Off On A Bimble

The bike is ready, idling away to a steady beat with a full tank of fuel and its time to go. Earplugs in, helmet on (check its done up good and tight) and then gloves on. A few deep breaths, allows you to focus mentally, to get ready   for the job at hand. Shake hands with your mate. Hop on, quick blip of the throttle and its kick up the stand and off. 250 miles to go, no mystery about the route, just want to get home. City traffic for a few miles and its an edgy annoying experience, as it always is for this rider. Out onto the motorway and now the speed picks up. Slipping into the mode where there is just the miles to go, the fuel warning light and the beat of the engine. Not really travelling much faster than a lot of cars today, too much on your mind and its too slippery. Now the rider is in an interior world of their own imaginings, cars are threats, uneven surface is threat, the sights and sounds of the countryside are reduced to shades of grey. And only serve to count

Well I have had 10 weeks or so to think about what happened on the trip, what we saw and what we did, and what I would maybe change. Heres a few things bouncing around; Next time we go back that way I think maybe some motorway at the start to kill miles might be a good idea. Sure, we really saw the detail in the countryside of France and Belgium, it was a very immersive (to use a trendy word) experience. But we probably could have cut a day off each end by using motorways and had more time for those alpine passes, which were really highlights. Camping might not be the way to go on a trip where you move on each day. Not decided 100% on this yet, but the good nights sleep we got each day was pretty good at stopping tireness build up. Maybe as a compromise I can talk my riding partner into more Youth Hostels? Cheaper than hotels...modern hostels are pretty good. If we went somewhere and the weather was kind, maybe camping would be cool as a base camp type thing. Maybe its the

                           Overlooking the French plain from the edges of the Black Forest. Todtmoos to Miesenthal - total miles 155 - 12 July Not a great deal to say apart from we were sad to be leaving the Black Forest, and heading down onto the plain. I took one last photo of Jeff standing out on a rock looking towards France, and then we descended onto the plain, and it just got rather hot again. The traffic was intense, fiddly, and bloody annoying, and at one stage we were both dehydrated I am sure. Finally we managed to enter the Vosges National Park and the riding got a little more fun and we chilled out a bit. Not before me getting stuck in an irrigation ditch just after an al fresco lunch after crossing a river, possibly the Rhine (again). It just sort of symbolised the day up to that point so far. We eventually found a hotel, rather posh really in Miesenthal and got cleaned up and came down for dinner. To a dining room that was a touch more posh than most