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My story

 

Made it! 4753 miles in 7 days of traveling! That, without doubt, was the hardest thing I have ever done.

 

The first day was across France, Belgium and Germany, and was just dull motorways, endless, endless motorways. Even 125 mph on the Autobahn fail to enliven the day as the miles trundled past and I reached the German/Polish border and a well earned beer and a bed.

 

Second day and I'm missing the Autobahn already! Polish roads are a random mixture or brand new motorways starting and ending in the middle of nowhere and some of the smallest A roads I've been on. Borders come and go. Pine forests stretch as far as the eye can see, its Sunday night it must be Latvia.

 

Third day the roads are getting better, Latvia and Estonia are long sweeping A roads through more endless pine forests and Nordic farmland. The Estonian traffic police are very good, oops. The Russian border crossing is hidden in an anonymous carpark and is a nightmare of shouty Russian women endlessly stamping, signing and dating form after form after form. It takes 2 and a half hours to pass through and then we get to the main road. Road! Is that what you call it? I’d call it a potato field with white lines down the outside. Begin to think I may have made a mistake. Bike thumps and crashes over more potholes than tarmac but I don’t have a choice there are only holes nothing flat! Bus stops are a brief respite. New sections of tarmac mean that there will only be some really nasty stuff just round the corner. I can only manage 20 mph for fear of destroying the bike! Every mile I pass another Russian changing another flat tyre, KwikFit could make a killing here!

St Petersburg! My destination, 10:30 in the evening and the city is jumping, mad, mad traffic. The first accident across all ofEurope right in front of me! Proper motorcycle gangs on cruisers and sportsbikes race through the swirling, law ignoring traffic pulling wheelies and stoppies at will. For the first time in the trip I feel like the slow one.

After a day of rest and beer its time to move on, my friend guides me through the early morning traffic out of the city and onto Finland.  Ah the pine forests! I’d almost missed them. This far north and its pine trees, summer roadworks, trucks, RVs and nothing else. Can’t go any further and stay the night well short of my destination and camp by the side of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Thursday, must be Sweden! Pine trees, pine trees, pine trees! Roads are lovely when not being resurfaced, by now I must have passed half the trucks, a third of all the RVs and most of the caravans inEurope, surely there can’t be any more! Again have to stop as I can’t physically go any farther, had a bit of a meltdown at 4pm today and forgot how to ride a bike, just sat there staring at the controls trying to remember what they did. Not good at 90 mph!

Friday, wake up on the other side of the Gulf with the water lapping the shore and the geese circling overhead. Its 6am and I’m feeling refreshed and ready for some serious miles. I have to catch up with the plan or else I’ll never get home! Race and swoop through Sweden on the most perfect mountain A road, all dips and humps and great open bends revealing an ever more perfect lake behind mile after mile of pine. I grin for hundreds and hundreds of miles, one tank of fuel after another with no-one to talk to and nothing to do but grin and overtake and sweep and grin. Denamrk is dispatched in a matter of hours, Germany rears its ugly head and the Autobahn returns. It rains! And it rains! 130 mph down the Autobahn, in the dark, in a rainstorm! Am I mad? Am I dreaming? Get to hotel outside Hamburg at 10pm having just completed 930 miles since I left the idyllic campsite this morning, strip off dripping gear, eat MacDonalds, drink beer, fall fast, fast asleep. Don’t ever let anyone tell you this trip was fun!

Saturday and I’m nearly home. Only 550 miles to the Channel, pah! I can do that by lunchtime. I am now moulded to the machine and no longer feel any pain from the movement and the wind. The bike and I are one! Hamburg, Breman, Brussels,Gent, nearly there, nearly there! Calais! Next stop home! Never have I been so pleased, so euphoric to see England and it’s not the White Cliffs that I miss it’s the M20, the Dartford Tunnel, the A13. Home!

4753 miles over some of the best and worst roads inEurope! Hours and hours, days and days of pine trees, petrol stations and endless overtakes. That was hard! Proper, proper hard! Please reward my pain with just a small donation.

Thank you

 
Riders for Health are backed by most of the MotoGp paddock as well many of the WSB and BSB teams and riders and have already pledged their support. This is an extremely worthy cause that saves countless lives across Africa by providing the training, transport and support for healthcare workers to cover much greater distances by bike and ATVs.
Please give what you can.
Many thanks,
Duncan

Well done DC, now can we get back to the squash court so I can continue the beatings?? Donation by Tony Smalley 18/09/07  

£30.00 + £8.46 Gift Aid

Uncle Duncan - glad you survived the experience! Donation by Dougal Duthie 28/08/07  

£50.00 + £14.10 Gift Aid

Well done Donation by Neil Williamson 24/08/07  

£15.00 + £4.23 Gift Aid

Well done! Donation by Caroline M 22/08/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Donation by Lewis Fairbairn 22/08/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Donation by anoymous 21/08/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Well done! Donation by Charis 21/08/07  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Well done mate. Bet your pineing for those tree's ! lol Donation by Steve Robinson 21/08/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Well Done! We hear you're back in one piece. Donation by Andy,Claire,Olivia & Jasmine 19/08/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good luck Duncan Donation by Emma Robbins 07/08/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Ride like the wind! Donation by Liz Parkin 03/08/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Good Luck Duncan Donation by Judith Green 30/07/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Drive carefully and come back in one piece! x Donation by Jo & Malcolm 30/07/07  

£100.00

good luck from ben jo izzy&tom Donation by Ben brooks 25/07/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good Luck Duncan!! Donation by N Gregory 23/07/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good Luck Donation by Iain 17/07/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Mind how you go! Donation by Andy 17/07/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Good Luck Duncan! Donation by Caroline M 12/07/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Donation by Ciaran 11/07/07  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Donation by Jet 09/07/07  

£50.00 + £14.10 Gift Aid

Good Luck and Happy Biking! Donation by Richard Boyce 25/06/07  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Good Luck Donation by Ray Goodey 23/06/07  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Impressive stuff!! Well done and good luck! Donation by Ismilda 20/06/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Donation by George Andreou 20/06/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Donation by Tony Pearshouse 20/06/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Donation by Kevin Lidbetter 20/06/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Donation by Sam Mac 20/06/07  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

From a fan of the Cox box....... Donation by Andy 15/06/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Enjoy the holiday! Donation by Cath 15/06/07  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Good Luck Duncan... Donation by Jayne 12/06/07  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid
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* Total raised online: £578.00
  Offline donations: £140.00
  Gift Aid plus supplement: £134.82

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