Author Archives: Alistair Todd

first night in france, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

We’re in france! What a day. 30 degree heat, bright sunshine, blue sky. Beautiful scenery, loads of bikers out with their friendly but nonchalant gallic biker wave, much cooler than a northern england nod, and right now i have a cold beer in my hand. It won’t last long! And then we’ll be on to the wine i picked up at the last petrol stop. A few teething problems like sat nav being a bit rubbish and brake levers falling off, so nothing all that important really. Back hurts. 639 miles in two days, over 13 hours of riding. But it’s not raining, we’re still going, we’re further on than planned, and we have a €2 bottle of wine from a petrol station, and a campsite by a river all to ourselves. Nice!

luxury, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

First overnight in luxury. It won’t be like this anymore! Only two breakdowns on the first day, but we made it. Off through the tunnel at 10 today. My sister alison is making up breakfast at half 6 on a sunday morning!

Today’s the day. No more time to worry about planning and preparing, if it’s not right now it never will be. We have passports full of visas, a bike full of fuel, it’s not dark and I’m wearing a tinted visor! Hit it!