This is all very unlike us so expect some panic a little later on!

Last night most of the group met up for a planning session, a few beers and some BBQ meat! We managed to conclude that on the first night we need to get past Paris. Then, completely overwhelmed by the effort involved in making such a decision, we gave up on the planning and got back to the beer.

Dave and Leigh had a taste of Wayne’s special sauce!

At 234,000 on the Scoville scale, it caused tears and a bit of breathlessness in Leigh and a sudden, unquenchable, burning thirst in both that resulted in even more beers going down the hatch!

We have to test out some equipment for the trip so keep an eye open for that coming soon!

At the end of September, most of team Ridearound and a few additional friends are setting off on voyage of discovery.

• We will discover huge mileage as we cross countries.
• We will discover beer at the world famous Oktoberfest in Munich.
• We will discover interesting odours in the tents we will be camping in.
• We will discover the history of BMW at their museum, also in Munich.
• We will discover the many turns of the Nurburgring race circuit as we trundle our fully laden tourers around.
• We will discover multi-national gastronomy as we have breakfast in Germany, Lunch in Brussels and Dinner in France.
• We will discover claustrophobia (if applicable) in the Euro Tunnel.
• We will discover our inner interior designers at the Grand Designs Live Exhibition in Birmingham
• We will discover brown trousers by bungee jumping in Bristol.
• We will discover doughnuts and gambling in Weymouth.
• We will finally discover sleep as we head home!

That’s right, we have a lot to do and, I agree, there is a good chance it will all go to pot when we get to the beer festival. But with our adventurer hats on, we plan to have a bloody good go at it all! At the very least, it will put us in good stead for some of our next crazy adventures!

Much much more to follow!

We drank;

• 3 pints of Directors
• 6 pints of Rev James
• 18 pints of Brains SA
• 4 pints of Guinness
• 8 pints of Pepsi
• 2 pints of Magners

Not bad for 3 days, 42 pints of juice!

The following day we got down to the World of BMW HQ nice and early to start the registration process and to sort out the hire clothing. Upon arrival all of the bikes were lined up outside having been thoroughly cleaned after their offroad exploits the previous day but still showing a few bumps and scratches from their time on the Breacon Beacons so far. It was already building up to be a hot day with temperatures in the high 20s to low 30s – perfect weather to be be riding around in offroad kit. After the registration we were introduced to the instructors and given a quick overview of the bikes before heading out for a short road ride to Walters Arena for a morning of instruction. We started off in a large open area with the first key skill we were taught was how to pick up a dropped bike. With a few key tips I was able to pick up my F800GS with not too much trouble. What was really surprising was how much easier it was to pick up one of the instructors BMW 1200 Adventures especially given its size and weight. The instruction moved on to basics of getting on and off the bikes and walking around the bikes whilst only holding them with two fingers. The F800S is so well balanced that this seemed easy to do – not something that I will be trying with the Bandit that’s for sure! As the morning moved on we covered the basics of standing up on the bikes and clutch control and did some slalom courses. Next up came getting a feel for what happens when you lock a wheel under braking and braking techniques demonstrated in expert style by Simon Pavey himself as he proceeded to do the longest skid of the day well in excess of 50 m! After some more slow speed maneuvering technique practice it was already time for lunch and a quick blast around the fire trails of Walters arena down to the local community centre.

After lunch it was time to head back for more instruction – this time covering hill descents before another blast around the fire trails before covering hill recoveries which basically means picking up your bike, turning it around and riding it back down the hill which is surprisingly hard work. By the time we had completed this it was time to head back to base and finally get changed out of the off road gear and head back to the hotel for a well earned rest before the evening meal. The food was great and gave an opportunity to sit with the instructors and other people from the course and chat about adventure riding, the challenges of the Dakar Rally and lots of other bike related stuff over a few local ales.

