Here's a pic of one of the tracks I was on yesterday. Just before I
took this picture, several pheasants spooked right in front of me. I'm
not sure who was more scared. When the heart rate settled, I saw the
light was perfect for a good pic;



Here's a beautiful Hampshire sunset on that green lane I mentioned
yesterday. (Yes, I know my low fuel light is on, I got back to
civilisation and a petrol station soon thereafter)

Before Gettysburg came the preparation of the route north.

Touratech has announced
that its founder, Herbert Schwarz, got a 5,000 km test ride of the BMW
F800 GS through the African nations of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi
and Uganda 4 weeks before the launch at Milan. Lucky guy!

The really good news is that Touratech kitted the bike out with as
many Touratech parts as possible for the ride, so we should have a wide
selection of gear and gadgets for the 800 when it hits the showrooms.

I'd still like to ride it so I can compare it to my KTM 950 Adventure.

On the 24th of July 1944, the German forces around St Lo, in
Normandy, did not have a clue about the hell that was about to be
unleashed upon them. Their dispositions looked like this:

Source; http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/AtlasesTableOfContents.html

To the west of St Lo, you can see the area that the Americans chose to
breakout from the close hedgerow fighting that had so favoured the
Germans for the months of June and July 1944.

Once again, England is brought low by snow (or a few inches of rain, or wind, or leaves on the line, geesh)

Here in North Hampshire, we received the better part of an inch. I
wonder how places that get snow more frequently deal with these
problems? Judicious use of salt? England can't even buy that stuff without creating a market shamble of it.