Kiwi Biker forums - Blogs - motorbike.ventures's Blog by motorbike.ventures

Road to Erzbergrodeo

motorbike.ventures — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:52:55 GMT

We started off eager to check out this years Erzbergrodeo but had a long road ahead of us. I decided to opt for our Honda Transalp for this trip while my riding friend took his African Twin.
We headed to Southern Bohemia, making our way near to Cesky Krumlov. On the road we were luck to see some amazing Czech castles.

We also ran into the Hluboka Castle in Hluboka nad Vltavou. We wish we could have gone inside but we were short on time. I only got a picture from far away,
but definitely a place worth stopping at next time.

We then stopped to have lunch in a random small town with a special tree.

Continued on our webpage...

Road to Albania - the way home - Bosnia and Croatia

motorbike.ventures — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:11:41 GMT

We wake up early in the morning and quickly pack our things. We stop once more by the
restaurant where we drank the night before to have a quick breakfast. It is a bit too salty for all
of us but we eat up and head out on our way. Soon we reach Bosnia and it is a gorgeous day.

We are following a GPS which takes us on a little detour. We end up crusing around Bosnia more than we planned, but we see some abandonned buildings
and some old land mines!

As we past one city we see a bunch of old stones. I decide to stop and check it out. So glad I did! Turns out it is an ancient cemetery from Roman times!

After taking a few pictures we stop at a water hole for some swimming and fishing. No success with the fishing, but the swimming was great!

We don't stay long as we would like to reach Croatia before night fall. We make it, find a little appartment to stay at in the town of Gradac, and have time to walk the beach at sunset.

To continue

Road to Albania - day 8 - Kosovo to Montenegro

motorbike.ventures — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:46:50 GMT

We slowly wake up as the sun starts to shine on us and our motorcycles. The hotel staff was nice enough to let us crash outside of their hotel for free!

We order some breakfast and coffee and then slowly pack up our belongings to head back out to the open road.

As we wonder through Kosovo we try to find our way to the border of Montenegro. We decide we will head to Kolasin and get a better map and then decide from there. We enter the city in our GPS and let it take over. After about 20 minutes on one dirt road we reach a bit of a problem: rocks and holes made from grenades blocking the road... for cars at least!

Radek goes to check it out...

And as Radek and Mrazik decide what to do I take some pictures of the gorgeous view.

Continue...

Road to Albania - day 7 - Kosovo

motorbike.ventures — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:16:13 GMT

We wake up in the morning to another beautiful day in Albania.

As we pack up and ready to head out we don't even consider if it will be difficult to get to the road. After all, the small off road trip to the camping site was not so hard. However, heading out proves to be a bit more difficult, and Mrazik ends a bit stuck.

After a bit of pushing, we got Mrazik free and headed off, back to Byram Curri.

Continue...

Road to Albania - day 6 - A boat ride

motorbike.ventures — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:19:26 GMT

We woke up in the morning slowly and got ready for our boat ride trip up to the city of Fierze. The sun is shining and the morning starts out slow, with people trickling in for the ferry, some even coming by boat.

We wait about an hour as more and more people come to the port. Soon the entire tunnel is completely full of cars. And in the distance is the ferry approaching.

I suppose nobody really thought how the cars in the ferry would be able to get out so other cars could get in!

For about 30 minutes the cars back up and make room for those departing. And in another 30 minutes the ferry is ready to start off on this already hot day and head to Fierze.

After we secure our motorcycles we decide to head up to the top of the ferry to check out the view.

What a view it ended up being! We were surrounded by mountains, and if you looked closely you could see houses where one would think no houses could be!

continued...

Road to Albania Day 5

motorbike.ventures — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:29:23 GMT

I woke up to the odd sound of a bell in the distance. I laid there a little bit trying to figure out what that sound could be, since we were in the middle of nowhere. Finally curiosity got the best of me and I got dressed and stepped out of the tent. It was a beautiful day and I was look forward to more riding. I took a quick look around. I saw something in the direction of the bell sound, but it was so far away I couldn't be sure what it was.

