My 3rd Day

Sent to my family in the UK:

25th January

I slept well and awoke to see a red sun rise over the Gateway to India. Spent ages repacking my bags as they had to weigh 35kg in total on the next flight from Mumbai to Goa. Ended up with 38.5 after filling my carry on backpack. Guess I will have to take my chances with excess baggage charges as it is unlikely that charm will work. Another hair raising trip of near misses to the airport.

The rest of the riders had arrived on the overnight from London by the time I arrived, and due to the number of us some had already caught the earlier flight to Goa. At the check in counter a baggage handler insisted on putting my bags on the belt and insisted my crash helmet go on as well. I told him that would definitely not happen. And stood my ground. Due to this distraction the bags went on with no mention of excess charge. I left the counter with him glaring at me...one small victory!!! I meet a couple of other riders in the lounge and soon boarded the flight for the short hop to Goa. All bags turned up which was a relief for all as everyone had all their boots and bodyarmour entrusted to the airline. Packed onto a very old a decrepit bus the trip of over an hour to our first overnight hotel was not too comfortable although the scenery was great and somewhat similar to coastal trips I have taken in Jamaica.

We eventually arrived after stopping more than once so the driver could spray his brakes with water as they were too hot to work correctly! As we dragged our bags down a dusty lane we saw the bikes for the first time, over 100 Royal Enfield Bullet 350's in neat rows. We waited in line to be allocated our rooms which would be for the next two nights. In almost all cases it was three to a room. I stood next to a guy called Alan who by coincidence was to be one of my roommates. As we entered the room I was not surprised that it bore no resemblance to the pictures we had downloaded to this blog from their website. There was a double bed and a double mattress on the floor, we both looked at each other and immediately decided to discuss sleeping arrangements later! We eventually found the 'third man', Andy, in the bar. We joined the table of guys he was with.

The ages of riders range up to age 71 with most of us being over 40. A spirit of camaraderie did not take long. We had a welcome meeting and were allocated our teams for the trip as well as a team leader from the orgainising road crew. The timings to start on the first day were to be staggered from 8am onwards with my 'Team Purple' scheduled for a 10.30 start. After a buffet style dinner we all sat around talking and drinking before retiring to our rooms.

I would also like to say a huge thank-you to everybody who has donated recently towards the charities, much appreciated.