Day 1 - Poole Bike Night 204 miles

Starting mileage 41,758

Day 1 end mileage 41,962

Total mileage 204 miles.

Today started with an early wake up call at 3:45am, to be the family taxi driver - doing a run to Gatwick airport to arrive at 7am. All good. I got back home about 9:30am after dropping a rather special book off at the post office for a repeat customer in Australia.

It then took me two hours to get my shit together and be ready to get on the bike. My backpack for the ride is my daughters teddy, which I bought for her 19 years ago and put in her bed beside her for two weeks whilst she tried to survive, unfortunately she didn't but I have kept the teddy with me always. It was quite emotional today, as it felt as if my daughter was actually my back pack.

So, the journey, the route, taking the coastline at much as possible - down the Sandwich bypass, Alkham Valley, Folkestone, Hythe, on the A259 to the Custom Cafe for lunch and continuing on the A259, then the A27 to Portsmouth then the M27 and A31 to Poole.

Very early in the journey I realised my rear brake is shot and will need a visit to my mechanic for a new disc, calipers and pads oh hum, it will make this trip exciting ;) it's been playing up intermittently for a while and has been looked at but now, it's gone. Fortunately I don't use it much relying on either the front brake or using the engine.

Fortunately the journey was fairly uneventful, a couple of, oh shit moments, but nothing serious. I had a couple of car drivers 1) was a complete moron and didn't want me to filter past his black Mercedes, fortunately a kind trucker spotted what was going on and let me through. 2) in a convertible Audi TT was getting up the arse of several other car drivers so I gave hime a taste of his own medicine, he bottled it at 109 😉🏍🏍🏍

I decide to refuel after 168 miles, the reserve light still hadn't come on 😱

Poole Bike Night - Poole Quay, starts at 5:30pm, £3 entry

I arrived at 6pm, there were already hundreds of bikes there. This is a huge event and well worth going to, at peak there can be upto 3,000 bikes. It's a real family event, the Quay is closed off to other traffic and there's lots of entertainment bands, kids entertainment, lots of pubs, cafes and restaurants and a great ambience. I thoroughly recommend it.

Tomorrow, Day 2, a coastline journey to Paignton via Westbay, Exmouth. A 3-4 hour journey, approx 125 miles.