I watched a little bit but eventually gave up as the animal disappeared around some bushes. The mystery would have to be solved later, now it was time for breakfast!

After we finished eating we starting packing up our things. As I was rolling up the tent suddenly an old lady all dressed in black walks by on the road. I thought it was odd to see her here, and I think she thought it was quite odd to see us! Not far behind her was following my little alarm clock, the mystery bell!

Little did I know it would not be the last animal we would see on the road that day!

Just as we were about to leave an off road jeep came up the road. In it were a French couple. They asked us the way (there was only one way) and I got to use my terrible broken French. Fun! We said goodbye only to run into them often during the day on this one way journey back to civilization.

We started off on our motorcycles, assuming we did not have far to go. Ops, how wrong we were! All the better, lots of fun dirt twists and turns to try. Every once in awhile we would come across animals in the road...

continued here

to Albania - day 4 part 2 - Albania!

motorbike.ventures — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:31:11 GMT

We start heading down the mountain that took us so long to climb, enjoying the view but also being very very wary of the steep edge. That is not the side I want to fall down, as I will not be coming back up!

The mountain is steep, and we are (well, at least I am) tired, and hungry! Soon, we reach the very small town of Thethi. We meet some fellow Czech motorcyclists who are ahead of us. While Radek talks with his fellow Czechs I stop to take a quick video of the Thethi... the music makes the atmosphere complete! And was I surprised to see that Czechs have already marked part of the small sitting area!

We head to the restaurant to eat and order some meat to fill us up. As we are waiting for our food another group of Czech motorcyclists (one was a girl on a Transalp, right on!) heading in the other direction. Amazingly, one of them knew Radek as they went to Ukraine together! The world is still small, even in Albania. As we are standing there talking an Albanian police man comes to check our passports. No idea why, I suppose just checking who is coming through? After he approves us, we say goodbye to our friends who hope to make it to the other side of the mountain before night fall... We know that they have a long trip ahead of them!

We head back to our food and eat. I make a quick bathroom stop. The bathroom was so lovely in the restaurant I have to take a picture! It even had a shower! :)

Little did I know that would be one of the nicer toilets I would see in the next few days.

We continue on our way, the shadow of the mountain making it seem a lot later than it really was. A fork in the road causes us a bit of confusion, but Radek soon finds the correct route.

continue here...

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:59:15 GMT

We wake up to the sound of drills and I am a bit surprised with our surroundings. When we arrived at our new friend's place it was already dark, and now with the morning light beating down on us we get a real sense of where we are.

We look over and notice the neighbor already up and working on his house, which is only the wooden frame.

"Good morning!" he greets us. I vaguely remember how he said last night that today was his birthday... and now, at 7 in the morning, he wants to start celebrating with a shot of plum alcohol.

"Oh no," I tell Radek and Mrazik. "No way I am going to start drinking this early!" Luckily, I am a girl and I can refuse a drink. They, however can not, so they head over to say happy birthday and good bye. We start packing up and the wife of the man who invited us tells us she is making some breakfast. Great, I am already starving! By the time I finish packing breakfast is ready: eggs over easy with lots of salt, some nice fresh bread and that salty cheese we saw in the mountains! I loved it and ate it up. It did not sit so well with the boys, after their shot, so I finished theirs off too.

After we finish eating in their outside dining room, I can get a better picture of some of the animals we saw last night. This one is my favorite.

Yes, it is an eagle! It seems they were watching this pet for a friend!

We thank our unexpected hosts for the meal and hospitality and head off once more on our motorcycles. And today the plan is to make it to Albania! Finally, our goal! As we start to head for the Albanian border we pass through a National Park in Montenegro. Though it is dry season the swamps have not disappeared. Never in my life had I seen so much swamp land!

There weren't many towns near the border of Albania, but there was no lack in scenery!

Finally, we reach the Albania border. Hurray! Now the challenge really starts as our Czech language is no longer of any use. At the border they speak English with no problem. Apparently we need to pay a motorcycle fee. Okay, no problem. We go to pay the fee. The man at the booth looks at us and says "Don't worry about it, you can go". Sweet. And we are off.

