Not good news Im afraid.

Ok, Game over as far as the bike is concerned. I wont be riding anything for quite a few weeks. They've booked me an ultrasound next week when the swelling dies down, but most likely is surgery to sew the muscles in my shoulder back together.

So we've hired a car for a couple of days to buy time to assess options.  The feeling is to continue on as much as possible but right now we just need to find a motel, a bath, a big comfy bed and hold each other for a few hours until we can think straight again.

Thanks for all your support.
 

How quickly things can change

We might be in Derbyshire a tad longer than expected.

Last night I got up about stupid o'clock for a wizz, and being a stupid git, and it being stupid o'clock I had to do something stupid didn't I?  And so exactly on queue the stairs jumped out at me and I had no choice but to throw myself down them.

Rather long stairs they are too, and rather steep, 14 of the little buggers in all. The end result was a) me ending up in a battered heap at the bottom, and b) the entire household waking up to the chorus of clatter and groans.  In all seriousness, falling down a narrow flight of stairs in pitch darkness is really a pretty horrible thing to go through.  I was extremely lucky to not bang myself up more than I did. However, besides a scary number of cuts and bruises Ive managed to tear the rotator cuff of my left shoulder.

So today was spent at emergency in Whitworth Hospital, and then a referral to xray at Chesterfield A&E. The aussie public health system could really learn from these guys but that's another story.

Upshot is I don't know how long till I can ride again. Not today, or tomorrow, maybe the day after (whatever that is lol) but maybe not for some time.

We've postponed the ferry crossing, the bike is safe and I'm back to the fracture clinic tomorrow for them to assess the damage, not that anyone thinks it's fractured but that's how we have to find out.
Then we'll work out what to do.

Best case - a couple of days and I'll be ok to ride again and we alter the route in Euro to allow me to heal.
Worst case - pack up and come home for surgery.
Bloody Bugger!
So fingers crossed. We're hopeful of the former but will know a lot more tomorrow.

I'll let you know when I do.

Terry

(So does anyone want to see my lovely bruises?)

What the hell are we doing in Derbyshire?

Having a pretty amazing time, that's what.
So are you sitting comfortably? Good, than I shall explain.

As mentioned last time, given the difficulties we were having with the bikes temperature, and also that I couldn't fit the GPS mount the way I intended to, I thought I would put my Ulysses club membership to good use and ask for assistance from the GB Branch. Well one email led to another and just as the London weather got normal again, ie drizzly rain, we found ourselves heading north along the M1 to visit the Ulysses GB Secretary Steve (Stephanie) and her husband Gray.

After an afternoon of both motorway and windey village roads a little reminiscent of the Robertson/Moss Vale area, we arrived wet, tired and wind blown in this hamlet of Wensley and have spent today hanging out with them. As an excuse, Im still tweaking with our gear set up and Janelle has developed a sniffle which makes us a little careful about heading straight over to Europe immediately. If it's going to get worse, much better that we're still in a place they understand us. Having said that, we've booked an overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge in Belgium for a Monday night crossing.

So this morning we went for a ride into the nearby town of Matlock for some top box mount modification bits, and then this afternoon our wonderful hosts took us for a ride through the most amazing little English villages. Words can't really describe it, so we have taken a fair bit of video, which Ive posted a little snippet of below.  Couple of things to say about this vid, a) clearly we've managed to mount the vid on the bike, b) unfortunately it's sideways, hence the portrait aspect. Oh, and c) the sound is crap.Sorry about that, very little I can do about it.

We also took a trip map on the GPS which I've added as a separate post because it needs to be HTML to work properly.  The attached (rather annoying) graph is able to be closed immediately if you want, and it shows out speed etc.  It averages at 17 mph but includes 2 stops. Yes miles. Everything is in miles.  Im slowly getting used to it.  You can zoom out to see exactly where we are in UK.

Anyway, we're off tomorrow morning, and plan on dropping by Sherwood Forest to play Robin Hood for lunch, then onto Hull to find our Ferry.

I must say the biggest possible thank you to Ulysses GB and especially Steve and Gray for the amazing hospitality, assistance, advice and just about everything else.  You guys are gold!

So assuming everything has worked properly, below is a vid of the ride back into Wensley and a map of our little jaunt today.

Till next time.

