28/05/2008 by admin.

To all who were following our little trip sorry for the lack of postings after Day 7. The dial-up network on our Lap Top could not load our comments or photos so here goes I will try and summerise what has happened since:-

Day 8 and we headed for John O’Groats this is what we were all looking forward to, not just for the  scenery but also this is where we feel that we are now on our way home. We left Inverness early to allow us to make a little detour over to Thurso. It didn’t disapoint the roads, Mountains with Snow on them, the valleys of Scotland were absolutly Awesome got to to go back but this time on a proper Bike. About 12 hours and 260 miles later we were back in Inverness tired but what a day.

The following day it was down from Inverness along Loch Ness (Visitors Center Closed got there too early before it opened) Fort William, Loch Lomand, through Glasgow and onto Kilmarnock for our overnight stay. Not our biggest milage day about 250miles but because we kept stopping what felt like every mile or so to take photos just emphasises the magnificent scenery we were travelling through. While we sat having food and a pint that evening we planned our route for the following day Kilmarnock to Bangor this was not going to fun.

310 miles Kilmarnock to Bangor nearly all “A” Roads including Motorways, Dual Carriageways, Towns and City’s including the Mersey Tunnel. The plus point of todays trip was making it back home to Wales visiting my Sister in Colwyn Bay where she had made us some Hot Pies (Well I think it was Keith her Husband who had actually cooked them as she was drinking the Wine). Getting to our hotel in Bangor a quick shower and change and out for some food and a well deserved pint. £6 Taxi ride into Bangor, got dropped off at a pub which was recomended for its food and it was closed 15 min walk later we found the Town Center. Again all closed only 3 pubs open none doing food finaly found an Indian Restaurant for a third night on this trip. Our last night OUT on the TOWN was disaster so much for coming home to Wales.

THE LAST DAY.

As we load the bikes up for the last time that morning Gary and Myself just looked at the bikes and realised what we had just put them through. They have run for at least 10hours every day for 10 days, been ridden full throttle nearly all the way round, up mountains, motorways and roads that they are not ment to be on, they had one little oil change in Aberdeen and NOTHING has gone wrong they have started first kick every time (Just like Nick does in the mornings) we have just taken them for granted Total Respect to the Mighty Honda C90.

The journey home reminded us of Scotland, We take for granted how lucky we are to have such a beautiful country ourselves but now we cant wait to get home. Again the normal early start ment we were having some chips in Aberaeron by dinnertime.

Arrived back in the Crossraods Office by about 3.00pm and what a welcome all the family’s had turned out and the staff from the offices came to greet us. After some photos and a cup of tea and biscuits we left for home tired but happy.

Gary had another supprise when he got back to Mynyddygarreg the whole village and the Mayor of Kidwelly had put on a party for him.

A Week On.

Its taken us all about a week to catch up on sleep none of us seem to have the energy to do anything, could be just that all that adrenalin has now worn off. Anyway the result of our little trip is that the money is still coming in from various places so we still cant disclose the exact milage but anyone around the 2550mile mark is close and at the moment we have 3 winners of the Balls but are still waiting for a few more forms to come back in so we will announce the winners soon.

So far we have raised about £5000 and with Richard in “The Stag” at Five Roads wanting to hold a quiz night the Golf Society planning a Golf Day and Mynyddygarreg Rugby Club holding a Talent Night we hope to raise even more. The down side of this is that it will take some time to organise these events over the next few months so there will be a delay in actualy donating the funds but that could be a small price to pay if more can be raised.

For now we would just like to Thank everybody who supported us and donated to our little event there are so many we would like to mention but it would be endless. We will post an update on the final mileage winners ASAP and on the amount we have finally raised.

Thanks Again to you All

Gary, Barrie, Nick.

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16/05/2008 by admin.

Sorry for the delay in posting this little update, we have had technical problems and you may have noticed that all the pictures have disapeared the tech prob is called “Barriesgotfingerslikethumbsdeleteallmeansdeleateall”
We will post some new pics as soon as
Well day 7 saw us have our shortest day of the trip only 130miles and gave us an opportuninty to give the little bikes some TLC, Barrie had prearranged an oil change with the boys at ecosse honda dealer in Aberdeen and when we turned up they just couldnt do enough for us, brilliant, not only giving us the oil change we had an escort out of Aberdeen, Many Thanks to you!
http://ecossehonda.peweb8.m25.co.uk/HONDA/
Knowing we had a relatively short day gave an opportunity to really take in the scenery which is getting better day by day, small unspoilt fishing coves, rolling hills and beautiful scenery
The view of the moray firth as we travelled on to Inverness was idilic the mouth of the moray backed with rolling hills and set beyond the highlands still with a dusting of snow upon them, which is where we are hedding tomorrow
We woke this morning at 6:00am and are heading today for Lands End and are hoping to do an additional loop on the north west coast time dependant.
Then the following day its homeward bound passing the Loch Ness

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15/05/2008 by admin.

