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August 30th, 2010 | Europe

Pulling in to Poland…

The Polish frontier, where I sailed though without buying the "Viniette", a kind of toll permit to ride on Polands Highways...!!

We crossed the border into Poland near the village of Podwajponie, midway between the Russian and Belarus borders, those two destinations still on my mind, the disappointment of passing them by a sour taste in my mouth…

I couldn’t quite put my finger on why this was… Maybe it was the rebel in me…wanting to ignore all the good advice I had received and be able to say that I had made the rides anyway, despite the supposed dangers involved in riding alone through these countries…

I felt I had to rid myself of these thoughts… They were interfering with my focus, the enjoyment of the ride…

I pulled over north of Szypliszki to give myself a talking to, pacing backwards and forwards, running through the reasons for my disappointment, and finally coming to terms with the fact that obtaining permission to ride in Russia and Belarus was beyond my control…

The hardest thing to swallow was the feeling that I would never get the chance to ride here again, to be so close to something you want, yet not being able to reach out and touch it, experience it, was the hardest thing for me to accept…

I also knew beyond any shadow of doubt that if I had the necessary paperwork, I would have ridden there despite all the warnings…

That thought was enough to satisfy me, and with my mind temporarily cleared of the disappointment, I got back onto the bike and rode deeper into Poland, taking a keener interest in my surroundings once more, seeing the lush green fields again, the stands of pine, spruce and fir trees, the herds of cattle grazing peacefully in their paddocks and all the while keeping an eye on the darkening clouds above me…

We rode through the first major town of Suwalki, and then south down the E67 to Augustow, a town surrounded by three large lakes, joined together by a series of canals. Then on to Grawejo, where we stopped to refuel, and met a young couple of Kawasaki, heading home after visiting friends in Eastern Poland… We chatted for a while, discussing routes further south, and checking them on their map that was falling to pieces, and had a large section missing from it… We laughed as another piece came adrift while he was handling it, agreeing that this particular map had seen better days…

With the weather closing in, and still a few hundred kilometres short of Warsaw, I began riding a little harder, pushing the Big Fella, feeling the power coming up through the seat of my pants as we overtook long lines of trucks and cars, whizzing towards Warsaw…

I kept my eyes wide open until I had cleared the village...

Some roads are bad enough to have your car tossed about, like a boat on rough seas... And pouring rain doesn't help matters...

We crossed the Bug River, just south of Wyzskow, and then settled in for the final run into Poland’s capital city…

The roads were clogged with traffic for the last 60 kilometres, and to make things worse, the rain started falling in earnest…

Trucks had damaged the road surface in many sections of this area, and the bike bucked and wobbled as we encountered potholes, cracks and ruts caused by the heavier vehicles that seemed to frequent these country roads to avoid the main highways…

I arrived at the Felix hotel, on the eastern bank of the Wisla River that divides Warsaw almost down its centre, checked in, and then rode to BMW Auto Fus a few kilometres away, still fully loaded, wanting to ensure that they had the Big Fella booked in for the following morning, and also wanting to check that they really were open at 6.00am…!!

Pronunciation was going to be a problem...

Auto Fus is perhaps the biggest BMW franchise that I have ever seen… They even have a section that sells and services helicopters…!! I watched as a little red two-seater rose into the dark grey skies, wondering who would be crazy enough to fly in this weather…!! At the motorcycle section, a lone salesman sat at his desk, and as I walked up to him, he greeted me with,

“You must be the Gypsy Biker…!! We are expecting you…!!”

Relief flooded through me… This would not be a repeat of the Helsinki fiasco…!!

“Our service department closed at 2.00pm, but they will be ready for you at 6.00am tomorrow morning, and will take care of all your needs…!!”

I rode back to the Felix, unloaded the bike, removing the panniers and storing them in an office near the reception, something I did not want to be doing at 5.30am the next morning…!!

Auto Fus Warsaw... The Big Fella rejoices at the thought of a long overdue service...

Back in my room, I switched on the TV and watched the EuroNews channel for a while, seeing again the devastation that the floods had caused in Pakistan, the imminent eruption of a volcano in Java, the ongoing attempts to rescue the miners trapped underground in Chile, and a segment about a lunatic that had gone on the rampage in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, killing nine people with an automatic rifle before shooting himself… I would be riding into this city in just a few days time…!!

I have hardly watched any TV in the last few weeks, and felt disconnected from it all, interested only in the weather forecasts for the next few days…!!

I watched and listened as politicians played their little power games, using the media to sprout speeches that made a lot of noise, but meant nothing to the average Joe… Thought about the billions of dollars wasted on useless wars and the millions of lives these wars affected… And how all that money could have been spent on improving the lives of the people whose countries I had crossed in the last six months…

A magic wand would have come in handy as I sat wondering at the madness of it all…

GBWT 2010

3 comments to Pulling in to Poland…

  • Mark Behr

    Great – the long awaited service for your bike – enjoy the feeling !

  • Witek & Paulina

    Hi, so finally here we are, the “young couple on Kawasaki” you met at petrol station in Grajewo. To clear things up, we ride not a Kawasaki, but a Honda CB500 😉 Good to know that you made your trip to Warsaw safely – we arrived an hour or two after you and got caught in the rain as well. That’s a pity we didn’t leave any contact – we’ve been in Warsaw from two following days and I bet we could show you some nice places 🙂 I guess you must be now far away, but I sincerely hope that we will meet again. Your trip is simply awesome and we’ll be waiting for the next chapter on your blog ! Have a wide road!:)

  • Hi Witek and Paulina ! Sorry about the confusion regarding your bike… I will have to go back and correct it…!! Glad you enjoyed the read and pity we could not meet in Warsaw… I am in Cracow now, heading for Prague tomorrow… The open road beckons, and I must obey…!! Take care and ride safely…!! R.

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