T & J.

Ride into Wensley

What the hell are we doing in Derbyshire?

Riding... what else!

Peak District meanderings

Leaving London in the morning.

It's 8am at home and 11pm here and we're ready to leave London tomorrow. Heading to Derbyshire to meet up with some UK Ulysses club folk.  I emailed Oz about contacts here who might have a workshop I can plug into. Pretty amazing response to be honest. But they seem a friendly bunch and want to help and it would be great to get their ideas.  Janelle feels a lot more comfortable knowing we have back up.

Otherwise, we're having a great time as long as I stay out of the traffic. It's soul destroying. Really it is. 

The bike is a lot better after a thermostatectomy and (oh no I'd thought I'd never say it) but the heat is too much.  30 deg here is like 40 at home.  Sticky, humid and not fun at all. No one has air conditioning so there's no escape.

Janelle took me to Rock of Ages on the West End tonight.  Pretty amazing to actually be there and doing that kind of thing.

 

Ive been taking a few videos and will try to post some tomorrow.

 

Till then "Dont Stop believin'..." and "Hooray for Boobies"

(look it up)

 

T & J

Kevin's big day out.

Hi everyone. I had a really big day today hanging out with my cool friends Janelle and Terry.

It started when I joined them for a fantastic breakfast at Little Venice Village.  Terry reckons it was the best bought breaky he's ever had.

Then I helped them put the Aussie flag stickers on the bike.  Here's me holding up the windscreen.

Then we all went for a ride to see if the bike is still overheating (yes it is and Terry is taking it back to the guy tomorrow morning to have a new thermostat put it) and to test all the gear packing ability to see how much is going to fall off. And Terry finally worked out how to convince his GPS that they in London (silly GPS) so they wanted to make sure it played nicely with the satellites.


Luckily it did or they might never have found their way back from Georges Pub in Slough.  And what a fun day everyone had, even with an overheating engine.  Here's a photo of me having a little lie down in the tank bag.

And the day ended with a nice bottle of Cab Sav in the amazing rood-deck built by their host Alan.. Very civilized. Did you know that Aussie wine is cheaper here than at home.  Not happy!

So thats all for now.  I hope all my friends back in Oz are keeping well. Terry and Janelle are very worn out after a hard day playing in the amazing sun, (+30 deg today) so they've had an early night.  They promise to write more tomorrow.

So until next time they let me out of the tankbag... stay safe and keep in touch.

Kevin.

We have a motorcycle!

That was the highlight of a very trying day.

Breakfast beside the canal was lovely. Then we caught the train over to get the bike. About an hour and only 1 wrong platform and we arrived at the shop around 11am.

Signed up, a quick check over and off we went... and things kinda went down hill from there.

The stop start London traffic wasn't kind to the poor Blackbird. It had just been serviced and the idle speed was set too high at 1800 RPM. I figured that was sortable so we pushed on.

After about an hour of 100 meters between red lights it started overheating. Very uncool and forcing us 3 stops to allow it to cool. During one of those stops I lost my phone. Near Kings Cross station apparently. Bloody bugger x100.

Oh, and the GPS wasnt working with the new mapping so we were making it up as we went along.

Finally made it here to Paddington, not sure how. They used to call it Dead Reckoning. I think more like blind luck.

And the system I'd devised to mount the GPS doesnt work. Not quite back to square 1 but will need a major revision.

So not the most successful of days all in all.

So off for a London pub dinner and a cold beer. At least the weather is perfect.

Photos... well yes... they're on my phone. Grrrr.

Little Venice is amazing!

When we think houseboats we imagine large barge things floating down the Murray or that you hire from Nelligen.  Houseboats here are so different.
There's a canal, for the most part no wider than a 2 lane road, and lined both sides with long thin boats that are peoples homes, restaurants, taxi's and everything else.  We're told that one is owned by Richard Branson and is where he recorded Tubular Bells, but for the most part, they look like fairly cheap accommodation. The council provides amenity blocks dotted along the way, and I must say, a peaceful 7am walk along the tow path was quite probably the perfect way to start our first normal morning in London Town.

Safe and well in London

Landed at 6.15 London time, 3.15pm yesterday aussie time.
Very tired. Sleep now. Pick up bike tomorrow.
Photos should appear on slideshow on the right.