We are also here on HUBB as well:

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...een-card-93020

and on ADVrider:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/new-e...chase.1075077/

Lobagola MotoTours | expedition off road tours, insurance, storage, freight

Serving as one of the co founders of www.transeurotrail.org as well as linesman for Croatia.

Thanks for the heads up,

BR
Dooby

oops, sorry, I should have remembered dooby, not scooby! Next time!

Dooby is the guy to go to, i have my bike with him, he's easy to work with and very friendly, can't recommend him enough,

It was a minor mixup. All good now. I will revisit his site next year if the Covid has a short half life. His prices looked reasonable.

I'm hoping again to get a ride in this year.The dates I'm using for airline prices are leaving USA Sept 8 and returning October 13.Tentative countries are Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria,Turkey, Armenia, and possibly Azerbaijan. I am looking at Lobagola in Zegrab closely. Has anyone been traveling in this area and what can you share about it with me?

Doogle:

I've ridden extensively over many years in the Balkan countries you mentioned (Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia) as well as in Bulgaria. They are all great places to ride.

But, personally, I think you are nuts to try and ride through half a dozen countries this year, this because of the current state of the COVID pandemic and the recent exponential growth of infections worldwide due to the Delta variant.

I think things are going to get a helluva lot worse (a 4th wave) before they get better - just look at your home country (USA) for an example. In your home country, anyone can get a vaccination tomorrow if they want one. That's not the case in any of the countries that you mention... they all have much lower vaccination rates than the USA, and things are going to hell in the USA right now. As soon as things get worse in those lesser developed countries, they are going to start imposing curfews, quarantines, lockdowns and border crossing restrictions.

Last March, at the very start of this pandemic - before it was even declared a pandemic - I took the ferry from Italy over to Tunisia to ride around there. The pandemic exploded, I got trapped in Tunisia, went through about a month of enforced quarantine and lockdown in Tunisia, and barely managed to catch a very expensive flight out of Tunis and back to Canada. My motorcycle is still in Tunis. As much as I would like to go get it ASAP, I don't think that's going to be possible this year... maybe next spring.

If you are dead-set on riding in Europe this year, pick ONE country to go riding in, and make sure that country has direct air service back to the USA if quarantines & lockdowns get imposed. You don't want to be riding a rented bike three border crossings away from where you rented it only to find out that you can't get the bike back to the rental site due to suddenly imposed travel restrictions. It's bad enough when one has to leave their own motorcycle behind... it will be staggeringly expensive if you have to leave a rental bike behind, or if your planned one-month rental turns into a 6 month rental.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Just to correct you and provide factual info for you and other based on checked and government provided info (I can provide links if needed).
In Serbia you could get free jabs as local or a tourist since mid May and in Croatia since beginning of July.

If you ask me autumn will be totally fine in Europe and Balkans, what would the politicians be forced to do and who is going to be the first one to be forced to accept they messed up totally with their decisions that will be present in the coming months. I won’t comment NZ and AUS at all that is a proper disaster of grandeur proportions.
Inflation bubble is going to burst and it will be interesting to follow how the politicians will weather this storm all along while blockchain and NFT’s are marching full steam ahead.

Stay well and let me know if you want help to get your bike from Tunisia to Europe to be stored here.

Cheers
Dooby

Hi Dooby:

The point I was trying to make in my post #24 above did not concern vaccine availability or whether the rider himself is vaccinated - it was a warning about the possibility that a rider could get trapped in a 3rd country due to quarantine or border crossing restrictions that could be imposed in the future with little or no notice if the COVID infection rate in that 3rd country or adjoining countries starts to get out of hand.

There are two reasons why I wrote that warning - and both of them arise from my own experience on the road when the pandemic first started.

1) A country that a rider is in may suddenly impose travel restrictions (i.e. no travel across regional borders within that country), curfews, or quarantines (stay at home orders) without advance notice if infections get out of hand. We've all seen that happen in the recent past in many different countries.

2) An adjoining country that a rider needs to pass through to get back to their point of origin (where they rented their bike, or where their return air ticket home originates, or even where they live if they live in Europe) may suddenly slam the door shut to entry of people other than their own citizens if the infection rate gets out of hand either in their country or in the adjoining country where the rider presently is.

For example, in the case of point 2 above, my moto is presently in Tunisia (where I got trapped as described in point 1 last year), and there is nothing preventing me from travelling to Tunisia tomorrow to get the motorcycle - except that Italy, the normal place to re-enter Europe by ferry from Tunisia, is not allowing anyone to enter their country unless they are a citizen or permanent resident of Italy. I'm a Canadian, so, no way I could get out of Tunisia into Italy. It doesn't matter that I am fully vaccinated with two shots of Pfizer, the Italians just won't let me in.

This is why I strongly recommend to Doogle that he not plan a ride that depends on crossing a number of country borders... because that runs the risk of getting trapped in a country because of restrictions that country imposes (point 1), or getting trapped in a country because of restrictions that an adjoining country imposes (point 2).

I've been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt, and it was an expensive and stressful process. It didn't cause me any great inconvenience because I am retired and I could afford the one month of wasted time and the additional $6,000 in unexpected expenses that I incurred from the Tunisian lockdown & quarantine & European border closures, but a younger person who has a fixed amount of vacation time and a job to return to - and probably a less healthy bank account - could find themselves really screwed.

Hence my advice to "pick one country and stick to it" and to also make sure that the country you pick has direct air connection back to your home country in the event that lockdowns and travel restrictions get re-imposed.

Personally, I'm quite pessimistic about what the "4th wave" is going to look like this fall... I think it is going to make the first 3 waves look like a dress rehearsal. Just look at what is happening in the USA and the UK right now - both those countries have much higher vaccination rates than any of the countries that Doogle is interested in visiting.

Michael

I appreciate your thoughts here. This is why I've been waiting till this last minute. Yes, paying for rental for 6 months while it sat would be expensive. Plus hotels stays long enough to pay for buying the hotel. And my concerns about infection in another country do heighten. I'm vaccinated-and possibly they will have a booster soon.