A Viking searching for the south east end of Europe.

Hi, here goes nothing..
I have been lurking this forum for a few years and i have loved every minute reading. specialy the ride reports. All this great reports and all the inspiering riders have inspired me to do my own epic ride. Not epic in the scale of most reports here but to me it is epic. I also wat to give somthing back to ADV community, so will try to do a report. Even if my english skill will limit my ability to do so. I hope you have patience.
The plan is to leave Norway 3 may. Maybe a day earlier if work will let me. Then im heading sout east and hopfully il end up on the south coast of Turkey before the 11 may. My wife and daughter is flying down then and will meet up with me for a week of relaxation. We have a holiday apartment there and when they fly back home im packing the bike again and hedding north.
This is the planned route down


And this is the return.


Will be fun to get back home and see what i ended up doing compared to the original plan.

So what do i ride.. ITs not a adveture type bike but a road warrior.


I hope to be back at the end of may as 4 weeks is the time i have off from work.
I'm hoping to do a "live"report but if that dont work out i will write the report when i return.

The Rider:
Im 39 years old, hopfully 40 in july. Married and have a 13 year old daughter. Normaly she ride with me on all my rides but this one she is flying. Her mother wont let her go on this one and she is not happy about itShe love two things and thats riding with me on my bike and her special efects makeup. She have a blog going so if anyone of you care to have a look she would love to get some more views. http://justmakeup.blogg.no/
Thanx to anyone taking the time to have a look. Might make her less sad over not comming with me.
My wife ride a bike to but sadly she have a bad knee so cant come with me on anything this long. So this is my ego trip. No one else to care about but myself.

This will be it for now i need to go and sort my gear and do some packing.

Sounds good, and you have the perfect missile for the job, built to cross continents quickly.

Go Johnny - go!

Best wishes for your ride, from annother Norwegian.

The big day is here. Im leaving at 1300. Ferry to Denmark at 1630 and thats the last of my fixed plans. If you dont have a plan it cant go wrong.


Here is the gear that i have packed.
Had room for it all exept the cat. she will be staying at home.

Weather here is not great. Just a tiny bit over freezing and windly, but luckely no rain today. I hope the weather improve as i travel south.

This is it, im on my adventure. I will travel unknown lands, experience unknown culture, strange people, concour high montain passes. Like a templar knight i set out to slay the hords of Mordor, kill Dragons and rescue virgins in there tow.... oh back to reality.
Im still in Norway, 1 hr from home. Waithing for the ferry that will take me to Denmark. a ferry i have been on hundreds times before.












But this is MY adventure and even if it dont reach the level of all the other RR on this great forum its still my epic adventure and i DO feel like a Templar knight off to the far East

Here is a pic of my setup before leaving.

Im with you on this one fellow viking

Love your enthusiasm about the trip. I'm following.

Enjoy your trip. I lived in Germany for three years and had great fun riding there, the Alps and the Dolomites in Italy. Be safe.

I'm in - enjoy the trip and all its beauty.

Awesome! Can't wait to hear more about this.

When I was planning my loop from Munich to Istanbul and back, I got some really good advice to avoid the Adriatic coast and instead explore further inland through Albania, etc. The coast looks like it would be fun, but the traffic and the tourist dives make it unpleasant in the extreme. The inland route is much less travelled, but still easily navigable on your bike.

The ferry arrived on time and I got the bike strapped down securely, in fact i think the bike was so secure even a hurricane would not have made me worry.


The sea was calm and we reached Denmark my bike was where i left it and unharmed. Don't even think it was lonely as another Kawasaki and a Yamaha was there for company.

I ate (to much) a nice dinner and sat on the rear deck enjoying the sun and sea.

Highways in Denmark is often windy so I was not looking forward to the riding, as i only planed on staying on the highway and find some place to spend the night quickly so i could get up early next morning to start my Iron Butt ride. But it was not so bad and i did a few more km then I thought i would.

The Hotel was nothing fancy but warm and clean and only 60 Euro. And i must say i did love the parking.

I was less happy about what i found when i opened my right pannier and found coke all over it. One of the coke cans i bough on the ferry was leaking.


Thankfully the damage was minimal. Only one pair of socks was soaked, the rest was packed in plastic bags. First 30 min at the hotel was spent cleaning the pannier. And i don't think it ever have been this clean before.
Should be all set for a good night sleep now. And only need to repack the pannier before setting off tomorrow. hoping to reach Wien before sunset, 1000 miles from here.

