This is the end, but not really

After San Jose I had another 5 days to get to Seattle, enough time to cover two more national parks en route. Redwood National Park is not really a park like the other ones where you have to show a pass or pay an entrance fee: you just pass through the enormous forests with red woods. Just to give you a sense of the size of these humongous trees, I made a couple of pictures that put things in perspective. The little creature that you see in the right hand picture is me...

The woods were amazing but they also kept you alert. On Friday morning I was cruising on one of the nicely curved roads in the forest when my bike all of a sudden started to slip and make my front wheel shake from left to right. Apparently I had hit some sand on the road which wasn't visible because of the shadows on the road. Luckily I was able to keep the approximately 700 pounds under control and it was only a serious wakeup call.

Once I was out of the redwood forests, I entered the state of Oregon. High on my list was Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet (592 meters) deep, is the seventh deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the United States. Crater Lake lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin. Huge amounts of winter snow and rain supply the lake with water. There are no inlets or outlets to the lake.

No place else on earth I have seen the combination of a deep, pure lake, so blue in color; amazing surrounding cliffs, almost two thousand feet high and two picturesque islands.

Too bad I was so short in time because I could have spent a week in this park and in the other national forest of Oregon. On Saturday evening I arrived in Portland where I was warmly welcomed by my former Washington DC colleague, Jeremy who moved there with his wife Lindsey to enjoy a life with more quality. And after a great tour (Jeremy, you would do great as a tour guide) I can see why one would move to Portland. Great weather, relaxed atmosphere, wonderful neighborhoods with cosy restaurants and bars and not to forget: coffee bars. I even had a real coffee tasting on Sunday morning. It was almost the same exercise as wine tasting: you take a little bit of coffee on a tea spoon (I know), slurp it, taste and then you spit it out in a cup. Pretty interesting to flavour all the different tastes of coffee that way.

And then I was feeling a little sad because I came to the end of my almost 7 week trip. On Sunday I covered the last 130 miles to Seattle which was my end destination, 7,789 miles or 12,462 kilometers away from basecamp. This had been a great trip and definitely fulfilled my desire to see more of America and its beautiful nature. It was actually to be good to be true that I did not run into any major problems during my ride.

But that changed on Tuesday, when I got a little bit stressed out when the Triumph dealership I 90 motorsports in Seattle decided they did not want to store or showcase my bike. So much for promises. There I stood, 24 hours before I had to catch my plane to NY without a storage place for my Tiger.

Luckily the other dealership Lynnwood Cycle Barn (http://www.lynnwood-cyclebarn.com/default.asp?sid=triumph) about 30 miles away was much more bikerfriendly and decided to give my bike a roof until its next trip, probably Alaska, somewhere in June/July next year. Thanks guys, much appreciated!

Now I'm back in NJ. On Saturday I'm flying to Belgium to visit family and friends for 10 days and then I am off to my next destination: Africa.

I will start my trip in South Africa and from there I will tour in Southern and East Africa. I have not prepared a detailed plan yet but countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi will definitely be in the mix. Unfortunately, I won't be able to carry a laptop in my backpack and I am not relying too much on internet access in these countries so a blog will not be an option. I will keep record of my stories and will obviously take tonnes of pictures so I am thinking of a nice way to publish my adventures in Africa once I am back.

So, I guess this is the end of this blog. I hope you've enjoyed the stories and I have been able to convince you to visit some of these amazing places. Thanks for all the comments and recommendations. I'll keep this blog live so feel free to add more comments. If you're interested in seeing more pictures of this trip, let me know and I will send you a link to a condensed photo library.

See ya and don't forget: CARPE DIEM!