chuggys world tour

Danny, Tucker and me decided to go over to Northern Ireland to watch the NW200 - sounded like a great idea, though with Gillys birthday, we’d actually have to come back BEFORE the racing!!!

anyhoo, we rode over to Stranraer on the Saturday morning - and -after coffee and brekkie sarnies for me and Danny whilst gay Tucker had a Latte and pancake - got ABSOLUTELY drenched in wild rain and winds. Luckily though, we got to the ferry port early and found ourselves on the EARLY ferry rather than the one we expected (our intended ferry ran almost 3 hours late we found out later!!)

we dried off and had coffee on the ferry and by the time we disembarked at Larne (Belfast) the rain was almost stopped. We navigated thru to Hannahstown to stay overnight at Col and Maureens house, where Maureen had cooked a fab beef dinner for us.  A shower each (with Danny using his Lacy Louffa and me finding out that Col has one too!!!)Then it was off to Belfast for a night on the lash!

all well in the morning, Maureen produced the most gorgeous brekkie for us all including poached eggs!!! …what a darling! then after taking an AGE to get ready, we set off to the Dundrod (UlsterGP) circuit for photos and a racing start, then back to Larne and a trip up the famous Coastal road to Bushmills where we had booked a room in the hostel.

as we arrived I asked a guy stood outside a pub, where the hostel was, to which he opened a set of double doors and we rode THRU the beer garden, thru more doors into the hostel courtyard!!!!! PERFECT!!!

we got sorted in our ensuite room

“and then headed out for a beer

and then a walk to the Giants Causeway…..which turned out to be further than we thought so we got as far as the Visitor centre, then stopped, had a beer and got the steam train back!

more beers that night and an expensive - but VERYgood meal at a local restaurant

next morning ans we were up and out for 10am after a brekkie at the copper kettle next door. We rode along the coast to Coleraine then hit the twisties all the way down to Omagh where we had a nice sarnie and more coffee. Then back up to Portrush for a looksee (and to collect the brake fluid we were using to keep Tuckers Aprilia clutch going!) Back on the road we stopped short of Bushmills to checkout the great looking Dunluce castle overlooking the sea (though it should be noted that Danny missed the first turning and Tucker missed BOTH! .,….despite me waving like a loon at the junction!!!

Back at Bushmills we had supper and ……yep, MORE beer. We also met a group from Yorkshire…or was it Lancashire and had a laugh with them (we’d seen them in another pub we’d gone to to watch the football …which wasnt actually ON the TV :$ )

another late night for me and an early night for the two ‘ladies’ then we were up and out to go to the Causeway proper (very nice) and then the rope bridge (which Danny bottled) and then lunch at BallyCastle. A quick ride to Ballymoney (losing Danny on the way and meeting EVERY tractor in the northern hemisphere on the way) we visited Joey’s (Dunlop
) garden memorial then returned to Portrush to the race paddock. We had a walk around the garages and met Les Shand who Danny used to sponsor via his ‘bike bits company Faster By Design, then we headed back to Bushmills to drop off the bikes, get the bus back and watch the racing practice. burgers, doughnuts and coffee later and the practice ended under a red flag (we later learned a rider had crashed heavily. We walked into the town looking for food and beer, but found neither, so got a taxi back to Bushmills and after the LONGEST wait for chips takeaway, ate them in the local pub <thanks> and had a few more beers

Next morning we packed and left the SMELLIEST room in the world (courtesy of Tucker) and headed back down the coast to Larne.

A great trip …but maybe we should stay for the actual racing next year???

We were sitting around the boma at Koro camp one afternoon, the day before Charlie and the Trackers were leaving, when Kate (the camp ‘maid’, I guess) ran i, saying there was a snake outside. we ran out to see a Mozambique Spitting Cobra lying inthe grass, with most of a frog sticking out of its mouth.

