Another journey has begun.

We're a little late in getting round to this. Our original plan was to have set off around the middle of May, but circumstances (Joe) delayed us. This is my fourth long-distance trip and it's the first time I've set off with someone. Joe's a good friend from the ye olde days and despite a shaky beginning I think it's going to be a welcome change.

Our original plan was to ride to the Caspian Sea and back, giving ourselves three months to do the round trip on our 125's. I'm not sure if that's going to happen now due to the delay. We still might get there, we might not. We may decide to just explore Eastern Europe more extensively instead of rushing to cover distance. Who knows...

We left four days ago and it has been pretty abysmal so far. Little bikes on big, busy roads in the rain with a deadline to catch the ferry. Cold and tiring. We're both extremely under-slept. I only had around two hours sleep last night and maybe 17 hours in total over the past five days. I'm a terrible sleeper generally but this has been pretty bad. Yesterday we arrived in Poole and decided to stay at a campsite rather than try and wild camp. We had an initial look, even did a Theresa May and rode through some fields of wheat, but the rain and the six o'clock rise meant that we just buckled into a little comfort... We still cooked dinner in the rain and it got to the point where it felt like we couldn't get any wetter. But hey, we're in France now and the sun is shining, our clothes are drying, the roads are quieter and we have no deadlines. I always hate riding out of the UK, and I'm glad it's behind us.

We've managed to find a nice spot to have an early night, tucked away behind a hedge in some farmers field. It feels great writing this on my netbook in my tent. Tomorrow we'll continue to ride south into the warmth and hopefully I won't lose my mind due to sleep deprivation.

I like baguettes.