Marks movies no 1....

Thank you for my suprise babe, I love it so much.


You can ...... Watch movie here!

Charity total

Thank you to everyone who donated to our charity, we managed to raise £776 and hopefully a bit more awareness about Multiple Sclerosis.

http://beatms.mssociety.org.uk/netcommunity/Melksham2Marrakesh

If anyone still didn't donate we'd be more than happy to see it topped up to £800! :)

Dover to Epernai.....sun 4th sept.

Woke early and was on the ferry in a jiffy, it was all nice and easy peasy. Text my goodbyes as we sailed across the channel. Got chatting to a guy called David who gave us great info on the pyrenean highway and told us of his many adventures climbing mountains and of his travels, he seemed a kind natured man and was hugely excited about our adventures. we had a good old English brecky, a deep breath then out into the great unknown....was pretty close to being flattened by a black 4x4 doing about 120mph on the french highway the F***er. Adapted quickly to life on the right hand side of the road and had a great half day riding stopped at Tournai for a very quick look at it's grand Cathedral a pee and off again, stopped in a little village next to a river for one of our left over rolls, saw a sad old cat looking a bit worse for wear so shared my bread and cheese, hope he finds somewhere  warm. On through Reims to Epernai passing through wide open prairie like spaces, huge fields of grain and silos, did a little off road through a field thanks to the sat nav then a fantastic decent down into a wonderful valley full of  champagne vines. Great little campsite,shower and a cook up of pasta...Great fist day in France!

Let us take you on a journey....

After a few weeks being home and readjusting to what the hell is it I normally do?, catching back up with everything after 6 weeks away, both of our birthdays and a nasty bout of germs here we are, wading our way through a crazy amount of photos and film. I think we have decided to take this in stages and as we both kept a journal whilst on the road and so a mix of writings from those along with the pictures to match that day seems like a cool way of doing it so you can redo our tour with us and after not reading any of it since being back I am looking forward to going on the journey again..........


27 AUG 2011. (At Home)

One week to go, were sat in the living room actually, more like spread all over it with maps and laptops, sewing kit, radios, sorting stuff out and both feeling a bit weird, it's all very surreal. Great fun looking at the maps and wondering were we will go. One week to go...ONE WEEK TO GO!! :)

DAY 1
3 SEPT 2011.  (Home to Dover)

Tour starts here! The day has finally arrived, strangely with excitement of a much smaller kind than expected, must be all to do and remember that's doing it. Readied the bikes and said bye to mummy Coombes and thank you...rode A4 to Reading through Marlborough market and found myself wondering what the markets in Morocco will be like, carpets certainly much better. The weather is good the M25 is bad! got chatting to a really nice northern guy in a camper van at the petrol station while on our first coffee break, on his way to Germany to revisit the place he and his late wife once lived in his old barracks, hope he finds some good memories there, I thought this was a lovely thing to do but couldn't help feel a little sorry for him all alone in his old van.
Redbull and home made rolls rock and saw us on our way to Dover, the sugar rush made me enjoy the motorway and we made good time to the camp site, fantastic spot looking at the sea. Strolled along the pebbles to the pub for a pint and an Ice cream wandering back through a real cool old (flappy bat) church, stayed to watch while listening to the local bagpiper before crossing a field, seeing a fox, on the way back to the tent...Good first day.Raining hard, hope it stops for pack down and crossing.

chaos reigns...packing the night before.


 

nice guy with his trusty old van.

Camp Dover.

Batty church yard!

Read all about it!

A scan of the sizeable article the local paper gave to our trip - as traditional with UK papers the details aren't exactly accurate, but it's roughly about right...

Its all a blur!

Blimey - well it's all well and truly over now, back to work for a week and it's all feeling very surreal. I've finally downloaded all my photos after a very lethargic week, so you'll have to excuse the lack of posting, I apologise to those anxious to see some pics.

I will start writing up an account of the trip at some point, along with photos when I get a chance. I want to put up a list of the kit we took in the end, along with a mini review of each item and whether we'd take it again or not.

Far far too much stuff went on to start talking about it now, but it all went extremely smoothly and we impressed ourselves how well we coped with all the daily dilemmas and physical stresses. My two over riding general feelings for this tour were: 1 - just how amazing it was for variety, in terrain, landscape, people, culture, roads, weather etc and 2 - the sense of freedom by the 2nd week, freedom from everything, including the time and what day it was, just using the Sun to judge direction and when to find a place to stay - an amazing feeling that we both totally immersed ourselves in for a good few weeks.

A nice warm up ... now I'm ready for my 12 months round the world trip ...

