I thought I'd start my blog off with our training run which we've completed over the last couple of days. Myself and Al met up at Scotch Corner services to take a cheesy photograph and begin our assault on the Yorkshire Dales.

We wound our way from the A1 through Richmond and into the dales, stopping for the odd scenic shot.

We checked out a couple of camping options before deciding on a spot behind the tea rooms as Hardraw where we set up our first camp.

It turned out that setting up was going to be considerably easier than the packing up, but we weren't to know that as we set off to see the local attraction of the Hardraw waterfall. It's nice in a waterfally kind of way, even if it isn't exactly Niagara. However it did serve the purpose of being our first experience of getting fleeced during our adventure biking travels by costing £2 to get in. This is because it is privately owned and "maintained".

The best reason to stay in Hardraw is probably the Green Dragon since it is friendly enough, has a selection of real ales and the food is good. Not to mention an open fire, which being England you're not allowed to have your own version of in camp.

Overnight the gales and rain started, my tent just about stood up to it depite me not really putting it up properly. Al's fancy and massive 'biker' tent broke a pole on first use, but otherwise stood up OK too. We eventually got packed up in the bad weather and headed into Hawes for breakfast, decent full english at a cafe there. Due to the weather we decided to cut short the riding and head for home. Drama wasn't over though, my bike decided to cut out due to getting a very wet HT lead. We got it going again with WD40 and as we got out of the rain it dried out and returned to normal running. Not exactly a confidence inspiring start, but I guess we're heading south. It's not going to rain outside of England right???

... where we're going!

The route is basically as follows...

France
Italy
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia
Montenegro
Albania
Macedonia
Greece
Turkey
Azerbaijan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgystan
Kazakhstan
Russia
Mongolia

and finally back into Russia all the way to Vladivostok. From there the route is more open to change but we plan to get a ferry to South Korea and then fly ourselves and the bikes to the USA or Canada. We can then decide where to go to from there. Less than 2 weeks to departure.

You can find more details and read the thoughts of Al, the other half of this ridiculous idea at

http://rideroundtheworld.com/