Adventure Bike Rider

Whilst the "Official" pictures will be posted in my Grail folder, I decided to start this thread to document the wider aspects of my little jaunt around the UK and Eire.

First: The rationale...

After briefly leading the the ABR Holy Grail Rally for a few hours with my ten Grail locations ticked off after my little South West Tour and despite soon adding Chichester as my eleventh completing all the locations south of me, I was soon overtaken in the standings.

Now not that that I'm competitive in my nature (OK yes I am) but I decided that I need to grab a few more locations to get back up the leaderboard. At the time of writing I'm lying joint second on Eleven with Scruffy but we are both still six behind Ubique 895 who's on an impressive Seventeen.

With a spare week off work in June (Mrs MC has to work so I have an eight day pass ) I decided to look at how many Grail locations I could pick up on a little bimble round these fair isles.

It boiled down to either a Wales - Ireland - Wales loop or an England - Scotland - England loop. Then I had the hair brained idea that maybe I should combine the two and collect all the remaining twenty locations in a single trip.

So a plan was hatched....

The Planning.....

Going back to basics, I photocopied the small scale route planning map out of my road atlas and sharpened my crayons to look at the route.



It fell into place quite easily with the following order....

Day 0 (evening ride) - Stevenage to my Sister-in-Laws in Stanford in the Vale (South West Oxfordshire) only 95 miles but avoids a very early start on Day 1 to hit the ferry.

Day 1 - From Stanford in the Vale via Brecon (1) and St Davids (2) to Fishguard
Ferry to Rosslare
Campsite near Rosslare

Day 2 - Rosslare via Galway (3) to Ballina (4)

Day 3 - To Londonderry (5) and a jaunt round the Antrim coast and through Belfast to Down Patrick (6)

Day 4 - Down Patrick via Dublin (7) to Dun Laoghaire
Ferry to Holyhead
Bangor (8) then St Asaphs (9) and Liverpool (10)

Day 5 - To Carlisle (11) then Glasgow (12) followed by a blast up to Fort William and possibly beyond.

Day 6 - loop out to Applecross via Beallach Na Baa (totally off route but I fancy doing it anyway) then across to Dornoch (13), Inverness (14) and Elgin (15).

Day 7 - Head south via Edinburgh to Holy Island (16) then Durham (17) and down to Ripon for a comfy bed at my Brother-in-Laws.

Day 8 - Ripon to Wakefield (18), Sheffield (19) and Derby (20) then home back to Stevenage.

At the moment this is a flexible plan with the only fixed points being the first night at my Sister-in-laws and the Ferry to Rosslare and the campsite just outside Rosslare. I will adapt the plan to suit the weather, the roads and how i'm feeling on the day. All other overnight stops are going to be wherever I roll up at the end of the day. I've even booked a flexible ticket for the ferry back from Ireland (only an extra £10) just in case I want to change my plans.

I'm taking camping gear but will not be adverse to the odd B&B, especially if the weather takes a turn for the worse. I might even consider some wild camping in Scotland (as you can)

The stop at my Brother-in-Laws is flexible as I can stretch the trip to nine days if needed (he understands as a fellow Tiger 1050 owner ).

The aim is to stay on A Roads where I can but when I get bored or there is no atractive alternative i'll kill some time and distance on motorways. for instance Liverpool to Carlisle could be a mind (and bum) numbing blast up the M6 or a cross country route to pick up the A6 then a bimble through the Lakes.

Actually it's more likely I'll kill some miles on the M6 to engineer an overnight stop in the Lakes and then have a blast to Carlisle the next day

Preparations....

First off was the decision whether to camp or not?

Although using B&Bs and hotels would reduce the amount of kit I need to carry, camping gives me a lot more flexibility especially if wild camping (something I've done before) is added to the occasion.

So first off what tent to take?

I had the choice of my "mountain marathon" tent a Terra Nova Laser Competition or my £20 Argos three man tent.

The Argo tent was rejected as it's nice and roomy but when packed it's very much on the large side to strap on the bike. I also wanted to try and get everything into my panniers and top box so I can just park the bike up and not worry about leaving gear strapped to it.

