Riders: Gareth Morgan, Jo Morgan, Phil Lough, Tony Armstrong, Roger Clausen, Chris Stephens,
Motorcycles: BMW F650 GS Dakar, BMW F650 GS
Distance: 15,136km
Countries: England, Scotland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Luthiania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Holland
Trip description: Part II of this years ‘Poles Apart’ theme. Our circular route for this journey takes in the many wonders of Europe whilst Gareth contemplates Climate Change in the face of the Northern polar ice cap.
The bikes are with the shipping company, the Northern Lights ride is over. Contrary to our preconceptions this has turned out to be quite a hard leg of the worldbybike trip – primarily because of the length of the riding days we set ourselves. Our daily average hours riding turned out 20% more than other […]
The BMW Dakars have proved once again they are bulletproof – day after day of being flogged and not one moment’s hesitation from any of them. We’ve completed several major expedition rides on these bikes now and they have been just outstanding. Comfortable to spend all day on, strong enough to carry rider and luggage, […]
What better spot to land on England’s shores than the white cliffs or Dover. It was howling a gale so we didnt hover long and retreated to savour a Pint with FISH and CHIPS in town. It was amongst these wonderful tastes and smells that Gareth recalled his regret of not finishing the Africa ride at […]
There is always an excuse not to write blogs about our trip, and that is mine. We haven’t had a day off the bikes since Astrakhan, at the end of our North South traverse of Russia. We had 3 currencies in a day, 6 countries in a week and when we got to the amazing […]
The motorways have had us crossing Germany, Holland, Belgium, and France very quickly. It’s not easy riding though with trucks galore and fast cars in the fast lane on your tail. Calais appeared with us all intact and it was vote time. Ferry or Tunnel ? Tunnel won out cos no one had been on […]
A dream come true for Chris, it would have been for Tony too if he’d not been called home, and MOD probably would have come on the Northern Lights Trip if he’d known a visit to the KTM factory was to be included. It was worth taking a day out to train down from Frankfurt […]
Our last act before leaving Eastern Europe, was to visit the wonderful city of Krakow and in particular the Jewish Quarter where soon after the Nazi’s invasion of Europe in 1939, Hitler’s Gestapo turned this area into a walled-in ghetto where the citizenry had to wear armbands, and were then removed to go to forced […]
We passed into Slovakia yesterday, through a checkpoint charlie ghost town, weeds growing around the buildings. A sign of past control and the freedom and unity of belonging to to the EU. It was a great days riding too through back country roads and forests and ending up here in Levoca south of the Polish […]
I was working in the lab …. – or so begins the Monster Mash song. And that was the tune ringing in our ears as we rode into The Alps of Transylvania, en route to the famous castle of Vlad situated at Dram, deep in the heart of this territory nowadays part of Romania, but […]
Leaving Moldova for Romania we soon arrived in Iasi (pronounced Yash) where UNICEF had organised a couple of field visits for us. They’re always a highlight of these motorcycle trips and you get a unique perspective on the country you’re passing through. In this case our organised programme was interrupted because the area had […]