Hi all its Nick Ive been bullied into updating the blog again as if I dont do enough during the day for our two heros.
The day started early as usual but instead of normall start into the mile munching we went to have some photos taken at the angel of the North then a never ending spin around Newcastle in the morning traffic to the Tyne Tunel and staight over to the coast road heading north towards whitley bay and up to Edinburgh but half way there some winter gear had to be don the wind had picked up a bit and was quite cold making riding hard work.
We went through Edinburgh with the video camera on and i think before the end of this trip we will all be offered jobs with courier companies although the 2 heros do forget that my bike cant squeese through some of gaps and isnt as manoverable with all extra weiht and that dosnt include me. It took an hour to get in and out of the city so we had lost some valuable time so a quick dash across the firth bridge then onto Dundee accross the Tay bridge another quite impresive bridge and onto our final leg to Aberdeen the sun came out for about an hour which made riding a little easier we pulled into the hotel at about 6.30pm and had covered around 260miles, we will upload some photos as soon as

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14/05/2008 by admin.

My turn to write tonight so hear goes :- all a bit tired but still laughing at what we are doing. Early morning start today pulled into petrol staion at 7.00am, Nick and Gary pull up to pumps and fill up, Gary pushes bike forward for me to fill bike and pump wont re-start. Girl in Station decides to close pumps for 15min to raise prices as I am about to fill my bike. Not happy and tell her where to put her nozzel.
Smiles soon return when we start to ride again but the weather has changed, fairly windy today and we get thrown about a bit as we cross the Humber Bridge bikes struggling to make 30mph in places.
12.00pm sees us in a Cafe in Bridlington giving Hywel and Nia from Radio Cymru an uptate on our progress.
Tonights stop is Newcastle and another 240 ish miles done. So far some of the roads have been fun but others are intense with traffic coming at you in all directions, Nick is doing a fantastic job in watching our backs the stints that we have had to do on the Motorways/ Dual Carriageways would have been frightning without him.
Cant wait for tomorrow this is when we cross into Scotland and what I consider the half way point where we are then on our way home but also are on the most interesting roads of our tip.
Better sign off now as its 11.30pm Gary is Snoring, Nick has fallen asleep reading the map for tomorrows route and my eyes are closing fast.
More photos and notes again tomorrow all being well.

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12/05/2008 by admin.

We all woke this morning in good spirit, probably knowing we were leaving the South Coast for the North Treck, and a Treck it has been, left this morning at 8 and arrived at the accomodation at 7pm covering almost 300 miles,
Touch wood the bikes are going well, Nick is mothering us on his ZX9 doing a great job along with the directions he even took us inot the Haven Holiday camp in Great Yarmouth!!
Dont know why but one guy in a car called Barried a bucking idiot, I thought less of the bucking!!
So have today covered a big chunk of the East coast travelled through Dartford Tunnel, what an episode like the wacky racers, on to ipswitch Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and all along the north coast of Norfolk back to Kings Lynn and onto Long Sutton, The weather has been kind to date, just hope it stays with us
Spanner check the bikes every night, and check the oil, I need to get a new battery but it doesnt affect the bike, just I have to switch the lights off for the indicators to work!
So onwards and upwards to New Castle tomorrow

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11/05/2008 by admin.

Hi everyone this is my first time at updating the blog and probably the last after Gary and Barrie spell check it. im just going to start by recaping on yesterday from the guy in the backs point of view, normally its their back on the long straight road but yesterday we took a small country lane from lands end to Penzance the bend were so sharp and tight I just couldnt keep up with the 2 heros, neither could the driver of a brand new BMW Z4 who had just been overtaken i think he will give the dealer a ring in the morning compaining of a fault.

Today we made our way from exeter hoping to go through poole and bournemouth but ended up taking a two hour journey on a dual carriageway because of road works and sunday drivers going to the seaside, but got to go through bognor and brighton and eastbourne all the way to hastings.

Also managed to post a photo of us at Lands Ends see the Photo Album.

