Caged Desires

The BMW R1200GS was parked on the other side of the fence where I work one morning. I've seen a good few of the Beemers on the road but I've never had the pleasure of having one parked right beside me. It completely dwarfed my humble Vespa.

The reg on the bike was French and it got me wondering whether the bike's rider had travelled all the way from France to Dublin on it. Not exactly Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round  but still, a far enough journey by my standards which at this stage consisted of a trip from Blanchardstown to Bray...

Having thought about it, one doesn't actually need a big touring Beemer (or a KTM which was apparently Charlie Boorman's first choice) to go on such a long tour. I remember coming across an article in Scootering about Jean-Yves Pignant's epic journey from Paris to Vietnam India/Sri Lanka and was amazed as to how much he got out of his re-standardised 1973 Vespa TS125 (the Rally 200's smaller brother if you haven't heard of it before). One would have to be slightly insane but nevertheless, there's still hope of travelling long distances on a Vespa, eh?

Anyway, it's all just a dream at the moment but maybe, just maybe, some day I'll get my chance to go on my own epic journey. Until then, I'll just convince myself that the Beemer was actually just stuffed in the back of a white Ford Transit and dropped off here for its new poncey owner. No nice long jouneys involved.