So, the time has finally come for me to embark South towards Le Shuttle. This is a trip I've watched many a video about, dreamt about and spoke about. And to be honest, glad I'm doing it on my own. My pace, my time, my choice, take it as it comes..
So, day one. Bike was packed and ready the night before. Until my new Lone Rider bag arrived 30 minutes before departure. Which meant a quick repack and strap down and sorted. In go the ear plugs and the mighty 1250 bursts into life, as eager as me to get going (minus the nerves)
I fire out the driveway and point the bike South, and proceed to miss the turn off to the A1 as I'm so used to carrying on down to the M1..remember what I said about nerves?
About 100 miles into the trip, I come up on 3 people on two bikes. Dad and kid on a big K1600 (I think?) and wife/mom on a R1200GS Adventure, I filter past them and about 50 miles down the road, I pull into a Shell to top up the tank and get me comfortably into France and to my first stop. Who pulls in behind me? The family I filtered past, all the way from Glasgow! Also heading to the Eurotunnel for a trip through Europe, on a similar route as me.
I decide to convoy with them until they turn off the M25 for some reason. Not sure why but I carry on. Until I hit traffic, bad traffic..maybe why they turned off, they didn't filter with panniers and kids on etc. I filter slow and steady and decide to duck into the Golden Arches for a snack, not sure when I'll next eat.
Polish off a quick cheeseburger and chips and off I go. Having to take the detour as the on ramp is closed, so we weave our way through Ashford until it spits us out near the entrance to Le Shuttle. The excitement builds.
We pull into the check in queue and I punch in my digits and out it spits a ticket. I remember my clothes peg, grabbed that out and put the ticket on my windscreen.
Le Shuttle in their infinite wisdom, and I imagine partly under the behest of the EU, have changed the layout. You now weave your way through the new electronic EU passport control (which is still offline) until you enter the carpark. For some reason, I was given VIP parking..
I decide to not hang around and hop back on and make my way to border control.
Many many unhappy regulars with the current setup. Speaking to some of the employees, this layout isn't sticking around as it doesn't work, wonder why..
Through border control and I'm put into the queue for the earlier train, success!
Quite a few bikes then arrived behind me and a few lanes over, we ended up on the same train.
We bumble under the sea and 35 minutes later, welcome to France. We hurriedly jump on our bikes and wait...and wait...till the doors open and we see sunlight. 30 minutes later I'm parked up at the first night's stay in Dunkirk.
Put the locks on, bike cover and all hidden by a massive Range Rover. Sleep well. Day 1, complete, I call that a win.
So, day one. Bike was packed and ready the night before. Until my new Lone Rider bag arrived 30 minutes before departure. Which meant a quick repack and strap down and sorted. In go the ear plugs and the mighty 1250 bursts into life, as eager as me to get going (minus the nerves)
I fire out the driveway and point the bike South, and proceed to miss the turn off to the A1 as I'm so used to carrying on down to the M1..remember what I said about nerves?
About 100 miles into the trip, I come up on 3 people on two bikes. Dad and kid on a big K1600 (I think?) and wife/mom on a R1200GS Adventure, I filter past them and about 50 miles down the road, I pull into a Shell to top up the tank and get me comfortably into France and to my first stop. Who pulls in behind me? The family I filtered past, all the way from Glasgow! Also heading to the Eurotunnel for a trip through Europe, on a similar route as me.
I decide to convoy with them until they turn off the M25 for some reason. Not sure why but I carry on. Until I hit traffic, bad traffic..maybe why they turned off, they didn't filter with panniers and kids on etc. I filter slow and steady and decide to duck into the Golden Arches for a snack, not sure when I'll next eat.
Polish off a quick cheeseburger and chips and off I go. Having to take the detour as the on ramp is closed, so we weave our way through Ashford until it spits us out near the entrance to Le Shuttle. The excitement builds.
We pull into the check in queue and I punch in my digits and out it spits a ticket. I remember my clothes peg, grabbed that out and put the ticket on my windscreen.
Le Shuttle in their infinite wisdom, and I imagine partly under the behest of the EU, have changed the layout. You now weave your way through the new electronic EU passport control (which is still offline) until you enter the carpark. For some reason, I was given VIP parking..
I decide to not hang around and hop back on and make my way to border control.
Many many unhappy regulars with the current setup. Speaking to some of the employees, this layout isn't sticking around as it doesn't work, wonder why..
Through border control and I'm put into the queue for the earlier train, success!
Quite a few bikes then arrived behind me and a few lanes over, we ended up on the same train.
We bumble under the sea and 35 minutes later, welcome to France. We hurriedly jump on our bikes and wait...and wait...till the doors open and we see sunlight. 30 minutes later I'm parked up at the first night's stay in Dunkirk.
Put the locks on, bike cover and all hidden by a massive Range Rover. Sleep well. Day 1, complete, I call that a win.
. Have a good one 
