Stirling to Cornwall

Some flashbacks of my old job - "plans are nothing, planning is everything" :)  Our plan was to visit Les to get spare bulb for my HID50, ride through parts of Wales before we come to Cornwall...

We had a good lunch at Whole Foods and I could enjoy another Soy Latte (tip: give it a try - besides that it is vegan, it also tastes better then with cow milk). It was time to get some milage done and we rode major roads towards Lake District, where we camped for two nights near Keswick. As we walked our dogs, we found by accident some signs hinting towards Castlerigg stone circle (no pics). We explored the place and I was stunned by the surroundings - beautiful and inspiring! I could easily imagining me sitting there, bonfire, drinking & eating and discussing the purpose of life :D

Wolfi doing "office" work - Lyra showing how bored she is :D

It was this time of the month where we typically stay in one place for several days and we found a decent motel in Rotherham. At the check-in we had some hick-ups about the charges for our dogs (they wanted 5GBP/dog/night even though at the time of the booking it said - no extra charges). Well we got the dogs for free (room price was 49GBP - imagine 15GBP only for the dogs extra). The motel was in an industrial area and since it was weekend, it was very quit here - good for us and easier to have walks with the dogs.

It was Saturday 27.7. and I decided it is time to do some laundry. And boy, did I get a deja-vu about this money stuff in GB when I was in the laundry place (see comments on one of the previous post).  I had my washing machine filled and soap already in, that I realized only then I do not have enough coins. So I went to the counter and wanted to change one GBP note to coins. Well, the note was from the Bank of Scotland and I was in England! The lady refused to take the note! Lucky me, I had somewhere a 5GBP note from England. F****** Unbelievable.

I love to see all those Robin Hood movies, and thus it was a must-do for me to visit Sherwood Forest. We had a short walk with the dogs before rain did catch us and we return to the bikes to continue our journey.

Just before Chesterfield, my charging control lamp went on. This was not good! I called Les to tell him we will be late and hoped he had some good ideas. Amazing, I had another deja-vu (Rudi, you will remember this). Broken charger and it was Monday, which meant that the "typical" bike repair shop is closed :(

I lifted the tank a little, whether I could see anything (no idea what one could see but I did it anyway), I saw nothing and put everything back together. After some thinking, googling and calling around, we decided to hit towards Nottingham. My big battery would certainly last for those 50km or so. The BMW dealer there did not have time to fix my bike as they were fully booked, but then at least I could buy or order spare parts. We booked a cheap hotel via internet, I put off all my lights and off we went.

So, we thought... I pushed the start button on my bike and it did not start - instead it was spitting petrol from one of the connection pieces. P******! This cannot be happening. Two faults at once. I took broken connecter pieces away and connected the fuel horse directly to the fuel filter (which is outside my tank). After that fix, we finally could get going (the sales persons of the shop must have thought I have diarrhoea since I went so often to the toilet to wash my fingers) :D

We arrived in our hotel in Nottingham and the guy at the reception was so friendly to lent me his battery charger to charge my battery. In the meantime, I had a quick look - easy things first, so I checked the poly-belt and BINGO. It fell off when I opened the cover. That was easy.
Maybe here is a good time to end the ongoing dispute in some of the GS/boxer forums whether the service of the poly belt is 40.000 or 60.000km. I strongly recommend to change it at 40.000km. It costs about 16EUR and saves you from trouble on the road and additional costs like cancellation fee of a booked hotel.

Broken parts

After many P******, I decided to remove the tank. 2.5h later and we were back on the road.

Emergency cap for the fuel line

Lyra is bored during the repair - nobody played with her...

Skippy is bored and explores the wildlife in the bushes behind my bike

Colourful looking police beamers

Yes, Guy - I should have listened to you and changed the belt at home as well as took the fuel-quick-coupling spare parts. We treated ourselves "nice" this evening and saw the movie "The world's end". Next morning I got a spare and changed it myself at the dealer's parking lot. On a positive note, it was warmer now, then when I would have changed the belt at home in my shed during winter and I had more space around me ;)

Poor Lyra got stung by a bee :

The next few days we rode mostly bigger roads to get to Cornwall.

Cornwall - Cliffs of Morwenstow 

More cliffs of Morwenstow

Happy cows(?) at the Cliffs of Morwenstow

It was 2.8. and we hit our first major milestone - 3 months on the road (with all its consequences in regard to the Finnish social security system).

~ Wolfi