Never an easy ride

Its been two years since I rode the first leg of the Ducati Globetrotter90 trip. I was talking to Ouseph about another trip we did to Spiti in the winter and my mind wandered and I found my self on Facebook looking through my archives. I learnt that two years ago today I rode from Sweden into Norway to the old capital of Trondheim. It was one heck of a day that I wont forget ever. 

This is what happened as told by me to MCN 

I swear this is how it happened and it's all true. It was a rainy morning in Östersund, Sweden, and the temperatures was about 9 degrees. A good time for me to zip-in my warm as well as my wet liner. Since the weather didn't seem like it was going to let up I geared-up, packed the bike and hit the road. The idea was to make it to Trondheim, Norway, by the evening. Not a hard day's ride at all. 

Wait, let me start at the beginning. My name is Vir Nakai. I run Helmet Stories Adventure Motorcycle Touring Outfit back in India and I am one lucky motorcyclist. I have been chosen to be the first rider for the Ducati Globetrotter 90 Project.  A relay ride where seven  of us are riding one Ducati Enduro 1200 around the world to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of Ducati. The only thing I was told when handed the bike in Bologna was 'see you in Moscow in 25 days'.

With time on my side I obviously took the scenic route and found myself in the middle of Sweden riding towards the Norwegian Sea. So I fuelled up at the first petrol station I came by and rode for about an hour or so. Before the Norwegian border I reached this spot by a lake which was screaming for me to stop and take a picture or three. I obliged and spent a few minutes looking around and marvelling at how beautiful Sweden was (is).

Back on my way I stopped once after crossing the border into Norway to take some more pictures and made my way towards Trondheim. When I reached my hotel for the night I started searching my gear for my wallet. It takes me a while with all the pockets in my  jacket - it didn't take me long to start mildly panicking. Where the hell is the wallet?

I last used it to fuel up in the morning and now it’s late afternoon. I do a bit of a jig and remembered that every time I use my bank card it sends me an email as to where it was used. Using that information, I call back the petrol station, but they have not seen the wallet anywhere. I couldn't believe it, is losing my wallet going to end the trip of a lifetime? 

Moneyless, cardless, licence-less, fried, with half a tank of petrol, in a new city, in a new country I sat cursing myself. How could you be so stupid? The only choice I had was to ride the 200km and check every spot I had stopped on the way up. With 350km of petrol (thank god for the 30 ltr tank) I started my trip back.

My mind filled with a 100 plans on how to fix this, on how to get some money to at least make it back to Copenhagen (my closest friends live there). But whatever way the day was looking bleaker then it had been. There was no silver lining to it.

I stopped at the last spot I had taken a picture at and searched the ground and the area around it and nothing. I carried onto the next spot and nothing. I crossed the border back into Sweden to the brilliant spot I had stopped at and started my search again. Still nothing. I really thought it would be there, it had to be. It wasn’t there I still remember the feeling in the Pit of my stomach. 

Then I saw something on a rock I had stood on to take a picture. The wallet just sitting there waiting. All the cash was floating in the lake. All of it. Every last Euro, Krona and a few Rupees. But the wallet was just there. It was unbelievable. I didn’t know if I should laugh or howl my guts out. Of all trips to do something so stupid I had to chosen this one.

With rain and tears of joy running down my my face I rode the 180km back to Trondheim to a big celebration dinner and a well deserved beer vowing not to be as stupid as I have been already. So much for it being an "easy day's ride".

Globetrotting with Ducati

The Ducati ride all started while I was on the Explorer in the mountains. I got into Ride Inn in Manali and put my phone on and in the barrage of emails in my junk mail (I don't know why I even checked that folder that day) was an email marked Globetrotter. The words basically said you have been chosen for the selection but please reply immediatly if you are still intrested. Of course I had missed the deadline by days so I wrote back saying "thank you for just thinking of me and maybe I shall have better luck next time but I can't complain was riding around in the mountains." The reply from Ducati was "We know you are in the mountains riding motorcycles and we have added you to the list of interested people and we shall let you know if you made it to the top fourteen". From that day it was just a whirlwind of getting visas, going to the bootcamp for 2 nights coming back getting ready for World Ducati Week and then finding out I was in the top seven to finding out I was starting the ride and needing more visas again (Its such a pain getting visas overnight for us Indians but lots of people stepped in to make it happen and made sure I was on that flight). From there onwards its been history. 

I have ridden long journeys alone a few times but the though of crossing Europe to enter Russia was daunting. I can tell you before setting off on that motorcycle from Borgo Panigale there were a 1000 things going off in my head. I woke up on the fourth of July and packed my bags and went to the DOCS Presidents lunch where I was to be flagged off from and I was still a bit on edge my mind was running checklist after checklist for things I needed and things I may have forgotten, parts, tools etc. 

At the flag off an elderly gentleman walked up to me and put a sticker on the bike (I don't know which one as I was surrounded by DOC members pasting the bike with their colours) and looked and me and said "Now you are not alone now you have a family looking out for you. God Speed"and gave me a hug and walked back through the crowd leaving me dumbfounded.  

Its the people(can't call them people they are all dear friends now) whom I met on this trip the people who opened their homes and lives to accommodate me, feed me and give me a roof to live under. I got email upon email from DOC members all over the world letting me know that I shouldn't worry a bit because everyone was just a call away and anything I needed I should just let them know. Its hard to list everyone out here as I met so many good people on this trip but they really made the journey complete for me. 

All the trepidation and any worries I had went out of the window the moment I donned my gear and thumbed the starter on my Enduro and rode towards the factory gate. It was no longer time to sit and plan the ride it was finally A time to ride.

I just wanted to share some of the images from my leg of this monumental ride that I wasn't able to do while I was riding. If you want to a more in-depth day to day blogs from my ride check out my page on the Ducati Globetrotter site or come find me lets open some beers and chat motorcycles.