The second day started out much as the first one with another road ride back to Walters Area and a shake down lap around some more challenging tracks and trails to cover some of the key skills learned so far before a chance to cover the next topic – momentum. This basically involves accelerating up a hill and then de-clutching before the top when you know that you have enough momentum to get to the top and not go riding straight into to trouble at the top. My first run at this proved a little bit interesting as I had managed to knock the bike into neutral halfway up the hill without noticing but quickly found out as I tried to release the clutch to get up the hill and promptly rolled back down the hill before having to make a jump for it. If nothing else this gave a little more practice on hill recoveries! The next thing the instructors had in store was a challenge for us designed to reinforce the concept of balance on the bikes. This involved riding down a long downhill stretch of fire trail stood up on the foot pegs with our arms stretched out. This initially seemed like a crazy thing to do but as it was surprisingly easy as the bikes are so well balanced and riding down a dusty fire trail at over 40mph stood up on the foot pegs with my arms out like that will surely be a standout memory from the course.

After some more challenging trails it was lunchtime again before it was time for what we had all been looking forward to – time to try other bikes. Up until this point I had been riding a BMW F800GS. This is a fantastic bike that is superbly balanced and with so much low down torque it could cope with anything that was thrown at it over the past day and a half. The only thing I did not like about the bike was the fact that the throttle was on or off with absolutely nothing in between which meant that you had to feather the clutch a lot to get just the right amount of power down for any given situation and also be in at least second gear most of the time. The first bike I jumped on for a quick ride around was a BMW 1200 GS. Although this is a heavier bike it felt very well balanced and although it did not feel as though it had quite the same low down grunt as the F800GS it certainly had plenty of go and felt easy to ride around the dusty fire trails. I then decided to hop on a BMW 650 X Country and what a difference that was. Not as much grunt as either the 800 or 1200 and by the end of the test ride I could not feel my feet due to the vibrations through the foot pegs!

By the time we had finished the test rides we had the opportunity to try a few more hill ascents. The first hill ascent was a bit tricky with most of us dropping the bikes before taking a second attempt with a run up. The second hill was a bit steeper and I decided to try this one in second gear – or so I though. Somewhere on the approach to the hill I must have accidentally knocked the bike into third gear. I did wonder why the bike was going a bit slow up the hill at the time and why I was having to constantly feather the clutch to stop it stalling and rev the heck out of it but I did get it to the top of the hill (well the front wheel got to the top of the hill anyway!).

With the day coming to an end it was time to head back to back to base and park the bikes up before final words from the instructors and the certificate presentations as well as an opportunity to pick up copies of personally signed copies of the race to Dakar and adventure motorcycling techniques books.

In summary the course was brilliant fun, we all learnt a huge amount in the short space of time and would recommend the course to anyone with an interest in riding off road. A huge thank you goes out to the instructors in our group – Simon Pavey and Clive “zippy” Town for their patience and time over those two days as well as all of the other staff there.

I think I may have also annoyed a lorry driver as I got fed up of riding along at 50mph on a section of road with a double-white line down the middle, so I decided to overtake on a clear section of road that was straight for about a mile. This resulted in hooting and flashing lights from the lorry but what do I care, I was long gone!

Getting closer to Weymouth and the bike proved how, despite being big and heavy with two people and lots of luggage, it can still weave in and out of traffic.

At the ferry we met a guy who was taking his bike back to Jersey. It was a gorgeous BMW R1100S in Boxer Cup replica colours. He had been keeping it in a friend’s garage but need to move it. The day before he found out he need a battery for it and, having managed to get hold of one, discovered that you need to remove the whole of the front fairings to replace the battery. Luckily for him he managed it in time and made it to the boat in time. I’m glad to say that changing the battery on the R1200GS on requires removing the seat and a cross-head screwdriver.

Whilst it was not uncomfortable riding on the motorway, it’s not really that interesting either. So, after a two hour lunch at the Bristol IKEA, we decided to do the rest of the miles on the minor roads over the Cotswold.

