Over The Shoulder....Rides through the Decades

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
May 2018...Bayles!

Bigger + better than ever before, Bayles is a fixed item on the calendar.

As always, they came from all over the place.

Also as always, things start with a dark, overcast and often, wet morning, that regularly blooms into a dry and sunny day.

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You ALWAYS go home with a grin on your face...:chug:



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....and maybe the odd surprise.



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MORE here ------------->
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
2018_The Balkans Raid

Sept -Oct... autumn in the Northern-Half of the globe and time again for another Euro-bash.

This time for something "More South", diving into the old Iron-Curtain countries of the Balkan, back to the '60s, a side-lane into the former Communist-glory and megalomania, a quick-skim of the "NEW"- Balkans of EU-alignment and dependence, a trip through new economies and new-rule societies built on the old foundations of rot, corruption and decay.

Lump in 6 wide-eyed Aussies with a handful of paper-maps, a lappy and a fleet of hire-BMWs from Bucharest/ Romania and there's no doubt, where that's going to end, aye? :)

Garnish lavishly with a good dose of Dalmatian Coast, the odd crash, dive and splat... a bag of stunning islands and a few millennia of history, some top-notch Bulgarian coppers, incredible National Parks, panniers lost in the drab plains of northern Bulgaria, fantastic people everywhere, twilight-roads that have simply disappeared, potholed National Highways that make your kidneys bleed...and folks, places and landscapes in the burning, sinking sun that'll make you NEVER, EVER forget those glorious 3 weeks!!

2018_Balkans Raid :lao

...3 weeks...4500km...8 countries...6 currencies...6 riders.
A bag of laughs...exceptional food, brews and local fire-waters...a few of the Big Classics and a myriad of tiny backroads and single-laners at lofty heights or skimming the Adriatic water-levels 4inches above the lapping waves.




Balkans_2018...You Only Live Once!
The Full Yarn ---->>>>





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The Glitz of Doha/Qatar


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..and the Department of Justice in Bucharest/ Romania


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The crumbling decay of the Communist legacy....all 1100+ rooms of "National Parliament", GULP!



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You'll never leave without a hug...


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Sunrise over Iskar Lake/ Bulgaria



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The best cops on the globe... Bulgaria!


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EVERYWHERE!!...packs of stray-dogs ..or cats, pigs. donkeys, chooks, horses, goats...if it's got legs or wings, it'll be ON THE ROAD!



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Accommodation got a bit tight sometimes :killingme




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Told ya there's half the road missing at the exit of that lefthander....into the sinking sun! (shriek!!)
And not a single warning anywhere!



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Ancient roads up steep hills...



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The old Trader's Road in the heart of Shkoder/ Albania




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...and a half-day ferry ride through the gorges of Lake Komani



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for some 160km of eye-popping bends-carving on single-laners back to Shkoder....



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Stumping vistas...



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Weird bridges with humps




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...and lakes of silver.





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Roads to take your breath away....



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...and "Oh Shiat" moments galore




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Walled cities....



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...or just kilometers of walls along hillsides in Croatia



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Churches in mountains....



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....and fantastic digs among world-famous vineyards




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Ancient ghost-towns ....



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....and getting clobbered by the local Bora-winds for 3 days....





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Monasteries on an island on an islands! Yup!!


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Climbing the heights of the Croatian Coastal Ridges




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...and heart-tearing sunsets across the Dalmatian islands.



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Just to be outdone by it's northern Montenegrin counterpart, the STUNNING Durmitor National Park and Nedajno Gorge... OMG!! :doh::glu:glu:glu




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...before an afternoon's madness at the "Serbian Grand Prix" and the delights and wonders of Western Romania, the Trasfagarasan and Transalpina Roads across the Carpathian Mountains.
Oh....MAAANNN!!! :clap::clap:






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A 700+ pic rollercoaster-of-discovery of some of what this corner of the world has in store...and ONE HELL OF A RIDE!!!

:thumbs::thumbs:




Balkans_2018...You Only Live Once!
The Full Yarn ---->>>>
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
2019_ January Vic High Country

A stolen hour here or there finished off 2018... as so often, it's a bit of a struggle to get back into the local rides after a major o/s stint and The Balkans had served up plenty to chew through and tuck away.


