Overland Event, somewhere near Oxford in darkest Ingurlund

[Specs]

Bought a ticket for this event that I'd always fancied attending months ago so the day arrived. I was meeting my mate Titus who was coming up to Oxford from Reading while I took the A40 route rather than the M4. Most of the photos are Titus's as I ended up taking loads of them for him when he was posing around the place.

I stopped here for a brew somewhere near Burford I think as I was way too early as usual, as is my want.

 

I then went to a McDonalds on the ring road to meet up as we were far too early for the 1700 opening of the event. I was only about 45 minutes too early at this time.

 

Having checked in at the gate we got the tents up the same as everybody else.

 

 

Then after some wine it was up for an explore around the site.

 

 

 

There was a recorded video from Ted Simon who couldn't attend as the Covid travel regulations were all a bit too much for a ninety year old. His bike however was there.

 

After a few more beers talking with some guy from Northern Ireland it all got a bit vague and it was time for bed.

 

Woke up to accordion music. This guy had been busking at some time, and thought it a great idea to stimulate hangovers at some ungodly hour. Fred might remember Titus's morning garb from the Moon Rallies. Quite chuffed with this somewhat surreal photo.

 

There were several speakers. We attended I think four, it might have been more but it interfered with the drinking, besides many of the people we met had interesting travel tales to share. Besides, a good excuse to go again.

I think the first talker we listened to was Elspeth Beard. This is her bike that she rode around the world, and had ridden to the event. Until recently the first recognised woman to do the RTW.

Also listened to Mary Sievier. I seem to have unfortunately lost the photos I took so the link says it all. She was absolutely brilliant. I hope she gets a book written.

 

 

 

 

There was also Mark Holmes who shared an extremely personal tale of his circumnavigation on a Triumph Rocket! I'm reading his book at the moment. He also did a talk on some research that he's doing on how many people have circumnavigated the world on a motorcycle. At present 303 I think.

 

 

 

The last talk I think, as I probably have these all mixed up, was by Ian Coates from Hebden Bridge who roamed the world for I think fourteen years.. He must be one of the most. entertaining speakers that I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, and I was in stitches most of the time. Brilliant.

I got photobombed while photobombing!

 

 

 

 

 

I forgot that this was hanging off the pannier frame in line with the exhaust. Oops!

 

 

A few more random photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[XTreme]

Brilliant shots Alan!

Did Mary have her Bantam with her.....because she was having it done up I think?

And how didn't you have a photo with Sam Manicom.......he's always in everybody's pics! And usually surrounded by women!

[yen_powell]

That Africa Twin is still cleaner than mine ever were despite all its hard work.

[Specs]

1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Brilliant shots Alan!

Did Mary have her Bantam with her.....because she was having it done up I think?

And how didn't you have a photo with Sam Manicom.......he's always in everybody's pics! And usually surrounded by women!

Yes, it was there. I might have been pissed when I thought I’d taken a photo  Really annoyed with myself that I missed it. It runs, and appears to have some replacement parts including wheels and tank. The old tank was there, quite heavily corroded, and also what  I assume was her lid.

She’s an amazing character. 
 

Like you say, Sam was usually surrounded!

[XTreme]

Just now, Specs said:

Yes, it was there. I might have been pissed when I thought I’d taken a photo  Really annoyed with myself that I missed it. It runs, and appears to have some replacement parts including wheels and tank. The old tank was there, quite heavily corroded, and also what  I assume was her lid.

She’s an amazing character. 

She's a 6 foot 80 year old as well! 

[Specs]

Certainly is. Made the effort to thank her for her presentation, as I did with every speaker 

[boboneleg]

There maybe some parts on Ian Coates bike that I gave him.  I sent him some stuff after meeting him at a Horizons Rally when I was working with Gabe from Zen Overland.

[Pedro]

Plenty of personality on those bikes, nice pictures!

[Tango]

Awesome write-up mate. 

Yeah, I guessed that Ted Simon must have been knocking along a bit now. I guess I was about 22 when I first read Jupiter's Travels.

[Specs]

5 minutes ago, Tango said:

Awesome write-up mate. 

Yeah, I guessed that Ted Simon must have been knocking along a bit now. I guess I was about 22 when I first read Jupiter's Travels.

He's writing the memoirs of his early life.

Jupita

[Tango]

3 minutes ago, Specs said:

He's writing the memoirs of his early life.

Jupita

I'll look forwards to that.

Was Austin Vince at the show? He's normally at these sort of things.

[Specs]

2 minutes ago, Tango said:

I'll look forwards to that.

Was Austin Vince at the show? He's normally at these sort of things.

I didn't see him or Louis and their names weren't among the presenters. @Sir Fallsalot is a great fan of his. 

 

[Tango]

3 minutes ago, Specs said:

I didn't see him or Louis and their names weren't among the presenters.

 

Maybe they were busy or something. I started Lois on the Loose but I must finish it.

[Specs]

1 minute ago, Tango said:

Maybe they were busy or something. I started Lois on the Loose but I must finish it.

Great book. There's another of hers about her trip in Iran which I haven't read yet. 

Lone Rider by Elspeth Beard was very good. 

[boboneleg]

Revolutionary Ride,  it’s very good

 

[boboneleg]

Me , Paul , Austin ,  Lois and Charlie . Trail riding in Wales back in the day........................

[Tango]

37 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Me , Paul , Austin ,  Lois and Charlie . Trail riding in Wales back in the day........................

That's awesome, Bob.

[yen_powell]

I bought one of his DVDs a while back, Mondo Sahara, the theme tune is very catchy.

 

[Specs]

I’ve got Mono Enduro or was it EnduroMondo somewhere. Great stuff!

[XTreme]

1 minute ago, Specs said:

I’ve got Mono Enduro or was it EnduroMondo somewhere. Great stuff!

That's the one that started it all off.

[boboneleg]

1 hour ago, yen_powell said:

I bought one of his DVDs a while back, Mondo Sahara, the theme tune is very catchy.

 

The guy in the beige overalls is Gabe, I used to work for him for a while.  When they came back from that trip he took the rear tyre off his XR400 (a Michelin Desert) and went to chuck it on the scrap pile.  I stopped him as it was only half worn and fitted it to my KTM950

Instead of hijacking Alans thread I started a new one..............

 

[XTreme]

9 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

The guy in the beige overalls is Gabe, I used to work for him for a while.  When they came back from that trip he took the rear tyre off his XR400 (a Michelin Desert) and went to chuck it on the scrap pile.  I stopped him as it was only half worn and fitted it to my KTM950

 

@Catteeclan would have jumped at that shit for sure!

[skyrider]

5 hours ago, boboneleg said:

Me , Paul , Austin ,  Lois and Charlie . Trail riding in Wales back in the day........................

Lois used to have a serow until some bastard nicked it 

[boboneleg]

7 hours ago, skyrider said:

Lois used to have a serow until some bastard nicked it 

That's how I first met her.  There used to be a chat group on yahoo for Serow owners, she was looking for a kickstart kit for her trip through the America's and I supplied her with one.

[XTreme]

5 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

That's how I first met her.  There used to be a chat group on yahoo for Serow owners, she was looking for a kickstart kit for her trip through the America's and I supplied her with one.

She's originally from Bristol isn't she......still got the accent!