Day 1

Holyhead and Beyond

The Route

A Home

B Mike & Lindsay’s Home

C A55 McDonalds Car Park

D Ferry Terminal

Distance 115 miles (185 km)

The Book

I have recently finished writing a short story about the whole trip and the book is available in full colour hard back or black and white paper back to purchase now.

So there we where just cruising along the motorway at a good pace when I noticed a car drawing along side me with the driver shouting something and pointing to the floor. Had I upset him in some way, you never know with some drivers. I slowed to let him come along side and could hear him shouting, your side pod is hanging off. At first it didn’t click, but we eventually realised that he meant one of the side panniers was hanging lose. I waved to say thanks and Mo quickly grabbed at the handle of the pannier to a least stop it falling off the bike whilst I slowed down and came to a stop on the hard shoulder.

The hardest thing about carrying this amount of luggage is the fact Mo cannot get off the bike first. Instead I have to slide off the bike, whilst still holding the handle bars and then she can get off. Mo is unable to get on the bike using the step though technique and is unable to lift her leg high enough to get it over the top box, so we developed this system. A tricky operation at the best of times, but at the side of the motorway with the traffic passing at high speed, causing the wind to gust with each vehicle passing is even more difficult. Eventually I managed to get off the bike and help Mo. The pannier was hanging from the bottom of the rack because the top catch had somehow come out of the locking mechanism. It was pushed and locked back into place and checked that the locking mechanism was firmly in placed. I decided to check all the other bits of luggage before we got back onto the bike. This is just as tricky has getting off. Mo gets on first and slides into the pillion position while I hold the bike steady. Then I cocked my leg over the seat and slid on taking the weight of the bike.

Extract from the book 'The Land of Diddeley Dee'

"This is a tale of a group of ten Bikers who went on a trip to the west coast of Ireland during the summer of 2008"

Hard back version £16.00 plus p&p

Printed: 67 pages, 8.25" x 10.75", casewrap-hardcover binding, white interior paper (80# weight), full-colour interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-colour exterior ink

Paper back version £8.50 plus p&p

Printed: 74 pages, 5.83" x 8.26", perfect binding , white interior paper (60# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-colour exterior ink