K1W1 had called for a Vic High Country photo-loop Overnighter...and the January heat had decided to wait a little longer.

The truth and nothing but the Truth :) Here -->


Off to Jamieson via some indirect route like the
Mt. Tooronga Firetower Track

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....chasing down the source of the Yarra River


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Mt. Matlock



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Lots of squirrely stuff up Mt. Skene




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Great weekend, lots of gravel and some nice shots to come home with.
Link above for LOTS more seen along the way.


Dancing the twisties down to Licola



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
2019_The Missing Link--Wairarapa, NZ North Island

The North Island was beckoning again with the last yet un-explored area, the deep South-East, aka The Wairarapa.
Prime time of year, as always....late March/ early April.

A few days to get down there from Auckland, a week around the South and another few days choked with highlights for the return.

Even better, all that with the generous help and advice of the Locals who made a lot of extra things happen. Thanks guys, we owe you :gday:

Even Hans popped in for this one, all the way from Vienna!



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From the rain and fog on the Motu Rd....


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....to the stunning Kokotea Station track .....



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...the endless ridges beyond the Waihi Rd.



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...the peg-scratching at Te Mata Peak....



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and the forever-rolling hills and folds of the Wairarapa



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Found out that the local pigs don't fly....


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....before finding some great asphalt down to Cape Palliser Lighthouse



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Some historic bridges...


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...and a stumping morning along the ridges above Taihape


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Gentle Annie never disappoints...



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...then throw in a trip up a volcano and a bagful of tunnels and tracks in the Taranaki...


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Nothing like a historic farmhouse for the night, complete with a leg-o-lamb-dinner cooked by the farmers wife



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while over the hills the sun goes down.


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A fitting Goodbye at Raglan...


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... before another incredible NZ-fortnight came to an end. As with every other time before, it should have been 2 months instead of 2 weeks, this place and its people punch
a loong way above their weight. "We'll be back!"...is a given!

"The Missing Link" turned out to be one of the true treasures and also closed the gap-in-the-map to now make for a complete 14.600km NZ ADV -Route.

Kia Ora :bow:



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A fortnight's worth of fingerlicking ADVtravel pics and yarns --->
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
2019_Peenemuende/ Baltic Coast/ Germany

August/September

Tacking an extra week onto a family-visit in the region gave a little time to try and find some of the more significant history and associated pieces of interest along the German (and also nowadays Polish) coast.
The Nazi-German rocket-program through WW2 in the Peenemuende area certainly promised plenty of that...and lots more.
Coming away from that stumped and speechless would be an understatement.


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More pics and words over here -->
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
2019_ Suzuki Australia ADV-weekend Licola

Mid-December and Suzuki HQ had called for their first Victorian ADV-weekend to promote their DL's and DR/DRZ range bikes.

Hesitant at first, the very reasonable $99 for a bed, dinner and brecky proved just too tempting.....and turned into the best 100bux I've spent in a long while.
:clap:


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Bit of a story and more piccies are here!
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
With nothing major on the rides+trips charts over the last 2 years of CoVid-restrictions and limitations.... this thread was duly forgotten. :frown:
Bloody shame, I certainly had enough time to keep up with things here, but W-)W-)

Gotta fix that before maybe CV19 finally moves into the background and some travels are up again.

Last post above was the Suzuki- Australia ADV-rider weekend @ Licola in mid-December 2019.....just enough days left in 2019 to squeeze in one more, earlier, September/ October, item before the year closed and CoVid took hold of the world.

2 and a bit weeks of Germany's very far North-East (the old Communist-Germany's Baltic Coast) and a weeks' loop of Northern Poland, its coast, harbours, Gdansk/ Danzig... the confluence of the Oder + Neisse Rivers, a surprise cruise through the Masurian Lakes District and stumbling over a ski resort in the Northern Polish Flatlands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masurian_Lake_District.
Endless other stuff like local "haff-sailing", the Otto Lilienthal Museum etc etc.


Lots! of juicy pics in this yarn! :)

No bikes involved, just a travel-picture book.

It's all here: https://austouring.com/index.php?threads/picture-book-germanys-far-north-east-and-north-poland.6852/



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