Saturday 24 September 05 we are off early to tour the south coast of England. We meet up for breakfast, with fellow R1200RT rider John Bentall, of Enfield, London. After a light breakfast, we are off again, on our way to get in our last 10 Round Britain Rally checkpoints. First stop was in Broadstairs, then through Canterbury and down to Hastings. On the sea front there was a lot going on.
Next to Beachy Head, the most famous part of the Eastbourne Downland. It rises 530 ft (162 metres) above the sea, and is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. Down into Brighton, and into Shoreham airport, for another RBR checkpoint. Across to the new forest and another checkpoint. Over to the west again, calling into Bovington, an old army posting of mine, then into Dorchester to do another checkpoint, and finally we stopped for the day in Arundel.
We meet up with Mike and Helen on Dartmoor, they are on their trusty BMW R60/5, we stop at Postbridge for a look around, than follow Mike into Plymouth. Next two nights we stay with Mike and Helen, at their home in Plymouth. Mike showed us all the local sites and great roads. We had to do 3 RBR checkpoints, one on Dartmoor, one near Redruth and one near Newquay. Mike gave us a great tour of Plymouth, you can't beat local knowledge...
Tuesday morning, and we are off onto Exmoor, where will do 1 RBR checkpoint and just chill out and take in the stunning scenery, and have a picnic near the Dunkery Beacon, the moors highest place.
Last day we are into Bristol for a checkpoint, and go over the Clifton bridge, and also to see the ss Great Britain, the world's first iron-hulled, steam-powered ocean going ship.
Then back home to Nottingham for Thursday as a rest day,
because on Friday we are off to Galashiels, in the borders area of Scotland. We
are only staying one night and calling into Hexham and Otterburn on our
return..... Pics to follow.....
Kathy
at the Clifton Suspension Bridge
Well that is all 90 Checkpoints, of The Round Britain Rally, done for 2005, we will let you know what score we get, when the results are known, sometime in November.
RESULTS IN: Glad to say we achieved 100% ALL ROUNDER score, which for our first attempt we are very pleased with.
It has been terribly addictive, and great fun. It shows you just how much we have to offer in this small island of ours, great scenery, history, people and roads...
TO VIEW MORE DETAILS OF WHERE THE CHECKPOINTS WERE, CLICK HERE.
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Last week in August 05, we managed to get away for a week . We went up the east coast and into Scotland, along the top and down the west coast. The weather was OK, a few wet days, and one torrential day, spirits were high and the bike went great.
All in all, we did just over 2000 miles, we had a puncture when we got up one morning in Elgin, BMW could not get to us for two hours, so I repaired the tyre with a plug kit, then took it to a local dealer who filled the tyres with ultra-seal. He said that if my plug should fail, then the ultra-seal would repair any leaks. It all worked fine.
The bike ran great, used about 250ML of oil, which is a lot less that the R1150RT used when that engine was bedding in. The headlight has really improved, as the evenings got darker, the twin beam unit lit up the road well, with a nice broad beam of light. I would really love to convert them to HID though, after having it on the R1150RT, nothing comes close. The crud really got up into the engine and exhaust cross pipes though. I know the roads were more like tracks, but I think I will look at having a stainless belly pan made, that would curve up, at the front to cover the exhaust cross pipe.
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.JPG "Coldstream")
.JPG "Lunch in Dundee")
.JPG "Tyre repair")
.JPG "Nice viewpoint")
.JPG "Eilean Dounan Castle")
.JPG "More bikers")
.JPG "Well guarded bike")
.JPG "Well travelled bike")
.JPG "Nice and sunny")
.JPG "Jedburgh Abbey")
.JPG "Nice bird")
.JPG "Island hopping")
Recent trip to Wales for the day Steve Edwards and Kathy and George Edwards
Went
to buy a Volvo, but couldn't get the garage name on the cheque,
this was taken at:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch....
We headed north through the Snowdonia National Park and onto the A55 where we had a long awaited breakfast at 9.30. Them out to Anglesey, past RAF Valley, which is the RAF’s Advanced Tactics and Training Unit, and onto our first RBR Clue (SECRET)
When we came back to the mainland, we
went over the Menai Bridge.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Here is a quick shot of the route Steve clocked up 480 miles, Kathy and I did 421,
and 4 more Round Britain Rally checkpoints
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As part of doing the Round Britain Rally, we needed a base to stay to cover most of Wales. We were invited to the stunning Moccas-Court, by a fellow rider Ben and Mimi Chester-Master. Moccas Court is roughly midway between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye, on the southern bank of the River Wye, and it has to be the best place we have ever stayed. To have a look at Ben and Mimi's place please click MOCCAS-COURT
Here are a photo to get you in the mood, the roads around the area are stunning, we were so well looked after and relaxed, we managed to crack off 15 RBR checkpoints, and 1010 miles in the three days we were there, many thanks Ben and Mimi and little Jake....
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