Leg two: In memory of Johannes Elberse
Two days out from departure and the team are all pretty wired. We’ve slept a bit, but mostly moved, moved and moved some more. That and talk to media. Launch day from London was magic, camera crews from home, the BBC and Al Jazeera in attendance, as well as a crowd of around 100 other PWC’s from UK clubs, which escorted us away from the River Thames towards Rotterdam.
Predictably the Channel bashed us around a bit; the water was choppy and messy and going was hard. Getting to Rotterdam took around nine hours, a lot more than we’d expected. As well as that, the ferry carrying our ground crew was delayed, so they were late getting in and woke me up! I need my beauty sleep.
This week we’re navigating the Rhine and the Danube Rivers and the Danube Canal, with visits to Cologne and Frankfurt, and stop offs in Rudesheim, Wurzburg, Erlangen and Regensburg in Germany, ending the first week in Vienna, Austria on Saturday. We’ll then head to Hungary and Croatia and out into the Black Sea.
We departed Rotterdam at 7 am on Monday for Nijmegen in the Netherlands, where we pigged out on coffee and cake and entertained lots of Dutch media with our exploits. A blocked fuel filter meant we were delayed getting as far south as Cologne. This little sucker is destined to slow us down as we’ll have to flush it out every 60 kms or so. Filter maintenance so far has left us three hours shorter than we should be getting to this well-appointed camp site in Koblenz, Germany.
After tomorrow’s media call in Frankfurt, we’ll be able to slow down a little and smell the flowers! Later, Jeremy
6 responses so far ↓
1 colliwob // Aug 3, 2010 at 3:07 pm
OK, I finally have to admit it, much as it pains me …….You’re a bloody ledend brother! This is an effort that must have exceeded all expectations so far and you’ll be pleased to know you looked very pretty on the Telly last night. There was good coverage on the main news on TV3 and a cameo piece after the weather on TV1. Spoke to Manola and offered her (limited) use of my worry beads and in my humble estimation believe she is secretly proud of ‘the man’. Your mum seemed bemused at the message I left to call Broken Arrow though. The tracker’s great, your blogs are eagerly watched – ‘go you good thing’. Col and Rae
2 Matt // Aug 3, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Good Luck guys, have a knuckle in Frankfurt for me!
3 ChasNZ // Aug 4, 2010 at 7:05 am
Good going guys. Can’t you just replace the filter and forget about it?
4 jose // Aug 4, 2010 at 9:25 am
Nice start Jeremy ! Even with those problems you are pretty fast till now.
I am friend from Ivan, and just wanna say that we ( in Croatia ) are watching you at tracker all the way ! Wishin good luck to everyone , specialy regards to Ivan – the crazy Croatian, and friend of mine
GO ON !!!
5 wazza // Aug 4, 2010 at 3:21 pm
good on ya fella’s. Can’t wait for the pics and the doco. For a great cause though. Smooth sailing, cheers Wazza
6 John OFerrall // Aug 5, 2010 at 10:12 am
Jeremy, Planning to bring NORTHRISE members up to date with your trek. Will be passing the ‘hat’ round.
Do you have Autopilot?….yeer right…
auf Wiedersehen…………. John O’Ferrall
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