Hi Reggie, none of the companies have said anything to me about doing so. Why don't you drop the most likely candidates a quick line. You may find that if they don't have any in stock they might order some in!

With luck the companies are all picking up on this anyway but belt and braces...

Very cool with your comment about supporting the companies who are coming. We are repeatedly told that the event wouldn't be as good without all the kit to look at, and the guys on the stands to talk to. Nice to have the chance for some in depth conversations isn't it. Always easier to know you are buying the right stuff then eh.

Excellent news last night! Iain and I were talking things HUBB UK through with Grant and Susan - Grant's health is good; they'll both be with us all at Donington!!!!

We will arrive (if the channeltrains runs on time) on wednesday somewhere in the late afternoon - early evening - and if needed we can still lend you 4 hands after we set up our tent (as this will become a ritual for the next 6 months as the HUBB will be our official start for "a ride"...)

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Find us on Facebook or have a look at our website on wanderingsouls.be.

Superb!!! What better place to start your trip! And your tent? Your new Home!

Help? Yes please! We are still short of some helpers!!! I'll be posting on that shortly.

Looking forward to seeing you guys!

Volunteering? We still need some

If any of you guys are booked but haven’t signed up to volunteer, could I ask you to have a think about it. If you’ve been before then you’ll know how important people volunteering a few hours is with making the event happen with a friendly relaxed atmosphere.

And those hours are also a brilliant way of getting to know people if you’ve never been before.

If you’ve still to book, you’ll see the place to sign up to volunteer when you are booking in. Pre-Registration for Adventure Travellers - HUBB UK 2013 Donington Park

We are looking for a total of 150 volunteers – many hands make light work. Thanks VERY much to everyone who has given a thumbs up so far.

All we need is for just 20 more people to say yes to helping for a couple of 2 hour slots and the roles are all covered. That’ll be a ‘Phew’ moment.

The Crews we are short of people on are:

The Gate Crew – You’ll be the first point of contact that people arriving will have. As we are at a new venue and as so many people haven’t been before, this crew will make the difference between people being instantly welcome and knowing what they have to do next – or feeling like a square peg in a round hole.

Campsite Crew – This is a new Crew and its happening as a result of the move to Donington Park Farmhouse Hotel. It’s a much bigger site for us to play with and on and there needs to be a centre of information and a base for heading people out in the right direction. HUBB Zone? Presentation Rooms? Vehicle parking? Quiet camping area? And so on… The Real Ale bar too of course!

Skills Course – This course is aimed at building new motorcycle overlanders skills and we need a few more people who are skilled riders and good teachers to be able to help out.

Raffle Tickets sellers – We have some absolutely brilliant prizes lined up for the raffle – many thanks to everyone who is contributing a prize and I need to say that most are coming from the Adventure Travel companies that are going to be with us and to the ABRAC riders. Thanks all! But the money we collect in aid of Prostate cancer will be down to two other things – How easy it is for people to snag tickets, and how deep we are all prepared to dig! : ) Fancy flogging some tickets? Your help makes all the difference, and because people that come to an HU event are the sort of people they are, it’s not a hard task.

Presentation Crew – Last but not least. If you have really good IT skills and are used to setting up powerpoint presentations and the like then we could do with a few more people on this crew. The one thing is that you’ll be doing a fair number more hours on this crew but the bonus is that you are right there in the presentation rooms when it’s all happening. Many of the presenters are first timers and your job in part will be to help them get set up and make sure things run smoothly so they can concentrate on their presentation.

Fancy a go? Brilliant! Thanks very much! Here’s the Join the Volunteer Crew - HUBB UK 2013 Donington Park

This presentation from John May is going to get you thinking hard. For those of you who've been to HU before, you’ll have met John running the Slow Bike Race; he’s doing that again this year too!!! But I’m sidetracking!

John’s presentation is on a vital subject that too often doesn’t get thought about in anything like enough depth by travellers in the trip planning stage.

As John says, ‘Before doing a big trip we tend to spend loads of time and energy planning the route, thinking about what bike to take, picking the ideal tent and so on. But what scuppers most trips is the people stuff. We tend not to really consider the questions about why we are doing it in the first place and who to go with. Picking the right travelling companions is much more important than picking the right stove!’

