Welcome all, on board another travel blog from yours truly.
It was a little under 4 months since the Wild Hogs had returned from the Scandinavian adventure in July of last year and my feet were starting to itch. Winter is a great time for bikers to sit and contemplate what they shall do once the winter has moved over the horizon and I'm no exception. I had already given some thought to the Wild Hogs' next tour and mapped out a couple of rough routes but that won't be until 2019 and I wanted something to do in 2018 as well.
I had made up my mind that I would try and get to more race meetings this year, MotoGP and World Superbike mainly but decided to resurrect an idea my brother and I had a few years back now, to go to the North West 200 Road Races in Northern Ireland. For one reason or another, it never happened and we instead went to MotoGP at Le Mans, where we spent almost the entire trip getting wet through (in our waterprooofs , of course). The irony of that, is that it nearly always rains in Ireland for the NW200 but that year they had glorious sunshine! C'est la vie!
As with the Isle of Man TT, finding accommodation for the NW200 can be very difficult. If you can't find anywhere to stay, then the trip is off, so accommodation is always the first thing to look for. Having a look on Booking.com, I was lucky to find a place (Breezemount Manor) still available and at not too exorbitant a rate, not far from the southernmost tip of the 'circuit', in Coleraine. I booked it.
Next up, came the route planning. How was I going to get across to Northern Ireland? There are several options but all are a fair ride away, so in the end, I settled on going via Wales, cadging an overnight stop with my daughter Jen, catching the ferry from Pembroke and up through Ireland. At this point it occurred to me that I could drop in on Grizzly but not only that, I could also see if he wanted to tag along for the races too, on a mini Hogs trip. Well, there's nothing Grizzly likes more than getting his leg over his bike and travelling with his Wild Hog chum, so he had no hesitation is accepting my offer. With that agreed, it meant I could get serious about the planning and booking phase of the trip.
Check back soon to find out how, what, when, where, etc.
Don't forget, if you want to know when updates to the blog are available, either register on the blog for email updates or look out on Facebook for my update posts.
