Hi Liane , It ' s Neil Foulks .
Happy New Year - mine was shite ! Lost my phone , first one without my Dad , plenty of job prospects , but no money ! Anyway , here ' s a picture of my lovely Bridget last year in March before we embarked on my first ride abroad from Dover to Benidorm , a trip which I had been wanting to do for 4 years or more , but on a Deauville - just like the one I have now ( Cruella , get it ? Cruella De- Ville ?) Yeah , you got it . I had the money and could afford a proper adventure bike and bought Bridget ( Named after Bridget Neilsen , cos she ' s exceptionally tall and I like older women , nuff said about that !) even though the height was to become a problem and start to give me hip pain due to the amount of stretching I had to do to mount her . So sadly she had to . I sold her to Ed Gill who is on his way to Australia , but he ' s now riding an Enfield . Not sure if he sold her on or if he ' s stashed her to resell in the UK .
I enjoy the packing and picking kit and what not to take for a trip because invariably the bigger your panniers , the more you take . I had the 52L Givi box , 60L Shad canvas panniers and a 40L Ortlieb roll bag . Plenty of room for all my bits - espscially at that tie of year I was staying in very cheap and very nice accommodation - and most campsites in France are CLOSED in March ! Technically , this one of the Deckhand strapping down Bridget is allowed as it ' s only 3 miles from where I left off !
And the other is Cruella on the day I bought her while frantically travelling the UK by train - with all camping gear and rally kit in tow in the hope of buying wheels to go to the Overland Event June 2015 , packing light with just my flight hand luggage - thank heavens for built-in panniers .
Say hi to James . I hope the kids are well and I might even have the pleasure of seeing you both sometime this year . All the best ! Neil Foulks