On the Road Again!

I was looking through a box of stuff and came across the paperwork for the first FIM Rally we ever went on. It was 1986. I was a bit fed up at work and Audrey, my partner at the time, was a lecturer at a college in North London, she had time off of course for the summer. So fully expecting to come back and easily find a job, I quit. We were full members of the British Motorcyclist Federation (BMF) and also affiliated members through the Suzuki Owners Club. Audrey was also a member of the Women's International Motorcycle Association  (WIMA) and affiliated there too!  These memberships allow access to the  Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and all the events it puts on from racing to touring categories. The outward journey would take us through Western Europe and into Austria.  Out first port of call was to visit my long term friend, Ivan Benda, in his home in Bohunice , a suburb of Brno in what was still Czechoslovakia then. We stayed in...

The Mars Moto was held not by Martians but by the Moto clubs forned for/by employees of the Mars company - best known for the chocolate bar of the same name. Also Galaxy and Milky Way.... My mate Tony was coming from UK and brought a pillion with him. I was still living in Zastávka in the Czech Republic with Kettle as my main transport. As Austria was considered too expensive they had the accommodation across the border in Sopron in Hungary. Ať this time Hungary hadn't joined the EU so there was a hard border - one where passports had to be shown. It was the same getting out of the Czech border at Mikulov. As I didn't work for Mars I had to pretend I had done, not that anyone even asked, and share a room with Tony and his mate. I got the put-u-up bed. Friday evening we had coaches into Austria for a BBQ. It was strange to share the BBQ site with lots of Austrian border police looking for illegals climbing the border fences. . On the way one of the guys on our bus sang The Marse...