Day -1 - Swindon (GB) to Magdeburg / Barleber See (D)

Saturday 01/08/2020
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After weeks of 'planning' the inevitable last minute rush of packing and re-packing and faffing with luggage happened as always. I have a ridiculously big new horse-shoe bag which looks silly, but was still too small to take all of my camping crap... so I had to attach yet another dry-bag to the silly big horse-shoe bag. Additionally, I have noticed that my petrol tank overflow pipe is blocked / kinked so any excess rain / petrol is unable to escape from the tank. It was too late to fix it. All previously untested which is not ideal just before setting-off on a 3500 mile journey... 

I was busy on Friday night, but managed to get a few hours of sleep in before reluctantly getting-up at 3.30am for an appointment with the Channel Tunnel. When you're planning a 700 mile day, you've got to get up early! That said, chunnel was busy and there were delays. Not great when you have to hang around in the sun with all your bike gear on.

Chatted to a few bikers travelling to Italy, South of France and another chap also heading to Poland. He was keen to ride with me but I didn't have time for faffing today and wanted to get at least to Magdeburg. Also got compliments / piss-taking on my luggage set-up. To be honest, it's OK apart from the tank bag which covers-up my sat-nav. My phone charger also seems to not charge my phone for 90% of the time. Very odd. Luckily I have a second one that I have connected in my bag and that works great.

It was boiling hot. I have a mesh jacket but it's packed away so I had to wear a normal jacket and trousers - I was melting all day and kept dozing-off which is not great at 85-90mph.... Bike isn't as uncomfortable as I expected. The Airhawk seat cover helped, but there was no way that I would have made it in one hit to Poland today. Just too sleepy.

As I hit the mountains in Germany it started raining. With the heat it's no surprise. Didn't bother with waterproofs as it was welcome to be honest. The last couple of hundred miles went quickly and I set-up camp at Barleber See. Lovely place between 2 lakes and literally 2 minutes from the Autobahn. Had a much needed shower but unfortunately they stopped serving food whilst i washed so I'm living on breakfast bars tonight. That said, for some reason I have been given free beer and I haven't paid for the camping yet! They keep saying "the boss says it's ok"......

'Easy' 400 miles tomorrow. The bike munches miles, but it's chomping through the rear tyre at an alarming rate. I can see myself scrabbling around for a new rear tyre at some point over the next couple of weeks (deja vu)....

Mileage: 646
Country count: 5 (GB, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany)
Beers: 3
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0
Ass pain: 7/10
Mechanical issues: 0 (well kink in tank breather)
Accidents: 0
Wetness: 2/10
Coldness: 2/10

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  1. amitkoliFebruary 1, 2022 at 5:16 AM

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