All through the past year I wondered when I would be free to continue my travels, aiming for the ‘Stans and Mongolia.
I formulated an aspiration (who makes plans anymore?
) to head out to Bulgaria in April when the snows were past, fettle the bike (possibly with the help of a garage in nearby Bucharest) and ride on…
Then one day, on a late summer bimble in the Hampshire countryside by ‘Wing, I spotted a Bulgarian registration delivery lorry on the road ahead. This was a revelation as I had not been able to find anyone actually doing this due to Covid and Brexit difficulties.
I ride up close and memorised the email address - and emailed them later that week. I received a very quick response with a quote which, while pricey, was bearable (and less than it would have cost me to collect it!).
I had been pretty fixed on returning to the bike in Bulgaria- but Jim asked me ‘wouldn’t it be good to be able to work on it at home, and maybe have Steptoe service it thoroughly, before riding East?’
Whilst I dismissed his suggestion summarily at the time, I got to thinking about it over the coming weeks. Given the uncertainty of my future timing, there was something reassuring about being able to prep the bike at leisure and get the wisdom of Steptoe on what work needed to be done on a bike with 100,000 miles on the clock, many of them quite punishing , to be well prepared for the likes of the Pamir highway…..
So after a little negotiation it was agreed the bike would be picked up from Motocamp and brought to me by Christmas.
Nothing happened and then I got an email early last week saying they would pick it up Wednesday or Thursday and deliver it to my home on Sunday.
Stage 1: from Idilevo to The groupage point
It looked a bit rudimentary for a trip across Europe…
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