NEGOTIATING THE IRISH BORDER
By the time you read this, the whole Brexit debacle may have been resolved (Ha!), but when we booked our ferries, hotels and time off from domestic duties it was all still rather ambiguous – remember that, it went on a bit, huh? The BIG question was what would happen to the Irish border when, or if, Britain left the EU, the single market, the customs union, or whatever it was that was to be left. It was all Greek to us, but even political pedestrians such as ourselves realised that this could have an impact on riding in Ireland. And we like riding in Ireland. So we headed over there to see what all the fuss was about. It might not bring any clarity to the situation, but as excuses for Irish touring go, this was a noble one.
To fully embrace the Brexit theme, we picked an English bike, the Triumph Tiger 800 XCx, for English Carl, and an EU bike, BMW F850GS Adventure, to compliment my EU passport. Two middleweight adventure bikes, one a twin, the other a triple – both ideal for a big miles tour.
GETTING STARTED WITH THE BMW
As is often the case, the beginning of any tour tends to be on dull roads – you want to eat the miles quickly to get to the good bit fast. This trip was no different. I met Carl at Leicester Forest East petrol station, where we looked at the
