A good day after yesterday. Made phone calls to Suzuki dealers between Lewis and Dover to try and locate a new offside pannier, no luck, they say they have to order them from Germany, (perhaps I should pick one up on the way !!), so thought I would just try a few random motorcycle shops around Lewis. The first I called was P&H Motorcycles in Crawley and spoke to a chap called Ron in their spares dept. He said they would never take a pannier off a showroom model, it's too much hassle, however he said he would go and look in the stockroom. He came back a minute late and said he thinks he has a pair that was left over from some sale that went wrong, but is not sure if they will fit. Forty minutes later I am trying on the pannier and it fits fine. Ron looks in the spare decls box and finds a silver decal. These are needed to block up the holes. Unfortunately you cannot buy seperate panniers, they always come and travel in pairs !!. I called the insurance company and told them I had located a replacement pannier, and they said go ahead and keep the receipt and they will reimburse later. So I bought two panniers £250 and Ron is posting the spare nearside pannier back to Bingley. Result !! So now I have one Orange pannier and one Silver pannier, so perhaps I should change my name from The Orange Rider (TOR) to The Orange and Silver Rider (TOSR) which if you pronounce sounds like "tosser" which is fitting because that is exactly what I felt like standing in the fast lane of the M25 yesterday. And many thanks to Ron at P&H Motorcycles in Crawley.
On to Dover and starting the journet at last. Went to P&O and asked the price for one way ticket to Calais £77, went to DLL lines £44, went to SeaFrance £35 so SeaFrance got my business, and they were the first ferry top leave. Woman at P&O couldn't give a s**t when I went back and complained about their prices !!
Met a group of 7 bikers from Cheltenham Motorcycle Club in the ferry boarding lane. They were on a 10 day touring holiday to Mosel valley in Germany, avec wives and with hotel rooms all booked. They couldn't believe I was going clockwise right around Europe on my own. Later when I got to know them better I told them about the M25 incident. It sound funny when told afterwrds, and they were falling about with the image of me picking up all my belongings amidst the traffic.
Off ferry and along the coast towards Dunkerque and into Belgium. Tired by 18:00 and stopped in small town called Veurne. Found a hotel called "de Loft" too expensive, but tired so 69 euro accepted. walked around town, and couplke of drinks in a bar, chicken kebab takeaway, more beer and back to room to watch football match.
Have photos, but forgot camera cable today so will post them later.
TOR
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