Day Zero, Saturday the 2nd of June - from Lincoln, UK to the ferry

I thought i'd do a little write up of my bike trip which I embarked on in the June of 2012.

The plan was to sail from the UK to Norway (Brevik) via the DFDS freight ship, leaving from Immingham at 5.00am on Sunday the 3rd of June.

From Brevik I would explore Norway a bit, then head east through Sweden into Finland, dip into the Arctic Circle at Ronvaniemi in Lapland and then further east into Russia. On entering Russia I would hop south to the cities of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Volgograd, and then on to the Caspian Sea. Here's a rough route of the 'out' leg of the journey ('A' is where the ferry docks at Brevik);





From there i'd move back west to the buddist city of Elista and into the Ukraine and Crimea.

Then after a look around Crimea, i'd head north to Kiev while the Euro 2012 championships are on, a quick look around the Chernobyl zone and then head back west and home. Easy. 7000 miles or so according to a route planner, with the trip lasting around 19 days.


The plan was to camp where necessary and to stay in modest accommodation where I could. The bike is a 2000 ZX7R with pretty much every consumable replaced and tyres that will last an alleged 8000 miles (conti road attack).

All loaded up and ready to roll;



I was provisionally booked on the ferry leaving Immingham the next morning (a concrete booking on the freight ship isn't possible) so in the afternoon I fitted the new tyres to my bike and loaded it up in preparation. It was whilst loading the bike that I suffered the first set back; a phonecall from DFDS informed me that I hadn't got a place on the ferry. Freight drivers get preference for the 12 places on board and as another freight driver had booked in, it was tough luck for me. Oh dear.

I carried on with loading the bike whilst my support crew (Wife) found me an alternative sailing. The Harwich to Esbjerg ferry was fully booked, but there was room on the Harwich to Hook of Holland sailing. With Holland being a fair way from Norway, this would mean an unexpected 1050 mile detour before the 'start' of the trip, so I left earlier then expected at 7.00pm on that night to catch the ferry from Harwich at 10.30pm.

The first mechanical failure was experienced on the outskirts of Lincoln, 2 miles into the journey; the speedo needle dropped to zero on the way into a roundabout, a quick look down at the front wheel confirmed the cable had snapped. I presumably kinked it changing the front tyre earlier in the day. Not particularly reassuring with 6998 miles left to go, but not the end of the world; the sat nav displays the speed also.

I made the ferry in good time, had a few in the bar, went to bed for a bit and arrived in the Hook of Holland the next morning at 8am.