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. 

Latest top picture

Latest top picture
Thanks for watching our blog - Enjoy as we did it!

Our path

Our path
Click picture to download Google Earth kmz file !

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Stuck in Croatia...

After a leaving Lubjiana under the snow but still making good progress, we met with gusting winds upon reaching the Croatian coast... we painfully learnt that these winds are called "bora" and are quite common on the Adriatic Sea (can last for several days). The bikes were totally impossible to control and we had to ride for several minutes on the emergency lane, on first gear and with warning lights on until we could get out of the highway. The police stopped us and recommended us not to take the coastal road and the road North towards Zagreb was covered with snow. They actually said: "Road closed to Motorbikes!". We tried two different roads down to Zadar but after few kms, there was no way we could go through the wind hence we turned back to reach Rijeka.


Now spending the night there - A bit frustrating but hoping to wake up very early tomorrow to make as much progress as possible before the wind starts blowing later in the day.



(Nicco getting his export stamp at the Croatian border)
(first class parking spot in front of the hotel in Rijeka)
(the bikes need a proper wash - salt already attacking the metal)

1 comment:

Josekin said...

I believe Mr. Khan went through the Muslim world back then... Kudos on choosing Hong Kong as your end point (Mr. Khan never got that south either). Anyway, good luck with your adventures... if you have a welcome party in Hong Kong, that would be a lot of fun!

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