Hi,

New thread - so here's a little background.

Felix is my DR650. His sweet little engine was purring away happily one afternoon in Italy. He named himself. I had nothing to do with it.

My name is Richard, though I use 'Hud' a lot on motorcycle sites because that was my nickname when I was a kid, and when I'm riding I feel like a Hud. There have been a couple of occasions on this current trip when I feel like a Dick. I try to avoid such occasions though, when I can. I'm English, from Hertfordshire.

I've been on a solo road trip with Felix for just over a month (England, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and now Bulgaria. I will hit Greece tomorrow. Then (according to the grand plan) it's on to Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Western Siberia, Western Russia, the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine (possibly), Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands and home. I might squeeze northern Iraq or Syria in there, too. I'm curious. I will see how the security situation is when I get there. I'm no hero. Any risks I take will be very heavily biassed in my favour.

The most significant event of the trip so far is that I had a spill in Italy. And it wasn't even a real spill, more like a wonky topple. I cracked a rib. It's painful but not serious, so I'm carrying on anyway - just a little more carefully than before. I realised this evening that I haven't reached for the painkillers in three days, and when I cough I no longer think I'm going to implode. Nor do I vomit words at people unexpectedly when my ribs go into spasm. That's good. I think I'm on the mend.

The most significant problem I have to cope with is that I have multiple food intolerance, a side-effect of medication taken many years ago. It doesn't take much to make me feel groggy. The trick is to stay well and not starve. You'd be surprised how many bananas you can eat in a day when nothing more suitable is available.


Right now I'm holed up in a hotel in the south of Bulgaria. I've been camping mostly, but tonight I got caught out with nowhere to sleep. I thought at first the hotel was a brothel, but later realised that I'm just not familiar with Bulgarian hotel kitsch. Nor am I used to hotels that sell toothbrushes and toothpaste prominently at reception. It's all cultural learning.

Cheers