Raindrops slipped between the well-used visor and the duct tape that
held it in place, dripping onto my nose and forming a thick layer of mist that
was almost impossible for my eyes to penetrate. The clouds obscured the sun,
leaving a greyness that I had failed to recall during my ‘nostalgia for the
rain’ moments in the sweltering desert stretches of Iran or Sudan!
What was it I always said? Oh, yes, ‘Riding a bike allows you to see and
feel everything around you. It is wonderful to be open to the elements and
vulnerable to your surroundings’! I must
have written that back in the days of warm summer breezes! The sky was now in
full sarcastic mode and beating a tune on my helmet that said, ‘Welcome back,
SUCKER!’. Still, four years on, despite the ‘Beast from the East’ flicking its
nonchalant wet tail in my face, it was good to be back in Europe! I was finally
closing the circle I had set out to draw all those years ago, having ridden my
‘silly little’ 250cc on all seven continents. It felt good! It was soggier than
I had imagined – but it did feel good!