schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
It is only a pleasure Tom.Tom van Brits said:
Living the Dream Solo Around the World Trip
- Thread starter schalk vd merwe
- Start date
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Hi Guys I see I got hundreds of videos of the boat trip but not one still photo. I will work out how to take snap shots still. Lots happened but time is short. Will report again when I have time. Here is a teaser so long. I travelled through the 2nd longest tunnel in the world yesterday, the St Goddard tunnel close to Italy in Switzerland. It is 17 km long. I met some other bikers yesterday from Europe and they told me they are scarred to travel through. In a months time I will travel through the longest one in the world namely 24 km which runs under a lake where the St Goddard tunnel runs through a mountain. That is all car and truck tunnels. There is a train tunnel in Switzerland of 57 km.
Photo see length above tunnel.
Photo see length above tunnel.
Attachments
FJR1300
Race Dog
Ek is so bly jy is weer op die pad, nou kan ons weer tog te lekker lees. Reis versigtig Schalk en geniet elke oomblik van dit.
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Hi Guys sorry for not reporting. I am racing against time. I am in the saddle just about every day. I am on an an Iland at the bottom end of Croatia at a town Called Korcula. Have done 7000 km sofar. Still 8000-9000 km to do in 5 weeks when my Visa run out. Will do a full report when I have a chance to switch my lap top on again. I am really living the dream. There are places on earth so beatiful I could not amagine. Will still publish many fotos. I am also meeting so many fantastic people from all over the world. Book is selling well and I am really having the time of my live.ClemS said:
kevin
Race Dog
Fantastic Schalk, enjoy! Looking forward to the RR
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Hi Esplin you right. Just working through 5000 photos. Should get some RR by next week. I don't know why they can't make WD like Facebook where you just put your photos on and the program automatically make them smaller. It takes ages to make them smaller. Anyway some good RR is coming shortly.Esplin said:
SchalkL
Race Dog
Hi Schalk.schalk vd merwe said:
If easier why not just post on facebook - i sit with similar thing and consider doing "photo reports" on facebook and then just post the link here.......
Anyway, enjoy the rest, very jealous.
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Refresh your memories.
Ok guys at last here we go again. Just to sum up to here again. I landed At Frankfurt Airport and stayed one night with a motorcycle travel book collector by the name of Michael Schulze. He has the most bike books and videos in the world. 1500 Bike travel books.
The next day I travelled to Rotterdam in Holland by bus where I stayed with Eveline Van Hooren whom I met 3 years previous at House Holland in Ethiopia. I bought her bike a BMW 650 Funduro with 43 000 km on the clock but it could also be 143 000km as it turns over every 100 000 km.
Then went to meet up with the Zapp family that all of you by now know of. That night I slept at Dieters house in Belgium and went out for a night out in town. I met him in 2010 in Tanzania on another bike trip to the Equator and back.
The next day I went to the 60 th Barendt Tesch bike meeting in Belguim. After that I traveled to Kris Dejonghe whom I met in 2015 in Dar es Salaam on my Africa trip. After nearly a week I went back to Eveline van Hoorens place in Rotterdam to get ready for her dads boat trip.
Boat trip
The Tuesday early I was on the road from Rotterdam to Evelines dad port where his boat was. It was about 150 km away and I took the highway as the traffic was heavy. Some places the traffic was standing on the 3 lane highway and as I do lane splitting the cars just move sideways. It amazes me all the time here how much people have respect for each other. In normal traffic they respect bicycles and pedestrians as well as bikes. Nobody goes over the speed limit. Sometimes you will get a lane with a red X on the electronic board above and everybody just moves over with no one pushing in. So much discipline. You don’t see black brake marks on the road here like in RSA. Nobody hoots at each other.
Reaching Wims boat on time I helped to load the boat. It was going to be a 3 day boat trip with a boat show 200 km away at Zwartsluis. We tied Wims canal boat to a bigger boat that was going to tow us all the way. Apparently that saves diesel. When the boat goes full tilt it use 35 liter per hour but if you just Idle along then it comes down to about 12 liter per hour.
After tying the boats together we were off. The most amazing thing about this trip is to see how the Hollanders manage the river levels. The same river is on different levels controlled by huge hydraulic sluices. When you get to a sluice they would open the first one. Then all the boats would move into an enclosed area. And the sluice behind you would close. They then open the one in front and the water would be higher on that side. All the boats then would rise sometimes by 4 meters until it is on the same level than the river in front. It can also work the other way round. Sometimes you would sail along and the river is higher than the houses next to the canals. The Dutch has laid dry a very large portion of Holland with their old Windmills. When my English friends call me a Dutchman next time I will feel honored. These people were geniuses at the time.