So why not the Terra Nova? It's very small when packed (about the size of a bag of sugar) and very light (under 900 grammes) and whilst it's plenty big enough for a lightly equipped one night stop on a mountain marathon or mountain bike event, Im not so keen on an eight day trip in it. Plus there is miminal storage space under the porch (none inside) certainly not enough for bike gear, boots, helmet etc.

So a trip to Go Outdoors was on the cards and I did a lot of trying out of different small tents (at 6' 1" I find a lot are too short) to find the perfect combination of small pack size, a decent sized porch area for cooking in and sufficient space inside. I eventually plumped for the Hi Gear Neutron 2 at only £40, cheap and cheerful maybe but it's hardly going to Everest Base Camp after all

As you can see it's quite roomy (Gem the Labrador for scale )



An added bonus is that it easily fits back in the bag, unlike my Argos tent that never quite fits and indeed tore the bag the first time I tried (another reason not to take it)

This is the Neutron 2 packed (Gem my able assistant providing some scale again)



However I then came across a bit of a problem as it's nice and compact but about 1" too long to fit in a pannier



No problems as it easily fits in my cavernous top box.



I didn't really want the weight up high but as it will share the top box with my sleeping bag and mat (both bulky but light) it should be OK.

I shall be taking my new Garmin Montana 600 for navigation duties, although I did baulk at the cost of buying maps for Ireland, so resorted to Plan B...



A bargain at only £4.99

I also have an AA road atlas of Britain (perfect fit inside a pannier lid) which does cover Ireland but at such a small scale, it's not really up to the job.

For Grail locations in Eire and Northern Ireland I will be taking prints of street level Google Maps than can be discarded as I go. I will trust to the GPS in mainland Britain but...

If all else fails, I have a small 10" Notebook PC that fits neatly in the pannier lid or my tank bag. This will have street level maps stored on it or can be used with any convenient wi-fi for on-line assistance

I'm taking this so I can update my trip as I go (kindly lent by Mrs MC) and when in the UK I have the added advantage of a mobile broadband dongle so I should be able update (with pictures) on a daily basis.

I will also be taking a Digital SLR in the tank bag and a compact camera that lives in my jacket pocket when on rides. I will also taking my £10 video camera, so can keep myself amused in the evenings with my feeble attempts to edit the footage!

So hopefully the trip will be well documented!

Good luck on the trip. Looks like a great route.

yep, good luck Tony looks like a fun way to spend a week, look forward to your reports

Have a good trip, could be of interest : talkytoaster.info/home.htm

Have a great trip Tony, I look forward to your report

Cheers

Andy

This sounds great.

And not a moment too soon!

Ubique 895 is now on 21 (beat me to Squire)

Sykesy has overtaken me with 14 (or is that 13^1/2 as he never actually made it to Lindisfarne Priory )

V_King has caught me up on 11, so I'm now in Joint third place.

Just ten days to go, although there is the little matter of the Keilder K2 Rally this weekend! At least it means only a two day week at work and only four days next week

All packed up and ready to go!

The bike is fully loaded in the garage, all that remains is to stick the tank bag on in the morning and i'm away.

The Sat Nav is programmed with the first day's locations, so i'm now off for bed as i'm getting up at 05.00

I abandoned the plan to ride to my Sister in Laws tonight as I've had a really busy week, and a very long day at work today as we are in the middle of office moves, so tonight was the first opportunity I really had to pack.

The weather doesn't look to good but heck I'm off to Ireland, doesn't it always rain there?

The forecast shows a line straight across from east to west with better weather below it, so I may start with a blast down the M4 rather than the A40 to get to Brecon as the former is below the line and the latter above it

The tour is on!

Day 1

Up at 05.00 and on the road by 06.10 the weather didn't look too bad so I headed down the A1(M) only to meet my first rain at Hatfield. I dived into the Hatfield Tunnel only to find it wasn't raining on the other side.... result!

I had given myself four hours to get to Brecon but the GPS was saying I would do it in 3 hours 20 via the A40, so who was I to argue. The roads were empty at that time of the morning so I made really good time, arriving in Oxford in only an hour, the wind was a bit of a problem though but at least it was staying dry.

At Gloucester it was starting to get a bit drizzly, so I stopped at a MacDonalds for a coffee. Upon leaving the GPS was now saying an ETA of 10.00, so I was still ahead of my original schedule. However soon after the heavens opened and my pace dropped as a result, luckily I had stuck my one piece waterproof oversuit on before leaving Gloucester, so at least I was staying dry (for the time being).

