After a night in Lille, France we headed to the Chunnel at Calais to cross over to the UK. As usual, the crossing on the train was efficient, economical and interesting. We chatted to a couple of riders from Norwich who had been to the MotoGP at Le Mans and a retired police woman whose uncle had been the Commissioner of Police in Queensland - Ray Whitrod.

We then set the GPS for Eastbourne, our destination for our first night back in the UK. The hotel was right on the seafront opposite the Pier. We had stayed here before in 2013 and it felt familiar and we were very comfortable amongst the other senior citizens who roamed the streets on holidays.

Our next stop was Hailsham for a night with Nellie and Eric Davis - aunt and uncle of our brother-in -law Michael Reilly. We have been visiting Nellie and Eric since 1982 and always enjoy their company as we have a similar outlook on life - it is for living! After polishing off a delicious dinner, 3 bottles of wine between us and a good night's sleep, it was off to London to pick up our friend Chris Pearson from Heathrow. We have known Chris since 1975 when we met him in Warren N.S.W - our first teaching posting. We have travelled with Chris before (previous blog - The Warren Trio) and eagerly awaited his arrival to continue our adventures together.

After picking up a hire car for 24 hours, Kerrie and Chris drove to Felixstowe to pick up Chris's bike (our old Sprint ST) while Greg rode our Sprint GT. When we arrived at the Imorex Depot we spotted Craig d*** on's Triumph Tiger waiting patiently for Craig and Marg to pick it up later this month - it is safe and ready to go! We look forward to you joining us as well.

We rode off as soon as Chris transferred his luggage to the bike and headed to Derby, our home for the next couple of nights so that we could attend the World Superbikes at Donington. The track was only about 14 miles from our hotel so we were set for a couple of days following one of our passions - watching riders going around a track at ridiculous speeds showing their fearlessness and skill.

The weather was kind to us and the racing was great. The superbikes are very popular in Great Britain as the British riders are dominating the results this season. Tom Sykes, Jonathon Rea and Chaz Davies managed a double -triple (all 3 finished in the same order in both races) in the Superbikes but the highlight of the day was a 3rd place result for a British wildcard entry in the World Supersport race - Kyle Ryde (Ryde - what a great name for a motorbike rider!). Kyle is just 17 and fought a great battle with experienced rider Lorenzo Zanetti, and finished just behind Kenan Sofuoglu and Jules Cluzel. After the race, Kyle rode his scooter over to the hill we were sitting on and spent some time with his supporters - a great result for Kyle and the Brits! The family sitting behind us on the hill shared their chair and also fed us delicious homemade banana cake.

While sitting on the hill we also caught up with Julie Ramsom, from Imorex, again. This time Julie and her fiancé, Rob, were at Donington to watch Rob's son's girlfriend - Avalon Biddle (also a Kiwi like Rob and his son Jake) race in the European Junior Cup. Avalon finished first among the girls in the field and got to join the boys on the podium. After another great day of watching bike racing, we set off for a 2 hour ride back to London.

This part of our trip is entirely based around bikes. The return to London was to enable us to join a ride-out from the Ace Café to Margate. The Ace Café is a café on North Circular Road in London that is a famous biker's hangout (Google it!). We had breakfast at the Ace Café and then joined the 300 or so bikes that left the café at 10:30 for the ride. This was the 8th annual Margate Meltdown. The ride was only about 90 miles but riders converged on Margate from many different destinations and when we reached Margate, the seafront was awash with bikes of all shapes and sizes. Even the Hell's Angels put in appearance that had the crowd enthralled! There were stalls and bike gear to be examined and many bikes to admire. Chris, Greg and I picked our favourites and generally admired the bikes that had made the journey to the seaside.

After a great day, a couple of drinks and a good night's sleep we headed towards Birmingham. The weather again was clear for riding but a little cool. We spent the next 2 nights close to Solihull - the home of the British National Motorcycle Museum. We had visited this museum in 2011 but decided we needed another visit.

The National Motorcycle Museum is home to the largest collection of British motorcycles in the world featuring over 850 machines restored to the original manufacturers' specifications. Not only are bikes on display but the walls are adorned with posters and memorabillia from British motorbike history. Makes such as Norton, BSA and Ariel sit in rows for you to check out. There is one whole room dedicated to Triumph including a Triumph Tigress scooter. The TT winning Triumph of Bruce Anstey from 2003 sits among other TT racing bikes. There is a collection of Brough Superior bikes that were known as the Rolls Royce of motorcycles (named with the permission of Rolls Royce!). All the bikes on display are spotless - not a speck of dust on any of them! After wandering around for 90 minutes, Greg and I went for a coffee while Chris wandered on in Bike Enthusiast Heaven.

Greg and I returned to the hotel early as Greg has caught a bug and wasn't feeling too well. Kerrie didn't mind as she has an appointment to have her hair done and also found a laundry to get some much needed washing done - a good afternoon all round.

Next stop was another bike museum that Chris had found out about. Phil Morris has a private collection of bikes, riding gear, trophies and other memorabilia that is housed in a two storey building behind his house in Oswestry near the Welsh border. Phil is a retired businessman with a passion for bikes. He is not a rider but obviously knows the racing world well and sponsors several road racers including a young Australian called Ben Currey . His collection included everything you could think of that is bike racing connected - mostly signed by their last owners. There were shelves of helmets, boots, TT trophies and racks of Racing suits - all signed and labelled. When you walked in the door the first thing you saw was a display cabinet with a signed set of leathers and helmets belonging to John McGuiness and Jenny Tinmouth - the recognised King and Queen of the Isle of Man TT. Chris was once again in his element among the bikes and was deep in conversation with Phil for most of our visit.

Our museum visit completed, we headed north - getting closer to Glasgow by the day.