Heading further south, i set up camp in a place called Long Itchington at the green man pub. The landlord was very hospitable and they serve a not at all bad pint of scrumpy cider. i somewhat overachieved on that front!

Got two checkpoints in, a wellhead at Beeby and Tooleys boatyard in Banbury. They've built a huge shopping complex round the boatyard, took a bit of findng!

Fially found somewhere with a 3G signal, lots of pictures to upload.

After camping in Dent, I headed down to Derbyshire again. It's a most frustrating county to get around due to the speed limits all over the place, I recko they must cause more accidents than they prevent because people occasionally get fed up and do some massively stupid overtakes. I'm avoiding the place in future, took ages to get anywhere, even the Lizard pass has a punitive 50mph limit on it, which I exceeded by a good 20mph with the engine switched off!

Been trying to get the exhaust to seal on the enfield, It's been popping and banging a lot. A combination of firegum and bandage over the joint seems to be doing the trick for now. i managed to loose a bit off the decompressor in the long grass, took an hour and a half to find it!

The "stellarsphere" checkpoint has been stolen, presumably melted down for scrap.

I'm camping in Dent again tonight. Had a good party at the weekend then popped into my folks to do some servicing on the bike. The centrestand isn't coping too well with the extra weight and is getting lower and lower. I've bodged it up for the meantime with some bits of rubber under the stops to make it sit a bit higher and I've moved the stop so it sits higher when it's up so I have more cornering clearace.

Did the last Scottish checkpoint in Dumfries and Galloway on the way over.

Next a stop off in York for a couple of days which let me fly round some more checkpoints. Up to Helmsley then Hunmanby, down into Lincolnshire across the Humber bridge then across to Castleford.

Bit of an epic run and had another puncture on the way, caused as it happens by a washer i lost inside the tyre when i fixed the last one. Puts me a bit ahead of myself so I can go to a mates birthday party up in the Borders then a quick visit to my folks for a visit and to pick up some spares for the bike, do a bit of servicing. I'll catch the last Scottish checkpoint on the way before heading down to Easter/middle England

After Stour, I went down to Boat of Garten, had a much better day for it, then on down to Edinburgh to stay at a mates house.

Got a few social engagements coming up so I realised I needed to do some more checkpoints, get a bit ahead of myself.

I bit the bullet and went down to the Bewcastle then Tynemouth ones, awkward because they are a good bit away from anywhere and not really on the way to anything.

The Tynemouth one was the most annoying yet. Not hard to find, it was an enormous statue, just really painful getting in and out of through Newcastle, especially heading South. Landed up stuck in traffic for ages going through the Tyne tunnel. I dislike tunnels on the motorbike at the best of times.

I also managed to leave my oil filler cap in a carpark in Tynemouth. I'm not going back for it! New one is on order, hopefully to intercept me by post at the weekend.

Not posted for a while due to a combination of poor signal and flat battery.

Here's the point of Stour lighthouse, northernmost point of the tour, all downhill from here.

Went past the Loch Clunie checkpoint yesterday. Good job I researched that one, just off the main road on a section of the old military road that runs paralell to the loch. Could have been a stinker to find just by looking.

Camped on Sky with the folks from the club last night, and I'm in Ullapool tonight. Nipping up to point of Stour tomorrow before heading back in a southerly direction. It's been cold tody, a chilly wind with drizzle in it, merino wool base layers are definately worth havng.