Folllowing on from Nicks post :-
Thanks to Ben and Calir who we met last night in Exeter for yor company and kind donation.
we’ve had an interesting day today paid an ad-hoc visit to Gary’s Aunt and Uncle in Southhampton where we had a lovely cup of tea along with a generous donation.
Day 3 and about the 700miles done aready a few sore bums and knees all round and thats got nothing to do with the sleeping arrangements. Must admit this has been the worst day so far could not go and see the places we wanted to, traffic jams going into all the seaside resorts and had to divert to a motorway not a happy place for a C90 could not find a twisty bit of road at all today. On a serious note Nissan have recalled all Nissan Micras nothing wrong with this lovely little car its just that anyone who has bought one must re-take their driving test as they are not fit to be on the road.

If all well post again tomorrow
Barrie,Garry, Nick.

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11/05/2008 by admin.

To all those who are waiting to reads this update I am sorry we are a bit late but we have technical problems. We can’t compress our photos to post could be a technical problem or the fact we had a pint before we tride to write the update. Anyway another good day got some photos at Lands End made it back to Exeter just 20miles from where we started from trhis morning 220 miles ish today
Dont want to speak to soon but cant belive how much of a thrashing these bikes are taking.
We have passed today a BMW z4, Land Rover Discovery, Audi A4 and another car on its roof on Dartmoor thankfully all were OK.
Nick has also got some video photage but dont know how much of it we will be able to use after my farther has edited it.
Hope all are ok back home will ty again to upload the photos tomorrow.
P.S
Carys go to bed its late
Love Bestest.

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09/05/2008 by admin.

If your reading this you will guess that we have made it to the end of day 1 safely in oakhampton
Thanks to everyone who turned up for the send off this morning, emotional yet exciting, We bit the bullet as a result of the extra hour we had to do today and did a stint on the M4 over the severn bridge, both stephtroughs have been great and we made brilliant time up to gordano service station where we had to wait 10 mins for Nick!! He had to go to M&P’s in swansea becuase bits were falling off his ZX9!
The coast route was great and suited the little bikes making it more interesting for us, pollock hill lived up to its reputation and we had great video footage over the mountain, but the fog closed in for part of it stopped for coffee in the picturesque village of Lynmouth and on to barnstaple , bideford got lost the once overall we have done 20 miles more than we had anticipated but a great first day, full of fun. but must be honest my bum hurts already. plenty more to say but a quick posting to say we are all safe and ready for a pint!!

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08/05/2008 by admin.

Shouldnt say that really as Barrie has already had one off!! sorry Bar couldnt resist it!!

The Day is upon us, we are leaving tomorrow for the big trip!!

We are due to leave Llanelli at 10:00am from the Crossroads offices at Dafen, so coffee pot for a breakfast first then onto Dafen by 9:00am

It finally dawned on me this morning that we are going tomorrow  and woke at 5:30 this morning with must do’s racing through my head, In usuall fashion Barries has had three or so trial runs with loading his bags, checking his check lists! and getting everything ready to go, but me in my usuall fashion woke at 5:30 wrote a quick list and wil fill my pizza delivery box tonight with clothes ready to go!! If it doesnt fit it doesnt go no problem!!

Another big thank you to all those that have donated so far, as with Barrie my local The Prince of Wales have  raised £240 through easter raffles etc, The can be found in the http://www.camra.org.uk/ for great real ales and an unique pub.

Spent last night trawling the village and yet another great responce, Thanks to Nev and Gwen Henry along with DBS  to mention just a few

Get Well soon Huw Puw!! a good friend and one of the original Honda Cub Riders!!! after your fall glad to hear you are out of hospital, will cal to see you when we get back!

We will be updateing the blog daily so keep track and post any comments

Thanks

Gary, Barrie and Nick

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06/05/2008 by admin.

Just 3 days to go and were all excited just cant wait to go now. Started packing and sortring out spares and tools required. Dont think we will have much trouble carrying what we need as Nicks bike is now in “Full Tour Mode” Panniers, Top Box, and Tank Bag. A Big Man on a Big Bike with Big Bags hope he doesn’t drop the thing as well never pick it back up.

Just a few Thank’s to people for their support this weekend :-

The Five Roads Sports Society Dinner raised over £200 last Friday where Pete’s Plumbing bought a signed photo of Stephen Jones in the auction.

Our local Motorcycling Club has also made donations they can be found at:-   www.mcawales.co.uk

We have a CBT motorcycle test available for auction donated by SMART Motorcycle Training located at Busters Motorcycles in Llansamlet.

Again many thanks to all who have contributed.

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