It seems the country side has immediately changed. We pass a very modern gas station (later we find out the last modern gas station we will see in a long time. We take a left and decide to head up this road, not sure where it will take us. That is what the adventure is all about! All we need to know is that it will head into the mountains... and it did.

We see a small cafe, if you could call it even that, and decide to stop for a drink and figure out where we are.

The town is simply amazing. We are no longer on asphalt, and animals are just roaming around everywhere! There is a women dressed all in black (in this heat??), and I realize that I am truly in a different part of the world.

We go inside and order a cool drink. No diet cokes here! But they have some lemon soda, which I eagerly down. Mrazik's lighter dies on him, and he is dying for a cigarette. "Do you think they have a lighter?" I told him I thought it unlikely, but he went to ask in hand gestures anyways. Turns out they had lighter that had a flash light and a clock! I bought one for myself as well. As unmodernized as this town was, they had more advanced lighters than you could find in Prague!

We pull out our map of Albania, trying to find out where we are. We ask some local people. Where are we? There was one guy who spoke some English, which was interesting. The men take a look on the map. None of them can point out where we are! Hey, no matter, we are on vacation. We thank them, and head down the dirt road. Soon we are hit by an amazing view!

We realize we can take a road down to the river bed...

But it is not where we are planning to go and we think our detour has been long enough already. So we head back...

We head deeper into Albania, passing almost no villages and every once in awhile coming to a big city. It seems there are no suburbs or villages, that most people either live in the city or out in the middle of nowhere. After 2 or 3 hours of riding we finally stop and a village where there is a coffee shop.

It is hot so we get some drinks. While we are sitting and chatting we see a pig and a piglet taking a walk to the water well. I thought it was just so cool, and the little piglet was adorable!

As we are sipping our drinks we notice a big group of about 10 hikers coming by... carrying with them a Czech flag! Turns out they are a group of Czechs planning to hike the same area we are going to cross by motorcycle. They couldn't stop for long as they still had a long way to go. I was surprised to see a group of Czechs in Albania!

Soon we head off. The road is tough...

and there were tons of turns...

and I fell a lot! That is ok, that was the fun part. :D On this particular turn I ended up not making it sharp enough and jumping off a rock!

This is where I landed.

But I must say, all my scrapes and bruises were well worth it!

Especially when we made it to the top!

Now that we were at the peak we only had to make our way back down... that wouldn't be hard, right?

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:26:55 GMT

"Hilary, come on, bring your bike!"

Exhausted, I push my motorcycle towards Radek's voice. I turn a corner around some trees and I'm surprised to see him standing next to an old woman, dressed in black with a scarf on tied around her head, sitting on a tree stump in front of a roughly built one room house.

She smiles at me, with more than a few teeth missing, and is completely shocked when she realizes I'm a girl.

She kindly gestures us to come into her house for food and drinks, and as I glance towards the small house another old woman with red hair and a purple dress comes out and waves us to come inside. I am exhausted and starving from our trip up the mountain, and I look forward to food and something to drink. We come inside to the one room house, where we sit on their beds, around a table.

The old women flutter around the place, bringing us fresh bread, home made cheese, packaged cookies, and of course some alcohol. I decline the alcohol, knowing our day is far from finished, but happily accept their bread and very very salty cheese, realizing how hungry I really was. After I get my initial bread fix, I start to look around their small.... cottage? Their kitchen was only a little corner of the small cottage.

I whipped my camera out and took a good look around.

Montenegro cottage

We sit and talk with the nice ladies a bit, the red head stating that she has been to the Czech Republic in the south, Brno! It is a small world after all. The inform us that their son is out herding sheep, and that they stay in this small cottage all summer long! It was unbelievable. They ask us to stay longer but unfortunately we need to head out, and we say our goodbyes and thank them again for the refreshments.
As we are leaving I look back at their cottage and notice that there are other ones, abandoned a long time ago..

Our day continues with more dirty and rocky roads. Exhausting, but well worth it just in order to see the beautiful nature around us.

