thing I like about my travels is I have seen such a lot of history and different cultures; the best part is I haven’t even scratched the surface. And there are so many more places to go, at the camp I met two bikers one guy from Germany Rolf and the other from Holland Rob, good guys just like use riders and it was so nice to just sit and chat about biking we shared our stories of our different adventures and what we have seen …I miss my bike!

5th June

I am still getting over yesterdays drive, so I have decide to get to Vampire camp as it’s called see the Count and then spend the night here. As tomorrow it’s off to the border with Hungary.

4th June 2011

While I had free Wi-Fi in Kilyos, I sat for hours planning my route and getting GPS coordinates. As I hadn’t previously planned, cos I was going from Turkey to Syria. So I needed to make sure of my route and to take in some of the sights. Also I wanted to drive the full length of the Bulgarian coast and make it into Romania to my sight in one day just on 375km. the first part was a breeze right up to the border , I didn’t want to draw money in Bulgaria as I couldn’t use it so I filled the tank with what I had and it was enough to get out of that country ,however on entering Romania I was seriously low on fuel and had no cash for this country (It’s been easy previously ,only Croatia and Albania haven’t been on the euro but I had plenty ) if I’d of had euro it would also of been easy but I decide not to carry large amounts of cash just in case…It`s been a learning curve to say the least . I draw cash at the atm but there is no fuel easy I’ll get at the town where the site is as it only 20km down the road and I’ll make that. What a mission I find the site it’s closed. I look for diesel not in this town the cops tells me the next one so of I go the next town has no garage, buy this time I am on fumes and have lost my sense of humour so it back towards the border and trying to remember if I saw a station and I did so I fill up well almost fuel is just more than SA. Here`s where I make my mistake, I drive out and start heading to my next camp site 410 km away (what was I thinking) any way I drove until 22h00 and I found a small town with a church and I parked in there for the night it rained and thundered all night and it was in Vampire country co I am on my way to visit the Counts castle so I drove a total of 620 km and still didn’t make the site.

3rd June 2011

Today I am heading to Bulgaria; unfortunately I have been hearing conflicting stories of police corruption and having your stuff taken so I have decided to keep the distance short. My aim is to drive to Defin which was the only camp site I could find just inside the border the distance is 340km easy but not with roads that look like a patch work quilt. I picked up to hiker in Turkey and they stayed with me through the border to the town of Tarevo, the road was as I said very uneven but it went through the most dense forest I have ever seen, I was almost dark in some places and extremely steep so that trees over 60mtrs you could see the tops right next to the road. I needed diesel as I was expecting to see a service station on route to the border but no luck and there wasn’t one until 50km into Bulgaria and I was getting low problem the garage doesn’t take TL and that’s all I have other than 20 euro cos the camp site only wanted euro … But as luck would have it a guy pulls into the pump and he`s on his way to the border and we get our 70 TL `s worth of fuel and I am gone.  The camp site is situated on a hill overlooking the Black sea, was worth all that driving!!

2nd June 2011

Due to my time management which has been a bit lax, I decide to leave for the grand bazaar a little earlier I also want to walk along the Bosporus straight were East meets west as there are some lovely photo opportunities. This walk was a mistake as I missed the bus and the next one but caught the third, then the tram. The Grand Bazaar is up quite a steep hill and isn’t very well sighed but I found it eventually. This is quite something 4000s/mtr of shops all jammed into this space some of them are smaller than Fritz , the jewellery , cloth ,clothing ,you name it it’s all there and the best part is the bargaining if it`s 20 TL (Turkish lira) then you start at 10 and normally finish off at 13-17 Lira that half the fun. I took my life in my hands and had a meal with the locals, it was really nice and I didn’t feel any for the worse.... Back to camp after 4hrs of walking around and I had supper in the small village of Kilyos, can’t help feeling your being taken when you pay the bill but it was good and authentic.

1st June 2011

I must admit that driving through the outskirts of Istanbul yesterday was an experience, I don’t care to relive but I still have to leave. But that 3day time so I am making my way to the Blue Mosque which is in the old section of Istanbul, there are a number of sight to see. The distance I am told is only 35 km to Istanbul the journey took me 3.5 hrs. One mini Bus, one big bus and a tram so I only had 5 hrs. to see the sights and then the tourist trap…”Are you lost”? (The giveaway was the map) “can I help you”,” it’s this way but first we must pass my uncles shop” and two cups of cherry tea and I am the proud owner of a mat and I’ve blown my budget … but it was quite an experience .i eventually got back to the camp at 23h00 and the guard dog nearly had me cos he wasn`t there when I left at 09H30…