This has been in the pipeline for a while but 2011 is the year it all kicks off. I am very much looking forward to this.

I decided to leave Lindsay and Delilah to do their own thing today as I’m sure they wanted to plan the next leg of the route, blog a little, have some rest etc. I had a chat with my friend Greg who is currently playing doctor to his girlfriend who has just come out of hospital after a gall bladder operation.

We met at the “shed”. Not in the British sense of a wooden structure at the end of a garden but a workshop full of manly, sharp and dangerous tools . Without burdening him too much I needed some of his skills in order to bash a few things into place after yesterdays spill. He also kindly made my muffler a bit more legal after initially making it sound very illegal LOL

With some flat black paint he also restored the bike back to it’s stealthy origins. So I have a lot to thank Greg for. He’s a good guy.

After some bashing, spraying and welding we got down to the important stuff of helping Lindsay and Delilah decide on where would be a good next stop before nightfall. Naturally all this planning was done on the saddle of an original XT500.

I rode with them out of town and had intended to ride with them to the lakes but my recent ailments and the increasingly persistent rain were telling me to save it for another day and head home. So with a wave and a thumbs up I bid farewell to these intrepid adventurers as they traversed Austria en route to Italy and ultimately Africa.

Before I write another thing I would like to thank Grant & Susan Johnson and Chris Colling & Dave Lomax at adventure-Spec for making my attendance possible this year. Without them it would not have happened.

the 2010 10th anniversary event was much bigger than previous years. As I rode up the driveway to Lumb Farm I said to myself “Oh Wow”. They had pulled out all the stops. There were more vendors, more bikes, biggest tents, a video screen. It was all together an impressive event.

The campfire was blazing, the road kill cookout was in full swing but most importantly the people made the event special. Old faces, new faces, adventurers to be and adventurers with many years and locations under their belts.

In addition to the great setup the weather was perfect. It was consistently warm and sunny for the entire event. 28C and wall to wall sunshine. You could not have asked for better.

Attendees included Austin Vince and Lois Pryce, Jenny Furneaux, Simon Gandolfi, Walter Colebatch, Jenny Morgen, Peter & Kay Forward and many many more that can be found here

This year I was of course without my F800GS and arrived on my 1994 CB500. I guessed I would be the only attendee on a CB500 but by some strange quirk of the universe two guys arrived on loaded up CB500′s. Not only that but they plan to ride around the world over 80 months on these machines. I was heartened by their story and impressed at their low tech approach to luggage and increasing comfort. They were good guys, with a good sense of humour and I reckon they will go far and I personally will be looking forward to reading their story.

To find more photos of the event have a look here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/everywherevirtually/sets/72157624238859917/with/4736800180/

Or click on the gallery above.

Photo courtesy of NÖN - Niederösterreichische Nachrichten

Photo courtesy of NÖN - Niederösterreichische Nachrichten

The tyres turned up today which left only two more potential problems. Firstly how to fit them and secondly how to balance them.

Chris at adv-spec sent me a link to BTS (Bike Tyre Services)

I spoke to Matt who owns it and it turned out he had a cancellation in Macclesfield and was quite close to me. he turned up at 4 and was done by 5. A real decent bloke who did an excellent job, took a lot of care of the black rims and even told me that the last person had put my rear tyre on the wrong way around. He took my old tyres away and gave me a good price.

he really saved my bacon and saved me from a lot of blood, sweat, tears and copious amounts of swearing!

If you are in the North West of England give this guy a call. he’s good!

Matt: mob 07771 962 239

I have been rather remiss of late in updating this blog. I’ve been annoyed at myself because there has been a lot going on. A lot of good stuff going on… a lot of adventure motorcycling goodness

I recently attended the Horizons Unlimited UK summer meeting at Ripley in Derbyshire. This is an event that draws people from all over the world. That phrase is often used for events and it’s always a little hollow but on this occasion it was true. We had Canadians, Americans, Dutch, Germans, Greeks, French, Irish, Spanish, Australian. Then there were the bikes. Not shiny, immaculate machines but battle hardened adventure motorcycles that had travelled the world. Sometimes many times over.

They bore the scars and stickers of many places around the globe and it was a delight to see. These bikes take on an almost mythical aura and are more than the sum of their parts. They tell a story of themselves and of their owners.