For the return journey we had already been planning on taking the scenic route which, as it turns out, was fortunate planning on our part. In the morning a lorry carrying hay on the M5 had caught fire, closing the motorway and causing damage to the surface of the road. Thankfully, my Uncle is very knowledgeable about the local roads and was able to direct us along some small B roads, meaning we missed most of the traffic jams.

We meandered down the Cotswolds to Bath, over the Mendips to Wells where we stopped for Lunch, along the bottom of the Mendips to Cheddar and then back down to Tiverton. From filling up with petrol at IKEA on the way up to Cheltenham to returning to Tiverton I managed to squeeze 220 miles out the tank, with the display saying I had 8 miles left before I ran dry. I’m sure I could do better as this included some fast motorway riding but it’s better than the 170 miles I got out of my Bandit 600, not that you’re ever that far from a petrol station in Europe.

The first stop was Dunster Castle, or it would have been if it was open. Instead we walked around the village of Dunster and into a few jewellery and art shops (since getting back into photography I’ve become quite the critic!) and went for a coffee in a Victorian tea room. This was the first time that I’ve walked into a room with all my bike gear on and everyone in the room stop talking and turn to look at me, they must have thought I was up to no good and was going to rob them all.

Next was a trip to Porlock. On the way we skirted around Minehead, although I’ve since found it that the old part is quite nice to visit – just don’t go near the caravan park!. We stopped in Porlock for lunch, a bacon bap , in a cafe that doubled up as a book shop. After a bit of confusion we discovered that motorbikes can park for free in the municipal car park in Porlock. I’m still trying to get the hang of where you can and can’t park a bike in the UK. In Guernsey it is simple: no motorbikes in Disc Zones or Yellow lines, pretty much everywhere else is fair game, apart from town where you need to use one of the many motorcycle parks.
After leaving Porlock we headed along an old Toll road. I presume this is a private road as you still have to pay a toll to use it. The charge for cars is £1.50 but it’s only 50p for motorbikes The road could do with a bit of repair work but that makes it all the more fun to ride on a 1200GS – it’s almost like riding off road!

Lastly was the Exmoor crossing, and it was considerably shorter than I had expected it would be. The highlights of the moor included my first river crossing. I was a little nervous as I didn’t know whether the section in the river would be slippery or not, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Also, one of the roads went through a farm yard, in which were a couple or terrier dogs. I started off being careful so as not to run them over, but then one of them tried biting my foot (thankfully I was wearing biking boots), after which I stopped caring and sped up – I don’t think I ran them over but I didn’t stop to check.

All in all it was a fun day out and proved to me how versatile the R1200GS is. It’s just as comfortable riding through the towns as it is tackling river crossings, although the latter is more fun by far.

After arriving in Weymouth we had a 65 mile journey ahead of us to Tiverton in Devon. Normally this would be a gentle cruise of about an hour and a half but we arrived at midnight and, after crossing the hill out of Weymouth and into Dorchester, we entered thick fog. What should have been a nice ride turned into a freezing journey into hell and back. The visibility was so bad I had a maximum speed of about 45mph in the clearer bits. As a result of travelling at less than 50mph the fog was sticking to my visor so I had to ride with the visor open.

Put all of that together and you get a very tired, cold and irritable rider. Things took a turn for the worse when I took the wrong exit from a round-about in Honiton and start heading in the wrong direction, towards London. I didn’t notice for a while and, when I finally stopped to check the map, figured it was best to carry on the way I was going and jump onto the motorway at the next junction in Taunton as it would be better than head back along the country roads.

The motorway wasn’t much better as I had to ride dangerously close to the vehicles ahead of me to be able to see where I was going and to try and avoid anyone hitting the back of me – lorries have lots more rear lights than bikes do! Finally we reached Tiverton only 45 minutes later than planned but a lot more cold and tired than expected. I’m sure the only thing that kept me sane that night was the heated grips that I had turned up full!