Conclusion The Balkans Trip
I covered a total of 4703 riding miles (7568km) altogether.
Final Milage
It has been another awesome trip for me and I have met some great people on the way.
Another big thanks goes out to Mito (endurfly), Petre (ccaa) and their families for making me feel very welcome and offering to host me for a few days on my trip. Both the mechanics who helped me sort out Arrunya when she wasn’t feeling too good were great and looked after me well.
The journey overall was fantastic and I only had about 6 days rain in just under 8 weeks so that can’t be bad, I have been very lucky with the weather for the time of year I was traveling.
The countries I visited were great and the scenery was amazing, the roads were a mix of really good to extremely poor.
The Bike
Arrunya, my XT600E performed really well, I was quite impressed. I would not have said it was a forgiving bike but it coped with all I threw at her. Despite having 3 offs there was not too much damage, the panniers are bit US but the frames are fine. Even the bent steering was sorted out.
Having all the kit on and going up and down the gears due to the weight I was using more fuel, I was getting about 250 to 270 miles out of the tank.
By the look of it she hardly used any oil, if any at all.
Next time I do anything like this trip I will have to jack up the rear bit more because the front was very light when off roading which didn’t give me much front end grip or confidence….but you live and learn
The Gear
Suit….My RST adventure suit was really good, better than I thought it was going to be, the three layer system worked really well, although I didn’t test it in a massive down pour as I carried an all in one romper suit to wear over the top. But it kept me warm and comfortable whilst riding and I only really felt cold when the icy wind was howling around me.
Gloves….I took a couple of pairs of gloves with me as I hate wearing soggy gloves so I needed extra to change them around.
I took a pair of Alpinestars leather enduro type gloves which I wore for most of the journey (even if I had to put the heated grips on). I preferred these as you get a better feel when riding. I also took a pair of BMW winter gloves which I wore in the last week or so (I have had them awhile) They worked well. For the bad weather and sometime wind protection I had a pair of Military Gortex over mitts which were brilliant and when on they nearly came up to my elbows
Boots….The Forma Adventure Boots really served their purpose, they protected my ankle when I had my first off and was stuck under the bike, I might have broke it with lesser boots on, and they kept my feet dry all except once when it was a really bad down pour and my feet got a little damp, not drenched. My feet did get a little chilly in the icy winds but nothing too unbearable. They were excellent for walking about in. A good purchase for me.
Mapping, GPS
Yet again my Montana served me well and the OSM mapping worked fine. The only thing I found and I had the same problem on my Thailand and Laos trip is that the milage is out by about 10 to 30 mile depending on how far you are travelling and I am not sure if its the mapping or the device…or a combination of both. Again I used the Garmin Base camp along with the Montana although due to the size of the mapping on the sd card it took a while to load when plugging the device into my Mac
I took one paper map of the balkans area to use also which I had in the map case on my tank bag
Bits and pieces
Mac Air 13inch came with me again and it was great, even in the cold temperatures
Wolfman tank saddlebags, good for carrying spare gloves, waterproof suit and small food items etc.
Oxford Hump visor carrying bumbag, Not that I had a visor but it was good for the phones, passport, wallet, earplugs etc and whenever I left the bike it was all with me.
Go-pro hero4 for my video.
I took two phones, my iPhone 5s which I used for taking all the photos and used it for comms in the countries where I could through my provider, £4 a day for 500mb of data and unlimited calls to UK numbers (landline and mobile)
I also took a duel sim Samsung Galaxy which is my Thai phone but I also used it for my purchased sim cards. I got sim cards in Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and the Czech Republic, comms from all the providers was great all over the respective countries.
Monies
On food, accommodation and fuel I reckon I spent about 2000 GPB, but that does not include my ferry and train prices
Ferry was about £195 return and I think the Train was about £100 one way.
Regrets
None at all really, more time would have been nice and also I wish I had spent more nights in the tent and saved some money, but i was a bit too choosey when it came to where I wanted to pitch (I had my own criteria) …it was my first time wild camping…maybe next time I won’t be so fussy.
Hope you enjoyed the read and photos
Thanks
Wayne
