Day 1 250km Finally the best time of the year starts. Vacation knocks on the door. But this year it doesn´t start like usual. Ok, get up early and make the bike ready is normal stuff. But this time, I have to do an extra english test for shool before I can start. After 2 hours the test is done and I can change to my lovely traveling-dress and start my holiday. This year I leave my Tiger at home and start with my CRF250L. Not typical for germans… The weather is very nice so far and my route follows some roads through the Erzgebirge I already know. I cross the Czech border and the street is already wet. But the sun is shining and so it drys already. In my direction I see still the rainclouds and I decide to take a campsite 50km earlier than planned. Good how long I follow my plans It is a very nice and small campsite at a sea. I use my first evening to start enjoying holiday. Day 2 483km Like every vacation I start early in the morning. I use some big roads to cross the Czech Republik and so the day is not very interesting. I cross the border to Slowakia and search for a campsite. After I built up my tent I walk to the supermarket. It should be not far away… It takes almost 1 hour until I reach it. It is very hot and there is no shadow on my wy. Next time I use my bike to go shopping. Back at the campsite I eat a lot of the stuff I bought and enjoy the end of the day with a small campfire next to a small river. Day 3 423km Slowakia is a new country for me and so I start the new day very happy. First destination is the “High Tatra”. So I follow the street up to Poland as well. But there is a lot of traffic and I can not find a road through the mountains…at least I have a wonderful view. Maybe I should come back to hike or bike. To reach my next stop, I have to use bigger streets again. But it´s worth it. Spissky hrad. But I don´t like to pay money and visit castles from the inside, so I enjoy the view from “outside”. Good that I use my small bike, like this I can go to spots where no other people are. At the lake Vadna I´m looking for a campsite. But it is not so easy like I thougt. On my map there are a lot of campsites. But either they are closed or they don´t exist anymore… After one hour I found one. Good thing, there is just one other dutch couple and so it is very nice. Day 4 390km Today it is time for my number one destanie. Romania. Hungary I skip again on big roads. In Romania my first stop is Cimitirul Vesel in Sapanta. After I spent some money and time, I ride up to Viseu de Sus to do some sightseeing for boys ;P More about this tomorrow. Only problem, there is no campsite, so I have to use a pension. But it costs not even 15€ per night, so it is not a big problem. Day 5 0km It is time to spend some money again. There is a small old train that is riding in this valley. At the past it was used to take wood from the forrest to the city. Today it is mostly used to take tourists. I enjoy a great day…
Day 6 335km Directly after the start, there are many roadworks on my way. It is already very hot and waiting at trafficlights is no fun. In Borsa I decide to take a sideroad north. At the cityborder the pavement ends. Along the Ukrainian border it takes 85km until I´m back on pavement. It was a great track and the smile under my helmet is very wide. Back on the road I stop at one of the Moldova Monastry. But it is very hot at the moment so I´m not going to visit it. A littlebit more south there is the next one, Moldovita, which I go to visit. There is a place for my bike in the shadow and the entrance is right next to it. I pay the small fee for the entrance and I spend round about 1 hour making pictures. After I have enough culture I ride up to Izvorul Muntelui were I share the small campside just with an Austrian couple. Day 7 303km Still going south I follow small streets through the carpathians up to Bran. Normally I just wanted to stop shortly to take a picture of Draculas castle, but I stop at the campsite and walk into the city. There are a lot of tourists and the small market in front of the castle is a little bit to much for me. But the entrancefee for the castle is not so high and I walked all the way from the campsite up to here, so I go to visit the castle… What should I say, it is not so bad as I thought. Not to many tourists and as well the story of Dracula is not like I thought. I spend money worst than this. Day 8 302km Today it´s time for one of the ridinghighlights on this tour. Sun is shining as well, so it is a wonderful morning. Up to Curtea de Argnes it takes time because of the traffic. But here it starts. One mor stop to fill up the bike and then the 7c starts, better known as Transfagarasan. It starts with a nice road and not to much uphill. I stop at a reservoir where I meet some guys on big motos. They are making some jokes about my 250cc but I don´t care. They start a little bit early then me, but it doesn´t take long until I have them an this twisty road. They are trying to ride away, but they can do this just on the straight road, at the curves I got them every time. Nice such a small bike… I pass them because they make a break and after this the uphill starts and my speed is going down, but I keep my big smile and enjoy this road. The higher I get, it´s going colder as well. It goes down to 10 degree, at the mountain pass there is still a lot of snow. But here the downhill starts and it is as nice as the uphill. A littlebit south of Sibiu I take the campsite, were I will spend two nights.