When we make it to the paved road I could almost kiss it! Enough of the dirt already, I'm exhausted but we still have a long way to go... and now that we are out of the forest, it is HOT. We head down the mountain on a never ending serpentine, with the sun shinning down on us and no shade in site. From the mountain we have a great view of the countryside and we see about 3 or 4 fires, evident by the smoke rising in the distance and smogging up the view. It made me feel even hotter. However, we survive, and at the bottom we meet up to discuss what to do next. Should we head to Podgorica? It is about 4pm, and we have lots of day light left so we decide to go for it... Until we see a sight that makes us break.

WATER! Hot and exhausted, we flip a U and head down to where some locals are swimming. I quickly rip off my (stinky) shoes and dump my feet into the water... ahhh, so much better!

The boys join me and we ponder about putting on our swimming suits. Then we look up and notice a restaurant... FOOD! Wow, we found the spot :) So we go and order the Meat mix plate... And as hungry as we were, we couldn't finish it, it was just way too big!

Now we are full of beer and great meat, I change in the bathroom and we go swimming. The water is freezing but yet still relieving. We hang out there for the rest of the afternoon, figuring we will camp there for the night. Radek starts to plan the rest of our journey, Mrazik decides to follow the local's and start to fish. I help Mrazik a bit, but we cannot catch the fish like this one local fisherman can. So I decide to go to the store to get some previsions. Water, some breakfast (as we do not need to eat anything else for the rest of the day!), and on my way back I see these young boys out cruising the town that I just had to photograph!

As it starts to get dark we discuss setting up camp. We noticed that the guy who was fishing seems to be the father of our waiter in the restaurant. We ask him in our Czech + hand language if it is ok to sleep here. The man shakes his head, and it took us awhile to figure out that at night drug dealers and such enjoy this place. Oh dear, what are we going to do? We don't want to travel far, we are exhausted, and we have all been drinking. Before we can start worrying much, the man invites us, in his Montenegro + hand signals to his garden. He says there is no problem to camp out there, and it would be a lot safer than at the local drug garden. Happily, we agree, and his son, who is now off work, leads us to their place.

It is almost dark when we get there, but his wife is out and about working and looking after their 1 year old daughter. Their are in the process of building their house, and while they have bedrooms and the living room done, the kitchen and washroom is outside in their garden. His wife offers us some coffee and their form of cola, which we agree. Soon the son and father come home, along with another daughter of theirs who is older (and simply gorgeous) and who speaks some English! So we drop the Czech and try to converse in English (though I think we were better off with the Czech personally ;) ). Then some more people come over, neighbors of theirs, and it turns out we have another party, sharing stories as well as different types of alcohol. They show us their animals they have (though it is dark and I can't see much), and there are kittens and cats running around everywhere. A different kind of life, but one I could enjoy!

It was a fun night, but I was glad to turn in. As the party breaks up, we roll out our sleeping bags and don't even bother to set the tent. We fall asleep under the stars to wake up to another day on our adventure.

"Hilary, come on, bring your bike!"

Exhausted, I push my motorcycle towards Radek's voice. I turn a corner around some trees and I'm surprised to see him standing next to an old woman, dressed in black with a scarf on tied around her head, sitting on a tree stump in front of a roughly built one room house.

She smiles at me, with more than a few teeth missing, and is completely shocked when she realizes I'm a girl.

She kindly gestures us to come into her house for food and drinks, and as I glance towards the small house another old woman with red hair and a purple dress comes out and waves us to come inside. I am exhausted and starving from our trip up the mountain, and I look forward to food and something to drink. We come inside to the one room house, where we sit on their beds, around a table.

The old women flutter around the place, bringing us fresh bread, home made cheese, packaged cookies, and of course some alcohol. I decline the alcohol, knowing our day is far from finished, but happily accept their bread and very very salty cheese, realizing how hungry I really was. After I get my initial bread fix, I start to look around their small.... cottage? Their kitchen was only a little corner of the small cottage.

I whipped my camera out and took a good look around.