This presentation is designed to join a lot of hugely important travel dots! Planning to travel with other people? Don’t miss this!

What is this about? Is it a practical hands-on course with your own / hire bikes or presentation / class-room style?

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Elaine

Striving to live the ordinary life in a non ordinary way

Hi All,

Thanks very much for all the "get well soon" messages over the past week or two - really appreciate it. Healing up well now and getting back into the swing of things.

Sam's away for a few days at a rally in Paignton, so I'll be picking up where he left off earlier with updates and highlights about the event.

The presentation schedule is coming together and we're hoping to get a provisional version online in about a week or so for everyone to look at and start planning what sessions to go to. All the presenters need to see it first though (early next week) to make sure I haven't made any schoolboy errors.

Cheers

Iain

The Skills Course will be taking up a large area of slightly-sloping grass field at the venue (next to the HUBB Zone) and will be laid out with a variety of simple obstacles.

It'll be open twice a day, with supervision from Cogs Underwood and his volunteer crew, on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The idea is that anyone with a motorcycle who wants to practice their slow-riding skills can spend time going round the course on their own bike.

It's specifically a slow-riding/skills area and not a race track.

Hope that answers the question.

Cheers

Iain

Sam's already highlighted the ever-popular RoadKill Cookout and the Skills Course, but there's going to be lots of other stuff happening beyond the regular presentations in the main rooms....

Slow Bike Race x 2

Don't think we've mentioned this recently. The Slow Bike Race is back again with a new twist for the new event: competitors will be able to take part on their own bikes. John May and his crew will be running two competitions this time around - one on the Friday morning for bikes of 550cc or under and another on the Saturday morning for those over 550cc. There'll be 27 places available in each knock-out competition. First-come first-served, so if you want to show-off your slow-riding skills make sure you sign-up for the competition as soon as you can once you're on-site.

Firelighting, Natural Navigation and Foraging

Kev Palmer from Woodland Ways, who many of you will have met at previous events, will be giving a number of hands-on bushcraft workshops on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday. He'll be covering practical on-the-road firelighting techniques, foraging for food around the grounds of the venue, and natural navigation.

Tyre Changing

The tyre changing demo has become an HU classic and this year Graham Matcham from Continental Tyres will be doing the honours. We've often had feedback after past events that people have missed out on the tyre changing because of other presentations they didn't want to miss, so the HUBB UK is going to have not just one, but two demo sessions. They'll be taking place in the HUBB Zone on the Thursday afternoon and in the middle of the day on the Saturday.

4x4 Bush Mechanics, Vehicle Choice and Winching and Recovery

The super-enthusiastic and experienced team from Frogs Island 4x4 will be giving practical demonstrations of 4x4 Bush Mechanics by their stand in the HUBB Zone, as well as hosting a debate/Q&A about choosing between a Land Rover and a Land Cruiser. Both sessions will be happening on the Friday and Saturday.

4x4 travellers will also be interested in the winching and recovery demo in the HUBB Zone being given on the Friday and Saturday by Simon Ward-Hastelow from Land Rover World. Actually this is a session that motorcyclists should look in on too - after all, one day it might be your bike that needs recovering from a muddy ditch by a friendly 4x4 with a winch!

Live Travel Cooking

The irrepressible and irreplaceable Matthew Cashmore will be entertaining and educating you on the Friday afternoon with his brand new session about practical travel cooking. What to take with you and how to rustle up some simple by tasty and nutritious meals while you're out on the road. The demo will be followed by a one-pot-challenge, where Matthew will cook whatever (edible) ingredients the audience brings along!

Yoga and Exercise for Adventure Travellers

Tori Lang has been supporting HU events with her Zen-like mastery of yoga for many years. This year there'll be an introductory session on the Friday afternoon followed by a have-a-go practical early on the Saturday evening. Bring along a mat if you'd like to take part and learn how some simple yoga moves can improve your posture, flexibility and overall riding/driving comfort.

With similar aims, but a different approach, Francis Maxey will be giving a workshop on the Saturday afternoon about exercise for travellers.

