Sunday 26th May 2019
Today its a final check and packing day getting ready for the off on Wednesday May 29th. On this trip I will be accompanied by 4 of the guys I met on my February 2018 Thailand trip. Fred and Kevin are Americans and will join me for this entire trip; Pete and Jon are Brits who will do the first two days with us in Wales. Its going to be good to ride together again and drink a few beers 🙂
Planning the logistics for this trip have been rather more complicated than the normal adventure as Fred & Kevin needed to hire bikes for the trip: thankfully I managed to find a company that would rent AND deliver the bikes to my house; which was really helpful as they are based in Bournemouth! http://www.motorcycle-hire.co.uk/ Our American friends will fly into Heathrow on the morning of 28th and I will bring them to mine to complete the hire formalities; we’ll meet up for dinner that night and then all set off bright and early on 29th for Rhayader in mid-Wales. This will be our base for 2 nights and then on day 3 Fred, Kevin and I will ride to Fishguard to catch the ferry to Rosslare in Ireland and the Irish adventure begins 🙂
We have quite a mix of bikes; me on my BMW 1200 GS, Fred is on a Suzuki Vstrom 650, Kevin will be on a BMW F650 GS, Pete on his GSX-R 750 sports bike and Jon is on his Triumph Bonneville Cruiser. So three of us are on “adventure” bikes and two are definitely not; this adds an interesting dimension to route planning. I want to show our American visitors some of the best parts of Wales, but often this is where the narrow, twisty and more “interesting” roads are; throw in the possibility of rain, some mud and loads of sheep and these roads are probably not ideal for either sports bikes or cruisers! I will have an alternative route available for those who wish to take it, but as I’ve explained before guys..”Its an Adventure, not a holiday” 🙂
On day 4 myself, Fred and Kevin will head for the start of the “Wild Atlantic Way”, just below Cork. https://www.thewildatlanticway.com/ It is 1600 miles in total and one of the longest defined coastal routes in the world. It winds its way along the West coast of Ireland all the way up to Derry in Northern Ireland. We will go as far as Sligo and then cut across to Dublin to catch the ferry back to North Wales and ride a bit more in Snowdonia, before heading home on day 10.
The approximate whole route
I’ve been to Dublin & Cork before on business, but this will be my first time to explore the countryside of the “Emerald Isle” and I’m really looking forward to seeing some interesting places, riding the coast road and drinking the odd Jamesons whisky. We will be right on the Atlantic coast and its not called “Wild” for nothing! I’ve told our American friends to pack their waterproofs and have them handy as we might need them 🙂
Should be fun, so stay tuned and follow our journey and the adventures along the way 🙂
Have a great trip John! I am sure knowing your route planning skills, you’re all in for a great and exciting ride 👌. Bern
Thank you Bernard..you’re too kind 🙂