Stage Tour I: from Munich to Cypres - Entries for: Germany

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9° | dry | km 0

Preparation

on 2012-10-11 in Germany
We had to fix Fabis motorcycle just one day before the start! His starter relay broke a couple of days earlier and left his AT completely lifeless... The spare part arrived today and we were able to repair it just in time!

We also manufactured a second screw for his Mikuni gas pump.

At 10 p.m. the first cases were finally packed and we were all ready for our big adventure!
CheckMyTour
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7° | wet and dry | km 360

Departure

on 2012-10-12 in Germany, Austria
Fabi couldn't sleep anymore and decided to make an awesome WT2012 sticker at 5 o'clock in the morning. He realized that he will need to put 11 country flags on it in order to give credit to every country we are planing on visiting!

5 minutes after we got off work we met at Bastis place at sharply 12:45 p.m.. And it only took us till 2:30 to finally take off :) But todays route to Fabi's and Basti's parents' vacation home would be a piece of cake, something we have done several times already and so it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Only half an hour later it started to rain and we decided to get into our rain clothes right away!

At our first gas stop, we had to explain to a couple of bus tourists that we are on our way around the world. Their general disbelieve was expected and probably understandable since we were only in Austria so far.

At around 7 p.m. it was getting dark and we still had to go over the Tauern. To take the highway was not an option for us, but the view was catastrophic! Mountain roads during rain at night on bikes with helmets... Can it get any worse?

Well it can! At first Basti did not even notice that his light got darker and darker. He just thought his AT has bad head lights. At a short stop it was clear that the light was almost out and the turn signals stopped working altogether. But still, it could be worse we thought, at least we are still driving...

5 minutes later, just on the way up to the Tauern at 8:20 p.m. Basti's AT said goodbye with a big bang and fire out of the exhaust. Staying in the middle of a mountain road at night, during rain, with no lights whatsoever is really scary!

At the next house we changed Basti's empty battery with Fabi's fully charged one and jump started Fabi's bike with a starter cable the very friendly house owner thankfully provided for us. Mark: Always take a starter cable with you!

Fabi and Denis then took Basti (only with sidelight to save battery power) in between and we continued at around 9:30 p.m..

It's hard to believe that the day had even more excitement in store for us. Fabi had a close encounter with two deers, that suddenly decided to cross the road. Luckily he managed to pass them. Not much later there was a rockfall blocking one side of the road and it must have been recent since there weren't any warning signs so far.

We finally arrived very exhausted at 10:30 p.m. at the vacation home.