Greece is the word

Sitting in a Greek taverna overlooking the Aegean sea eating grilled sardines and drinking ouzo, trying very hard to think of somewhere I'd rather be. Failing.

Macedonia

Lake Ohrid. Which isn't Ohrid at all, its really quite nice, so decided to spend an extra day here to look around.

Albania

Albania - the first country that feels appreciably different to those that have gone before. It wasn't the best introduction - the road from the border was attrocious and there's fly-tipping and a scrap yard outside every village. Quite a few UK registered 4x4s about, all being driven by Albanians. In the town of Shkoder the only place that felt safe to leave the bikes was the underground car park of the 5 star Grand Hotel, which fortunately charged Albanian prices.

The next morning the road improved and so did the mood. Absolutely mad driving in Tirana and then 2 glorious mountain passes, one of which follows the ridge of the mountain with 1,000 meter drops on either side.

Montenegro

Kotor fjord, which your Lonely Planet guide will tell you is the deepest in Europe.

Sveti Stefan, on the Adriatic coast. It was a warm day, so it was a slightly Sveti David as well.

Wow - a warm, sunny and dry day. To celebrate I broke out the summer gloves. A (relatively) short ride to Dubrovnik, and the first night spent in the tent.

In a moment of weakness on a particularly wet and windy day in Croatia I pulled into a petrol station, spotted a Suzuki Vitara 4x4 and thought, hmm, that would be a good way to get to Vladivostok. Then at the campsite I was looking at a caravan and thought, hmm, that's a good way to go camping. I thought this trip might be life-changing, but surely I'm not going to turn into a caravanner?

Mostar, Bosnia. Famous for its bridge which was blown up in 1993 and was rebuilt in 2004

Wet Wet Wet

So far there's only been one day when it hasn't rained at some point. My American made waterproof goretex boots aren't waterproof.

Fortunately my Slovenian freezer bags are.

And when the sun does come out you're greeted with views like this

I think this one's pretty self-explanatory:

Country number nine, and the first one that I haven't been to before.

Slovenia

This is the view from the service station on the way to Ljubliana. It sure beats South Mimms.

Somewhere in the south of Germany, on the way to Austria

Those of you that have been will know where this is. Those of you that haven't may not.

I'm just going out for a ride. I may be some time.......

It's The Final Countdown.....

.....and all I've got to do is get all of this:

onto this:

How hard can it be?