Thanks to all at RRFCS for the good luck messages today as I ended my time with Rolls-Royce after 17+ years. Feels good to be free and starting on a new adventure that includes this bit of a bike trip.

Hope all of you that have signed up for the blog updates enjoy reading my waffle and at least some of you are inspired to throw a leg over a bike and ride.

Happy to have heard back from SOS Childrens Villages today and confirmed that I can visit the charity near Marrakech during the trip. Really looking forward to seeing the money raised being put to work and will report details back on here.

Thanks to all of you for your support as I start the push to get closer to my target of raising £1000.

Figured one or two people may be interested in the bike and its preparation (or lack of) for the trip.

Basically I bought my VStrom 1000 3 years ago in recognition that my riding was getting much less an every day thing and with a desire to use it on longer trips. Great thought I guess but so far only the trip to Italy 2 years back counts as using it for what it was bought for.

Have read a lot and listened to loads of advice about bike prep before departing for Morocco but cant bring myself to go overboard. The bike is up to date on servicing and I will give it a thorough once over before departure but otherwise I guess I will be hoping for some flawless Suzuki reliability.

The bike is the so called "Grand Tourer" specification so comes ready with hard luggage, hand guards, heated grips and center stand. On the run to Italy it was comfortable and did all I asked of it.

Four simple modifications are all I have carried out prior to the trip:
- Touratech oil cooler cover fitted
- Touratech radiator guard fitted
- Side stand foot extended
- Aux power socket fitted

First two seemed like a sensible precaution against stones given the exposed location of the oil and water coolers. Plus they look good and I like them!

Side shot showing rather fetching Touratech covers and side stand mod

Having suffered side stand sinkage too many times I am happy to show off the modification made by Pete at the Garage of Power to ensure the bike stands safe and secure on the fringes of roads or in camping fields. Aux power socket also fitted to ensure I can keep the IPOD and phone topped up on the move.Thanks for your help Pete.

Garage of Power Promotion - Thanks Pete

The basic essentials of a route are coming together and it is time to subject my proposals to comments on the HUBB. All comments, suggestions etc are invited on the thread set up just for this purpose.

Monday 20th April - Ride to Portsmouth for Ferry departing 23.00
Tues - Le Havre to Northern Spain long day covering as many miles as possible
Wed - Another long day through Spain aiming to get within a few hours ride of Tarifa if possible
Thurs - Ferry to Tangier then head South
Fri - Following my nose South and East
Sat - Following my nose South and East
Sun - Following my nose South and East
Monday 27th April - Hopefully close enough to Dunes to camp
Tues - Moving West
Wed - Across the mountains to Marrakech
Thurs - Meet Jackki at airport and chill out in Marrakech
Fri - Ride out and back to Marrakech with Jackki on the back
Sat - Drop Jackki at the Airport then head towards Rabat
Sun - Use the faster roads heading North to within a few hours of Tangier
Monday 4th May - Ferry back to Tarifa and start the journey home
Tues - Spain
Wed - Spain / France
Thurs - France
Friday 8th May Ferry leaves Le Havre at 16.00

The basic balance of the trip is getting to Marocco as quickly as possible. Taking my time then heading South using back roads and scenic routes recommended on the HUBB. Chilling for a few days in/around Marrakech and then heading back on faster/more direct routes.

This is exciting just writing this stuff - role on the 20th April.

Having browsed the forums about insurance over the last few days I figured it was worth a quick call to my broker to explore the easy and obvious solution and get a quote from Chaucer for providing me with a green card covering the Morocco leg of the trip. The quote I received was not quite what I expected, had no mention of a financial transaction and is written verbatim below:

"Under No Circumstances"

I guess this leaves me looking for a different insurer since my renewal is due before the trip anyway and there seems to be some hope that Norwich Union or Zenith may be able to provide cover and the green card to ease my passage.

Now that the key decision to actually get on and make this trip happen has been made I can feel the excitement building and it is getting difficult to focus on anything else. Learning to write html and linking to photos as well is proving an interesting departure that has me sitting next to a yellow post-it note with the word GEEK written on it.

Having weighed up the various ferry options and my desire to cover miles on 2 wheels in preference to on the high seas I have elected to make an overnight crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre. That is now booked so I am 100% committed. Have sketched out the basic itinerary to include a weekend in Marrakech where my wife will join me for a few days and her flights are also booked. Departure, end point and return ferry are therefore fixed so the focus now shifts to paperwork and routes although having browsed the HUBB I am pretty certain to choose Tarifa-Tangiers as my route into Morroco.

For my first planning entry on this blog i am simply going to explore the art of the possible when making entries from my windows mobile based cell phone. if you are reading this uninteresting entry then the trial has been a success.