Almost there!

You'll have noticed that the blog updates are now coming thick and fast - all thanks to my swanky new iPhone which allows me to surf at my leisure in wifi-enabled cafes, and failing that, by loitering outside houses with unsecured networks...

Kotor in Montenegro was just a taste of things to come, as I worked my way up the Dalmatian coast through Dubrovnik and Split sipping coffee, camping by the beach and topping up the tan to impress folks back in the UK.

You say "one way street into Dubrovnik" and I say "racetrack"...

After a few days on the coast I decided to cut up through Bosnia, which is a beautiful country with some great biking roads. I spent an evening in Bihac (pronounced, somewhat amusingly, bi-atch), largely because I had forgotten that not many of the roads leading to Croatia actually enter Croatia (since it's a separate country...). Anyway, Bihac turned out to be a delightful place. In fact, I was really taken with the whole of old Yugoslavia. But even though there's been a lot of construction, there are still a lot of bullet holes around!

Bosnia to Croatia - road closed!

Bihac - peppered...

A nicer view of Bihac

Onwards and upwards, through Slovenia and into Italy. By now I'd been in and out of the EU a few times, but it wasn't until Italy that it started to feel like mission accomplished. There are some breathtaking roads in the Dolomites, and I enjoyed cruising through the mountains with Matt Monroe's 'On Days Like These' on the mental iPod. In fact, the roads are so good that I found a cozy B&B in Arabba, ditched the luggage and went out to scrub the edges off my new tyres on the racetrack that masquerades as a public road around the Dolomites - Passo Campolongo, Passo Gardena, Passo Sella, and Passa Pordoi. The Transalp took everything in it's stride, which is more than can be said for me when I tried to run up the Passo Pordoi later that day - I blew a gasket after about 15 minutes and found myself coughing my guts up next to a couple of friendly cows called Nesquik and Hannelore (it's so fancy up there that the cows have name badges...)

Parking in the Alps - keep the Jags on the left and Astons on the right, please...

After the great roads in the Dolomites, I didn't think it could get much better - but it did. There weren't many landmarks on the trip during planning, but one of them was the Stelvio Pass. Which turned out to be 46 hairpins of pure pleasure (they're numbered - I was too busy to count them) - and that's just the way up. I felt quite a sense of achievement at the 2,800 metre summit, so you can imagine how all the cyclists felt after 2 1/2 hours... Is is better that the 1148 in Thailand? Who cares - they're both incredible. But as a measure of just how good it is, the Stelvio Pass sticker was only the third one to get valuable real estate on the bike screen. On the way down, I was planning to cut over the umbrella pass to Switzerland, but then I saw the way down the Stelvio Pass - missing it would have been like climbing up the stairs but not taking the slide down.

The final few curves on the way up the Stelvio Pass...

...at the top...

... and back down the other side

Now I'm back in Europe, I'm starting to miss the constant attention I got throughout Asia, which is probably because the roads here are full of touring bikes and nobody recognises my numberplate. I lost the AUS badge from the back of the bike somewhere in Nepal, so in order to comply with EU law (but mainly to attract some attention) I made a new sign with some insulating tape. Unfortunately most people now assume that I'm from Austria - not the best outcome...

No, not Austria, STRAYA!

After a chilly night of camping in St Moritz, it was on to Zurich to stay with Paul and Sue Calthrop, who provided great company, a delicious Sunday roast and a very comfy bed. Next day I crossed the Bodensee by boat and continued north to Ulm, where I called in to see Claus and Rainer, a couple of the Africa Twin riders that I crossed Nepal and India with. It was great to see them again, and I suspect that there will be many more adventure rides for us.

Reunited...

Another day of riding northwards brought me to Frankfurt to visit the Bohles family. Unfortunately Carlos was away on a business trip, so I took the opportunity to corrupt the kids - sorry Carlos, but I think the girls are all expecting motorbikes for their birthdays now!!!

Meet the Bohles...

Next stop? Well tomorrow I'm meeting up with my guard of honour, who will be escorting me the final few hundred kilometres to the UK. Jenksy and Morris have arranged a final night out in Epernay, which suggests that they have far too much money and no idea how low my standards have slipped over the past 6 months...