CHASING THE HORIZON

THE ISLE MAN NO LIMITS

The history of the Isle Man dates back to 1911. In those days there where no rules and you just turned up and raced on whatever you had. It was immensly popular. So much so that in 1935 the famous actor George Formby (himself a motorcucle fanatic) made a comedy movie about it. Below is an excerpt from the Movie I found I Utube. It goes for about 7 Minutes and I reckon is hilarious. Enjoy.

 

 

At the other end of the spectrum is the recently recently realeased TT3D movie. This movie has been receiving rave reveiws since its release in the UK a couple of weeks a go. Not sure if it is going to be screened in Australia, but I am hoping to see it, while on the Isle.

 

POSTSCRIPT

 Managed to closer to the edge  while on the Isle of man and I can honestly say it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Make sure you go and see it when it is released in your area. (August 2011 in Australia) If you hav e evn the slightest interest  in Bikes you will not be dissapointted.

I love volcanos

Especially when they force you to take holidays early. The long awaited Isle of Man TT and Euro tour has begun. Been a tense couple if days with the Iceland volcano threatening to once again create havoc, so when the opportunity to go early presented itself, I jumped at it. So here I sit in the Qantas club lounge my nose firmly in the trough and a couple relaxing G&T's already despatched, life is looking pretty good. First stop is Hong Kong then on to London. Spot tracker will be active after I pick up the bike on Thursday. The link is here

http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=2cba4dd223b2af1d2

Will be updating as often as I can.
Hope you enjoy the story

23 hour's in a tin can.

Well, wasn't that fun!
The flight to Hong Kong wasn't too bad. Got to sit next to Chinese Elvis who spent the entire flight playing shoot em up games on his newly acquired duty free ipad. I was quite keen to shove it up his ass by the time we landed.
Had a quick shower and then boarded the trusty old reliable 747 for the next leg. Was pretty pleased that it wasn't one of those shitbox A380 things. So, we all get on the plane and taxi out to the runway only to discover that the number 1 engine had fouled a plug. So back to the terminal where we sat in our seats for over an hour. Couldn't even get a drink. Well done QANTAS. Anyway they finally got it fired up and off we went. Flew over some spectacular snow capped mountains and the Gobi desert. Looked like it would be a brilliant ride.

 

 

 

Knocked back a few delicious'ess to get into the British spirit. Was pretty much over it with about 5 hours to go. Oh and we had to take the scenic Route in order to avoid the volcanic ash. This also added an hour or 2 but eventually the good old blighty came into veiw.
Thought I'd landed in the wrong country while waiting to go thru customs not a white fella to be seen. But all good.

 

Currently on the train to Ipswich to couchsurf at Lisa's place. Tomorrow I get the bike ......I hope.

2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps please

After Lisa picked me up from the train we headed back to her place, where I met her 2 awesome kids Hannah & Charlie who almost made me homesick with his brilliant Didge playing.
I was feeling a bit jetlagged and despite being knackered I knew I wouldnt sleep so headed down the local for 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps please then headed back to crash out in my very own comfy and cosy caravan. Lisa had even had it monogrammed for me which was a nice touch.

 

Woke up to a bright and sunny day and headed to the port to pick up my bike which fired up straight away much to my releif.

 

Had a bit of a look round Felixstowe but The weather was looking ominous so headed for Braintree where I bought myself a very spiffy new jacket. I look shit hot in it. :-)
Just as well its waterproof cause its been pissing down ever since.
Its taking me a bit to get used to being back on the bike and the different road rules don't help. Actually I don't think there are any rules and who the fuck still uses MPH. :-)
loving the riding but,and love the way they have hedges instead of steel Armco barriers. Would still hurt to go through them but not as bad as the things we have..

 

 

Down in tube station at midnight.

And then the trouble started. Freaking Karen got all confused and before I knew it we were trapped in peak hour traffic In the centre of freaken London. Oh and then a full on thunder storm broke out creating traffic chaos. Definatly not the place I wanted to be on a bike that is wider than most small passenger cars. Took me hours to get out. I really thought I was going go be down in the tube station at midnight and as I was going round and round the roundabout at Liz and Phil's place, the thought did cross my mind to stop and take a piccy but I would have been killed by the lunatic car drivers.
So with my tour of the monopoly board complete I eventually managed to make my way out. I even managed to not get killed when filtering my way thru the traffic. An offence punishable by death back home but apparently perfectly acceptable here. Go figure.

As a result of that fiasco, there was no way I was going to make my couchsurfing appointment at Stonehoue so instead have scored a very flash room in a swanky B&B in Maidenhead.
Basil the manager wanted 60 quid. I offered him 20 cash and we settled on 30. Result!!! (Dodgy bastard, no wonder he's running around in a roller.) There was no way I was camping tonight after being saturated all day even if the new spiffy jacket did keep me reasonably dry.
Anyway I'm down the Harvestor for a steak & chips wif gravy. Orright ?

