Simple, really.

13 weeks of leave was due. I needed to go for a ride. A rough plan was conceived. I mentioned it to Og, and he decided to join in. My very dear wife, Robyn, as ever sharply astute, saw the mid-life crisis coming. She generously agreed to look after my house, kids and dog for the modest price of a couple of weeks in Italy. I am an exceptionally lucky bloke. Heather rolled her eyes at the fait accompli.

We had a kitchen-table meeting where a map of Europe was spread out. On it we marked places we knew of and wanted to visit, places where we had business connections, and places where we knew people. Then we joined the dots, and the route was established. It was as simple as that. The girls would meet us in Rome for some sight-seeing, followed by a villa in Umbria for a week.

In a couple of hours of web-browsing we had determined that everywhere we wanted to go we could do easily, without the need for pre-arranged visas. The exception was Russia, so we dropped St. Petersburg off the itinerary. A bit more internet research confirmed that the ferries we’d hoped for did in fact run, and that the critical one was from Lerwick in Scotland’s Shetland Islands to Bergen in Norway, which only ran once per week.

Secondhand bikes are cheap in the UK, particularly compared with similar bikes here in Oz. I have a ’97 model injected Moto Guzzi California on a time share basis with my mate Dave who lives near Southampton. It cost us £2500 (A$6,000) a few years ago, with full touring gear and (at the time) only 5,000 miles on the clock. It is an unfortunately tragic shade of safety vest fluorescent yellow-green, though. Through the internet, Og found a ’97 carb model California, with full Givi touring gear, done only 12,000 miles, in two tasteful shades of red, with a dealer in Southampton for £2900 ($7,000). Dave inspected it, passed it, Og bought it, the dealer will mind it until we get there, then service it. He’ll also take it back at the end, buy back to be negotiated. Too easy, and all by email and credit card.

Actual route details, road conditions, border crossing issues etc and some remarkably good specific information also exist on the web. Finding them amongst the chaff and rubbish is a challenge, but if you prowl for long enough you turn up reports and accounts from people who’ve ridden those places in the last year. www.advrider.com/forums took a long while to find, but has a pile of relevant information

So this is what the plan looks like, roughly. Massively subject to change at any coffee-driven whim.
JFerg (aka Massey)

Ah, the brotherhood of motorcycling. I (Og) have been riding a borrowed Cali around the Mornington Peninsula for the weekend, getting used to the cruiser style riding position. My legs are still too long, my shins bang against the cylinder heads. I had to remove the bottom faring off the V65SP that I have in Melbourne so that I would fit on that too. But I suppose I will get used to it during the first 1000km or five. (I also have a road registered restored BSA Bantam D1. The Cali is a little different.)

I am putting the schedule up soon so that the people we are visiting can get some idea when we are arriving so they can stock up on good wine, and warn their neighbours.

Things are progressing. The Cali is garaged awaiting Og's arrival in the UK, a car is booked for when friends and family arrive to share the villa in Italy, there's only 2 weeks of lecturing to go! The Australian budget still managed to shaft Universities, somebody should tell John Howard's 'aussie battlers' not to blow their $12 per week tax cut on a box of smokes, but to invest it so their kids have some chance of ever paying their University fees. How can such a bunch of wankers not have enough balls to invest in the next 20 years in our country? Ha, politics. Good time to go for a long bike ride.

To all those frinds who have recieved emails, we will be posting our detailed itinerary soon. Then we see how close the reality gets.