Anyways, with the countdown to the 25th going from months to weeks, things are quickly drawing to a close. It won't be long until panic week is upon us... and then it's off to the far North.
But it's not like I can put my feet up though, and The Beast seems adamant to remind me of that. The past few weeks I noticed that the clutch is on its way out, so I'm going to open up the engine once more to get new plates and springs in there.
While I'm at it I'm also going to change out the Neutral sensor, chain and sprockets, oil, oilfilter, airfilter, rear hub rubber bushings and the brake pads in the front. All in all, I've got my work cut out for me... but it's nicer to spend the final few weeks working on the Beast rather than munching my fingernails.
I'm eager to get going again though - ofcourse I'm not expecting it to be like last year's endeavour (not just because of the change in climate), but multi-week trips like these always have a special feel about them regardless of what they mean to you.
This time I'm leaving more up to chance as well; there are no reservations, no appointments... I can just come and go as I please, and don't have to be anywhere at a specific date or time. The way back up from Greece last year had the same setup, and the subsequent freedom was nothing short of invigorating.
The only place where I have to turn up on time is the Finnish-Russian and Estonian-Russian border, but I guess that a time frame of 3 weeks is good enough for a stretch of 500km.
4 weeks to go.
