“THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE”
(Part 02)
The unplanned alternative route was better than estimated : Чернотa and I passed some very scenic areas in the Pindos Mountain Range along our comfy tarmac ride, which led us to the Adriatic Coast / the city Ingoumenitsa, where our ferry to Italy was leaving in the evening. Like mentioned in the first part, some new material brake downs occurred, and also a mayor delay happened …
This is the second part of the ninth day of my journey. If you haven’t read the first part, I highly recommend reading the first part of it before continuing. Here you will find the first part: THE BREAKDOWN RIDE – DAY 09 Part 01
My black beauty and I followed the …
nicely bend and perfect …
maintained back country roads further to the west, always avoiding the boring main traffic routes. Somewhere …
above …
Lake Pamvotida, it was time for a short drinking break, before continuing …
the ride along …
the nice scenery through the Pindos Mountain Area. Somewhere along the road E92 …
I had to stop at this unknown monument. The reason fot the stop was a new uncommon rattling noise coming from the right foot rest area. After some looking and testing, I found out that …
the bracket of the rectifier, located under the right-hand side additional mounted Rally Raid Tank, had a crack. Luckily, the other mounting arm of the bracket was sturdy enough, for holding up the rest of the journey. I just had to bend the bracket a bit and the annoying noise was gone.
The last few …
kilometers along …
the route E92 were surely …
the highlight of this traveling day. In the late afternoon around …
5 o’clock, we arrived at the Adriatic Shore. The first thing to do was …
the visit of the ferry port of Ingoumitsa, where I tried to proceed the check in. I found out that my ferry was delayed decently. 🤨
The planned departure was, instead of 20:00 in the evening, now at 02:00 next day’s morning. Doh! 😵
Now I had some unplanned spare time left (~8 hours). First thing I did was having a closer look at the technical state of the bike and the luggage. Whilst rearranging the askew luggage bags, I recognized that the main exhaust clamp was broken:
I wasn`t in the mood for searching a welder, so I used …
a piece of wire, for …
for a reinforcement of the broken clamp. With the help of the pliers out of my tool tube, I was able to tighten a loop of wire around the broken parts of the clamp. This way the function of the clamp was restored again/the exhaust was hanging in its mount.
Next to this little improvised repair, I rearranged …
the luggage and got me another one of this delicious ice cream cones at one of the kiosks nearby. Despite sitting in the shade, the humid heat at seaside at this early evening was unbearable. Slightly cooled down after enjoying the yummy ice cream, the plan for the rest of the day was made: I decided to fuel up Чернотa here in Greece, not in expensive Italy 😉 and afterwards I tried to find an adequate restaurant close to the sea, for having a delicious meal for dinner.
In the central area of Ingoumenitsa a nice local restaurant was found. I ordered local Gyros, served on a big plate. Being one of the first guests in the restaurant, the meal was served quick. While munching the tasty, fine cut and crisp sizzled chicken meat, I had a look at news:
In Greece, Turkey, Italy and Bulgaria people fighting against heat strain and fire.”
The heatwave was still at its peak plateau and the forecast said, that the next seven days no improvement can be expected. Damn, what a summer! 🥵
Thinking back to my last years journeys, I often had troubles with the wet side of the weather. Along this little adventure, it looked like the heat was the evil to overcome. I was curious how the incoming days in Southern Italy will develop.
Whilst I was dipping and nibbling the last salty fries with garlic sauce, the …
sun slowly sunk onwards the horizon. I surely …
stayed for about 4-5 hours at the restaurant for having a few drinks. I used the extra time for making some notes, planning the route for the incoming days in Southern Italy and also had a nice chat with the waiter, which was envying my little adventures.
At around 11 PM, it was time to leave the restaurant for the ferry port.
The inconvenient check in process at the harbor office took its time due to Covid-Restrictions, booking troubles and additional IT-problems. I finally got my windshield-sticker and boarding card, which allowed me entering the harbor property. After a quick search within the huge freight area, I found the parking lot, where …
already a few cars/trucks had queued up. Being an alpha Чернотa assumed…
to take the leading role in front of the herd. Whilst waiting for the ferry (still about two hours) I went out of my stinky, itching and wet sweated boots and prepared a dry bag with the needed stuff for the boat. I also had a chat for a few minutes with the owner of the bigger KTM 1290 parking behind, but I can’t really remember what the talk was about. I was very tired, but for sure it was some fuel talk.
The rest of the time I sat down on the still warm tarmac floor and leaned my back Чернотas rear wheel. It didn’t take long till I dozed away for about an hour or so. In the meanwhile, more and more trucks, cars and passengers arrived. Finally, …
a bright spot appeared in the distance and came quickly closer towards the harbor port. The ferry boat …
was a …
huge one. With its arrival, the frantic work of the harbor crew started and also the …
first impatient passengers went into first row. When the ship was towed, …
its huge loading hatch opened and …
the unloading/loading procedure started.
Due to the delay, the ship- and harbor workers put pressure on the passengers for doing the loading procedure as quick as possible. Being the first one in our row, finally, Чернотa and I were asked to enter the ferry. I fired the never tired LC4 and braaapt into the boat, where I parked the old girl in one of the upper parking decks in a dirty corner.
Securing the motorcycle with the provided luggage strap was an easy job. Next to that, I rushed upstairs to the passenger areas of the ferry, for finding a good place to sleep. Right at the entrance of the passenger cabins, I found an adequate partly quiet and air-conditioned spot on the floor for spreading my sleeping gear.
The heavily used ferries in Southern Europe aren’t known for their comfort/and cleanliness. This one was no exception. The …
restroom floor surface was covered all over with water (or worse) and the smell inside was overwhelming disgusting. One toilet cabin was closed, and the others were very dirty. So I decided to change my clothes later at the public floor.
I just washed my face and brushed my teeth at the clogged sink, which gave me a nice view over a well assorted collection of the snot, the beard hairs, old bloody skin patches and other indescribable leftovers of the previous passengers. 🤢
At this moment I thought to myself: “At least the price, which was around 85 Euro (~ 100 USD), was adequate for this nine hour ferry cruise over to Italy.”
With clean teeth, but without a shower …
I went back to the chosen sleeping corner in the upper cabin area of the ship. I sat there for a few minutes and massaged my tired feet, while the last “wealthy” passengers entered their cabins nearby.
In the meanwhile, the ferry ship had left the harbor and slowly quiescence was coming up. 🥱
Before crawling into the sleeping pad, I put all my valuables into the foot area of my sleeping bag: “You never know …”
Total covered daily distance of this riding day: 405 km or 250 mi
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