Hadrians Wall and into Scotland

Saturday May 31

After staying at Keswick in the Lakes District ( where I caught up for a chat with workmate Rob Ellis from City of Melb.) I headed north to Carlisle and then east out to Greenhead where there is a fantatastic section of Hadrians Wall. The area know as Walltown has one of the highest sections of the wall, built along the top on a escarpment. The Romans considered this as far north as civilisation went, the Scots say they couldn't make it any further. The wall stretched 80 miles from coast to coast.

From there I headed west and north into Scotland, thru Dumfries and down to Castle Douglas where I stayed the night and in the morning had a 'full scottish breakfast'..... haggis and all! Sort of like a pale spicy black pudding.

Bike's still running well, a few issues are showing up. Discovered a crack in the panniers mounts this morning, should get me to the Isle of man where some final maintainance will be undertaken.

Finally Started!!

Arrived from London at Bennington on 24th May to find that Rob and Andrea had settled in and Rob had serviced both XJs. Oil change to diff, new batteries and freed up the discs on both bikes.

Generally, the bike is very good. Ran nicely, good tyres. We had some running around to do before the shops closed, Rob and I needed duplicate keys for the bikes and some other minor stuff. We spent the arvo fitting the panniers which were in pretty good condition. Our hosts were Susanna and Richard and we had a great dinner which was finished with liberal amounts of wine and Sloe gin and vodka. The accomodation was superb, the property, magnificent.



Sunday morning saw R & A head off with me still working on the bike. Fortunately Richard's sheds contained the best array of gear around. Chris Smith ( SR500 Club member from Lowestoft) and Jan dropped in to assist and Chris discovered that the front wheel bearings were shot. This added to the cracked discs that we'd discovered and I knew I was in for some more work.
My plan for Monday was to head down Bristol way to get some second hand discs. It was pouring continually and with all the stuff I has crammed in all pockets and having to drag stuff out continually, I managed to loose the mobile phone.... and all my contact details. I got almost to Bristol, stayed in Cricklade where I discovered the missing phone, got up next morning and headed back to Benington to do a search..... no result. Stayed the night, again.

I chased down some discs on the net..... the guy was only about 20 miles away on the road I was planning to take, Result!

Richard helped track down some bearings and I headed off into the local area on his Honda CRM and only managed to get lost a few times. Those small lanes through the villages all look the same. Bought a new mobile in Stevenage and got back in contact with family and friends. Fitted the bearings.


Wednesday, picked up discs, and finally started my Big Ride. Had a boring ride up the A1(M) and stopped for the night at Rutford, an old market town. Stayed at the Turk's Head, ran by John, a biker who stored my bike in the garage with his Harley.
Today, Thursday 29th, I've travelled up through York and into the Yorkshire Dales. The road from Ripon to Leyburn, on the 6108 was glorious. Sweeping bends up and down through the dales. Just had a nice lunch and using the computer at the local library. Things are back on track and life is good.

Before the Ride

The Big Ride was going to be a ride home to Melbourne from the 2008 Isle of Man TT. After much talk and planning it was established that time was not available to complete the ride considering the number of delays that we ( Smith, Morley and myself) could encounter in the Middle East, Sub Continent and Indonesia.
The new plan meant that working with about 70 days to be away from Oz, we had to fit in preparing 2 old Yamaha XJ900s and a Diversion, a week at the TT and a ride across Europe, down through Croatia to Albania, through Greece to Turkey and into Syria and then returning through Bulgaria, Romania, up to Poland and back to the UK. Easy.



We'd bought 3 bikes on eBay in the UK. All great bikes based on what we'd been told by the honest sellers. The XJs both cost about 1000GBP and the Divi a few hundred more.

Various mates of Smith had received and were storing the Yammies. They were also processing the paper work to have the bikes 'legally' registered, insured and taxed in our names.
The Divi came with panniers, so 2 sets of old Givi panniers and top boxes were found on eBay for the XJs. Plenty of capacity to carry our camping gear, clothing, a basic set of spares, a few spare tubes, 2 big tyre levers, assorted tools and a first aid kit which appears to consist largely of diarrhoea medications.

Smith's partner Andrea had also joined the party and would join us when we arrived in the UK. We were set. What could possibly go wrong.