Day 9 385km Today it is time to ride without luggage and it is time for another highlight. The Transalpina. To get there I take a small sideroad, or better an amaizing dirttrack. I take the Curmatura Oltetului pass and enjoy a fantastic view. Back on pavement it is time for the Transalpina. A wonderful ride as well. But pictures say more than my words… Back at the campsite I relax with a nice view as well. Day 10 406km Again I want to take some dirtroads again. It starts very nice but my GPS is not very useful, because it doesn´t show the “streets”. So everytime at a junction I have to choose the way into the blue… after the fifth wrong decition, I go back to the mainroad to continue. This means I have to ride the Transalpina again in the other direction, oh man… Up to Baile Herculane I enjoy a great ride again. But the campsite today is the worst I have ever been. Inside a city and it looks that it is not used so often anymore. OK, I just pay 2€…
Day 11 216km I cross the Donau to Serbia. But I don´t stay for long in Serbia, I´m riding to Bulgaria. I build up my tent at Belogradchik were I change my motorcycleboots against hikingboots. I spend a lot of time to visit the rocks and the castle and taking pictures. Day 12 342km First time that the day starts with rain, so I have to pack my stuff wet. I still go south. The road is nice but nothing epic and it still rains. At least I reach a valley to come to the Rila monastery. I use a small rainingbreak to build up the tent befor I hike to the monastery. Very nice that it doesn´t cost anything to visit. I go to a restaurant to end the day because I don´t wanna cook in the rain. Day 13 476km After a stormy night it starts wet again. After I left the valley the weather is changing again and I can take of the raining cloth. I cross the border to Macedonia and follow a big road. In Veles I take a little bit smaller road (looks like this at the map) to Prilep. It changes to a dirtroad, normally not bad, but I want to ride up to Albania today and this takes time. It is a nice track, but after I´m back on the normal road, I change my plan to take much smaller roads and choose a road I already know. I take a road up to the Lake Orid befor I turn north at Struga. This road through a valley I took two years ago as well and it is a nice refresh of old memories. I go all the way up to Peshkopi in Albania were I take a small campsite in the backyard of a family. I´m the only one on the campsite and befor I can build up my tent, the owner brings me coffee and some fresh cherrys. Great, like in paradies. Day 14 207km I get up early and I get a coffee again, brought directly to my tent. After I packed everything I pay 4€ for everything (in some countries you don´t get a single coffee for that) and start to ride. I love Albania. I go west and after the bad pavement changes to a real dirttrack I enjoy it very much. It is very hot again, but I take time to make pictures and enjoyi riding in this fantastic landscape. A little bit north of Shkodar I take a campsite at a lake. I want to stay 3 nights, so I pay the double fee (10€) to get a place under a roof in the shadow.
Day 15 160km It is time to go for a ride without luggage again. Befor 6 o´clock I start to take the north route up to Theth. It starts with a brand new paved road. I thought this will be one of the last eurapean offroad paradies´… But it changes at a pass to dirt. Up to Theath it is not very difficult. From there it is time for the south route and the fun begind… Day 16 0km There is another offroad track up to Vermosh, but it is so hot and I´m wearing my GoreTex. It was yesterday already a battle with the temperature, so I use the day as totally relaxing day, go swimming, reading and eating… Day 17 345km After a day doing nothing, I realize that I´m not a guy for a two week beach holiday or something like that. So it is time to ride and go to Montenegro. I follow a bigger road along a river and it is wonderful. But at Bioce there is a small road that goes up to the mountains… I dicide to take this road and it was a great choice. No traffic and a wonderful landscape again. Later I ride along the Tara river inside the Durmitor Nationalpark. Up to the Pivacanyon I ride today. I build up my tent at Camp Grab that lies directly between Montenegro and Bosnia at the Tara river.
Day 18 363km The bordercrossing to Bosnia takes time. There is a bus with tourists in front of me and there is just one guy to “check in”. On my way north I take small dirttracks through the mountains again. But somewhere I missed a turn and I´m riding south again. It doesn´t matter, I´m here to ride my bike and so I choose another route to Jajce. Here I´m going to stay for the night and visit the waterfall inside the city. Day 19 522km Today I cross the border to Croatia and use some small roads through the mountains again. It is so hot again, that I take anyplace with shadow for a break, like an old mechanic-station. I take a campsite at the Plitvice lakes which I´m going to visit tomorrow. This is as well the end with campsites for less than 5€… Day 20 15km Today I spend a lot of time to walk through the National Park… Day 21-23 The last 3 days I spent going home through Slovenia and Austria. Nothing special, just the last day it is raining the whole day like hell. It seems that all the rain I didn´t have during my trip comes down at once…
The map looks a little bit strange, but google will not let me ride the Transfagarasan. Thats it, hope you´ll enjoy
KICKASS trip amigo! Thanks so much for sharing with everyone. Your pictures are beautiful and your trip as a whole is inspiring. I am going to have to go moto camping!!! I loved how the guys on bigger bikes were making jokes about your 250. Then you pass them on the twisties. Gotta love our "Go Anywhere, Do Anything" bikes. Great stuff.
Terrific photos, looks like a great trip. So very interesting places amongst stunning scenery, thanks for sharing