Stratford-upon-Avon - Day 2

Good evening Blog..... Another excellent day - Did a lot of wandering around the Stands and Stalls - and met many very interesting people - of course they are far more diverse than usual as it's not just bikes. So many big trucks and converted Land Rovers.... Some of the big trucks are thousands of pounds - enough to finance many RTW trips - there is a ex-military truck up for sale at just £37,000..... And a new MAN truck with luxury body for just £230,000 ...... WTF...... bathroom,under floor heating, iMac, air conditioning, well just about everything you could think of...... Mind you it only does 2 kms to the litre !!!!
I think I will stick to the bike and overpacking !!!



It's now 7pm and too late to cook - so I may just go and get a pint and a bowl of Crocodile curry !!!!! Honest !

Nite nite



nigel.grace@btinternet.com

Stratford-upon-Avon - Adventure Overland show....

Good morning blog,

It's now about 7 in the morning, quite cold, and I am boiling porridge and having a second cup of tea.
Having just read the first chapter of Ted Simon's "Rolling through the Isles".

Sitting in a field in the middle of Stratford racecourse about the size of six football pitches with just two very small tents!! Apparently someone on gate has directed most of the bikes to the main camping area where they are all squashed together with the 4x4 overland trucks...... I had a nice quiet night - these bikers can be a noisy lot.

The facilities are sparse and quite a long way off - not planned for campers really.... Looks like just one shower for many hundreds of campers... Having said that most of these huge truck probably have one inside with the hot tub.

The forecast looks good and should warm up soon. The porridge was excellent as is the tea. Looks like the rest of the site is waking up now.....

Bye for now



nigel.grace@btinternet.com

Saturday - somewhere north of Stafford

Dear Blog

It is now 1130 and it is still cold - thank god for heated grips... Had a pleasant ride into Stafford and visited Stafford Motorcycles... They have 3 Africa Twins and 2 BMW Dakars... I will need to think about this..

Left Stafford and Gertie led me North and I am now somewhere near or heading to Nantwich ? I will re-direct her to Oswestry and then south to Newtown and then Hay-on-Wye....

I am sat in a very nice Tea Rooms somewhere - nice and cosy with Nat King Cole playing in the background... The sun just shone through .... If it starts to rain later I may well ride on through Gloucester and home --- it will be pointless setting up the tent in the rain just to sit and listen to the rain all night...

Chat later

Just to finish this - I did travel down to Tintern and then across the bridge and then home - in one hit - a bit saddle sore by the time I reached home - but a nice relaxing ride home nevertheless...

It turned out that Stafford Motorcycles wer not prepared to offer me a sensible price for my BMW even though they were over the top on their price for the XT750.    So back on the BMW for now and maybe stick with it for a few more years..  I am planning to retire in 2016 and do the big trip that I have always wanted to do ...  it will be 11 years old by then....

Day 2 - Much Wenlock

.... Nice Camp site - still pouring with rain ! I decided that it was too wet and cramped to cook in this tent - so I walked into the village - found a good pub and had a beer and Faggots, Peas, Gravy and chips - excellent. Met a nice chap and we talked about Croatia and Cycling then walked back in the rain.

And so to bed....

Cold this morning but not raining yet --- good showers here and I am now having an early morning cuppa.     Then !!!! Disaster - I went to open the packet of Porridge but opened up the Staffordshire Chicken Balti instead - bugger - so that's breakfast !!!!!

It's still cold and my toes are freezing in these Crocs !!!!!! Now to have a 'hot' breakfast ?

Bye for now

En Route to North

This is my current location.
Having a coffee in the Car park

http://maps.BlackBerry.com?lat=52.31352&scr_z=0&lon=-2.23333&label=A449%2C+Hartlebury%2C+England%2C+United+Kingdom%2C+DY139&address=A449&city=Hartlebury&region=England&country=United+Kingdom&postalCode=DY139&z=0

A weekend in the Rain...

I thought it was about time that I got away from everything again - so I will be packing the bike on Thursday night and travelling up to Staffordshire on Friday morning.  Colin H was going to accompany me this time but his work schedule has got in the way again - a definite case of not yet having the work / life balance sorted yet..

A simple trip up the Staffordshire - possible visit Stafford Motorcycle and look at some examples of Honda XRV 750's and bikes like that.  Then on Saturday traverse over to the Newtown area of Wales and then follow that lovely road down to Hay-on-Wye.   Then travel home on the Sunday via the Honey Cafe, Tintern Abby and Salisbury Plain.... Proper Job !!   Going to try to travel ultra light LOL