It all adds up!

And every little helps...........THANK YOU!


http://beatms.mssociety.org.uk/netcommunity/Melksham2Marrakesh

completed dream!

Not often you get to do that so here's to it and just a few pics from the thousands we must have taken, a postcard to you all........our Africa!

M&P XXX

Rollin, rollin, rollin, raw hide!

Paula...
Made me laugh!......we are innnnn...er...Rabat! feels like weve been on the road for a very long time now...some days I dont even know what day it is....how cool is that?...Morocco has been a land of extreme's, as my friend said it would be,ups and downs highs and lows and the people have been either the nicest in the world or the biggest b**ards to be honest. we have seen some amazing things slept under the stars in the desert at a Berber camp, we rode camels for 4 hours getting to the camp and back ( and had the sore arse for two days to prove it) been run over by a Geologist in a 4x4 (another dent in the panniers) seen the most amazing landscapes, had fantastic food and great fun, had stones thrown at us, been painted with henna and ..........

Mark...

....become masters of saying "no thanks" in every language (including hand signals).  Time, date and even money has become irrelevant, just the sun setting, petrol and happiness are our only concerns.  Every day has proved unique, something new to see or experience - both people, events and landscape.  A fabulous trip!

yay!

wild food in the mad Andoran supermarket...or as they say supermerecat!


Wild camp :)

Bulls....

party on the beach ;)

stunning spain......

some of the best Roman architecture I have ever seen at Segovia, we enjoyed a great meal sat out in a square with fantastic views...

Dont shoot the guns!!!

To Africa..........

On the road...

Hey everyone, we are on the road at last,  in Spain right now and have been for two days...just stayed a night with our friend Adam. France has been amazing, so beautiful, riding through tiny villages, stopping off for lunch buying local cheese and bread, oranges from Spain yum... fantastic churches everywhere. came through Volvic saw all the volcanoes and then the Pyranees WOW!.....3000m plus peeks and twisty roads to end all twisty roads spectacular views and great fun. Andorra was crazy but lovely........I will post some photos now and stop yacking. We love being on the road together, it is so much fun. lots of love to everyone xxx

dover having a last pint before we sail the next morning...

bye uk!

sunny france lunch time has become much nicer lately.

volcanoes at volvic

the amazing Millau bridge..

vinyards in the sounth of France with the Pyrenees in the background.

I HAD A CRAZY DREAM!...

That we were riding to africa! o.O

Day 1. up aat 8, shower, blog, bacon rolls, leaving at ten :) WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

It's out there!.........X

D-day -1d18h

Hoping that the weather stays like it is today for a few more days. Met office threatens thunder storms in Dover on the day we cross to Dunkerque, so might be an experience early on in the trip!

Sat Nav situation is looking slightly more rosey, now I have a new, working and not stolen Garmin. Now I just have to upload some routes onto it - nothing like leaving it until the last minute!

Finish packing tonight and triple check everything, again. With the aim of chilling out tomorrow night and enjoying the final night of luxury under a roof.

Where's the photos then?

Some photos from the previously blogged events:

Old and new Metzeler Tourances - new on the right I think ;o)

The TA gets some attention in Robs Workshop with new tyres, a front caliper rebuild with new seals and an oil + filter change. Note: Paula spent the whole evening fiddling with my rear end and swing arm - nice. Also note the touring screen - another eBay bargain.

Loaded up for our trial run down to Bournemouth Air Festival to scrub in the tyres.

Looking pretty overloaded, but the packs are just air mattresses a lightweight tent, the panniers are only half full of tools and camping gubbins and the top box is totally empty (for food, water and bike kit when we leave the bikes).

Our un-planned destination - Waitrose car park in Salisbury. Not quite camping in the New Forest or watching an air show on the beach, but we blew the camping money on food and drink and watched movies on the laptop instead. Kind of like a low budget drive in movie, while we waited for the AA (since we'd just fitted our spare tubes and not had a chance to put in the Ultraseal yet!?).

Having fitted another new tube yesterday, the culprit was a washer that must have fallen into the tyre when we were fitting the tyres and split the tube. :\ Doh! At least it's sorted now anyway and we'll get that Ultraseal pumped in this weekend before we tempt fate too much!

Caliper bolt is replaced again, after it shearing off. No thanks to Pro-Bolt who sent a 10mm head bolt instead of a 12mm (is everyone crap these days?) - at least it was the right size thread I suppose and I'll be carrying a 10mm socket anyway.

With any luck, this time next week, we'll be talking French!

Hmm, maybe I should collect up a few garden snails to trade when I get there ...