28 April - Manchester

I've always liked bike trips that start from home. With everything packed up, you can wave goodbye & daydream of what's to come whilst riding off on familiar local roads. This time is different. Sure, I'm riding from home but only an hour or so up the road where it will be unceremoniously put into a large wooden box. Dave met me at the front of James Cargo's depot somewhere near Manchester airport that requires satnav & a few u-turns to find. "Where's all your panniers & luggage?". "Err, this is all I've got". "Yes, that reminds me of Kevin Sanders..." (a knowledge on such things). "All your clothes for any trip should be able to fit into a small supermarket bag".

So passes an hour where Dave told me about work done for Dougie Lampkin (the trials bike god), touratech events, riding the IoM mountain flat out on an '03 BMW & shipping animals ("we do alot of work for the local zoo.."). Meanwhile, I was cursing trying to squeeze all my bike gear into the topbox.  "Don't worry mate, we'll throw the boots in later". Size of crate equals cost of shipping so I was on a mission to make the GS small (not easy for a quarter tonne of  bavarian bulk). Settle for removing mirrors & screen. Easy job. No, the screen does not want to budge. Enter (drumroll..), Dave's spanners. Always a worrying time. Luckily my extensive technical expertise & recognition that others are much better at spannering than me got the job done. "You know, this screen has been put on wrong" said Dave after much fiddling. Better not mention who put it on then.

Left a slightly sorry looking bike next to a pile of shrink wrapped stuff. "Pick it up at this address in Vancouver". It's on Transat TS255 leaving a week Saturday. I'm on the same flight. I left wondering how Dave gets on when the zoo calls about giraffe transport & whether the bike will appear on the luggage carousel.