Instead of taking the loop north on the A40 via Ross on Wye, the GPS led me down the A4151 and A4136 across the Forest of Dean to meet the A40 at Monmouth. This was a cracking route until somewhere near Staunton I came round a kleft hand bend to find the road surface a technicolour hue with the distinctive smell of diesel. I picked the bike up and rolled off the throttle, causing me to run wide over the white line, where at least the road was oil free and thankfully I could see far enough ahead to see the road was clear. I was able to cross back over the oil slick and could just about avoid it by hugging the kerb. The oil was about five foot wide and continuous for the next four or five miles making progress distinctly slow. It eventually swung off the road and straight into the service bay of a Nissan garage! I breathed a sigh of relief and resumed the pace.

The fuel light came on as I passed a sign saying Brecon 29 miles and the dash display said 29 miles to go. No problem I thought as I knew there was a Morrisons fuel station just as you enter the town. As it was the GPS took me down a cracking little short cut avoiding Abergavenny, across a narrow little stone bridge over a very angry looking and raging River Usk. As a result I was in Brecon after only 18 miles (and the dash was saying I still had 26 miles of fuel left..... go figure?).

I fuelled up and drove to the cathedral to nab number twelve...





A largely uneventful ride along the A40 followed despite the rain now reaching monsoon like proportions and the wind getting pretty nasty at times. I stopped at Newgale for a photo opportunity overlooking the cracking beach.



Two hours later I was rolling into St David's to grab Grail Location number thirteen, the only downside being a slightly soggy crutch as the storm flap over the zip of my waterproofs hadn't been done up properly leading the zip to leak a bit. After a bit of searching I found a good spot for a photo...



A 20 quick minute blast up the coast to Fishguard got me to the ferry in good time for my largely uneventful three and a half hour crossing to Rosslare. There were a few green faces around as the swell was a bit too much for some but it never bothered me, i've certainly sailed through worse.

On arrival in Ireland I was pleased to see it was breezy but dry so despite having had thoughts of finding a B&B, I decided to camp, so headed 15 minutes out from Rosslare to St Margarets Beach camp site for the night. I had hoped to get a decent meal and a pint of the black stuff in a local pub but there was none in walking distance, so I had to settle for a Wayfarer boil in the bag Chicken Casserole and a cup of hot chocolate, I certainly know how to live it up!

Removed.

Day 2

woke up to sunshine, that's a good start after yesterday. After a leisurely pack up and another boil I'm the bag meal for breakfast, beans & bacon this time and a coffee I got on the road, so first observations of riding in Ireland.

To be honest not much different to The UK although the main roads are superior to ours, wide smooth and often with a sort of hard shoulder. A dotted yellow line separates this from the main lane and cars often pull over to let you pass, very civilized.

However the local roads are awful, the road out of the campsite was worse than some byways I know!

Once I had worked out how to change my speedo to Km things got easier, the country seems to have a blanket 100kmh limit out of towns single and dual carriageway with 50kph in towns.

Drivers are courteous several flashing me to warn me of a camera van near Wexford, be warned they are unmarked red Transit vans in that neck of the woods, clearly situated to catch unwary tourists coming from Rosslare. I've not seen any fixed speed cameras, which I hope is because there aren't any not that I haven't seen them!!!

Filled up with fuel at €1.59 a litre which I think is a little cheaper than home, it does seem odd to see diesel cheaper than petrol, I keep looking at the wrong price and thinking "that's cheap petrol" then realising my mistake.

A lot seems shut on Sunday including all the road side cafes, so I'm in the Cafe at Tescos in Clonmel, having a cuppa, at least I get free wifi.

The countryside is a lot like the Welsh Borders, green and rural with odd, isolated hills/mountains that remind me of the Long Myndd/Malvern Hills etc.

I'm using my phone at the moment so no photos but I'll post up later if I can.

Next major town is Tipperary and we all know it's a long, long way to there!

Actually it's only 37km so won't take long

hi bud if passing through glasgow,pop in for a cuppa. i live 1min from the a82 north less if the lights are green.on the westend of glasgow.cheers al.. have a great trip.pm sent with my tel no