“NEXT STOP : GREECE“
(Part 2)
This is the second part of my ride report about day 6 of my journey, which now followed southern Bulgaria Eastwards to Greece. The goal of the day was reaching the Aegean Sea in far eastern Greece, close to the border with Turkey, where we intended entering and following the TET in Greece.
If you just jumped in, I highly recommend starting with the first part of this day’s ride report: ➡ The Breakdownride-Day 06 – Part 1
You may remember, the first part of my ride report ended with a …
short nap at this cozy bench with a tremendous view. After the nap, I had two hands full of nuts for lunch whilst enjoying the view a bit longer. Back …
in the saddle, the route followed the curvy valley of river Goljama Reka eastwards. The road following this valley was in perfect conditions and the tires stuck well on the surface along air temperatures around 40 °C or 105 °F. 😏🤛✊🛵💨💨
Next to a …
fish culture my black beauty and I passed this nice looking …
ancient bridge. I took the time for making some …
nice pictures of my 690ty which was trusty fulfilling my adventure-riding dreams. The ride continued and …
gained height again. We reached obviously some touristic used area. A later web search showed me that this is the area near the city “Progled” is …
still well known for winter tourism since …
the former times of its errection back then in the time of communism. Чернотa and I …
rolled through the city of “Smoljan” and passed …
some rundown factory areas before …
riding a while along some shady roads through dense forest areas. After the woods …
terrain changed into …
barren steppe country, which reminded …
in some parts very much to earlier trips …
to southern Albania and Northern Macedonia. The temperatures in the lower plains now gained again, so …
I used this rare opportunity close to the border with Greece for filling up my water bottles. I surely drank a whole liter of water before, I left this well aside the road.
Aside the road, some construction works had been seen. I wasn’t sure what the excavators were burring here. Water/Gas/Oil-Pipes? Water ever! After more than three days riding …
through Bulgaria it was time for a new country! Чернотa and I reached the border crossing with Greece. This time my usual strategy, which is riding ahead to the first waiting cars also worked well, but then a border guard told me to queue in after two big buses in the first row. It took surely forty minutes till it was my turn. For the first day, the sun was beating down in a way, which wasn’t healthy anymore. Especially in full riding gear. So, even after 10 minutes of waiting, I went to the border guard and asked him if it is possible to get into the shade next to his hut. He smiled, nodded and showed me the spot where I had to wait. When both busses ahead of me were dispatched, the border guard came to me and asked me for the papers. Besides the obligate passport and the motorcycle papers also a vaccination certificated was needed for entering Greece due to pandemic measures. Barely five minutes later …
I was allowed …
to enter Greece.
The ride went on …
downwards the soft …
hills cape of Greece. After passing the …
the huge cooling tower of the Gas-Power-Plant in “Komotini” we followed …
some well build back country roads further …
in the direction of Turkey. Always …
avoiding the big main roads, finally …
the Aegean Sea was reached. Чернотa and I followed the …
road further to …
the big and busy Greek city Alexandroupoli, where a short stop was made for buying some local groceries. It was already late afternoon, so …
we left the city and started searching a proper camping spot for the night.
After following a water channel for a few kilometers …
we reached “Agios Sotirias”, which is …
a very long beach in the far east of northern Greece. A nice place for …
building up the tent was quickly found along this vast beach. I sat down on a big piece of …
driftwood and enjoyed the sunset, whilst having some olives, feta cheese, and a paprika, with a beer on the side for dinner. When the sun was down, I made a little walk along the beach …
and spotted this shell of a tortoise in the sand. It was surely one meter or 40 inches long. I didn’t know that such big turtles are living here in the Aegean Sea. Back at the tent, when the washing up was done, I gabbed me another can of liquid gold and went into …
the warm water of the sea. Very pleased, I was sipping the beer and finally called it a day.
Just in time, I was back in my tent, when many mosquitos started into their night shift. Whilst continuing reading in my e-book, I recognized that now, there must have been surely billions of mozzies buzzing around in the whole area. Many of them sat down on the illuminated tent sheet. Each motion of the tent caused a big humming noise. Luckily, my tent was absolutely mosquito proof. 😅
Total riding distance of day number six of the Breakdown Ride: 395 km or 250 mi.
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