27th-31st August - To Greenbelt and home

It was the sort of morning you know you have to face, but will take little pleasure from. I could hear the incessant rain all night, and there was still no let up by the time I was getting ready to leave. Gesa put on a spectacular breakfast for me, and then they helped me carry my stuff down to the waiting bike. I got everything set and braced myself for a wet ride to the port. Goodbyes were said, and these splendid people waved me off until the next time.

It was about 500kms in total, during which you exit Germany, blip through a small part of the Holland, then Belgium, and finally France. Again, there was nothing to report about this leg of the journey, it there was little of any interest to me, and presumably anyone reading this ride report.

I got to Calais and attempted my check in at SeaFrance. Apparently my booking hadn’t worked, so instead of the £27 fare I had expected to pay when booking online, I was now looking at £84. Fearing that SeaFrance had seen me coming and wouldn’t hear of my accusations that while I tried to book online, something happened their system preventing me from doing so, I walked out and tried the neighbouring P&O office. They were £10 cheaper, but their sailing was much later. Angry but without much choice, I went back to SF and bought a ticket for the sailing leaving in 50mins. This, I thought, would be my last sailing with a company whose customer service was distinctly, let’s say, French!

I jumped on the ferry and settled down for the crossing. I remembered that on the way out I had a photo taken up on the deck and so decided that it might be interesting to have a ‘before’ and ‘after’ shot. The ‘before’ shot is at the beginning of this blog but I’ll repost it here. With all of the gear on, it’s difficult to tell, but I’d shed 6-7kg in body weight, and maybe picked up a few grams of embedded dirt.

In any case, I rolled off, switched riding mode to the other side of the road, refuelled in Dover, and took off towards Cheltenham for the Greenbelt Festival. I was looking forward to this knowing that I had many friends who’d be at it as well as my brother-in-law who’d be arriving on the Saturday. On arrival the first person I saw out of 20,000 people was my friend Ivan from Belfast. It was fantastic to see a familiar face, and this would be the start of 4 days of catching up with old and new friends.

With the festival finishing on Monday night, I awoke early on Tuesday to pack my tent and load the bike for the final time. It was a strange feeling to know that tomorrow I’d awaken in a bed and not have to clip down any boots, or secure a tank bag, or lube a chain.

Fearing that I’d left things a little late and knowing that my folks had prepared a little welcome home for me, I knew that I’d have to average around 90mph to make it to Holyhead for my scheduled ferry. Wales has a burgeoning amount of speed camera traps etc, so I knew it was risky business. My sailing was at 12 and I pulled in at 11:45 fearing that I’d missed the boat, literally. I had. My pleading to let me on was in vain, and so I was rescheduled and had to make the not-so-interesting port of Holyhead my home for a few hours. This delay had a double whammy in terms of my time. Not only did I have to catch a later sailing, but it was on the slow boat, so it’d be later into the evening before I’d arrive home to the waiting family. I felt bad.

I pitched onto the boat, fell asleep, and woke up in time to unroll. On getting off the ferry, there was a brand new Triumph Hypermotard beside me, a 1200GS, and a few custom bikes. Pietro sporting his grime and war wounds, looked for all the world like he was on his last legs next to these polished machines. Still, I think the other bikes cowered before his achievements and even though I now had to spend some money on ‘righting’ him, I wouldn’t have swapped with any of them.

Here I was, back on Ireland’s soil. I took a right out of Dublin and pointed my front wheel towards Donaghadee for the final 150 miles. Sitting on the main road from Dublin to Belfast, I remembered the day I left the driveway of my parents house and revisited the stand-out moments of the last 3 months. To be sure, it was the best experience of my life thus far and the days ahead would give me the space that I needed to process all that I’d experienced.

Hearing an exhaust in the distance, my dad and sister had come out the front door and were first to greet me as I pulled up onto the spot from where I’d left. They’d put together an amusing banner for my return, which on saying ‘Welcome home from there Simon and Pietro’, had the neighbours all wondering if I’d ‘come out’ on my travels and was bringing home my gay Italian fella. I got off the bike went inside, and the return of the prodigal celebrations began. Thanks folks! Indeed, thanks to everyone who made this trip what it was. There are too many to mention, but most of them are referenced along the way in the story recorded here. Only time can tell what sort of impact a trip of this nature has, but I know that going ‘away from here’ was exactly what I needed after 5 years in business. Now that I’m ‘back from there’, I’m not sure what is next, occupationally speaking. Perhaps I’ll post it on here in a couple of weeks, should the epiphany happen.

In the meantime, to those who have tracked with me, thanks for coming. To those who’ve not simply lurked but have managed to find the ‘post a comment’ button or emailed, a big-thank you for the encouragement in letting me know that the nightly ritual of journal updating wasn’t to no avail.

This site is going to be redesigned soon and might be used for whatever is next. In the meantime, after 4 years, I’ve reactivated my facebook account, so you can come and find me on there to stay informed.

nb., A quick update on Pawel is that he’s doing well. He’s got a small problem with his neck and his shoulder is healing up. There’s been no word back from the Russian authorities and can’t get through when he’s tried to contact them. His plan is to head up in a van in a couple of weeks to pick up his bike.

Briefly and in answer to a few questions that have been pm’d or emailed to me:

1. Trip cost: £3500. The £500 was for the clutch, freighting bike, and trans-sib tickets. If you’re planning a trip budget on £1000 a month. No carnet’s needed for this trip.

2. Group size: my favourite riding was done solo. I really enjoyed the freedom of blasting out through Europe to Volgograd on my own, and I didn’t enjoy the first few days of riding with the Estonian/Finnish guys as their pace and stops were away off what I was used to. Having said that, they were all really good guys and I immensely enjoyed the craic around the fire in the evening. I would day that two people is the ideal for a big trip. I met other riders along the way who were riding in two’s and it made me a little envious. More than three is slow going. Three is a crowd and preferences and alliances can still form. Two is good from a safety point of view and company when not riding, while one is wonderful but is lonely at night and lacks the safety element. The other bonus of riding alone is that you enter into your immediate environment more and will get many more opportunities to experience local hospitality etc if solo (or as a couple). Also try and find people of similar experience if not going on your own.

3. Best kit: Soft panniers. I personally would urge caution in using hard panniers. Every single rider in the big group we had said that they wouldn’t bring them again. We lost days in trying to reattach them when the bikes went down. I would’ve bust an ankle at least a couple of times if I’d had mine on. They’re great for European touring on tarmac, but beyond that, bin ‘em.

4. Do again: as usual, bring less gear. I stripped everything down several times before I left, and realised that I should’ve been more ruthless again. Of everyone, I had far and away the least stuff with me, and still had too much.

5. Favourite country: Russia. The people, the land, and the language were all wonderful. Mongolia is obviously like nothing else on earth and is perfectly enchanting, but there was something about Russia that really got me, and I think everyone felt the same. Most of us are wanting to do some language training in Russian and will certainly be back.

See you on the road. Over and out.

Simon