This is the travelblog of
Cyril Ducau and
Niccolo Manno on their adventure from London (Cyril), Munich (Niccolo) to Hong Kong on motorbikes.
It took us short of 3 months to do 20,000km on bikes, trains and planes. We crossed the following countries together:
Austria - Italy - Slovenia - Croatia - Serbia - Bulgaria - Turkey - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan - Russia - Mongolia - China - Hong Kong
On this site you will find some info on both of us, our bikes, some of our friendly helpers in Hong Kong and London and loads of pictures on our trip.
Serbia
Today we made it from Slavonski Brod to Nis. We rode more than 450km and we are exhausted.
(Old fortress in Nis)
We had an excellent night in the small residence in Sl. Brod. We had 2 HUGE rooms. We had our first small problem at the border crossing with Serbia. I was ok with my paperwork but the border guard asked us to show the insurance documents and whilst Cyril is insured in Serbia, he didn't have a green card (he didn't know this was required) and hence was required to purchase one at the border. But the problem was quickly solved and we were back on the road for Belgrade.
(At the Serbian border)
The difference between Croatia and Serbia is amazing. Croatia is a well developed country with nice housing, cars, amazing fields etc.... and as soon as you cross the border, the cars are really bad, the houses run down, etc... AND for the first time you have the indications in cyrillic. The motorway in Serbia are empty (you pay a toll) and we were able to move fast.
Big news! We saw the SUN for the first time since we left! It feels so much better to be on the bikes now.
We arrived in Belgrade for lunch and sorry, went to McDonald's...it was really needed (Xav, on pensait a toi). We were a bit worried for the bikes and hence visited the city in turns so we didn't leave the bikes unattended. Belgrade is actually an ok city, has both the nice Germanic 18 and 19 century style and the good old Soviet style.
In the afternoon we drove to Nis where we are spending the night. Nis is the 2nd biggest city in Serbia and it feels tiny. I can guarantee we are currently the only foreigners! We are in an old Soviet style hotel in the middle of the city. It is so old that we fear the windows are going to fall-off if you touch them (they are actually taped!). We were able to park the bikes in the service entrance, hence safer than on the streets. Oh and Robert De Niro came to this hotel once...he seemed bloody young.
(Robert de Niro)
Tomorrow we will visit a 12 century Serbian monastery and then cross into Bulgaria and stop in Sofia before heading closer to Turkey.
I've updated the photo albums with pictures from Serbia
(Austrian embassy in Belgrade)
(Pour Manon)
A BIG THANK YOU TO:
Cyril:
- Maddy, the head of our "London HQ", special technical and weather advisor, and because she is simply the best and has been so supportive over the last few months
- My family and friends for their understanding and moral support
- Robert Roe (alias Bob) from Motoselect Franham for preparing the bike with such good care
- Anastasia from thevisacompany for helping me deal with so much red tape
- Claudio von Planta for sharing his valuable experience on Long-way Round and Long-way Down and answering so many of our questions
- Ronnie, Emmanuel and Benjamin for their enthusiast support and precious advise
- The Techtransalp team for their excellent website and advertising our adventure
Niccolo:
- clearly Manon as she has always been supportive of this trip even though this means 3 months without me
- My mother for not giving up on me, for receiving all the parcels at home in Austria and for not freaking out!
- Amy and Steve for pushing over several months to keep focus on the organisation
- Xavier, for trusting me to be in France in June and be his best man at his wedding
- Cyril, for posting our tracks on the blog
- Louis, for looking into getting Continental to sponsor us
- Romain, for getting us the Turkmen visas
- My friends for all telling me "DO IT"!
- Claudio von Planta, Sambor and Maciej for sharing their great experiences on their numerous motorbike trips
- Henry, Yau and Tan from BMW HK for their support with the bike, the preparation and the bike sale
- Yasser, Mark, Michael and Christoph from BMW Munich for their help with all the accessories and the last minute bike purchase
- Bertrand and Alice for your help with the tyres in Almaty
1 comment:
Baucoup de plaisir à suivre vos zaventures... mais attendons également un peu plus de soleil pour ne pas avoir à se réchauffer après chacun de vos articles :-)
Avons passé la semaine à Vienne avec Kalkidane où il faisait très beau !!!
Bonne route,
axenas
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