Saturday 28 July 2012



Perfect weather today for riding - 27 degrees and a light breeze - long may it continue! Lots of holiday traffic heading for Manitoulin Island but once we passed there the road became very quiet. We decided to stop about 3.30pm in a one horse town called Blind River on Lake Huron. Very quiet and pretty. The journey is slower than we thought it would be as most people keep to the speed limit of 55 mph, with the occasional 60 mph (even though the roads are long and straight and empty most of the time). Although I guess not surprising when you see signs on the side of the road stating you will be fined up to $10,000 for travelling more than 50 km/h over the speed limit!











Friday 27 July 2012



All packed up and it was good to leave the humidity of Toronto. Had an easy start and stopped at a lovely town called Huntsville with blue skies and 27 degrees. Can recommend the locally brewed Muskoka beer! Need to wind that throttle open for a bit longer tomorrow though!

Thursday 26 July 2012


Fortunately the bike arrived with no problems.  Minimal paperwork and very helpful staff. It was definitely a good decision to fly into Canada rather than the States. Our only other logistical problem had been what to do with our empty luggage - but we received a kind offer from our neighbour's friend who originates from Toronto, that her parents would be happy to store them for the 3 months.
So tomorrow we load the bike and we are on our way.

Wednesday 25 July 2012



We were watching our flight being loaded and this container looked the only one large enough to hold the bike, so fingers crossed it was - we will find out tomorrow. Flying Club on Air Transat was very good apart from Anne had to put up with a guy sitting next to her talking constantly for 7 hours  - he told her he doesn't normally drink but managed to continually do so for the whole flight!  Thank heavens for I-pods.  The people sat behind us said she deserved a medal!

Monday 23 July 2012

Outside Servisair Cargo, Gatwick, getting ready to pass the bike over for air-freighting.
We were lucky that the weather was good today after all the rain, as its a requirement that there are no bugs or excessive grime on the bike when you drop it off. We delivered the bike today, 2 days before travel, to enable the Customs checks.  Now fingers are crossed that it gets loaded on to the same flight as us and arrives in one piece at the other end!