We all sailed along in the bigger boats cabin. Evelines dad name is Wim and the other guys name was also Wim. His wife made us food and coffee and tea and served us home baked cookies all day. Sometimes I would go and sit outside in the fresh breeze. At one point I by accident dropped my reading glasses in the canal and that was the end of that
At night Wim 1 and I slept on his boat and had to wash in a bugget in the morning. After two days we reached Zwartsluis where the exhibition was to be held. There were hundreds of old boats and at night everyone was jovial. Some guys played on a keyboard to the people. I spoke Afrikaans to everyone and they always spoke back with a smile on their face. The one guy said if I stayed there another week then I will be fluent in Dutch.
On the 3 rd day Eveline came to fetch me and we traveled the 200 km back to go and fetch my bike and then the 150 km back to Rotterdam again.
Ok guys at last here we go again. Just to sum up to here again. I landed At Frankfurt Airport and stayed one night with a motorcycle travel book collector by the name of Michael Schulze. He has the most bike books and videos in the world. 1500 Bike travel books.
The next day I travelled to Rotterdam in Holland by bus where I stayed with Eveline Van Hooren whom I met 3 years previous at House Holland in Ethiopia. I bought her bike a BMW 650 Funduro with 43 000 km on the clock but it could also be 143 000km as it turns over every 100 000 km.
Then went to meet up with the Zapp family that all of you by now know of. That night I slept at Dieters house in Belgium and went out for a night out in town. I met him in 2010 in Tanzania on another bike trip to the Equator and back.
The next day I went to the 60 th Barendt Tesch bike meeting in Belguim. After that I traveled to Kris Dejonghe whom I met in 2015 in Dar es Salaam on my Africa trip. After nearly a week I went back to Eveline van Hoorens place in Rotterdam to get ready for her dads boat trip.
Boat trip
The Tuesday early I was on the road from Rotterdam to Evelines dad port where his boat was. It was about 150 km away and I took the highway as the traffic was heavy. Some places the traffic was standing on the 3 lane highway and as I do lane splitting the cars just move sideways. It amazes me all the time here how much people have respect for each other. In normal traffic they respect bicycles and pedestrians as well as bikes. Nobody goes over the speed limit. Sometimes you will get a lane with a red X on the electronic board above and everybody just moves over with no one pushing in. So much discipline. You don’t see black brake marks on the road here like in RSA. Nobody hoots at each other.
Reaching Wims boat on time I helped to load the boat. It was going to be a 3 day boat trip with a boat show 200 km away at Zwartsluis. We tied Wims canal boat to a bigger boat that was going to tow us all the way. Apparently that saves diesel. When the boat goes full tilt it use 35 liter per hour but if you just Idle along then it comes down to about 12 liter per hour.
After tying the boats together we were off. The most amazing thing about this trip is to see how the Hollanders manage the river levels. The same river is on different levels controlled by huge hydraulic sluices. When you get to a sluice they would open the first one. Then all the boats would move into an enclosed area. And the sluice behind you would close. They then open the one in front and the water would be higher on that side. All the boats then would rise sometimes by 4 meters until it is on the same level than the river in front. It can also work the other way round. Sometimes you would sail along and the river is higher than the houses next to the canals. The Dutch has laid dry a very large portion of Holland with their old Windmills. When my English friends call me a Dutchman next time I will feel honored. These people were geniuses at the time.
We all sailed along in the bigger boats cabin. Evelines dad name is Wim and the other guys name was also Wim. His wife made us food and coffee and tea and served us home baked cookies all day. Sometimes I would go and sit outside in the fresh breeze. At one point I by accident dropped my reading glasses in the canal and that was the end of that
At night Wim 1 and I slept on his boat and had to wash in a bugget in the morning. After two days we reached Zwartsluis where the exhibition was to be held. There were hundreds of old boats and at night everyone was jovial. Some guys played on a keyboard to the people. I spoke Afrikaans to everyone and they always spoke back with a smile on their face. The one guy said if I stayed there another week then I will be fluent in Dutch.
On the 3 rd day Eveline came to fetch me and we traveled the 200 km back to go and fetch my bike and then the 150 km back to Rotterdam again.
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
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