Montenegro cottage

We sit and talk with the nice ladies a bit, the red head stating that she has been to the Czech Republic in the south, Brno! It is a small world after all. The inform us that their son is out herding sheep, and that they stay in this small cottage all summer long! It was unbelievable. They ask us to stay longer but unfortunately we need to head out, and we say our goodbyes and thank them again for the refreshments.
As we are leaving I look back at their cottage and notice that there are other ones, abandoned a long time ago..

Our day continues with more dirty and rocky roads. Exhausting, but well worth it just in order to see the beautiful nature around us.

When we make it to the paved road I could almost kiss it! Enough of the dirt already, I'm exhausted but we still have a long way to go... and now that we are out of the forest, it is HOT. We head down the mountain on a never ending serpentine, with the sun shinning down on us and no shade in site. From the mountain we have a great view of the countryside and we see about 3 or 4 fires, evident by the smoke rising in the distance and smogging up the view. It made me feel even hotter. However, we survive, and at the bottom we meet up to discuss what to do next. Should we head to Podgorica? It is about 4pm, and we have lots of day light left so we decide to go for it... Until we see a sight that makes us break.

WATER! Hot and exhausted, we flip a U and head down to where some locals are swimming. I quickly rip off my (stinky) shoes and dump my feet into the water... ahhh, so much better!

The boys join me and we ponder about putting on our swimming suits. Then we look up and notice a restaurant... FOOD! Wow, we found the spot :) So we go and order the Meat mix plate... And as hungry as we were, we couldn't finish it, it was just way too big!

Now we are full of beer and great meat, I change in the bathroom and we go swimming. The water is freezing but yet still relieving. We hang out there for the rest of the afternoon, figuring we will camp there for the night. Radek starts to plan the rest of our journey, Mrazik decides to follow the local's and start to fish. I help Mrazik a bit, but we cannot catch the fish like this one local fisherman can. So I decide to go to the store to get some previsions. Water, some breakfast (as we do not need to eat anything else for the rest of the day!), and on my way back I see these young boys out cruising the town that I just had to photograph!

As it starts to get dark we discuss setting up camp. We noticed that the guy who was fishing seems to be the father of our waiter in the restaurant. We ask him in our Czech + hand language if it is ok to sleep here. The man shakes his head, and it took us awhile to figure out that at night drug dealers and such enjoy this place. Oh dear, what are we going to do? We don't want to travel far, we are exhausted, and we have all been drinking. Before we can start worrying much, the man invites us, in his Montenegro + hand signals to his garden. He says there is no problem to camp out there, and it would be a lot safer than at the local drug garden. Happily, we agree, and his son, who is now off work, leads us to their place.

It is almost dark when we get there, but his wife is out and about working and looking after their 1 year old daughter. Their are in the process of building their house, and while they have bedrooms and the living room done, the kitchen and washroom is outside in their garden. His wife offers us some coffee and their form of cola, which we agree. Soon the son and father come home, along with another daughter of theirs who is older (and simply gorgeous) and who speaks some English! So we drop the Czech and try to converse in English (though I think we were better off with the Czech personally ;) ). Then some more people come over, neighbors of theirs, and it turns out we have another party, sharing stories as well as different types of alcohol. They show us their animals they have (though it is dark and I can't see much), and there are kittens and cats running around everywhere. A different kind of life, but one I could enjoy!

It was a fun night, but I was glad to turn in. As the party breaks up, we roll out our sleeping bags and don't even bother to set the tent. We fall asleep under the stars to wake up to another day on our adventure.

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:56:33 GMT

The sun comes out and we slowly start to stir. Suddenly the houses covered in dark are revealed.

As I start to pack up and prepare for our long journey ahead, I am gestured over by an elderly man, who has water running from a hose in his garden and offers to let me wash myself. Though the water is freezing I gladly accept, being without a shower for a couple of days now. I give myself a quick wash, and I can safely say that cold water was a quick wake up. I offer the water to Radek and Mrazik, and go back to finish packing. Not long the elderly man calls us over to his steel table outside for tea, cake, and, of course, a few shots of their home grown alcohol made of plums. The boys are hung over and take the offer happily, hoping to sooner be rid of their headaches. I, on the other hand, respectfully decline.