We watched for a few moments - while I made sure everyone knew about its ability to spit venom, but knowing that with the frog blocking its mouth we were safe…for the moment. charlie then appeared and decided that we should catch/kill it as it was in the camp area. She donned a pair of sunglasses to protect her eyes from any spitting and then using a long stick started to try and catch the snake. At this point I got on the radio to let stuart know we had a snake (he was in the bush on his way back to the house) whilst on the radio, Charlie shouted for me, so I ran back over to her, by which time christoph (Kates hubby) had joinedher and the two of them were in the process of killing the snake. HOWEVER, the snake had spit at Charlie at the same time that she had shoutedfor me - resulting in Charlie getting some of the venom in her mouth!!!! A quick radio to Stuart and Charlie started washing her mouth out whilst climbing in to the Landie the snake carcass was put in and I drove ‘patient’ and the snake up to the house, where Staurt met us, we swapped into the Cruiser and raced for the border. At the border (we always use medical facilities in south Africa) we shot thru the Botswana side without passports - explaing it was a medical emergency and then again thru the RSA side - this time showing them the snake carcass to get them to open the gate quickly.

We managed to get a puncture on the dirt road to Alldays and almost had the car slide off the hi-lift jack!, but eventually reached Alldays where we found we had another puncture! all the time we keeping charlie talking to make sure she was OK - she looked worried and pale, but otherwise seemed not to bad (I think she was complaining her lips were numb not otherwise, OK) we swapped into another car and drove another 50km before meeting up with the ambulance that had been called for us about an hour before!. charlie was loaded onto a stretcher and she and Stuart sped off to hospital, leaving me to get back to Alldays in another vehicle.

that night I had a restless evening in a lodge at Alldays - where the barmaid watched me walking around my cabin nekkid whilst looking for summat to wear before I opened the door (I hadnt realised the door had a big glass panel in it!!!) …she had a message from annelien for me and a bag of clothes and toiletries from the lady who had dropped me off at the lodge (her family own the local store)

anyhoo, next morning I got the punctures fixed and then drove all the way back to Koro to pick up the students leaving and then drove all the way back to the border, where I met up with Stuart and Charlie!!!! she was fine!..the venom had no effect on her and they just kept her in overnight for observation PHEW!!!

Back at Joburg, I met up with Martin and Mark (ACE) and got transferred back to the Botswana border at Platjan. Here I met up with Charlie again who drove me and Frazer (new student) into Tuli letting me sit ... [Continue reading this entry]

just completed my first biking trip on the continent: I had just packed in a job and was looking for somewhere to take my mind of it - a guy I know was already booked for a trip over to ... [Continue reading this entry]

well, we landed at Likoma in the dark at about 8pm, after the locals got off (you HAVE to see how many people you can get in a single lifeboat!) we were collected by 2 boats from ... [Continue reading this entry]

just a quick note afore I get to write up properly: drove 10 hours from Cape town to Kimberley (and early crashed due to falling asleep at the wheel!) then flew from Kim to Joburg, then Joburg to Maputo. AND I ... [Continue reading this entry]

well, Gilly stayed for 2 weeks - we had a ball!

shame was the weather was pretty dodgy (the garden route had 12 inches of rain in 3 days......meaning floods and lots of damage: we stayed at Plettenberg Bay at a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Air con fixed and a nice cool drive thru into Cape Town. bit of a laff getting in as it was rush hour and I hadnt a clue where I was heading!...but I got to the Backpack hostel without crashing ... [Continue reading this entry]

been a busy time since the Skydive: I spent a day at Tsitsikamma reserve at the mouth of Storms river - nice walk to a waterfall, and then I took a different way back and managed to split my shorts ... [Continue reading this entry]

WOOHOO!!!

its all happenin! ....did a skydive today over Plettenberg bay (apparently its in the top 2 places in world to skydive due to the gorgeous views!): strapped to a guy for a tandem jump which should have been 10,000ft but ... [Continue reading this entry]