Photo Gallery: Nick Sanders - Parallel World Launch!

Description

On Sunday at Hein Gerick in Stockwell Nick Sanders had his 'Parallel World' launch. After so many epic trips over the years he was setting off on his last round the world challenge.

Circumnavigating the world using the longest possible route with the most miles in a record time that has never been done before. Given a mileage effort of 55,000 miles across six continents and a time frame of around 120 days, it is arguably the toughest motorcycle journey ever attempted. His Yamaha R1 looked fantastic in it's Hein Gericke colour scheme, tripod strapped to the side military style and luggage piled up on the tail. It oozed adventure. Of course the luggage was not full of spare clothes and hair care products but was packed with electronic equipment for his regular podcasts, constantly updated blogs and filming. I did notice a sleeping mat rolled up on the top. Rather a luxury by Nick Saunders standards I thought!

At 4pm 50 or so bikes rode with Nick to Greenwich for the official press photos and interviews. Because of the London Marathon being run the same day it wasn't possible to make the journey picturesque with a ride over Tower Bridge so a wet and rainy Rotherhithe had to make do! Several u-turns and and laps of the Greenwich one-way system later it was discovered that going through the park in one last attempt to make this ride more photogenic wasn't going to happen as it was closed. On finally reaching the Royal Observatory all the bikes parked in a a big circle in front of the James Wolfe statute much to the bemusement of walkers and sightseers.

Throughout the afternoon Nick chatted with friends and well wishers some of whom had travelled from as far as Birmingham to see him off. It's remarkable to see the respect so many hold for this down-to-earth, very approachable yet remarkable man.

At 6pm Nick rode to Dover to leave the British Isles on what will undoubtedly be yet another incredible journey. Personally I'm already excited about the inevitable movie!