Day 1: Eastbourne to Weissbach, Germany. Odo start – 25k miles

A perfect start to the day (all be it three days late...), clear blue skies and dad’s cooking a fry up, sweet! It’s a warm send off from my mum and dad, I’m truly grateful for everything and forever in their debt. Mum sees past the dangers of the trip, and is smiling and enjoying the moment, a good thing. And brilliantly, dad let me nick his watch late last night (although he did keep pointing out it only cost him £1.99, so lets not get carried away). And even more brilliantly, he gave me a wodge of US dollars, isn’t it great to get holiday beer money!

The ride to the ferry, in the sunshine is a good one, the only downside being greasy roads due to last night’s rain. But we’re not racing, just drinking in the English countryside again. It’s going to be a day of repetition, I’ve done the first part (2.5k miles) of the trip before, crossing Europe and riding through snow in Bosnia. All the roads are familiar, and as boring as ever, but thankfully dry. And we’re hoping to dodge that snow later on too. We manage just over 300 miles today, gotta up that tomorrow!

Two introductions, Rob, my American friend whom I met in Cartagena, Colombia, on my last big trip. He’s a good guy, pretty easy going, and miraculously has managed to get all his paperwork together, kind of. He’s leaving the UK one day after me as he awaits his Egyptian visa. To give you an idea of what it’s like when we ride places together, I’ll sum up our ride from London to Eastbourne. He’s following as we’re going to my parent’s house. His lights are so frickin bright in my mirrors, I can’t see anything behind me, it’s like being followed by the Sun. On the flip side, my bike has a race exhaust, and at motorway speeds just emits a constant loud droning. And it’s worse if you’re following...tit for tat thus far!

Which brings us onto the second introduction, Kirsty, my abused KTM. Kirsty is a 2004 KTM 640 Adventure R, with 25k on the clock. Obviously, for this kind of trip, you’d want a pampered and well serviced bike. So, I’ve rallied Kirsty in Wales, driven across tank driving ranges in Salsbury, crashed her around enduro events in Kent, and generally abused her. She gets an annual wash, and two days ago wasn’t running, or stopping. With great help from Matt at Oval Motorcycle Centre, we’ve fixed broken cables, none running parts and fitted new brake pads. And Kirsty has been faultless and glorious all blinking day, she’s perfect! Other than the two screws which shook loose from the fairing today....