The last miles...

 Hey my friends,

my ride with friend's, Alan and John was a great way to finish the Europe part of the East / West journey. It was nice to have riding companions to double back to the Czech Republic to watch the Brno Moto GP, we stayed in a small village 15 kilometres south of the race track at Vojkovice, which was very nice. The race day was crazy with 130,000 bike mad fan's jammed into the track, and to see Mark Marquez defeted for the first time this year was very exciting.

Then the ride back to the UK was also very nice once we were back in Austria and Bavaria, The sceanery is stunning with small villages scattered among the beautiful rolling countryside, We had a couple of nights stay in Europe.

The last stop was at the famous Nurbourgring race curcuit. As soon as we arrived we went to the old GP race track and paid 27 Euro's each to ride the track that had seen so much action with the most famous drivers of all time. The curcuit twist's and turns up and down for it's 23 Kilometer distance, and even with my rather older F650 BMW managed to have a spirited ride around,

IT HAD TO BE DONE.

By this time I was feeling very apprehensive about returning to the UK, and it had shown up as being very negative to my friend's, and was told so in no uncertain way, Then I felt that I may have put a damper on their holiday in Europe. I hope that was not the case and appologised, as best I could. so had to keep my feeling's to myself.

From the Nurbourgring we passed through another famous racetrack at the Belgium curcuit at Spa, where we hoped to pick up a programe for the following weekend's F! Grand Prix, but there was no way we could get in, So on to Calais to catch our Chunnel crossing to Folkstone, UK where we had a B&B to stay.

It was there where I had an e-mail from a friend from where I used to work at Bath University, with a chance of a job, So I arranged to see them when I arrived in the area.

The ride from Folkstone to the West country started off fine but as we travelled west it became cold and wet. The poor old bike was reaching speed's of 120 / 140 Kl per hour, and I was just hoping nothing would go wrong.

Once we got to Bristol, We split up and went our own way's. I think we all had a good time despite the doubts I had about the UK. I did visit the University on my way to my brother Mike's house, and who knows, their could be a job going for 12 monthes, which will be a nice way to settle back into UK life.

Nice to get back and see the remainder of the family and stay a couple of days before the final ride to the West at St David's on the South Wales west coast, where I will have reached my final Western point and finish off this amazing ride with a little drink or two.

We are not quite finished yet but.

Special thank's to all the wonderful people who helped make this trip so memorable, Especially Igor, Family and friend's, who showed me thing's I'd never thought I would see or do in Russia.

Sergey Melnikov for custom's clearence, My Biker friend's in Vladivostok for their hospitality,

and to my fellow traveller's from my last trip, who put this whole website together,

Helmut and Bettina (www.timetoride.de), Fantastic people.

Not forgetting my trusty 1999 BMW F650, now with 223,000 Kilometres under it's wheels and 1 1/2 times around the Globe, amazing.

I hope some benefit will be made for my chosen charity MOTORCYCLE OUTREACH Started by a very brave and thoughtful young man Simon Milward.

They do Great work, saving lives for the less fortunate. PLEASE TRY TO HELP

Paul.