As we sit and enjoy our tea and cake, we tell him where we are going, and learn about his life. He explains that he is a dentist in the city Niksic. He even has an old dentist chair outside of his house, which Radek jokes that it is one of the modern chairs in Montenegro (Czech humor).

We notice after a while how popular he really is in this village, with many visitors coming in the morning to see him, as well as people honking at him (or perhaps his strange visitors in his yard) as they drive by on the main road.

Finally we are ready to head off. We bid goodbye to our kind and unexpected host and head for the mountains of Montenegro.

The first mountain we head up is not to far from the village we slept in, only a few kilometers away. It is a steep climb but the road is smooth asphalt for the most part, and we make it to the top without a problem. Suddenly, the road disappears, replaced by red dirt. Hoping this is the dirt road leading to Podgorica, the captial of Montenegro, we continue forth.

And for what it was worth it did come with a most beautiful view of the landscape.

Eventually we realize that this road leads to nowhere, dead ending in a construction site. We ask the young man guarding the site if we can please go through. He explains there is no where to go. So we ask him where we are and how we head to Podgorica. We show him our map but he is unable to point out even where we are at this moment. We decide to head back, and even though everything and everyone is covered in red dust as if we have been on Mars, the views on the way back were worth the trip.

We come off the mountain and back on the road we are originally on, hoping to find the main dirt road to Podgorica. Within a few kilometers we come across it without a problem.

I for one am very excited to start the off road part of our adventure! The road does not look to hard, as it is mainly flat without too many big rocks.

But I seemed to have forgotten the mountain part of our journey. Soon the road turns into serpentines, and is no longer so smooth for a dirt road. I take my first fall and survive. And then comes a second, and a third, and a forth. But hey, I came on this trip to get a little bit hurt and I keep going. Falling here and there. Then *BAM* I fall and my mirror is crushed! Oh well, who needs two mirrors anyways?

We reach a split in the road and wonder where to go. Should we continue upwards, or downwards? There are no signs, so after a little rest (and I energize up on some wild berries by the road), we head up, hoping this is the way to the city.

We reach break in the forest and enjoy the view. However, it looks like this is not where we are supposed to be as the road is thinning out.

But the view is quiet worth the extra km.

I sit and rest a bit while the boys go ahead to scope out the area and see if we should turn around. Exhausted, and a bit bored, I decide to take a picture of my missing mirror.

It is then I notice the fence. I thought this was quite odd up in the deserted mountains, and wondered what is was doing there, seemingly in a random spot. A few seconds later I hear Radek calling my name, and my questions are answered.

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:46:30 GMT

Last time...

Sitting at the illegal boarder of Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina, we contemplate... should we take the risk and cross illegally? Or go back and loose about an hour of travel...

It is a hard decision... we see that it is possible to bring the bikes around, carefully...

In the end we decide to go for it! After all, we are here for an adventure!

Once we bring the motorcycles across, we follow the dirt road a few minutes until, out of the middle of nowhere, a highway appears. So we hop on and head down the hill. Not after one minute of riding do we reach a boarder crossing! At this point I was a little disoriented to be crossing another boarder, but it turns out that it is the boarder to Bosnia...when we crossed to the other side on the "illegal" boarder we were still in Croatia!

So after crossing the boarder legally, we start driving through Bosnia and Hercegovina in this farm land. Nobody seems to be around.

There are some people around, a dog barking at us here and there, as well as random abandoned houses with weird 'Blaire Witch' things hanging there...

After a few wrong turns, we find the right way and head up a mountain. There is not much to see, with trees all around us. Eventually though, we break through and we see a great view of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

We ride a few hours through Bosnia and Hercegovina, and I wish we could have spent more time there. Though you can tell the country is poorer than Croatia, there are beautiful landscapes that we continue to come across.

We head up more mountains again to cross the boarder over to Montenegro. Again, we are driving another breathtaking view.

