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Day 1 Thursday 6^th August – Dover

Steve Tyson our centre rep and I left at about mid day to take a leisurely ride via a very pretty country route through Westerham to rendezvous with our Centre 14 fellow travellers at Clacketts Lane Services on the M25. Karen and Brendan soon joined us on their Dragstar followed closely by Anne and Nick. Annemarie was working, so would meet us at Dover.

We set off and things went smoothly until I led the group on a wrong turning off a roundabout into the Channel Tunnel terminal. Of course no one took the pee!!

So what? We were on our way, the sun was shining and the approaching weekend was billed as a heat wave.

In no time we had arrived at Dover and found our digs. The sleeping arrangements were a number of dormitories with bunk beds, basic but serviceable. Anyway for £11 a night, and for the advantage of being so close to the early ferry, we put up with it.

Having met the rest of the party from the North, and having showered and brushed up we made our way into Dover for a Chinese, strictly limiting ourselves to 2 drinks to ensure that we were fresh for the next day’s ride.

Otto and Lorraine held a briefing at 9.30, and we learnt that such things as the Czech people were very friendly, that the Police were distrusted and would be likely to pocket any fines paid on the spot, that the food was very good and everything was cheap. We also learned from Ken that the potholes on the Czech roads could be treacherous, however we held no fear of this as we are all used to riding through the streets of Westminster.