29 May – Day 1 has come!

Start: N 52 33 06.2 E 13 17 07.7 (Berlin Tegel Airport)

End: N 48 10 38.9 E 9 32 22.0 (Möhringen, Germany)

Distance: 670 km

At last the big day arrived. I looked forward to getting to the airport but at the same time dreaded the thought of getting there and then to get the message that a) the flight hadn’t arrived yet, b) the KLR wasn’t on the flight. So early morning I called the forwarding agent at Cargo. A lady answered and bluntly told me she wasn’t there to give any cargo information, I had in person to come to the airport.

To make it short: I met only friendly people at Cargo and Customs, everything went smoothly, and for the first time it was not necessary for me to untie and get the KLR off the pallet. It was standing there and waiting for me to get on it and get away from the huge city!

Fully loaded in the heavy early morning traffic it took some time to get accustomed to the heavy weight on the bike. At slow speeds it felt like a crab shuffling forward but when I got onto the Autobahn the riding got much better.

On Sundays and public holidays trucks are not allowed to drive unless they are carrying fresh produce or live animals. So yesterday morning after a weekend and a public holiday the hell was loose on the Autobahn. Columns of heavy trucks were crawling forward and were making riding unpleasant. Adding to that was a strong crosswind that gave the feeling that the KLR was an aircraft, dropping and picking up the wings in turbulence.

It was a long day of riding and I had to drink many Red Bulls to keep me awake. Just after 19:00 I stopped at my friends Anne and Achim Rebstock in the small southern German villiage of Möhringen where I will spend the next few days before riding to Switzerland on Saturday.

On my website www.naboom2germany.co.za I am soon going to have my fuel log if anyone is interested to see what the fuel consumption of the KLR was.

The one and a half days in Berlin were pleasant and I have to thank Tanja and Henda for endless chats and discussions and a lot of jokes. But the time came for me to move on and I will for sure miss the fun we had.

01 spending quality time in berlin with tanja and henda before hitting the road alone

02 the klr arrived safely and without any damage at berlin tegel

03 anne and achim have the south african flag at their lapa since many years

04 they prepared a lovely supper for us

05 a radish cut in paper thin slices

06 a wurst salad typical for their area

07 and a clear schnapps after supper to help with the digestion

08 my route 29 may

09 route profile