At the top of the mountains, we reach the boarder and cross it with ease. As we head into Montenegro, clouds start to cover the sun shine and I get a feeling of sadness. The mountains we are driving down are bare, with little greenery and lots of white stone. Again, abandoned houses randomly scattered about, even on this main road towards Niksic.

Soon we reach another view point, where we can see the lake Slano.

[url=http://motorbikeventures.com/images/blog/albania08/Day2_2_09.JPG]

Unfortunately it is very low in water, but still beautiful none the less.

We drive through Niksic, which was not impressive. A very run down and flat city, with a river that was full of trash and dead dogs lying on the street. While the people were very friendly I was happy to get out of there as soon as possible!
We leave the city but it is late, we have not yet eaten and the sun is starting to set. We need to find a place to stop and soon.As we drive further away from the city, the area between towns becomes wider and wider.

After a few kilometers, we stop and ask if there is a restaurant or camp where we can eat and sleep. The locals tell us to keep going and we should reach something in about 10km, and we eagerly head that way.

Of course, even though we are eager to get settled for the evening, I can still find time to take a picture of the Cyrillic letters. Interestingly enough, even though I can no longer read, our Czech is still useful and somewhat understandable when speaking with the people of Montenegro.

We reach the next town and find a small pub. Exhausted, we pull over and ask. They say yes, we can sleep somewhere on the ground here. And while they don't have food they let us bring our own food in while we drink their beer and some wine and relax.

Just in time to see the sun hitting the mountains, making a great picture!

After a few drinks, I am ready to pass out and sleep! So we ask where would be best. The bartender says that we could sleep across the street, in the yard of the house. Too tired to argue, we set up camp and go to sleep, not realizing where I would wake up in the morning...

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:57:32 GMT

We wake up early in the morning before the rest of the camp stirs so we have time to walk down to the beach. We head out and when we get there we have the whole beach to ourselves! The water was clear, and I could stand with it up to my waste and watch the little fish swim by. However, it was as clear as it was salty! I get out and no sooner then I start to dry off does my skin start to itch due to the salt!

We all head back to the camp, take showers, and pack up to head out to the town of Dobrovolnik, only about 10 km away. Now, this was my first time in Croatia, and as Radek is the "planner", I did not know anything about Dubrovnik before heading there. However, on the very first view of this city I was impressed.

A true seaside town, well built and full of life. Of course, Radek immediately wanted a picture of one of the boats leaving the bay.

Little did I realize that this was a taste of what Dubrovnik's old town had to offer.

We head to the busy down town and park somewhere on the sidewalk (following what the locals do, motorcycles and scooters can go where they wish and park on sidewalks if they wish :) We buy breakfast and some reserves, and start off... not able to get very far, as someone seemed to have left their gas tank on reserve... so when it ran out of gas, the tank was completely empty!

So after pushing my way a few meters to the gas station, we are once more off! Radek leads us towards the old center. Now, living in Prague, I expect to be impressed, but never did I expect to be amazed!

We park our bikes, take off some of our gear (as it is hot!), and head town to the old center. As soon as I catch a glimps I want to start taking pictures!

The fort protects the old town as it has for centuries, and looks like it hasn't changed a day since it was still built! The houses in the old town all look in great shape, and I just love the red roof-tops, making the fort wall stand out even more.

We reach the entrance of the fort, which would not be complete with a bridge and the Croatian flag flying proudly above it.

Close up the old town was just as amazing. Wonderful cathedrals...

Small alley ways...

I could have spent all day or weekend exploring this town, but alas, we have must continue our adventure! Even while leaving we see more of this fortress.

Sadly we leave, with thoughts that I must return to Dubrovnik with more than a few hours on my hand, so I can seriously explore every alley way and side streets in this town that seems to take you back in time.

We head out, and try to get off of the scenic freeway (that is full of cars) as soon as possible. We are excited and hope to reach Montenegro. My heart starts racing when we can no longer see the ocean and we start heading up the mountains, passing small towns in between. We follow the GPS, listening to its sound advice where to go. It tells us the border to Bosnia is not far, and we continue on a well paved road that seems oddly abandoned. Soon we start to see cow carcasses and huge boulders in the middle of the roadway.

