Three months around Europe

A New Year. A new challenge. That means a new motorbike tour.

Regular readers of this forum may recall my contribution last year, detailing my 21,000 km , 22 country swing through Europe on my 2008 Suzuki V Strom 650.

I finished the blog by hinting I was contemplating a tour of Morocco and Turkey in 2012. Well I have contemplated and I am off in April 2012 for a four month tour. This year the trip will not be entirely solo as a couple of friends want to join me for the Turkish leg.

Following my return to NZ in September , I spent a few weeks skiing and then headed off to SE Asia for a 2000km bicycle ride through Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It got me fit. All I have to do now is maintain a semblance of that level.

My plan is to arrive in the UK in mid April, fettle the bike for a week including fitting a belly pan. Then catch a ferry to Northern Spain, cruise down to the Mediterranean coast, catch a ferry to Morocco and brace myself for my first introduction to North Africa.

I will spend four or five weeks in Morocco taking in the desert, mountains and coast, have a break with the Mrs in Marrakech, sampling the local delicacies.

Then catch a ferry to Genoa in Italy , meet my friends and meander on a route to be decided to Istanbul.

From there I will revisit Gallipoli, head for Lake Van and Cappadocia. I have a yen to visit Georgia and from there I can get a ferry to the Crimea and then wander back to the UK via the Baltic states, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.
Well, that is the plan . But don’t hold me to it. I found that I was easily influenced on my last tour to go off the beaten track and just follow my whims.

I will be taking my camping gear, as it gives me independence , I will load up my Kindle with books, my I Pod with crap tunes and take a few changes of clothes. Taking too much just complicates things. Oh and I will add my body surfing fins - I hear the surf is great in Morocco.

But that is a few months away and I have a summer to spend on the glorious Coromandel - fishing, diving, riding, eating.

And there is planning and dreaming to do. If you have any tips that may help me , please let me know.