The welcome at Lumb farm was fantastic. I had ridden the 50 or so miles to Ripley straight after work in Manchester. Not long after leaving home I spotted another 800GS in front of me and assumed he was also off to the meeting. As it transpired he wasn’t and lived locally. nevertheless I made a new friend and had made a promise to share a brew in the future and talk bikes

I pressed on and arrived at Lumb Farm by 8pm. I had a very friendly welcome. I was given a map of the campsite, a bottle of water and some stickers. This was great because I’d been at thsi place the previous year for another event and the welcome was non existent. In fact it was bordering on rude. So I was setup for a great weekend.

I met Chris & Dave from Adventure-Spec. Despite me bringing a tent it would transpire that I would crash on the floor of their marquee shop. Although after one night of my snoring Dave decided to upgrade to the hotel “Volkswagon Van”.

The weekend was packed full of talks from adventurers that included Austin Vince, Sam Manicom, Ted Simon, Nick Sanders and many others. There was a roaring camp fire that was burning the whole weekend. A road kill cook out, workshops on how to change a tyre out in the wilds, yoga and many more events too numerous to mention.

It was a great event and not dominated by BMW GS’s wannabe travellers (I say that as a BMW GS owner myself). The people who attended were the real deal and hadn’t just bought into the image of adventure motorcycling. Most of these folks made their own luggage for Gods sake. They are hardcore!

The guys at Horizons Unlimited are the real deal. They are just regular people who share their knowledge and expertise with other motorcycle travelers. I will be attending the lumb farm meet organised by HU in June this year and I also had the pleasure of staying with the head of HU Belgium this year.

The YouTube trailer below is for a HU DVD you can buy on how to do such a trip. Especially inspiring was Donna Rae Polk who at 62 and with Parkinsons set off on a round the world trip.

Lake Garda to Ancona

We started off the day by being fleeced by an Italian grandmother. The previous night she wooed us with a €30 per person per night rate. Come the morning it had jumped to €34 euro. Not much you say but we are on a tight budget and 8 euros is 8 litres of fuel.

We packed swiftly and got out of town. Riding along Lake Garda in brilliant sunshine we took the opportunity to do some filming with the helmet cams. We are the kings of ram mounts and industrial velcro.

We pressed on towards Verona. Verona is an old favourite of mine but time was really against us and we needed to be in Ancona by 6pm so there was no time for sightseeing. Every stop, every adjustment of the camera adds minutes to the journey and it’s fair to say that its a good idea to add two hours onto the journey time each day.

By mid afternoon we had a Sibirsky Extreme highlight. We crossed the Rubicon. Figuratively and literally.

Not long after our foray across the mighty and raging Rubicon we reached the peoples free Republic of San Marino. This mountain top town and small country is a feast for the eyes. We rode up the twisting mountain roads in the warmth of mellow yellow sunshine.

Despite making good time through the day our little foray into San Marino cost us half an hour and with haste we made our way back down. This was right about the time the Garmin gremlins set to work and we were chasing our tales as the routefinder sent us around in circles. This is a recurring theme of the trip with the Garmins. If mine is working Walter’s isn’t and visa versa.

By 6pm we made it to Ancona after some determined riding. In no time at all we had sorted our ferry tickets and headed into Ancona town to get some Internet access. We found an internet cafe that was pretty dodgy. The guy wanted my passport as security in case we ran off. he said it was to satisft the police and related to terrorism. I thought if there was a terrorist in the room it certainly wasn’t me and was more likely to be the guy wanting my passport for a €2 internet connection. He was having none of it and wouldn’t give me access without it. So I did give him a passport… just not my current one. I gave him my out of date Irish passport that expired 3 years ago ;O). You can’t kid a kidder. Despite giving him a dud I still watched him and my old passport like a hawk.

An hour went by and I made sure to clear the cache from the computer I was using. I will also be sure to change my passwords just in case the guy was using a key logger. I’m a suspicious bugger.

After a swift jaunt to the kebab shop we headed back to the port to catch a ship to Split. So in the last few days we’ve making like a shepherd and getting ‘the flock’ outta here and there. But of course as we approach Croatia we need to make like a banana and ‘Split’… boom boom, tsh!

Größere Kartenansicht

Größere Kartenansicht