DAY ONE, or maybe day half!

What’s the saying, the best laid plans of mice and men…. ? The plan was to show the birds how to catch worms and even a self-induced ‘one wine only’ night was had the day before. However the law is anal. It is fastidious and frustrating and when selling a business and a house it is also necessary to get right when you are about to head around the world.

But a quick backtrack to the early morning spent packing. It should have been a rapid fire, throw it all in the panniers and start the motor gig. But I have lived in this house longer than I have live anywhere apart from my childhood home. I have sweated, bled and swore at its renovations. I have seen a dream come to life to morph a run-down piece of shit into a stunning home that sold within 2 days of being on the market. So when the time came I suppose I took my time knowing that everything I did here would have a level of finality that I hadn’t quite prepared myself for. So it took longer than it should have.

A quick trip to the bank was in order to sort out the mortgage. No I don’t mean a withdrawal at gun-point but the never-ending documents that needed to be signed. Then a chance phone call came in and my plans to depart evaporated like the morning dew that heralded the very hot day ahead. Back to the solicitors office, sign here, triplicate there, email this, call that. Then, suddenly, I was on the road. Wow. To say that the cares and worries melted away like the new rubber from my wheels would be nothing short of romantic. Phone calls kept coming in needing to be addressed. At least I was away!

Skip forward to now, sitting here in some non-descript pub somewhere south from where I started. A day of 38 degrees C and 450kms behind me and I feel great. It’s not the beer talking, a strict limit of two a night currently enforced (getting out of the sleeping bag to pee is simply not worth it, a clear sign I am getting older/wiser/like my dad!). The bike has performed faultlessly. Sitting on around 105-110km/h with plenty in reserve for passing, sounding a beautiful note that only bikers can appreciate and rock solid over the bumps and through the corners even loaded like a fat pig. But the days of trials for the bike are ahead. The corrugated roads, muds pistes, murderous topes, the list goes on. But we are bonding and tonight my shelter is strapped to the handlebars, slowly we are becoming rider and bike, the journey has only just begun.

Until next time…. Mark