On Thursday morning 2005-06-30, I set out on my trip to Cambridge. My motorbike got equipped with crashbars and cases, but I took some care to not take too much stuff with me. Nevertheless the bike is heavy enough to change the feeling significantly.

I stop to tell some of my Turkish friends goodbye, it is a lovely sunny day. I don't make photos on my trip to Reims, although I see quite a few nice landscapes. There is a shower once, but I am at the gas station at that time and don't get wet. Later, the tank still has at least 5-6 liters, but the motor stops - just at the entry to another gas station. I suspect the fuel pump is gone. Thanks to Allah that it happened there, otherwise it would have started quite badly. The fuel pump of the Africa Twin is only needed for the last 5-6 or so liters, so I can continue without trouble, just have to take care that I don't drop too much below reserve.

I arrive in Reims in the early evening. The Kyriad hotel is right next to the hotel de ville, and thanks God for arriving in such a nice place so easily. Reims is much bigger that I expected, and driving around blindly without a city map could also have led me to less nice places. Before the trip, I had written down the address of a mosque I found on the net, and the people at the reception give me directions and tell me which busses to take. When I am on the bus, it rains cats and dogs; it is such a heavy rain that I would have put on the rain gear if I had been on the road, and probably looked for shelter. When the bus arrives, I get out and - subhanallah - the rain stops :) No joke.

To the left you see pictures from Rue Carnot, which leads to the Place Royal. Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot is the one after which the Carnot heat engine is named, a theoretical model of how to ideally turn heat into work.

The next morning, I leave this nice city, after having a chat with a couple which is touring France on a big Yamaha with 1300 ccm. They say it would be windy, and they are right. During the day the wind is annoyingly pushing against my head. I arrive at Eurotunnel, fill up the bike for the last time on the continent, and then cross the English Channel, or La Manche in French.

In England, I drive on the left lane (which is pretty easy on the motorway). When I stop to check my map, the engine does not start, but with a little turn of the screw holding the battery cable, everything is fine. I mount the cases and the backpack again (which I had to unmount because the tools are under the seat after all) and continue the trip.

mail me