I wake when the alarm goes off at 0750, feeling that I've not slept nearly long enough despite the fact that I was in bed well before midnight. Graham knocks at around 0810 to say he's going down to breakfast and about a minute later I go down too. The spread that they've laid on is very nice, although I'm not as impressed as everyone else. Maybe the food we had on ISOD and when I visited Prague has spoiled me. Nevertheless, after 2 good mugs of decent tea (which is a blessing), decent scrambled eggs and a couple of small sausages, I'm feeling slightly more awake. Graham, on the other hand, isn't. He walks past the large displays of cereals twice while asking himself (and then us) where the cereals were.

During breakfast, I've been thinking (and talking a little) about the stability thing. When I go back upstairs, I re-pack the panniers to bring heavy items down from the top box. I want to get them into the front & lowest position I can, making them closer to the centre of the bike. I decide to wear the gimp suit under the bike gear, as its looking (and feeling through my open window) a little colder today. This quickly turns out to be a mistake. In about half an hour I am seriously overheating. We stop for petrol and I bung 6.17 litres in for the 77 miles (21 miles so far today, 477 miles total) done - of which, of course, 56 miles was from the previous day. Very foolishly and for no reason I can think of, I don't change out of the gimp suit.

Cruising along the autobahn, we crossed the Rhine around noon over a new looking suspension bridge. As we kept on going, I occupy my time by looking around and enjoying the excellent views in the mild and sunny weather. The Rhineland is very lovely as we bowl along.

We stop for lunch (Graham waves his arms in the air in joy when he sees the trike's indicator go on) at a service station and pay a fortune for petrol (1.4 euros a litre). Ugly takes 8.45 litres for 104 miles (126 miles today, 581 total). I take the chance to change out of the gimp suit - doing it outside by the bikes. I am so hot that I nearly steam in the cool air. Instead of going into the service station, Simon, Graham and I have salad, ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Graham adjusted his chain while I tried to ignore the fact that I've never looked at mine at all. He gets dead cross when he needs two 12 mm spanners, which I have, but which are wrapped up in a tea towel. Ripping off the insulting tape which holds it all together taxes his patience somewhat :))

We get off again but I remember that my right hand pannier is unlocked and pull over. Simon stops with me, which turns out to be a very good thing. After locking up the pannier, we set off to catch up with the others. I manage to wind Ugly up to an indicated 85 mph when playing catch up! I have to lie down on the tank and put my feet on the pillion pegs to do it, mind and it doesn't feel overly stable at that speed so I don't stay there for long. Nevertheless, the bike generally feels more stable at any speed after the re-packing done earlier. When we haven't caught them up after 10 minutes or more of hard riding, we stop and Simon recalls that we're heading for Nurnburg. Off we head and when the motorway branches off soon afterwards, we take the turnings marked for there. We take a further 20 mins to catch up with the rest of the group. It's a good job Simon did stop or goodness knows where I'd have ended up.

The next petrol stop is at 133 miles (259 miles today, 714 total) where we see a group of English riders including 2 very, er, substantial Brummies in an outfit. Ugly gets 11.14 litres of 91 RON unleaded. A sharp wind cools her right down while I warm up over 2 espresso coffees. This means that she takes a fair while to start. I also notice that a previously fixed (or so I thought) drip from the carb has returned. In the 60 miles (319 miles today, 774 total) to Regensburgh, I notice no performance difference from using the cheaper fuel, which is good. Cheap 91 RON from now on then.

Julian goes into autopilot and drives straight past all four exits for Regensburgh. Graham overtakes and after some wild gesticulating we stop on the side of the road. Julian is seen to say "WHAT?" in a seriously comedic manner. One U-turn later, we're going back towards the city & the hotel is soon found. Simon and Jethro share one room and Graham and I share the other.

Beer and very good food follow. Lots of beer, in fact. We stay up until 0145 in the end and the girl behind the bar is asking if we'll please let her close the bar when we go for what becomes our final round. When we stagger back to the room, Graham falls asleep in something under 0.5 seconds and I discover that he snores nearly as much as I do. It takes some while before the alcoholic fog recedes enough for me to put my earplugs in, at which point I drop straight off into a dreamless sleep.

end of day 3

 

Elefantenpics

[ Elefantentreffen ] [ Journal - day 4 ] [ Elefanteneer ]