Tuesday

Just before 3pm I set off from my house for Lands End. We don't actually do the complete end to end as Lands End don't open their gates until 9am and there's no accommodation there for forty riders and the necessary support crew. So we assemble at Lands End for 4pm and have a ceremonial start off.

When I left my village it was raining hard enough, and had been for a couple of hours, to flood the patio so despite the heat I wrapped myself in all my waterproof gear. Three miles to Redruth and the roads are dry and the sun shining. Yay for Cornwall...

An hour and 34 miles later and I wasn't the last to arrive at the meeting point at Lands End where we first get to meet the others and look at the very broad spread of bikes that'll be aiming to ride to the very North East of Great Britain tomorrow. There were a few absolute heaps, and a fair few bikes that you'd also suspect could be sold today for much more than the nominal £600. There's also some poor chap who has turned up on a 125 VanVan so I guess it's swings and roundabouts. Top speed for your man might be as high as 50mph. Might...

  
And then once everyone has assembled and had an introductory talk from JM, it's time to line up for the official start in front of the theme park.

Before heading North. Lots North.

Well, Hayle. Which is both North and East if nothing else and contains a Shell station and more importantly a Premier Inn. No one wants 30 bikes trundling down the lanes from Lands End at 4am and especially if they've all had to sleep in tents the night before. So we trundle to Hayle, have the opportunity for a decent night sleep and have a meal in the Beefeater attached to the hotel. The owner of the blatantly over-budget Pan European gets given a Polite vest to wear the next day and told to think about what he's done, and the rules of engagement are read out again to us. The emphasis is on both keeping us safe, legal and making sure everyone knows how to get to the end in one piece.

We also have a lady from Cancer Research UK who thanks us for the effort we (and more specifically you who've sponsored us) have provided over the years. She described where some of the money has been deployed and told us about the many advances they've made over the last few years with help of the LDU contributions. The production of a HPV vaccination and it's vastly significant reduction of cancer in women is just one of the many amazing advances they've made in the decade that the LDU has been running and supporting. This stuff is the reason why it's important. 

After dinner most people drift to the carpark for final modifications or piss-taking of theirs and everyone else's bikes. For me it meant taping up my radiator as the bike was now running very cold indeed.

With final prep done, it was time to go to bed. Pointless hanging around when you've got to be up at 3am the next day. I'd been billeted with Dave, the exceedingly nice chap from the Redruth MoT centre and can confirm he only snores a tiny bit. Cunningly I'd brought a tub of porridge and a banana for brekky, all I needed to do was switch my brain off and stop thinking* about how everything could go wrong tomorrow for a good night sleep...

*I clearly did not do this.