Nearly time to go...

The Castle at Bled

... Now the hard bit... waiting...  I think I have most things covered now - except how to pack light !!!   was never very good at that....  You would have thought that I should be able to get everything into 2 big panniers, a big top box and a tank bag !!!   prepare to unpack it and start again...   not to mention the large Ortlieb bag containing the Tent....

The plan is to do a normal day at the office on Friday 6th and then ride down to Portsmouth for the boat, and that sail at about 8pm - then it docks at St Malo at about 7am - I have a route planned that goes along the north coast of France to Morlaix and then I turn south towards Lorient and the first stop. 

The second night will be at La Rochelle and the 3rd night will be at the wonderful bikers campsite at Camping Moto in the Dordogne.... http://www.motocamp.com/ after than it;s travel east into Italy and overnight near Venice (night 6 I think) and then over to Slovenia and Croatia.  Having got that far;  I then turn inland and journey over to Bled for the night of the 15th May - I'll buy the beers if you turn up..   Then continue west through Italy again and call in at Bolzano to visit a private Museum featuring the actual motorcycle ridden by Max Reich (the book is - India: The Shimmering Dream: The First Overland Journey to India by Motorcycle in 1933)  http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Reisch  

After all that it is back into France and pay a visit to the War Graves at Verdun and then back home via the Chunnel... 

 ...... now back to the packing................... remember if you don't need it don't take it... !!!