InvictaMoto's Devall Boys!

A trip in the planning. This could be the next brothers trip. Planning started a while back and then Neill said he'd come along too. So my blog for the trip is:  https://invictamoto-aragon-2022.blogspot.com

From Monday 4th October the government was to relax entry regulations for the double-vaccinated humanoids, and from tomorrow, the 8th, drop the traffic light system for travel  from red. amber, green to a simple green and red. What they haven't done is removed the requirement to take a Day 2 test for Covid from anyone coming back from a green country and who is double vaccinated or even now, triple vaccinated! This means that the companies offering these tests, and that grew up like the number of flies on a fresh  pile of shit, are still able to rip off the public with huge charges for tests. Looks like tour plans over.

Could the short tour to the Dams and the crash site memorials be back on in 2021? With travel restrictions being relaxed for the double or even triple vaccinated it may be easier to go over. I only have a week off holiday before the end of the year. By then the fuel crisis might be over..... At least in Europe they have loads of it.   I'd have to check with Claire that I  can go.... 

We have had to cancel our trip to the NMA again this year.   Not because of Covid-19 but due to sheep-like morons rushing out to fill their cars with petrol by panic buying. The same absolute shitheads did it with bread and toilet rolls before and now they have fucked the entire country up with their stupidity.

The ride is on.  Neill and I will set off on Friday afternoon for the ride up to the Ramada Hotel at Newport Pagnell, via Ireland so we can "bag" a photo there for the overland magazine's " Ride the World Competition "  I thought I had signed up for this but apparently I hadn't.  So I have now. A bit late to meet many of the challenges. More to follow.

The government putting back the so called "Freedom Day" from June 21st to July 19th has affected many events. The RTTW is still only accessible to the first 4000 that booked when reservations opened at the end of April. We have a hotel booked for the Friday evening near Milton Keynes and it has a bar and restaurant as well. I need to book the day off as flexi-leave as it is outside the school holidays and my term-time only contract. By then I might be back working in the office for the last few months before I retire.

 The End for 2021. Covid restrictions in travelling to EU countries mean that we will be unable to go this year.  

Today the UK government announced that the expected release from all Covid lockdowns on June 21st isn't going to happen. The new date is July 19th. Edging nearer and nearer to the end of the school year.  So it looks like our trip to Germany will be off. Cancelled.

The tour supposed to start in two months. The chances look to be fading. Today the Government didn't add any new countries to the green list and the Germans don't want us anyway. Unless there is a miracle this will be cancelled too.

After some thought I have cancelled the bookings for Le Mans and Assen for 2022? I have other trips planned and so these two have been sacrificed. TBH Neill wasn't all that keen on Le Mans and his trip to Italy with his buddy Patrick would clash with any GP event in June and July. Cancel now and plan other options.

If dates are the same or similar weekends to this year (2021) the German GP at the Sachsenring will be June 19th and the Dutch TT at Assen will be June 26th. The downside is that this might clash with Neill going on his longer trip around Europe. From Calais' Shuttle terminal, where we always plan routes from, Sachsening ring is 602 miles and Assen is 306 miles.  The former would need an overnight stop en-route and the latter is an easy ride up in one hit.  At the moment I am drawn towards the Assen trip as it's not that far and requires two night less in hotels.  I have had a quick look at places to stay on booking.com, but as it is 13 months away, there are few hotels/B&B showing up and those that are are looking at millionaires only wanting to stay with them. I have one in a village called Elp and have reserved a room for two on that weekend on the usual basis of free cancellation and no prepayment. More on this subject later.

We are still in the hands of the UK Government relaxing the lockdown completely on June 21st, but also on them relaxing the restrictions on travel to EU countries. The UK Government has the whole of the EU with the exception of Portugal on the "amber list".  it seems that the well run EU are incapable of organising a piss up in a brewery and get their population vaccinated. The "amber list" means that essential travel only and before you can come back you have to have a negative test for Covid and quarantine at home for a fortnight. Portugal are on the "green list".   The majority of the world are on the "red list". Go there, need negative covid tests to come back and then are forced to quarantine in a hotel of the Government's choosing and pay around £1000 a week for that stay. Probably unrelated and a mere coincidence, the Germans have now blocked UK travellers from entering Germany as we have a few people with the "Indian Variant"

