Tuesday 30th May
London to Exeter. 

After many nights of broken sleep I am finally on my way. 
Not fully ready of course, but it had become apparent that however much preparation I made, and however much I fretted about possible solutions to imagined problems, I would never feel completely ready. 
The only cure for my anxiety is to get on the road and start taking each day as it comes. 
And this is only the taster. London to Casablanca is about 1,000 road miles: 10% of the total journey. And no doubt the easiest 10%. But it should get the bike to Africa in readiness for my big push starting in August. And it will give me a few weeks back in London to deal with all the necessary logistics and documentation, and to take Shelagh for a long-planned holiday in Japan. 

Today’s job is to get to the British motorbike distributor and brand-owner (Lexmoto) in Exeter, by early afternoon, for some publicity photos and filming etc. I think they are hoping that my project will help demonstrate the reliability of small chinese-built motorbikes and counter some of the past negative press. In return they have been generous with kit, and the offer of advice and spare-part support. And possibly someone to talk to on the occasions when my nerve inevitably falters. 

I guess it’s moderately attention-grabbing: a 72 year old pensioner, hoping to ride the length of West Africa, through 18 challenging borders, alone, on a 125cc commuter bike - pretty much the cheapest new bike in the UK. Not very sensible really. 

As to press comments about the reliability of Chinese-built bikes, I remember in the 1960s similar comments being made about Japanese bikes. Within a very few years of their arrival in the UK they dominated the market and our motorbike industry was all but dead. Ask any old biker how they measured up against the home-grown products. 

If you want to know why I’m not using my wonderful German sports tourer, or one of the big adventure bikes made for this job, I will try to explain as we go along. 

It’s all Mahsa’s fault (see link:
https://womenadvriders.com/women-adventure-inspiration/from-iran-and-around-the-world/). Just before Covid, on a back-packing trip from Stockholm to Yerevan, I spent three nights crossing the Black Sea on a container ship with her, her Austrian boyfriend Gerald, and a loose group of other bikers.  I expressed my envy at their ambitious plans, and my regret that I had not done something similar when I was still young enough. She would not accept that my long-distance biking days were over, and coerced me into buying a touring bike and committing to ride at least from London to Odessa (where we had boarded the ship). Covid put that on hold, and then Putin put it off the agenda for the foreseeable. So this began as Plan B. And I’m now on about Plan H. 

I’m booked into an Exeter pub tonight. Another visit to Lexmoto tomorrow morning. Then in the afternoon by ship from Plymouth to Santander (at a gobsmacking cost). 

Today’s big decision: M4/M5 or M3/A303? This is not a day for scenic routes. I’ll just try to tuck in behind a lorry and try to stop worrying.