Then the pavement stops, replaced with loose gravel that causes two of us to madly swerve. I think to myself, "How can there be a boarder crossing here?", but we are already an hour down the road, so we continue.Some times it is best to listen to your instinct. I suppose this is one of those times, as we reach the boarder to discover this:

The boarder is blocked, with warnings that it is illegal to pass, reminders of the war faught not to long ago. Radek goes around to check the other side, and see if it is possible to get the motorcycles across some how... but the real question remains... should we?

To be continued...

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:46:33 GMT

Day 1 Croatia

We leave Prague early in the morning, fresh and ready to go! After a 22 hours train ride we arrive in Croatia and sunrise with a beautiful view of Split.

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There were so many off road paths breaking from the main road. Being on my DR350, I was very tempted to try them out. However, being in a protected part, I had to show my respect. After an hour and a half of nice twisties and scenery we make it to the top! And we are awestruck...

We were at the peak, at 1762m above sea level...

and we could still see the ocean!

After our little detour, we made our way back to the highway and continued on our journey towards Dubrovnik. We stopped on the side of the highway where there were fruit stans and a great view.

We brought out our little cooker, took off our boots, and enjoyed the scenery.

Afterwards we continued on our way. We passed through a small strip of land that is Bosnia. Their ocean was terrible, since they were land locked and only had this small patch in the middle of Croatia, they had all these boxes in the ocean, I supposed for catching sea food.At this time there was a fire blazing, causing a major back up in traffic. We are getting tired, our arses are starting to hurt, and at about 10 km away from Dubrovnik we decide to stop for the night at a small camp not to far from the beach. As it is almost dark, we wait until morning to check out the beach...

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:18:07 GMT

The annual Full of Energy Rally in Veltrusy, Czech Republic.

MC group Full of Energy each year throws a huge rally - this year being bigger than the rest! Camping near or on the banks of the Labe river, the nights were filled with motorcycles, rock and roll, and of course, beer :)

While my personal favorite was the wet t-shirt wet short contest, I was unfortunate not to have a camera with me.

Radek's favorite part, it seems at least, was the naked man that ran on stage during one of the performances. And unfortunately for all of us here, he did have his camera readily available.

Besides this blurry naked man, pictures from the evening are few, due to the lovely nature of beer, and too much beer :) However, in the morning I woke up and took a little trip around the camp ground.

Not to far from where we were sleeping was Alf, ready to take off on his bike.

Also in site was a group of riders who only had Jawa bikes. Though now Jawa is a bit embarrassing, in the 40s and 50s they were on top of their game. Which is why you will see Jawa riders riding motorcycles from the 40s and 50s :)

While I was wondering around I found only *part* of the beer supply :)

All in all it was a great rally, and I look forward to next years!

motorbike.ventures's Blog

motorbike.ventures — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:04:18 GMT

A lovely ride to the mountain city of Liberec.

The sun is finally out and we are enjoying riding around when we can. The other day we went up to Liberec to visit a friend of mine who used to live in Prague. We were running late and were in a hurry to get there, so we took the freeway up - NOT fun! But at least I realized that I will need a windshield for our trip to Scandinavia, we are planning on taking the freeway during the "boring" parts to get to the more interesting ones :)

Arriving in Liberec I was reminded what a nice town it is! For those who have time I definitely recommend stopping by. It is a very clean town with gorgeous houses, and the area is very hilly.

After our short visit we headed back towards Prague -- this time avoiding the freeway!

We took the 592 down to Osečn�, and got some excellent pictures of Je�těd in the background, the famous tower on the mountain near Liberec.

This is also a great places to visit when in the area, the twisty turns up this mount are lots of fun!

We headed to Česk� Dub taking the 277 to Mnichovo Hradistě.

The weather was wonderful, the roads clean and practically empty (it was a Sunday afternoon), there was nothing else more we could ask for.

I definitely recommend this route to others looking to get out of Prague for awhile or those who just want to enjoy a nice ride.