After watching the MotoGP today on TV I thought about maybe another trip across next year to sit in the pissing rain trackside.... as we have done already in 2012 and 2019. The dates haven't been published yet but gambling on the same weekend as this year for 2022 I had a quick look through the accommodation on booking.com . This time I looked  nearer to the circuit than we found last two occasions. Then we had been in  Alençon,  either in the Formule 1 or the Resto Novo. Both around 35 miles north of the circuit. The GP  race day  was today 16th May 2021. Gamble 1 is that it it will be the weekend of 13th to 16th May.  Oddly, booking.com had a lot of places to choose from. With the filters set for free cancellation and no prepayment that was reduced quite  a bit but came up with a reasonably  priced  Appart'City Le Mans Centre. It's close to the station.  It's also only 6kms to the circuit. Gamble 2! Changing the dates to the following week in case Gamble 1 was wrong ,

We are pretty much in the hands of the Government at the moment as to whether this ride will take place.  At the moment France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, all countries we need to travel to, through or stay are not on the UK Government's "Green List" of Covid safe places. At the moment overseas travel is actually banned. Despite that we seem to be importing Covid variants from around the globe as we haven't actually told anyone not to come here. Cases have dropped dramatically and we are down to single figures per 100000 of people contracting Covid across most of the UK. This can't be said for those countries we need to visit. So it's suck it and see.

The wristbands and pins arrived today. Plus two very bright stickers for the bike.  As this is a long journey over the weekend, I will definitely be on the Rocket and not the Kettle.

Tickets and wristbands have begun to arrive across the country for this event. It was limited to 4000 due to covid. I think that is the number of bikes.   As usual post to this corner of Kent takes longer than to other parts of the country!  Our stuff hasn't arrived yet but that's not a worry as the event is in October! I say this as people are commenting on the contents of magazines that I subscribe to, and mine arrives a few days after everyone else.  With a surname beginning with D if they went alphabetically, then I'd be near the first? https://www.rttw.org/

Since we started to look into this a week or so ago, Neill has done some more work on the routes and the overnight stops.   Hence to maps have changed a bit. He is very thorough and he tries to factor in where there are fuel stops as well.   I tend not to be as "in depth" when I plan and stop for fuel as and when I look at the trip and see that I need it in the next 30 or so miles!   The added places are different sites where the crews are commemorated/buried after being shot down during the raid. So here are the current mapped routes: Overall Route - The dams are waypoints 5,6 & 7. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 I have downloaded all of them and have posted them to my TomTom. Ready for the off.   Of course, all the planning in the world goes up shit creek if we can't travel to the EU in early August  unless they get Covid under control. Both Neill and  have already had our second vaccinations and by then we will be pretty much ready to travel. On day 4 I am hoping we'll

Tickets booked for me and Neill this evening. Earlier the website at Sagepay couldn't cope. Didn't expect to get in leaving it so late. Two tickets booked departing Northampton Services on the M1. Same cheap motel booked as last year at Newport Pagnell. Has a bar and food. That'll do...

Could 2021 see the Devall Boys riding together again?  Last year I planned a short trip across to Germany to visit the Dams and some of the memorials and it had to be cancelled as Covid-19 spread across the globe and we were still in a partial lockdown. By August 2021 both Neill and I will have had both our vaccinations and if there's a Covid passport we will be line to get our hands on one! Whether Germany will be ready for visitors is anyone's guess.   Neill has plotted a route taking in the dams that were bombed by 617 "Dambusters" Squadron in "Operation Chastise" on 17 May 1943. More information on the raid here -  http://www.dambusters.org.uk/the-dam-raids/dams-of-the-ruhr-valley/  and  https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-incredible-story-of-the-dambusters-raid He has included many of the monuments to those aircrew that were shot down during the Operation. So far it looks like this: 4 - Mohne Dam 5 - Sorpa Dam 6 - Eder Dam The next step is to work out wh

Neill has so much planned well in advance for his long trips with his friend from Ireland, Partick Ahern, that any future Devall Boys trips look to be few and far between. With Covid pretty much destroying life as we knew it and the repercussions hanging on for possibly years to come it looks as though we have reached the end of the line.