This is going to be a long one. But first things first.

We were gently woken in Malta to the sound of a marching band, at 6:30 h in the morning. I was not amused and Daniel recalls some complaints coming out of my tent. Additionally, Malta turned out to be rather cold with around 4°C in the morning. But at least no rain anymore.

The cold was forgotten as the thermometer climbed to 35°C in the Karawangen Tunnel. We blasted within 3 h through Slovenia along the great country side and on the perfect highway. We entered Croatia and got some good distance on the infamous Autoput done. This transit highway from Turkey to western Europe was known for the many deadly car crashes by drivers falling asleep. Falling asleep comes easy on this monotonous and strait road.

Our boredom was soon over when Daniels engine stopped running in the middle of nowhere. We parked the bikes on the side way, put on the signal wests and looked what we can do. There was enough fuel in the tank and the electric was working. We could not find an apparent reason why the bike would not fire up anymore.

Within minutes a guy stopped on the other side of the highway, came over and offered to call the service which would bring Daniel and his bike to a workshop. They were working with the ADAC, so we accepted. A few minutes later a tow truck stopped again on the other side. The guy come over. Language barrier apart, he seemed to be the right guy. We loaded the bike on the truck and were ready to go when two cars with a trailer stopped on our side. They turned out to be the guys we called. Some loud words in Croatian were exchanged and the bike unloaded again… We are still on the autoput with no shades and a scorching sun. Fair enough, load the bike on the trailer. Wasn’t easy since it was only designed to carry cars but it worked out. Probably not approved by German TÜV standard.

Daniel drove with them to the workshop in Slavonski Brod and I followed on my bike. Arriving there the bike was disassembled with in no time and they looked for the fault. In the end it turned out to be a rotten pressure tube from the fuel pump which lead to not enough fuel pressure with an almost empty tank. Easy fix and the bike was running again J At this point we were super tiered and were offered to spent the night in an empty apartment they had in that workshop. Great! The guys were nice and friendly, all in all a surprising pleasant experience, apart from the money, of course… Nice side story. At the same workshop a Slovenian family was waiting for their VW Golf to be fixed. The Croatian guys organized an entire replacement engine that night, installed it and got the car running, it was Sunday. Imagine this in Germany!

Rushing through Europe to Istanbul and letting the adventure start in Africa… jap, that doesn’t work!

The first day I tiped my twin while hoping on, because of an uneven underground. Topher’s battery stopped working on a slip road and needed a jump start. It was raining the whole day. Again the battery, we already called the ADAC when Topher found a loose screw, which caused all the trouble. Never the less the battery should be replaced because, it probably had taken some damage through the old rectifier. To the nearest motorbike supplier we left our route taking a shortcut into Austria. Arriving at the local Louis store we realized that it’s a holiday in Austria… so back to Germany setting the route to Munich and try to find an store there, the next day.

Late in the evening after not much more than 200 km from Freiburg 😛 we settled down in a very nice camping site at Bad Wörishofen.

Day two: Strange noises coming out of my exhaust, unfortunately the inner pipe broke… Really, I mean I already drove my bike 5.000 km without any problems…

In Munich we found the store after some detours, Topher replaced the battery and my exhaust problem was apparently not that bad. After stocking up on food we had shashlik for lunch at a road side stand in Munich which happened to be next to a brothel and the “pimp lady” sad next to us. In general the costumers of the food stand looked rather run down…

Off we went to Austria. It started raining in Munich and didn’t stop for the next 5 h. Temperature dropped to 8°C on the Austrian highway. No fun! The rain stopped after the Katschberg Tunnel and since we were so cold and we are too rich decided to warm up with a quick visit to Malta.

We made it and started our trip, yay! After a nice and emotional farewell we finally crossed the Ignatz-Bubis-Bridge in Frankfurt heading into Dribbdebach country on a Tuesday with perfect riding weather.

Our first stop was Stuttgart where we met with our good friend Benny, who was our generous host for that night. After some barbeque and a good time on the PS4 we had a rather short night, which was kinda hard for 50% of us ;).

The next day, the weather changed after ten minutes on the road and it didn’t stop raining till we reached our next stop, lovely Freiburg.

In Freiburg we stayed for a fortnight at Vanessa’s and Topher’s place, to exchange the rectifier on Tophers Twin to finally abolished the electrical issues… and we uprgrades the boxes of the bikes 🙂

Today we had a nice evening with Vanessa and “freibugarian” friends in a cozy tavern with Spätzle and beer 🙂 Tomorrow we will travel on finally leaving Germany heading towards Austria.