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28. May 2008 | en

starting with getting off the beach, today was tough and hot, it reminded me of the morning way back when i ditched my bike then wound up in a mud bath, the big difference with today was that i’m getting good at getting my bike upright by myself and the water that i was drenched in was coming off me!!!! the river bed was not that bad, just one spot was really loose big rock that that my heavily loaded bike was not too happy pushing thru, basically i lost my balance, again going to slow, the grade was really steep and the back end was jumping all over the place, such a hard feeling to get comfortable with!!!!!!!
the coastal road that we rode for 110km was under construction, some dirt, some new paved, some old broken tar, crazy dusty, yeah!!!!
had the quintessential exit from albania, we were riding the mountain pass down to the valley heading for the border, suddenly the road was moving in front of us….sworming actually, with sheep, hundreds of them, and the truck drivers and cars where just carrying on like the sheep were not there, that is a bit of an exaggeration, the sheep literally covered the entire road and no one was going anywhere until the sheep moved,,,,,,,,,,the herders where moving them to one side of the road when they could but then traffic was coming in both directions, mayhem and tempers, it was great…...and remember, mountain pass road, there was no way anybody could get around and the sheep couldn’t get off the road either…..oh the sights i have seen…................
finished riding for the dayat ioannina, a historical town on a large lake, really beautiful setting, we stayed at an overpriced camp ground not far from the center of town and walk to an internet cafe to search for tires,
our introduction to greece was so bizzar, at the border exit was a know it all bitch who had to bit her lip when she realized she was wrong, of course when people are communicating in different languages you have to rely on facial expression to get what is going on and this can lead to mis understanding!!! and funny stories!!!!!
then entering at the greek station we didn’t know what the hell was happening because there was no one around, we waited until the janitor showed up, he asked us if we were carrying any narcotics, then waved us thru….............crazy places…............

Tags: ioannina Greece
Map: N 39° 67.756 E 20° 84.396

Created at: 28. May 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

nino's technoshop

31. May 2008 | en

the search for tires was seeming to get harder by the day, maybe we put to much pressure on ourselves…..............we got some luck after sending an email to guy in greece that joscha had bought the CDI from….george, answered our quest….. his shop was in thessaloniki and if we could get there by 5pm he could install them same day….it seemed like a long shot, we had a 300km ride from ioannina to thessaloniki and coming from albania where covering 40km took 4hrs we were feeling like it was going to be a really long day…..we set out and wound our way through beautiful mountain passes and tunnels, lots of tunnels, these were cool, a bit tripy actually, the dark surrounds you and it gives me a very strange feeling like floating in space…...a then we covered most of the way on interstate…..very good fast roads that allowed us to cover lots of km…...when we came down out of the mountains the wind was incredible, i thought that my helmet was going to get ripped from my head…..amazing riding thru this intensity…...we finally came to the edge of the city, it was huge and the idea that we could find a repair shop in a strange city….again….this time with out the help!!!! some how, as though drawn by a magnet we found our way and we even arrived early, we were greeted by george, super nice guy who immediately ordered the tires, asked us if we were hungry, ordered gyros and had the tires installed within the hour…..the gyros were huge and george had ordered two for each of us!!!! oh man, i could only eat one!!!! i can’t believe that anyone could eat two!!!.....we liked george and hung out listening to his stories….he was very entertaining, he offered to take us on a tour of the city and introduce us to his friends at the motorcycle club, this lead to an invitation to spend the night….hosted by stavros and his son erathmus, who also rides an africa twin, we spent the early morning hours talking motorcycles, vesbas, trips and life…...got some recommendations for places to visit…..so cooool…...people love the africa twin and it has provided some awesome contacts…....anyone passing thru thessaloniki should look up george at nino’s technoshop!!!!!! thanks george for your help!!!!!
we made our way southeast and into the peninsula, rode about 160km of beautiful roads and found ourselves another deserted beach on which to spend the night!!!!!

Tags: thessaloniki Greece
Map: N 40° 62.229 E 22° 95.043

Created at: 31. May 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

life is a beach

31. May 2008 | en

we left george at about 11am, again later than we had planned, we aren’t very good at getting on the road early, this time the late night made the morning start late and we wanted to say good bye to george!!! another superb day of riding put us on the coast one more time and wouldn’t you know another derserted beach!!!
on our way we stopped at the grocery store, got tons of great food and stopped for a picnic, while we sat eating a car pulled up, it was towing a boat larger than the car!!!! they wanted to use the boat launch that joscha had park his bike on….....pulling off the concrete into sand, which was much softer than expected joscha buried is bike again!!!!! while it stood on its own joscha had a cig. and we laughed at the recurring situation!!!!!....we are never very sure of the wild camping and the coast was no different especially because we kept encountering these resorts at the most weird places, then we came upon two mobile homes sitting on the waters edge,,,,we approached and found naked german men hanging out!!! we asked them if they had had any problems…..they had been there a week,,,no trouble….the next cove was empty and we set camp and had the place to ourselves…so cool and the water, now the agean sea was warmer….beautiful…....coffee on the beach in the morning!!!!oh the life!!!!

