Exmoor and beyond – Sunday 25th April 2010....

A much warmer night and a lot of rain… Some of us slept but some did not. It was rumoured that I snore a little but that has been put in the shade by Steve… wow snoring for England – no wonder that Dee sends him out into the North Sea….  

Up at 6 ish…. Broke camp and were all Shit, showered and shaved, packed and rolling for 8am…. Yet another full breakfast and away. My waistline will not put up with drinking at night and full breakfasts in the morning….. Once on the road to Poland and beyond we just won’t be able to keep that up!! Or buy FB trousers.

The sun over Dartmoor was “interesting” – pea soup fog – visibility down to a matter of a few meters is places. Onwards to Exeter to refuel, then a quick blast up the A35 to Dorchester and a coffee stop at Burton Bradstock and then a quick visit to Poundbury (what a strange collection of buildings – not much greenery, no people – very weird place) and then onto Ringwood for toasted tea-cakes and a debrief…. Lots things to sort before the major trip, things to get and things to remove from the list. I must remember to stop more often and take more “Kodak breaks”. But I am conscious that this weekend was 350 miles over three days – we will need to do at least 250 each day and maybe more… Max speed was 81mph and moving average was 30.1mph Total Riding time was 8.51 hours.   Oh how the backside will suffer.....!!!!

Good fun and worth it….

Exmoor and all that

23rd April 10 – Exmoor

Good day – today was the start of the Shakedown run to the West County. Steve is still stuck on the rigs in the North Sea and is hoping to make it back for Saturday. Meet up at Ower and after comparing the relative size of our panniers and miscellaneous bolt on bags we set off in the4 Friday afternoon traffic for the West Country. Gertie Garmin skipped a beat around Salisbury and we ended up on a more direct route but picked up the track around Taunton. All bikes made good time, radios worked and nothing fell off en route.
  
And the beard in coming on well......


One stop for fuel – although Brian's BMW GSA has a total range of 430 miles and so won’t be refuelling until Monday week !!

Arrive at the first camp site and set up camp with no major hiccups. Cooked pasta – tasted good. The off to the pub for a few pints and quiz night…. Staggered back by the light of 3 head torches… Brian’s being so powerful that it that if could be seen from space – the rest of make do with it high lighting the road in front of us…

Bloody cold night, a very deep frost in the morning with ice on the tents and my nose…. Pack the bikes and waited for Brian to finish hoovering out his tent. And hit the road at 8.30 bound the the White Hart Hotel at Exford for a full breakfast whilst sat we sat by the river – how very civilised. Then back on the bikes again – rode to Lynton for a coffee stop – then on to Oakhampton via Barnstable. Some very twisty and almost empty roads.

Found the site without hassle and set up – then heard from Steve that he was home and would be joining us, and arrived with Dee at 6.30pm 

Visited the bar for a briefing and to prepare to Sunday's ride...

4 Weeks and Counting..........

With just over 4 weeks to go till the off...   and only a week before the "shake-down" trip to Exmoor...

The planning of the route is now on Version 17, and I have now upgraded to the latest version of Garmin software as it now has full detailed roads within Lithuania, and have re-planned that to enter and exit Lithuania via two separate border crossings.

Packing is still going to be the interesting part...I think I am going to have to be ruthless in order to cut down of both weight and bulk ...

Hey ho... must remember that it's fun..............