Just 7 days from now all over the UK Scoots will be being fired up ready for the ride down to our official gathering point at the Chichester Emsworth Travel Lodge just 8 miles from Portmouth. A brief overnight rest before we head on down to the ferry for the 11am Brittany Ferries sailing to Santander.

We then have 24hrs on board to enjoy a little relaxation after weeks of frenetic planning and preparation, take in a few final briefings and contemplate the next four weeks on the road, prior to starting our epic 4000 mile journey to Bansang.

It doesn’t matter how full of confidence everyone was yesterday, last week or last year; for now the butterflies rule ! All we will be wanting is to see dry land and start heading south on those little bikes with the 4bhp engines singing sweetly beneath us. We will be looking to get moving fairly quickly once we get off the boat, as we have about 170 miles to do on Monday afternoon hopefully to a hotel a little south of Palencia. Nothing is booked in advance simply because it is virtually impossible to make up time lost if anything unplanned jumps up to bite us. With the amount of mileage all the Team have been putting in, the bikes should perform faultlessly, but punctures and traffic delays can still eat mercilessly into your schedule when 45mph is your absolute top speed.