Trauma and Bikes

Dr Sarah Willcock and her colleagues will be giving a couple of hands-on sessions covering basic first aid skills and equipment appropriate to dealing with bone-breaking mishaps when you're far from medical help. Sarah will also be giving a presentation about tropical diseases and how to avoid getting sick in the first place. Although Sarah happens to be a biker (riding her Serow to the event), both these sessions will be invaluable to everyone regardless of your choice of transport.

We've done live webchat sessions a couple of times at past events, including a video link with Zebb and Henry in Kazakhstan the year before last (Zebb will be giving a 'Stans That Deliver presentation at HUBB UK).

This year we'll be offering prayers to the technology gods and crossing a lot of fingers as we try to pull off six separate live links with some well-known adventure travellers - all of whom are Jupiter's Travellers or advisors to The Ted Simon Foundation.

Based on the provisional schedule as it currently stands, the plan includes sessions on the Friday with Simon and Lisa Thomas in New Zealand, Merv Colton and Sarah Cooper somewhere in South America, plus Sandy, Terry and young Jack Borden in Arizona. Then on the Saturday morning there'll be Graham Field in Turkey (probably) and Danielle Murdoch in South Africa.

The biggest challenge - and a huge privilege for HU - will be connecting with Sarah Outen on the Saturday evening. Sarah is two years into a human-powered loop around the world, already having travelled from London to Japan by kayak and bicycle. About six days ago she set off from Japan in the direction of Canada - rowing solo across the Pacific. If the satellite connection holds up and Sarah isn't dealing with adverse sea conditions at the time, we'll be able to talk to her in the cabin of "Happy Socks".

Start thinking now about the questions you'd like to ask all these travellers about the experience of their journeys - it'll be a unique and no doubt entertaining opportunity.

Those of you already pre-registered to attend HUBB UK will have seen we've been running a poll to find out which region of the world you'd most like to be the subject of an open discussion at the event.

The 'winning' region by quite some margin is "Russia, the 'Stans and Mongolia" - so we'll be dedicating a double session to it on the Friday morning.

There won't be a panel or a presentation (though we may put some topic ideas up on screen to help things along) - just a gathering of folk who've travelled eastward, or have plans in that direction, and the opportunity to share highlights, information, tips and advice.

We'll also be reprising the long-standing "Women Only" double session on the Friday afternoon, which will be moderated by Susan Johnson and Chris Keane. Strictly no boys allowed! It's been a well-attended part of HU events for many years, although exactly what gets talked about remains a complete mystery to those of us on the testosterone side of the hormonal divide.

I imagine those of us on the testosterone side of the hormonal divide probably get mentioned a bit

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That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing...

Now, what's the qualification here?
I'm two years on whatever side of the divide this has steered me. Will the door policy take account? Or will there be 'pat-downs'?
(PS - everything looks successful - and no complaints here about 'side effects')

Looking forward to the meet.

By the way, the sponsored charity has kindly given me one of these -



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Well, it made me laugh when I saw it - "I'll have one of those!" I thought, "Keep it with my bus pass."

I'll bring it to Donington - if the is good I might have to flash it......

.

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town

25 days to go!

One of the many things we're introducing for the first time at the HUBB UK event is the "Pecha Kucha" style of presentation.

It gets pronounced different ways (we'll go with petcha-koocha), but the format is simple: the presenter has just 20 slides, each of which stays on screen for exactly 20 seconds before automatically moving on to the next. No going back!

As things currently stand, the brave souls who've volunteered to present in this fast-paced format are:

- Stephen Golub
- Jupiter's Traveller, Claudio Gnypek
- Juliet Macve
- Andy Robinson
- ABRAC organiser, Will Wilkins
- Simon Ward-Hastelow
- Patrick Garrod
- Motorcycle Outreach
- Frogs Island 4x4
- Kaapstad Motorcycle Adventure Tours
- Pro-Oiler
- Stahlkoffer

The Pecha Kucha presentations will all be happening on the Friday and Saturday, with two or three back-to-back in each session. Audience participation will be encouraged!

You'll get to see the full menu of topics when the schedule goes online in a week or so, but they range from travelling with your family, to the Mongol Rally, riding out west, zen and the art of motorcycle lobbying, and overlanding in groups. For the companies taking part, it'll be their opportunity to explain what they they do and why you should use them.