Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies. If nothing else, it confirms that there are many issues in continuing on.

A few people have talked about dealing with cold. I bought some cold weather gear which proved to be OK for riding in -10 and German snowstorm a few weeks ago. Fingers and toes are still a problem though. The only solution was to stop regularly at petrol stations and warm up under the WC hot water or hand driers. A bottle of hot water on the chest under the jacket helped a lot too. It proved an electric vest would be a wise investment.

It is a big thing for me to ride into London as the symbolic RTW end point and that is weighing on me a lot. It's been the goal and the drive. On the other side is a long cold motorway ride with constant fear of wipe out (nods to Andy and Spooky).

I started writing this reply saying I was going to ship the bike home from Berlin but in doing so realised I really don't want to do that.

So - it looks like there is going to be enough of a gap in the weather between 18 Dec to 23 Dec so I think i'm going to make an attempt. The plan is as follows:

17 Dec - fit TKC 80s / K60s
18 Dec - Hannover
19 Dec - Wuppertal (thanks Spooky)
20 Dec - Ghent (where are you atgxt660?)
21 Dec - Calais
22 Dec - London



Can western Europe be worse than the KKH or an Iranian jail? I'll let you know in about a week...