Oli and Felix's Lap

Blog header pic

thelap — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:00:11 +0000

Some of you may have noticed, others just can’t be bothered.

I’ve changed the header pictures which you can see upon accessing the blog between the blog-title and the posts. It features Ben Nevis in a pic taken while we were around doing ‘the Lap’.

The request has been made by a colleague, who mistook the original header-pic as a picture taken by us. Which lead me to the idea of checking out the obvious.

The result is obvious…

Felix

Game over

thelap — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:40:00 +0000

it took me another 11,5 hours straight to get back home. That is 1020 kilometers, four petrol stops, 2 sandwiches, a can of coke, two muesli bars, a medium coke, a cheeseburger, french fries and 3/4 of a litre of squash.

After I’d hit continental soil around 1.30pm I took off in search for bike-food, which I found after quite an awful lot of searching. Straight on I went into Belgium where, after 3 hours I had to fill up again. Plus a sandwich, a muesli bar and a can of coke.
The journey continued and I started thinking about going for a long run, all the way home. Another empty tank later, just outside Dortmund I checked my watch: 7.15pm
Calculations started and I reckoned it would be another 5 hours if I went all the way. The weather being nice, that is slightly too hot for my and the bike’s liking, we agreed on speeding on. Two hours to Kassel was the next stint. Got there safe and sound, slightly taken aback by a wonderful sunset and red skies which almost took my breath away.
Soaking in the energy this scenery had given me, I was ready for the las part of the “long way home”. Stopped over at a local McD, I’ll leave it to you to find out which of the nutrition mentioned above I consumed.
The next petrol stop just off the A38 eastward signaled me that It would be another two hours and I was on schedule, as it was 10.30pm.
Cleaned the visor, it’s unbelievable what amount of bugs is still up at this time of day – it seems to be worse than in sunlight!
I have to admit that the last bit between Eisleben and Leipzig, which is non-motorway has been a pain in the butt, yet again since the signs are crap and you’ll have to deal with a major detour. Advice for anyone who plans to take the A38 to Goettingen: Go for Leipzig-Halle via the A14 and swich to the A38 just beyond Halle! Easier, faster, and so on…

Struck 12.15pm I read the long awaited sign saying I’d entered my home turf. Leipzig, I’m back again!

Once again, my compliments and thanks to Oli, Manda and their families for their generosity and hospitality – I don’t take that for granted, therefor I do really appreciate everything that happened over the last two weeks!
Hail to the Hale, Mark, t’was you ho helped us get them beasts ready for action – this on is especially to you!
Mom, I know you’ve been worried though you tried not to show it, but be sure that I love you!

Lastly, Oli, again. Dude, it has been some of the most awesome time EVER. Doing all of this with you has been worth it and more than this!

We did it – and I’m proud of it!

The Route

thelap — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:09:41 +0000

anticlockwise

The pictures have arrived!

thelap — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:21:20 +0000

Hello world,

we proudly announce the arrival of pictures to this blog. We will update them over the day as it takes some time and tears of memories coming back whilst looking at them.

Please refer to

Photos

Cheers,

Oli and Felix

Home

thelap — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:16:57 +0000

We’ve covered 2446 miles, 3965 km, the whole length of the country, 30 odd counties, hundreds of hills, valleys, bridges, level crossings and roundabouts and we’re home.

We’ll upload the photos tomorrow, once we’ve got them all transfered to the computer, in the meantime, here’s a taster.

The grand finale…

thelap — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:29:25 +0000

It is here and now, final and unavoidable…
We have just turned of the roads along the south-coast and are facing straight towards the capital, London.
It’s a somewhat sad moment for both of us as this last stretch will close an amazing, breathtaking and very joyful chapter in our “combined” history as friends…
It’ll also be something that we can look back to whenever we meet and visit.
The Lap (chpt 1) comes to an end, our friendship certainly does not!!
More to come soon…

Final Morning

thelap — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:46:01 +0000

The sun is up as we’re packing the bikes.

Just the South coast to ride before turning left for home in London, in 8 hours time or so

Wareham, the final frontier

thelap — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:41:10 +0000

We’re sitting here in a lovely house in Worgret, near Wareham in Dorset, and it’s our last night away from home, well, my home.

Today was our shortest day by far, just 111 miles. 40 miles from Kingsbridge found us at Exeter, we’d got there via Totnes, Newton Abbot and the A381, before hooking up with the A38 for a short burst to the M5. Luckily, we just were only on the motorway for 4 miles before heading off along the south coast, past Lyme Regis, Seaton and Dorchester.

We stopped off at the Bovington tank museum, which was great, but lead us into some pretty deep conversations about the state of the world, why the tanks were used, and the future of Europe; along with Felix’s military service, always an interesting topic as someone for who the military is an alien concept. it’s the little differences in experience and points of view that keep the world interesting.

From Bovington it was just a short blast down the road, the five miles to Wareham, where we had a wander around the town, before heading to our hosts house in Worgret, where we were met with chilled beers, good conversation and a stonking BBQ.

It’s getting late now, so we’ll sign off., Rest assured that tomorrow we’ll upload all the photos, edit this so it’s readable and charge you all money for reading it!

Night all, O&F

Exeter

thelap — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:32:57 +0000

I always stop at these services when I’m down this way, no real reason, they’re just a good distance from everywhere.

We’re one hour and 39 miles from Mick’s, and we’re about to take the coast road around to Dorchester, and Wareham for our final overnight stop of the trip.

It’s blazing sunshine and we’ve both got big grins despite sweating under all the gear!

closing in on the capital

thelap — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:23:00 +0000

todays trip took us to Kingsbridge just two days short of finishing ‘the lap’ back at Oli’s place in London.
Lucky as we are and have been throughout the journey, Oli’s uncle lives in Kingsbridge which providesus with free accommodation and food, a proper BBQ that is. It all comes with chats about almost anything in a backyard looking over the valley.
It has been another terrific day riding through parts of Cornwall and Devon for 7 hours, seeing some of the beautiful coast of this country. It even included a ferry neither of us expected, close to St. Mawes, a place Oli knows from childhood (bless…). A picturesque harbour village as nice as you could imagine. Besides that it’s been those high-hedged narrow roadwhich are typical for
this part of the world. Mevagissey was the next stop, another of Oli’s memories coming back to life…
Sunshine all the is the biker’s best friend and we’ve had plenty of that all day – excellent!
On we went towards Kingsbridge driving past familiar places as we’ve both been here just a year ago for the annual VYP. Saltash that’s been, working at Liskeard, which we drove right through today. Recalling the Morissons toilet is what prevented major accident, by the way…
It would be another hour to Kingsbridge at that time with both of us being slightly exhausted. All the way through Plymouth and further down and we’d get to the destination, finally.
Right now we’re sitting over a can of cider (the yummi stuff, you know) and the BBQ is burning next to a beautiful sunset.
Cheers to our hosts for all their effort and hospitality!

Have a good one, everybody!
F&O