Announcements

**saralou** · #**1966** 12 Aug 2016

We did however see a lot of bikers today. This Romania rider pulled up beside Dan and asked “are you really from Canada?” After the short version of the story he said “respect”.

Dornei Romania CC-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Dornei Romania CC-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1967** 12 Aug 2016

The 650 has just not been handling normally for the last 2 days. I just could not figure out exactly what the issue was. After a couple of hours of very rough paved road and about 60 km from our destination the rear shock on the 650 did not feel at all good. We pulled right over and it was spewing oil and was totally blown! %$#@!!

Romania_-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We headed to the campground and as it looks like rain and they have very cheap nice cabins (50 ron= 13$) we booked onto one. There was no wifi so we walked to the center and the first restaurant we found was packed and had great wifi. Here we sent off some mails and pleas for assistance. We found the nearest large EU and Schengen city is Kosice Slovakia 470 km away and so we are headed there. They at least have a KTM shop and hopefully can help us out. We can remove the shock look at what it needs and ship it to Madrid to DMX if worse comes to worse. This does kibosh the plan a bit since we were headed east to Moldova and not west again. If we can get this fixed and not loose more than a week we will back track thru the south of the Ukraine to Moldova and then to kiev, Liviv and to Krakow. This likely means we do not have time for much else in Poland, the rest of Slovakia, and the Czech republic. The later 2 are not a big deal as they are on the route south next year to Armenia…. Time is running out this year as we have to be in Leipzig in 28 days.

**saralou** · #**1968** 12 Aug 2016

Good news today we had reply from my HU and ADV posts and both recommended K-moto in Kosice and fellow rider Bevin in Slovakia has set up the contact. This is what can happen when you order breakfast and do not speak the language. We ordered one omelet with cheese and one with cheese and mushrooms. At least we got the two cappuccinos.

Romania_-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania_-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1969** 12 Aug 2016

Today we will go about half way to Kosice Slovakia and we will try to stick to the smoother main roads. The sky continues to look threatening, but so far no rain.

Screen Shot 2016-08-08 at 22.01.34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Mare Romania CC-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Mare Romania CC-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Mare Romania CC-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Mare Romania CC-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Mare Romania CC-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Mare Romania CC by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania_-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania_-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1970** 13 Aug 2016

We awoke to a very nice sunny day and just 200 km to Kosice. We devised a basically diagonal route that was the shorter distance, but the same time as the 80 km longer major road route.

Screen Shot 2016-08-08 at 22.02.26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The road surfaces were mostly pretty good especially after we left Romania for Hungary. We had a short stop at the border for the Schengen passport control and we were on our way. They are smart here they have a sign that says toll vignettes are needed and a place to buy them just before the border if you did not do that on line already.

Kosice CC by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Kosice CC-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Kosice CC-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1971** 13 Aug 2016

There is no border control for Slovakia as it is both in the EU and Schengen zone. The route was on small narrow roads thru clean quite villages until basically you arrive to the outskirts of the s second largest city in Slovakia.

Kosice CC-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We headed straight to K-moto to meet with the owner Kamil to sort out what we can do. They will look at the bike this afternoon. They want us to get a new Tourtech shock, which is actually the easiest and cheapest at 150 including shipping or to send ours to Touratech Prague for service. The issue is my shock is Touratech outside and custom DMX inside. If we just go with a new Touratech it does not come in short spring size, and if they rebuild it they will replace inside and it will again not be custom lowered like mine. If we have to ship I think better to DMX in Madrid. Our luck there is a pretty nice pension almost across the road from the shop and they had a room for the next few days if we needed.

IMG_7002 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

It is very hot here in Kosice today and after dropping the bike off at K-moto we walked over to the mall to enjoy the air con and a very good meal at the Vietnamese takeout! We got in some Olympic coverage and saw Canada take the bronze in women’s synchronized diving! YEAH Canada! By 7 it had cooled off enough for a walk and we caught a glimpse of the very nice looking city centre from the hill side. When we arrived back there was a business card taped to the door of our room with a yellow post it note that said “Please call me” and a number. The card was from a realtor and when i looked him up I was pretty sure we had not met. As we don’t have a phone I sent an email that said as much and “i’m sorry do we know you?’….Silver lining.

FullSizeRender by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

IMG_6982 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1972** 13 Aug 2016

Well more good news today at K moto the shock itself is good, but the seals are blow from overheating. They did all the repairs, replaced the front fork oil and mounted a new front tire.

