We made some amazing distance today. From Ponte St Martin (in Valle De Aosta) to Castello St Pietro (just beyond Bologna). The ride was fine at first, via Alessandria rather than Milan, I had been warned about motorways near Milan, best avoided. From Alessandria towards Bologna, 2 lanes at first, light traffic, 120kmph, Slowly more motorways feed in, 3 lanes, 90kmph, then from Parma, 4 lanes and 60kmph. Plus accidents, zero kmph for bits, some nastily trashed trucks, but it looked like dazed truckers rather than anything worse, cannot be sure of course. Motorway code in Italy. Truckers, 90 to 100 kmph, predictable, though some need to take breaks earlier. Car drivers, the busier the motorway the more crazy they act. When the car drivers are at their worst the best plan is to join the ... read more

Le Bressan, Sarl les Girolles, 34 rue de la Republique Not expensive either. We had the 17 euro set menu. Help youself h'ors d'oevre buffet, chicken with cream sauce (we could have had snails or lamb) with a very good pommes dauphinoise and choice of dessert, cheese or fromage blanc. The cheese board was excellent and they gave us more bread. We had a creditabe bottle of Muscadet for less money than we paid for one very similar last night. Place was pretty full of locals. Service was friendly and efficient. A certain amusement that English people were eating there but nothing hostile. It was a very local place with very local specialties. The surprise when we hit the cheeseboard rather than the dessert was fun as well. For the record we ate the chevre, the ... read more

Having finally found an internet connection... 5th June This morning we went to work. Met up at Ashley's office and got onto the road at around 13:30. Caught the 3:50 shuttle to Calais - traveled chatting to another motorcyclist who was traveling for work. After Calais we drove down the motorway. The countryside gradually grew less English looking. Mostly the proportions of different types of trees. And the smell. The air got warmer and safter and wetter. We got the hang of how tolls are paid. This road has stopping places every 10 Km or so. Some have more facilities than others. Not all sell petrol. W got as far as St Quentin and here we stopped. We found a hotel (it does not have internet so this is being saved to stick to upload later) ... read more

Pretty much everything is sorted. No more shopping to do. The bulk of the bags are packed. Tomorrow (or later today I suppose) I'm going to load the bags into the panniers and the others onto the fender rack. Fit everything exactly as it is going to be for the 4,500 mile trip to Istanbul and back. Then a bit of fun. I load Hilary and do a few miles, get a final feel of how the Harley handles fully loaded. It will be nowhere exciting, Denham maybe, the point is to test how things work. Might do some photos. On Thursday 5th June, as soon as Hilary and I can escape the day jobs (sometime in the afternoon), we leave from Isleworth, head past Twickenham Stoop, A316, M25, M26, M20, then the shuttle to France. ... read more

Really just testing out the blog... All planning and preparation has been done. Ashley needs a new pair of boots. He got a new helmet yesterday. Ten days to go and counting...... read more