Tags: toroni Greece
Map: N 40° 01.920 E 23° 84.582

Created at: 31. May 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

damn nice

03. June 2008 | en

huge riding today…332km, our biggest day yet, funny that it was so easy, the ridding superb, the greecian roads are fast and fun…we had tight mountain curves early in the day and wide open fast riding curves in the country at days end!!!!so good…. our goal was to find a hot spring and we thought we were headed in the right direction when we came across a damn that wasn’t on our map….the road forced us to travel along the reservoir in the wrong direction….. really nice area and the camping spot was great even if it wasn’t a hot spring…..we have seen lots of turtles today and most of them are right in the middle of the road, so far i haven’t seen any that have been crushed, i hope that drivers are avoiding them if possible, the turtles are pretty big and i hate the thought that they will perish under tire…...

Tags: epeittia Greece
Map: N 41° 35.994 E 24° 36.426

Created at: 03. June 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

struck by lightening

03. June 2008 | en

off road was today’s calling, our goal was another recommendation by our friends in thessaloniki, george had told us of a waterfall that was worth seeing, the day started sunny and warm and we were finding our way easily up to the waterfall, stopping for coffee and getting directions from the shop keeper, who spoke german, so many greeks that we have met spent many years in germany working during the 70s and 80s…...makes things easy for joscha…..so out of town and climbing high up steep mountain roads, yummy…....mmmmmmmmmmountains, so we find this valley with the trail that we are supposed to be able to ride our bikes down…...it looks dubious, joscha goes for it and i’m waiting back just for a minute to see what he will find, and i hear his horn which is our sign that something is wrong….. turns out the trail is a steep hiking trail with switch backs going down the valley wall…...george had ridden this on his bike? well george is also an accomplished motor cross racer….i wasn’t feeling it….and the imminent rain made the trip very unrealistic….we bailed…..sorry george….maybe next trip…..with a smaller bike…..we had a phenomenal day in the hills just the same….waited out the heavy rain undercover and had a lunch break!!! terrific…..the rain passed and we made our way out of the hills….travelled east and went back into the hills looking for our camping stop for the night…...we weren’t finding anything….nothing flat for the tent…..then we came to the top of a ridge covered in wild flowers….real off road…climbing the last of the hill cutting our own trail and finding our wild stop for the night!!!!! it was an incredible sunset over the valley below….all of Sapes…. we started dinner and that was when the first strike struck….what a show….looked as though the storm was headed right for us….and we were the top of the mountain… we talked about moving….but hunger won out….we watched as the storm gained strength and bolt lit the clouds off to the east…..and there they stayed….all night….we lucked out, finishing dinner and everything else before the rain hit….by morning the sun was back…...and we rode lots more dirt roads…...

Tags: leptokaria Greece
Map: N 41° 06.252 E 25° 89.709

Created at: 03. June 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

nino's the man

31. July 2008 | en

my trip to ohrid had one small flaw..my bike had a sputtering problem….it was similar to the time at the very beginning of the trip when my CDI went bad…there where also two occasions when starting the bike that the engine ran very sluggish and the tach showed no rpms….i thought that the CDI was bad again…that would suck…but the map showed that thessolonikki was only 255km away….not exactly close…but an easy days drive…the decision was made…i made a quick call to confirm that nino was indeed at the shop and not on vacation…he turned out not to be in the shop when i called but he was in town!!!!....i rode to thessolonikki…..arriving at 6pm…the look on nino’s face was priceless….he was shocked and delighted to see me…we caught up on the trip and i told him what was up with the bike….he didn’t think that it could be the CDI…so he checked the regulator…it was fine…..then we talked a bit…we figured that the one i had replaced was good…should be good til the bike dies….but the other one…yes there are two…could be an original and that might be failing….i bought the CDI to have just in case….then i also got my odometer fixed!!!!! yeah i can track my kms again…..super cool…then i ask about selling the bike…on our first pass thru so many people had expressed interest in the bike and i’m starting to think about what i will do when i return home, so i thought there maybe a potential to sell the bike in greece …the verdict was not to bother trying to sell it in greece!!!!......then the clincher…i was headed out…a car caught me by surprise…i hit my break hard…stopped but lost my balance and dropped the bike….nino was right there…help me pick it up…i had broken the right mirror…nino walked into his shop and came out with a replacement…put it on and sent me on my way….nino’s the man….thanks again nino….nino’s techno shop…in thessolonikki, greece….go….there…just to say hi…he’s so cool….....and on i went…back to macedonia….not 255km…just directly north…80kms and i was at my campsite…..

Tags: thessoloniki Greece Macedonia
Map: N 40° 61.968 E 22° 94.422

Created at: 01. August 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420