Ready for takeoff

About 100 horses, 250kg including luggage and fuel for about 300km, 4 times…

First of all, I want to thank Ad (ATAK) for the tremendous amount of time he had put in preparing this trip, although it ended for him a little bit premature in Croatia.

This trip started in Villach in Austria, crossed Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania, to end up in the north of Greece

In about 1 week, we (4 KTM Adventure riders) will leave for a 2 week journey through the Balkan.  Officialy starting in Villach (Austria) and arriving 2 weeks later in Igoumenitsa (Greece).

 As the 5th EAR in the Dolomites wasn't as we expected, Tom and I decided to head out to the other side of Italy: the area with the French border. 

 As the 4th EAR in 2008 was such an intense experience, I had to go to the 5th one also.

This year the location was in the Dolomites (Italy) for the first half of the week and towards and in Slovenia for the second half.  

The original idea/plan for Easter this year was to ride a TransPirinaica.  A track from East to West (or the other way around) through the Pyrenees.  Mostly on the Spanish side.

Heavy snowfall decided we should do something else...

 As it was time to ride again, and I needed to make some arrangements with the Nufenens for our Easter trip, I decided to fly to Spain again.  But what would we be doing all weekend?  Yes… Riding!

2 days ago, I registered my mobile phone number at POI66.  With this service I can easily send GPS coordinates with the use of a SMS/text message. 

Instantly, the coordinates will show up in a Google Map on their site.  So people at home can see where I am, but also write in the guest book as I can also post some small messages along with the coordinates.

For my next ride, this feature will show up on this site as kind of a Splash page.  So you will see this first before seeing the home page.

And now the only thing that is needed is cell phone coverage…

 Initially when I bought the bike I had the idea I really needed the ABS for safety reasons.  I had to give up 5cm of travel, which was available at the S version of the KTM Adventure.

As all/offroading became more and more a passion, I missed these extra 5cm (bottoming out, getting stuck on trees, …).

As riding with the Nufenens (real names: Javi & Marta) was such a success and nice time, taking more trips together was a wish we both had.

After talking about rides, memories of the ride in August and planning for the next years, Javi made a proposition to me to come to the Barcelona-Andorra ride in October