Steven Raucher's World Tour

2000-11-02 in London, England
DAY 1

The big day finally arrived� We began our day after oversleeping by an hour..

We began our day after oversleeping by an hour. We were supposed to be on the road by 6:30 but this turned into 8:30 after an extensive search for winter gloves and sunglasses (which were later found in my helmet!!). To no surprise we headed off in a downpour which turned out to be a storm, we drove through hail, gale-force winds and right hand lane hogs. After missing the Folkstone turnoff we found a friendly bloke at Kent Honda who told us to travel through Dover and take the M20 to Folkstone, this seemed like a really good idea at the time.

Things got worse: we were almost blown off our bikes as we were coming down the hill into Dover docks. We had to drive the next 3 miles in 1st gear with our hazard lights flashing because the weather was so bad. We made it to the Chunnel and once boarded, I, in spectacular fashion, dropped my bike (with everything else to worry about, the kickstand seemed insignificant�). Finally we arrived in France only to be greeted by a broken down car in our carriage, promising at least an hour delay, luckily they had left the back door open and we u-turned out of the train just after being told that this was highly against regulations (good to see bureaucracy knows no boundaries)

A quick lesson in Gore-tex was learned: it aint waterproof! After a quick bomb down the A26 in France we are now holed up in a luvvly 2 star flea-hotel in Reims - I hear they have a cathedral. Tomorrow means a 6:00 am start to get to Niedereshach in Germany (450 kms away) to get our new kit fitted by Touratech followed by some bier. Pics to follow. I am sure that a new broom sweeps clean (or something like that) and that the depth of my updates will become less intensive, but hey who can blame me, we have just started a World Tour.

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leaving london is such sweet sorrow

the only way to keep your gloves dry in London

finally leaving sunny blightly

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