So today is the day. The day I decide to head off or wait it out in Koszalin.

I think that if i wait for the rain to go away I will be sadly going nowhere as it is forecast to rain in ALL of the places I am going to in the next week. Bummer. Big bummer. So do I pluck up some good old British courage and say tally ho lads, stiff upper lip and brave the wet or be a complete wimp and give up the intended tour?Did Scott give up trying to reach the south pole and back?(no, but he died for it !!) I’ll not give up! But I won’t risk my life for it!!!

So I have the bike back!! It’s like a new bike! She handles so much better and is so smooth on the transmission now the chain & sprockets are new & fitted! So so good!
I decided to go for it and head off to Czech today. It was so hard leaving Mia. I love her so and wish I could have taken her with me on the bike. Another time. The choice was made and it was time to pack up and say my good-byes and thank you’s for a fantastic time in Poland with Natka’s parents & Mia. I’m so grateful to them for having me and being so good with Mia. x x x
I left at 1.30pm.The journey to Czech was long and hard. Riding through the forests of Poland was beautiful. The villages, towns, & cities all amazing in there own special way. Wroclaw was the highlight of southern Poland. Navigating the cities tram lanes and roads whilst taking care not to get knocked off was hazardous but an enjoyable distraction from the long haul of riding Long straight roads.

I used to think that the driving in Poland was bad. But i have learnt that the people drive to the conditions and infrastructure of their roads. Driving close to the rear of another car is common place In order to be in ‘ready to overtake’ mode. As most of the roads I experienced were single lanes roads with a heavy flow of oncoming traffic hgv’s caravans all kinds of traffic imaginable, to make progress you need to be ready to overtake the slow lorry or tractor that pulls out of a faraway field or a person on a pushbike. That also makes the concentration on my part all the more double. Looking out for the double overtake moment when I’m overtaking traffic and the traffic i’m overtaking decide to pull out themselves! And often did. The state of the roads themselves in places are terrible, but so understandable when you think about the amount of traffic that pounds the road system each day. Even when they try to resurface a road they have to close off one carriageway and hold up the other side to let the oncoming traffic through, all the while causing huge tailbacks miles long at a time. The only answer is bypasses. A sad fact of life, but in my opinion most Polish towns and cities (villages especially) need bypasses to relieive pressure from the bottlenecks that are all too sadly common place. Sad for the forest but a much better peaceful life for the residents of the places!
Anyway rant over. I pushed on and did 200km straight and stopped just outside Poznan. Then did another 200km, then broke it up into 50km’s before pulling over to rest. I found an abandodned road side shop to take shelter in when it rained!
I made it to the Polish/Czech border around 10.15 pm (country #6) the weather cleared up and I had a star light ride through the border forest with some lovely twisting bends and hairpins through the mountains in the pitch black! Thank goodness for tom-tom showing the bends of the roads ahead so I wasn’t going in to them blind !
The last portion of the ride was misty and twisting! So fun! I arrived at Belkovice-Lastany at around 11.30!
Had a beer with Stu & Jitka and eventually fell into a lovely long sleep!

ETD6 – 615km