Part 1 Complete

Well, here I am in sunny, yes sunny, Manchester. Last minute hiccups meant I didn’t leave home until 10:15. Silly things, such as one of the rubber spacers on the rack going awol, allowing the topbox to wobble a bit and that nice lady on my tom-tom, deciding she didn’t want to talk to me. Some might say that’s a blessing but after about 75 miles I had to stop and put her straight. The silence was killing me. In truth, I also needed a drink and to rest my bum a bit, so I stopped off at Toddington services for five minutes. I’d been on the road for an hour and a half.

The journey was pretty uneventful really. Apart from the usual traffic hotspots, I was, in the main, able to keep up a fairly reasonable pace. I decided I’d probably stop to refuel with around 175 miles on the clock. As it was, I pulled in to the Hilton services on the M6 with 174.6 showing. Not bad eh?

Q: why in ripoff Britian do we get shafted by the petrol stations on the motorway. Unleaded retails here for £143.9 per litre. That’s 10p more than it was last night when I topped up. I recently went to France, in the car but don’t recall their motorway petrol stations being wildly more expensive than anywhere else. As I said, rip off Britain. Why do we stand for it?

From Hilton services, it’s a little more than 60 miles to my aunt’s place. I arrived sometime around 14:30, I think, but once again in silence. I think this time it was due to the volume having been turned down, accidentally of course but I couldn’t help thinking that I had stumbled across the real reason it’s called tomtom. I’ll not elaborate any more, else I’ll have all the women (all?) after my guts. Very un PC Neill!

Furnished with a sandwich and cuppa, we’ve spent a couple of hours catching up and discussing how long the second part of journey will take tomorrow. It’s only 65 miles or so but apparently Lancaster is a bitch to drive through, so I can expect it to take a little longer than I’d anticipated. My ferry is 11:45 (from Heysham) but I have to check in by 09:15. I’ll be leaving here, latest 07:30.

Right now though I’m sitting writing this and supping a can of cold Stella, with the smell of dinner wafting past my nose. Aaah, bisto!

Journey stats:

Left Chatham: 10:15

Arrived Manchester: 14:30

Total mileage: 241.1

Miles to fuel stop: 174.6

Litres: 14.28

MPG: 47.1

Cost per litre: £1.43.9

Refuelling Cost: £20.55

Here we go.

Finally, that day has arrived when I set off on my TT adventure. The bike is prep’d most of the packing done and now I’m just having a bacon roll for my brekkie, before I start the final countdown. My plan is to leave at 10am. I’m anticipating about a 5 hour journey to my aunt’s in Manchester. I need to stop for fuel en route, as the fuel tank only gives me a maximum 200 miles and door to door we are talking 235. I’m sure my bum will need a rest by then anyway and me a drink or snack. The weather is superb at the moment and sounds like it is set for the next day as well. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way for another week too. I daren’t look at the 10 day weather forecast, as I don’t want to be miserable on the run up. I can save that for when I’m there!

I’m not sure what the internet situation is going to be whilst I’m away. My aunt has broadband, so tonight I should be able to update you on the journey up, however, I don’t know about my digs, so there may not be any blog updates until I get back. Googling ‘free wifi on the IOM’ doesn’t exactly bring up a lot of options!

Anyway, the bacon has now gone and so soon shall I be.