Gael warning in the Congo

Perhaps a better capture of the birds (swallows?) in this picture?
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I am still waiting for pics to illustrate your comment about the minimally clothed citizens of Aqaba (?)
 
Sorry to disappoint you Paul, the birds on the wire in the photo above are the only ones you will see here


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Just worked my way through this to the end :)

Wow.

It's not quite the end yet.

Rode the bike into the Haifa to Athens freight ferry this morning...whole process from paying the freight agent to leaving the bike, doing customs etc (all different places) took less than 90 minutes. Impressive!
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Bike should arrive Athens Sunday and I fly to Athens then. Customs opens Monday morning so let's see what EU re-entry is like. Thank heavens Brexshit hasn't yet happened as I can imagine that would complicate the process!


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Did they put any straps on the bike to stop sideways movement if the sea picks up?
 
Now bikekess I am walking around the Baha'i gardens of Haifa
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Fabulous views...my bike is in the teeny weeny blue ship
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And the Haifa rail system
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Down to Dado beach
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Where it seems it's laundry day for the lifeguards
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As well as a stunning evening.

Just filling in time until I fly to Athens Sunday ans then on Monday head North to Bulgaria once I have prised the moto from Greek Customs.


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During my wandering around Halifa I came across this interesting mural down by the British designed railway station
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.Aa you can see from the description of this work created by contemporary graffiti artists. It's a poignant reminder of the close links in the past between places now deeply separated:

https://www.israel21c.org/haifa-street-art-crew-paints-its-vision-of-a-peace-train/


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Simon, if looking for a stop half way, I've used Thessaloniki in the past. A plesant walk along the front to the White tower and on the other side of the bay is a good seafront resturant.
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Hang on ... You've freighted the bike by ferry but you're flying?. Did I get that wrong? No passengers allowed on.the.ferry?
 
Hang on ... You've freighted the bike by ferry but you're flying?. Did I get that wrong? No passengers allowed on.the.ferry?

Correct. The ship Alexio have no passenger capacity unlike it's predecessor. The Salerno ferry from Ashdod (Grimaldi line) does take passengers but Salerno is too far West for me and it takes 8-9 days they say!

Jim thanks for the tip! I have ridden by there (Thessaloniki) in the past but not stopped. Maybe this time?


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So as I while away a pleasant Shabbat where there is little going on, I thought I would set out (for food or ill) what's been done to the GS since it left Blighty just over two years and 44,000 kms ago.

This is all from memory as all the papers are at sea with the bike.

UK: new front TKC80 fitted
Marrakech: rear TKC fitted
Gambia: removed muffs and gaucho as getting a bit warm
Bamako, Mali: engine oil, filter, final drive oil, battery replacement. Ignition barrel rebuilt.
Yaounde, Cameroon: oil and filter. New TKC80s fitted
Dolisie, Congo-Brazzaville: ECU repaired (burnt out diodes).
Pointe Noire, Congo: Fuel pump and filter replaced; also new sumo guard securing bolts (v expensive!).
Soyo, Angola: fitted uses replacement ECU in case the Xonfo soldered one was fragile (still have it!)
Luanda, Angola: flywheel replaced after mechanics achieves a hydraulic lock and shredded teeth off the original
Windhoek, Namibia: Both oils, oil filter, spark plugs (primary and secondary). Starter motor stripped and servived. New coil stick. New TKC80s. Failed Throttle position sensor replaced with used item.
Nairobi, Kenya: indicator and tail light lenses replaced, new oil filler rings fitted, front disk resecured.
Jeddah, KSA: Oil and filter change and silicone fix to seat for oil filler plug.

So the bike is a little like Trigger's broom but (most importantly for me) was starting and running well when I out it on SS Alexio..

I am encouraged that the East Coast run has been pretty trouble free (except the leaky oil filler cap) so hoping the gremlins - perhaps triggered by the extremes of Mauritania heat and my poorly maintained battery (my bad!) and resulting voltage spikes leading to other problems?

It will need new tyres and an oil and filter change once I am at Motocamp Bulgaria, by which time it will have done close to 100,000 miles in total.



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Well that wasn't so difficult!

! (It's not often I get to say that so I am savouring it).

Caught an early train (0625) from Haifa to Ben Gurion airport. Being an Israeli Monday morning it was rammed but for to the airport by 8 and after a 15 minutes bus ride to Terminal 1 which Ryanair and Wizz use (and which was perfectly OK BTW) I was through the thorough security and all done by 0845 leaving me a couple of hours wait for the flight.

Once in Athens airport I took a taxi 35 kms to the port as on Sunday there was little alternative.

My lodgings were clean and spacious and (by Israel standard) cheap. And I could see my ship had arrived, just visible from my balcony.
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I had been warned by the ships first officer in Haifa that Customs were closed until 0800 Monday so I should not rush. So I resigned my self to another dull Sunday (to match the previous day's Shabbat in Haifa).

Nonetheless I decided to take a closer look.
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There was the GS cosying up to a similar colour fork lift truck
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So I found a way in and ambled over to the security box where two chaos said to come over. I told them it was my bike and they said: 'show us your ID and the log book and you can take it away now'!!

So I quickly did that, signed an official receipt and I was away in under 5 minutes!

Here's the bike back at my digs
I had mentally set aside a good part of Monday morning for Customs paperwork so this was a real win! And they had literally just offloaded the bike so it had missed the earlier heavy rain...glad I wasn't going to have a soggy sheepskin.

And the good ship Alexio is riding a lot higher in the water now the GS has been offliaded
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Welcome back to Europe.... :thumb2

Phil

Thanks Phil!

Today was a cool but beautiful ride along the coast of Greece
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Sadly much on motorway and so marred by the toll gates every 10 or 20 kms...thank heavens for contactless credit cards so no messing around with small change with a truck revving behind you in the queue.

I had forgotten these tolls...each only 1 or 2 € but the payment a PITA.

Now comfortably installed by the sea in Kavala...after a hot shower to warm me up again!
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North tomorrow into Bulgaria
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Good progress and a delight to have an easy customs extraction! Tomorrow should be your last day of riding on this trip?
 


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