Slovakia-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Today it is much cooler and cloudy. When we arrived at Kmoto in the morning we met Tomas, the owner of the yellow post it note. The story is funny. He was at the shop dropping his bike the day before and saw my BC plate. He took a photo and called his wife to say “ I saw a bike at the shop from Canada. They are traveling around the world. I want to meet them. Come over and speak English for me” So the note! We made a plan to meet for dinner. It began to rain very heavily about 4 pm and continued on and off.

Tomas and Majka picked us up and we made a tour of the centre with stops at several awesome locals. We had some great craft

, traditional Slovakian food, and more

!

Slovakia by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Slovakia-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Slovakia-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1973** 13 Aug 2016

These people are incredible! Tomas has been all over on his many different bikes over the years. His trips include Tunisia, Syria, Jordan, Israel, all over Europe, and a circle of the Black sea! They are so hospitable! They even made us a huge goodbye breakfast to send us off to the Ukraine.

Slovakia-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Slovakia-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Slovakia-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Slovakia-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1974** 13 Aug 2016

Today it is cool and cloudy, but not raining. We set off from K-moto about 11 for the 90 km to the Ukraine border.

Screen Shot 2016-08-12 at 21.17.41 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Stryi CC by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1975** 13 Aug 2016

The first step was to get in the long line of cars to exit Slovakia. Luckily after about 2 minutes the official came over and waved us around the line and up to the front. Here they wanted the passports and the bike documents. There was some serious checking of the VIN and papers to exit the EU. I think because once they leave if the are stolen vehicles they are gone gone gone once they enter Ukraine and so they are super careful. At first there was some issue and several of the official consulted about our bike titles. They could not believe our bike papers were a single flimsy sheet from ICBC that looks fake. Now were have been to 59 countries so far and no one has questioned the authenticity of our papers. I admit they look pretty pathetic and there are no fancy stamps, embossing or other “important document” stuff. Finally they agreed to accept the titles. We were waved thru the gate to no mans land.

Stryi CC-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Stryi CC-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Stryi CC-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1976** 13 Aug 2016

Here you drive up to a rusty metal gate blocking the road at the X-ray machine and a guy with a machine gun. Here they hand you a small slip of paper on which they write your plate number. From experience when you get one of these at a border there are usually several hoops to jump thru and you get a number of stamps and signatures on this paper, which must be presented at a similar gate beyond the border area.

Stryi CC-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Stryi CC-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1977** 13 Aug 2016

They let the vehicles thru in batches. Next you drive up to Ukraine border control and to the green “nothing to declare” lane. When we got to the front the first official asked for the passports. Another then wanted the bike documents. Here again there was an agonizing 30 minutes while they kept coming back and forth to us and the bikes and asking for the rest of the bike documents. They also could not believe these were the only papers we have for the bikes. No one of course spoke and English. They asked for our green card next, which we know is not valid for the Ukraine and we must buy insurance here and said that. We though for sure we were going to get denied entry. As this was taking so lone we were asked to move the bikes ahead of the booths and off to the side. A good sign we thought. Finally after another 10 minutes of discussion an over 6 ft woman wearing 5 inch black patton platform pumps and the shortest uniform skirt you can imagine was called over. She seems in Charge. She spoke English well and again asked us to give them the rest of the bike papers. Finally they decided to believe us and she process the papers for us.

Stryi CC-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

After this we were waved thru to the last check where our small white slip now covered with stamps and signatures was collected. The nice guard there then said “welcome to Ukraine have nice trip”. We made it!!!

Stryi CC-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Stryi CC-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**Rondelli** · #**1978** 14 Aug 2016

Ha ha I think you got the same border guard as us when we went to the Ukraine, or her sister, 6 foot tall blonde straight out of James Bond movie, must be a pre requisite

Ride safe

Gino

**saralou** · #**1979** 14 Aug 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rondelli

Ha ha I think you got the same border guard as us when we went to the Ukraine, or her sister, 6 foot tall blonde straight out of James Bond movie, must be a pre requisite

Ride safe

Gino

I so wanted a picture of here, but no way that was going to happen!! Ha ha

sp

**saralou** · #**1980** 15 Aug 2016

From the border we planned to stick to the more main roads since we had a late start, a long way to go and we did not know how long the border would take (our friends waited 4 hours on their last visit). The road surfaces were pretty good and the rain mostly held off. It is however a chilly 11 degrees.

Stryi CC-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Ukraine-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Ukraine-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Ukraine by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Ukraine-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr