Many of you will have followed Simon(simondippenhall) and my trips around Africa in recent years. I returned to UK on March 11, 2020 having completed a 12,000 mile trip from Congo to Tanzania via South Africa on a Suzuki EN125(partly documented here (https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/516136-In-search-of-Father-Jack ). Simon and I arrived in Namibia in September 2019 and he headed north, then up the east coast as far as Sudan and took a ferry to Saudi, then rode to Isreal via Jordan, completing a round trip of Africa. He then loaded his bike on a ferry to Greece, flew to Greece and rejoined the bike, to ride to Motorcamp in Bulgaria. His bike has returned to UK recently and I helped deliver it to Steptoe this week, to have it serviced in preparation for furthers travels. Simon's trip
from Cameroon onwards is documented in this link where I make a cameo appearance again for a few countries https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/491947-Gael-warning-in-the-Congo .
You will now notice I'm diverging from the title temporarily and if the odd meander is not your thing, then maybe this is the not the Ride Report for you. However if you stick with it, we'll get back on track, eventually. I once had a job where I had to explain difficult problems to customers. My predecessor gave me one piece of advice, which was that I should not be a slave to the whole truth, but what ever I said I needed to leave a path back to the truth, just case that later proved necessary. So with your agreement I'll adopt a similar approach here.
As we all experienced, the last 22 months has probably been the strangest in our lives. The UK entered lockdown soon after I returned from Africa and motorcycling for any reason was discouraged, as deemed risky and as we may put the emergency services under further strain if an accident occurred. So my 2 wheeled outlet was via push bike, whether MTB on local trails, electric bike for longer trips, then a road bike as I got fitter. Things eased for a period in the summer of 2020 and an excuse for a trip presented itself and also chance for the Simon and Jim team to reunite. My family have a house in France and because of lockdown in Ireland, they where not able to visit the property, so I volunteered to ride down there and tend the garden. I had an R1150R which needed to have its legs stretched and Simon had his trusty R1200RT. The 1150 had its legs truly stretched keeping pace with the RT, but we covered the 610 miles, including Channel crossing to arrive in time to shop in the supermarket and have a stroll around the small town of Argentat on the banks of the Dordogne. We spend an enjoyable few days, cutting the grass and shrubs of the overgrown garden and visiting local towns.
Photos below show the condition of the French garden when we arrived, the gardner, the gardners surveying their work and one of the 3 trips to the dump, then a stroll to take in a view of Argentat and the Dordogne.
The next day a cycle to nearby Beaulieu and then an outing to Rocamadour to meet two French biker friends who were touring the area.
Finally a view of the finished garden.
Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
from Cameroon onwards is documented in this link where I make a cameo appearance again for a few countries https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/491947-Gael-warning-in-the-Congo .
You will now notice I'm diverging from the title temporarily and if the odd meander is not your thing, then maybe this is the not the Ride Report for you. However if you stick with it, we'll get back on track, eventually. I once had a job where I had to explain difficult problems to customers. My predecessor gave me one piece of advice, which was that I should not be a slave to the whole truth, but what ever I said I needed to leave a path back to the truth, just case that later proved necessary. So with your agreement I'll adopt a similar approach here.
As we all experienced, the last 22 months has probably been the strangest in our lives. The UK entered lockdown soon after I returned from Africa and motorcycling for any reason was discouraged, as deemed risky and as we may put the emergency services under further strain if an accident occurred. So my 2 wheeled outlet was via push bike, whether MTB on local trails, electric bike for longer trips, then a road bike as I got fitter. Things eased for a period in the summer of 2020 and an excuse for a trip presented itself and also chance for the Simon and Jim team to reunite. My family have a house in France and because of lockdown in Ireland, they where not able to visit the property, so I volunteered to ride down there and tend the garden. I had an R1150R which needed to have its legs stretched and Simon had his trusty R1200RT. The 1150 had its legs truly stretched keeping pace with the RT, but we covered the 610 miles, including Channel crossing to arrive in time to shop in the supermarket and have a stroll around the small town of Argentat on the banks of the Dordogne. We spend an enjoyable few days, cutting the grass and shrubs of the overgrown garden and visiting local towns.
Photos below show the condition of the French garden when we arrived, the gardner, the gardners surveying their work and one of the 3 trips to the dump, then a stroll to take in a view of Argentat and the Dordogne.
The next day a cycle to nearby Beaulieu and then an outing to Rocamadour to meet two French biker friends who were touring the area.
Finally a view of the finished garden.
Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk