Thursday 
28.7.2022 
594km Total: 1542km 
7h 41m Total: 19h 15m
112km Total: 757km 
18º
Another day of just hunkering down in the saddle for mind numbing highway riding, crossing England from east to west to catch the evening ferry from Holyhead to Dublin.
If motorway riding through Germany and Holland was boring, the British actually manage to make it even more so.
Despite the fact that I think I stop quite often, I've still managed to cover 200 kilometres (125mi) at 10 o'clock in the morning, so I definitely don't need to rush it.
I was obviously prepared for it but the change to left-hand traffic was still quite traumatic.
My brain really did not want to choose the left lane after leaving the harbour and riding clockwise through the roundabouts will never quite feel natural.
However, that is somewhat mitigated by the fact that most of the roundabouts in the English motorway network are so grotesquely large that they don't really feel like roundabouts.
In some cases there is a whole woodland area in the middle and in some weird way they have managed to throw traffic lights into the mix as well which seems like it removes most of the point of having a roundabout in the first place?
Not that it is of any crucial importance as I have all the time in the world but there can't have been many metres of the 500kms (313mi) I drove that were not monitored by speed cameras.
It's unbelievable.
The dark grey sky chases me all day but at least it never gets worse than a few raindrops here and there.
The only stop during the day is at the Triumph factory in Hinckley.
It's apparently my fate to never be able to go on a factory tour here because the last time I was on the island they hadn't started the factory tours but would that autumn.
This time around they've cancelled them all summer.
But it was pretty much along the route I had planned anyway and it is almost sacred ground after all.
They had a smaller exhibition with really old bikes and a nice café so it was undoubtedly still worth the small detour.
As expected, I arrive in reasonably good time but still only an hour before check-in opened.
Then we had to go down to the quay and wait another hour.
The stowage of the boat must have been a complete marvel of efficiency because when we weren't waved on board until half an hour before departure, I no longer believed they'd be able to run on schedule but the ferry still left on the minute according to the time table.
I have never really understood what it is that determines whether it is up to you to fasten the bike (which it usually is) as this time it was a stevedore who did it.
As usual when stevedores do it they just put a strap over the saddle which I assume is a proven effective method as they after all are the professionals.
Nevertheless, I still hate it and never fasten the bike that way when I get to do it myself.
It wasn't any less of a mystery why I wasn't supposed to do it as this was my third crossing in as many days with the same company.
I ride off the boat in Dublin harbour at midnight and ride about 12kms (7.5mi) to the hotel where my brother had already arrived and checked-in at lunchtime today.
After driving more than 1500kms (938mi) in three days, I have already negotiated a lie in before we explore Dublin together, something I am very much looking forward to as I completely fell in love with this city when I was here last.
Hinckley
