A "No pressure day"

Leaving from Elizabeth Barracks, Pirbright

5:00am.  What where we thinking?  Having just spent four hours sitting on the platform in Düsseldorf, it dawned on us that we could have afforded a lie in.  Never mind - the trade-off means that today was very much a “no-pressure-day”.  Given what lies ahead, I’m sure we are going to have some slightly higher pressure days but only time will tell.

James contemplating the Chunnel

Before setting off at 6:00am in the gloom of a slightly damp British summers morning, James and I successfully managed not to wake the dogs or the children, then we hit the motorways to get out of the UK and, again, all went smoothly.  The rest of the day passed in much the same way.  Tunnel - no problem. France, Belgium, Netherlands & Germany - all dispatched with ease.  And here we are, sitting on the overnight train to Austria.

James tucking in the bikes

It’s not cheating, just buying time to enable us to get to the Black Sea and back in the short window we have.  In our defence, riding onto the train was the most dangerous thing we’ve had to do so far.  The railway staff don’t put the bikes on for you; it’s up to you to get it into the right place.  Sounds simple but, as you can see from the photo, there’s is barely enough clearance for my bike let alone with me on it.  So, with my chin on the tankbag, paddling with my feet to control 250kg of motorcycle, I rode up the train.  I nearly managed it without incident but, right towards the end, I went over a small rise and clocked my helmet on the metal work.  Luckily the bike was fine and so is the helmet but I’m not keen to do it again.  You then have to get off the vehicle carriage without any steps (I am convinced members of the public aren’t allowed on it!) and then hope they secure your bike properly.

We had a shock after we had boarded the sleeper train. We were in our ‘cabin’ and we saw our bikes go past on a different platform. Fortunately, we found out that it was just being moved to be coupled to our train!

Tomorrow the fun starts for real.  We wake up 1,000 miles from home and should end up in Hungary before last light and the need to set up camp.  After that we venture into the Romanian hills before paddling in the Black Sea.