What is next?
Southern Europe Road Trip, 2026
A Bucket List Entry. After some fantastic rides in Germany, the Netherlands, on the Celtic Whiskey Run in Scotland and Ireland, through Wales, Southern England, Belgium and Luxembourg, and visiting lots of friends on the way this summer, I decided not to sell the BMW R80GS yet, but do another, more relaxed trip around Southern Europe in 2026. The initial idea is to go via France to San Sebastián, Portugal, Southern Spain, Southern France and possibly further South towards Greece. The other idea is to meet up in key cities with people who don’t want to travel by bike and prefer e.g. Eurorail or camper vans. And to visit as many as possible friends on the way. The planning needs to start now.
If you are interested to join part of the trip or would not mind for me / us to pay you a visit, please get in touch.
Magayon II
Magayon II needs to get out of the water for new anti-fouling and some minor improvements before she will participate in the 2025 All Souls Regatta. We then also need to discuss within the Magayon II users group the continuation of change in the current arrangements. So far only very few of the users have actually sailed on her and one had therefore dropped out already.
A bigger boat?
A bigger monohull with some advantages (shade during cruising, kitchen and toilet, better seaworthiness at rough weather…) is available for sale in Puerto Galera. I will have a look at it once back in the Philippines and then come up with a plan for continued boat ownership. This might involve selling Magayon II, but depends on many factors.
Greenhouse
Since we got an extension of our rental contract it is now time to look at growing some food plants in the garden, while saving it from monkey attacks and storms.
Workshop / Storage
We eliminated our storage in Germany. I will be brining some of my electronics workshop equipment to the Philippines and now I am more or less desperately looking for a facility in Subic which could house a small storage space and workshop for electronics, electric bikes, motorbikes and boat work. Also because the trailer that serves as a temporary storage right now, is exactly that, a temporary solution.
Ideally this would be done with someone else who has similar ideas.
Restoring the BMW
After that did not work out to have the tank sealed in the Philippines I bought a tank sealer in Germany. It will have to go into the Balikbayan boxes because it is liquid and can not be checked in. I also bought a higher handle bar to achnoledge my age and the bike need some cosmetic work to remove the effects of sitting an a tropical jungle for so long.
Fixing the Electric Bicycles
Similarly, I bought a new battery for the e-bike. I can just not source good quality cells in the Philippines to repair the broken ones. I will then use all the broken batteries, canibalise them and build a new battery for the Pedelec.