The start, but not the beginning

This is the start of this blog, but not the beginning of the story – I will tell that at a later point in time but it’s about time I got this blog going so I’m starting where I am – in France, in a hotel waiting for the arrival of my friend Peter so that we can begin our trip for real tomorrow.

For me, this is the start of phase 3 of #epicsummer14 (phases 1 & 2 will be posted about later – after the beginning, or maybe before – I haven’t quite decided as yet).

Phase 3 is a motorcycle ride with Peter from home (Cheam, London) to Split in Croatia where phase 4 begins (more on that later otherwise I’ll be going off on a tangent). The trip is in the form of a big loop and we are expecting the highlight to be the Transfagarason highway in Romania – described by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear as “the best corners from the best race tracks in the world, strung end to end over one hundred kilometers”. When I saw that particular episode ………… I knew that one day, I just HAD to ride it!

Peter is experienced in continental travel and is also very good at organising things so I have put my complete trust in Peter’s navigational and route planning skills to get us to Split via France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and possibly Albania ………. and that’s where the plans end and Peter carries on while I indulge in phase 4.

My route back from Split a week later (phase 5) is totally unplanned – intentionally so – a time for reflection and contemplation – with the occasional twisty road thrown in for good measure.

I hope that my judgement of roads on the way back is better than my judgement of the weather on the way here tonight where I got caught in torrential rain for 45 minutes while crawling through slow moving traffic winding its way through narrow roads and small French villages – which might have been quite quaint under other circumstances but as I was sitting in an inch of freezing cold rain water that had pooled in my crotch area as a result of my sculpted seat, I realised that there might be some truth to my wife’s insistence that my brain is not located in my head since I definitely experienced a brain freeze for the last part of the trip …….