This is it, im on my adventure. I will travel unknown lands, experience unknown culture, strange people, concour high montain passes. Like a templar knight i set out to slay the hords of Mordor, kill Dragons and rescue virgins in there tow....


I like this...... if you find a lot virgins, ¡¡¡ run !!!

Safe ride Johnny

In on this one, should be great. Where are you meeting your daughter at? Good on you for keeping them involved in your plans. Ride safe..

My wife anddaughteris flying ti Antalya on the south coast of Turkey. Two hours from where my step father have a holyday apartment. 11 to 18 may will be with them relaxin.

Here is a pic of me and my daughter when i stoped at her school before setting off.

This made me smile. I'm really looking forward to following your adventure.

Hey JohnyTh, looks as though you'll be swinging by.




Pop in if you have time Have a good trip

Cheers,

Dickyb

DickyB's Turkish Delights

Go tur og lykke til, sitter her i dræt vær og missuner deg

0830 i was ready to go. A nice lady at the hotel signed my witness form for start of ride and i was off. The first leg down to Hannover was easy. But there i hit a traffic jam. Don't know how much time i lost there but it was a fair bit.
When i had done 750km of the 1600 i was dead tired. and thought that i might not make it. But a sandwich and a longer pause i was good to go again. And now it was easy. At 1100 km i was saying to myself anyone can do this, and i got bored.
So i thought i should start a new hobby: Train spotting, i saw a few trains. One very long freight train and even a ICE. But not even the ICE made me interested so i gave up on train spotting
Then i though about collecting bugs... but even if i did collect a few hundreds, they all looked the same when i collected them on my windscreen. So gave up on that to, and went back to concentrating on doing the Saddle score ride.
I did say that my spirits was high after 1100 km but then it got dark. And the last 400kms was rough. I arrived at a service station on the Hungarian border and did a check on how many miles i had done. MY Gps and bike told me i had enough, but some of them was due to a detour because of roadworks and some was faulty navigation. In south east Germany the gps wanted me to leave the motorway and i was happy to do so. The flat straight motorways quickly become boring. But after a mile or so the road was blocked. i tried to circle around it and pick up my track on the other side. but each time there was a new roadblock... i wonder what was going on inside that area. So i knew i might be a bit low on milage for the saddle score. so i got back on the bike and did another 100 kms. Found someone to sign for me and took this pickture. Notice all the bugs.




How many bugs must die to do a saddle score?

Somewhere along my route i must have eaten something bad because my stomach was giving me a hard time and i had to do several stops at service stations to use the toilet. Cost me 0,7 Euros each time. A little annoyed about paying this each time, i stopped at a Hungarian rest area. Went in to have a look at the bathroom. And wow it instantly cured me. There was no need for a toilet after looking into this one.

Warning GROSS picture following.




Sorry about the gross picture but it have its place in this story. Now im happy to pay for a toilet visit.
It was time to sleep and i was dead tired. Knowing myself i knew i would most likely only sleep one or two hours so did not want do spend money on a hotel for that short a time. No camp sites where to be found so i decided to do some stealth camping, after all I'm a army sniper. i should be able to do that. I found a spot hidden by some trees and rolled out my sleeping bag to catch some z's. I woke up one hr later and noticed two young girls at the road 100 meters fro my position. They did not notice me so i got some more sleep. Then 30 min later i woke up again. Now there was horses running by my camp. I looked up again and the girls where looking up at me. I got dressed and then one of the girls, at a age 14/15 walked up to me. Brave she must be. I explained that i was tired and had to sleep and i was leaving now. She smiled happy and walked back. Apparently there was some horse day thingy going on. Just my luck to camp in the middle of the track.

Here is a pic of my camp. you can even see the girls looking up at me.
Normally i like girls looking at me but this time they where way to young and i wanted to sleep

Not many pictures today. but i was to busy riding.

Next time will be Budapest and i will have more pictures i promise

Hi
Would love to. How much time is needed from Antalya to your place? My wife leave the 18 may so im heeding that way then. Do you have space for a tent?
Would fit perfectly into my plan

Tom you should have been here!

Dear johnnytt, I appreciate your RR. I live in istanbul, just give me a call if you have any issues (hope not) while in istanbul or in Turkey. My cell is 00905326414473. Have a nice trip and good luck.