The cotswalds

Me and Karen had an awesome day today. She agreed not to lead us into another big city traffic snarl and I agreed to not throw her under a moving Lorrie.
Had a lovely brekky in the conservatory then headed into Oxford to pick up some camping kit.
From there we headed through some of the beautiful countryside. I think the area is known as the Cotswalds. Very scenic. Felt like riding through nursery rhyme at times. Lots of lovely old stone buildings and typical English pubs. Brilliant!

 

Panties & Melons

Crossed over the massive twin Severn bridges into Wales and Headed for the Brecon beacons national park through some more fairy tale country. Long house boat thingies meander along the canals along beautiful countryside and pull up at old pubs along the way. How cool is that. Thought I might find a troll under some of the bridges.  

The roads were little lanes barely wide enough for two cars to squeeze past. At times I was dragging the panniers through the hedges just like they do at the Isle of Man. (Only a hundred times slower.) Was great fun though. Karen did an awesome job. Even found a creek crossing that I almost went ass up in. It was a bit deeper than of looked a had a moss covered cobblestone base. Was very close and would have been an issue as there was noone for miles and I never would have picked it up.

Finally made in to Penbour which is where I will stay for a couple of days at the Panty and Melons camping ground. Host of the 2011 national UK vstrom owners rally. Which I thought was going to be huge. Unfortunately only three of us and 2 of them didn't ride. :-)
They must of thought I was a right twat when I promptly dropped my bike as soon as I arrived.
Great blokes though and made me feel very welcome over a few beers and a barby. ( cooked by Andy's wife Karen. What's that about then Andy ??? :-) ) Everyone knows women are not allowed near a barby.

This is what the main house looked like.

 

Nah not really that was in winter. This is it now.

 

Was pretty cold and rain threatened so I hit the tent about midnight.

 

And huge thanks to Andy and Sandy for looking after me.

The sunny south coast.

Rained all night and was freezing cold,but by midday it had cleared and one of the blokes Malcolm offered to show me around so we took off for the south coast to a place called Tenby. Called into a campsite and had a coffee with his wife Jan. Then with her blessing Malcom and I headed off via a couple of castles. This one was pretty impressive.
The whole town is built wholly within a massive castle wall. Amazing place and nice beaches. The rocks might be a harsh on ya bum but. Had an icecream on the beach, then Mal headed back to his caravan and I headed back to panties & melons via Pembroke castle and some other place that if I tried to pronunce would put me in hospital. Had a great ride and huge thanks to Malcolm for showing me around.

Back at camp a few more blokes had arrived and the party was in full swing. Had a great night with boys but have developed a cold so hit the sack pretty early.

 

Stunning Snowdonia

You can set your watch by the weather here. It changes every ten minutes. Was another wet and windy start to the day. As the others slept off the effects of potatoe whisky, I set about packing up my gear. Have had an awesome weekend and huge thanks to Andy and Karen [the dragonlady :-)] for putting on the gettogether. Shame there were'nt more strom owners but they were all a great bunch of blokes and bloketes. Karen (the GPS one not the dragonlady one) plotted a course for Abersomebloodyplace and I set off thru the rain and wind. Saw whatlooked like a scene out of the Italian job. And man I make some sacrifices to get the story out to you guys. I even had to eat at maccas while using their wifi. I hope you all appreciate it. Headed into the spectacular Snowdonia national park then and stopped at pretty little picnic spot for a warming coffee. Brilliant roads and stunning scenery. No snow today but I reckon it came close. The roads were great fun. At this rate I am going to need new tyres before we even get to Europe.

Hooked up with my coubchsurfing host James and we headed to the local pub for a mixed grill and a couple of pints.
Tomorrow James and I are heading back into Snowdonia for another look. Its going to be fun.

Mountains and Molehills

You can literally set your watch by the weather here. Cold and rainy till about 10am. Then it starts to clear.

James very kindly offered to take me on a bit of a tour and to visit his dad who lives in a little village called Natlle in Snowdonia. We followed the coast down and passed through some very pretty villages. The previously mentioned hedges have given way to stonewalls. Miles and miles if them. I now realise why my English friend Monty has bought a rock farm at Laidley. Obviously has a plan to make it more like home.

 

Or perhaps I am just making a mountain out of a molehill. (See pic)

 


James and his dad George are plane spotting enthusiasts, so they took me down to to the local airfield where we had lunch and watched a few planes take off and land. Was good fun.

 

Was tempted to take home some of the local delacies but thought better of it.

James and I then took off back into the spectacular Snowdonia national park through some more fairy tale scenery. Kept expecting a Saxon warrior to appear out of the mountains.

 

Was a great day. Thanks James for showing me around and for letting me surf your awesome couch.