Three months around Europe

In May 2011, I will begin a three month motorbike tour of Europe. The plan is to leave UK in mid May , visit the D Day beaches, the Atlantic Coast of France and Spain, down through Portugal, attend a birthday reunion in mid June south of Valencia .

I then will head for the South of France, Italy, ferry to Greece, up through the Adriatic coast , into Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and the Baltic States, then back to UK to meet a new Grandchild .

Although this is the proposed plan, I like to keep my options open- so please don't hold me to my route. The only firm dates I have is the birthday reunion in mid June, home for the Rugby World Cup in September- and some skiing on my beloved Mt Ruapehu.

I currently ride a Suzuki V strom 1000DL and yesterday arrived home after a seven day sojourn through the East Cape, Kawhia to Awakino Road and over Gentle Annie. In November I spent two weeks or so touring the South Island to take in Bert Munro.

Last year I toured Europe on my pushbike following the Danube and the French and UK canals. A blog on my trip can be found on crazyguyonabike.com/ Kiwi along the Danube. The previous year I rode from Singapore to Bangkok.

I have not hung up my cycle clips yet - China and Vietnam is on the menu. However, I just thought it would be fun to try a different mode of transport.

The recent blast around the North Island gave my equipment a good test.
So the main problem I face now is what kind of bike to buy in the UK for my tour. My current front leader is the 650 V strom, although a Yamaha tenere, Transalp or even a KLE500 is on the list. A scour through UK E bay and motorbike mags have all these models in abundance.

So roll on May 8. In the meantime there is a lot of fish and crays to be caught .