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** NEWSFLASH **

Hi everybody

I suppose you would all like to know what happened, but first I would like to thank a few people. Firstly Nick Crowe and his partner for getting up at silly o’clock from his sick bed to flag us off at the start of our journey on his crutches, it was much appreciated. Also Manx Telecom, Energy Communications, PC Solutions, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Promenade T-shirts and many others who have helped us so far. There were a few people there but considering we are an island full of motorcyclists it was a very poor show.

We were escorted to the boat by the police and some supporters and allowed to load slightly late. This was where we had our first taste of what was to come when Big H was waved forward through a gap that was a bit tight and clipped the headlight of a BMW with his pannier, smashing it. We then tied up our bikes and settled down for our journey with coffee and a bacon and sausage bap. After leaving the boat at Liverpool we set off to the motorway where we made good but slow progress.

At our first refuelling stop on the M40 below Birmingham, we were about 20 minutes behind time, although we had expected that with the slow traffic and low speed limits coming out of Liverpool and on the loop around Birmingham. We left the service station and made good progress until once again lady luck frowned on us. First an oil light flashed - we put it down to a lose wire - and only minutes later a puncture while travelling with some of the faster traffic at about 85 mph. H had picked up a nail. As soon as he noticed the bike felt a bit weird, he pulled on to the hard shoulder with myself and John. We had agreed before setting off, anyone with problem that couldn’t be sorted in a couple of hours would be left at the roadside until rescued. We rang our insurance and happily were informed we’ll have someone there in 45 minutes to an hour so we decided to wait.

Three hours later, we were rescued, another 45 minutes and we were on our way, by now over 4 hours behind. We reckoned we would be able to make some time back through the rest of the journey so it wasn’t the end of the world. We made pretty good time to the tunnel and had a sandwich and can of Relentless while on the train.

By the time we got to France it was already dark. We had hoped to be in Germany by this time as I knew we would have trouble finding service stations as they are not very well marked. As we went through Belgium we made good time but using a lot more fuel than we had estimated. We also found a lot of diversions, so many that the GPS couldn’t keep up and we managed to miss one of our fuel stops. We still had our spare fuel which would give us another 40 or 50 miles, we thought we would pick up the next service station in that time. Little did we know we would ride into fog just at the very time we needed to see the road signs and save fuel so we were down the gears and couldn’t see just what we wanted. We managed to miss the poorly-marked exit and the next service station would be another 40 km, about 30 odd miles in English, with only 10 miles of fuel. We had to stop and take stock; we pulled over in a lay by on the hard shoulder near an SOS phone where there was a small area cordoned off and we were safe ish and could discuss what we would do. We came up with a couple of ideas. We could drain the fuel out of two bikes and put it into one. We tried the SOS phone to see if they could help find us fuel or help. Although we could tell them where we were they couldn’t tell us where the nearest filling station was and couldn’t even find our position - they told us we weren’t even there. In the end we decided to try the breakdown insurance and they came up trumps. Once again it took some time and we were passed on to several different people. We gave them our location which was correct and a very nice man came with petrol. It did take some time though in which Big H and John managed to get a couple of hours' sleep while I was organising our rescue. By this time we were about 8 hours behind. We had to make a decision, would we carry on to Switzerland, another 3 hours if everything went right, or abort? We decided to abort. To carry on would have meant another 6 hours' riding at least, with no real sleep, just to get back to where we already were. It would not have been safe we wouldn’t have time to sleep and get back for the ferry.

So off we went. We had a look for a filling station then decided to just go for home and find fuel on the way, after all its daylight now. It was still close - we ran into the petrol station on fumes, filled up and realised if we just splashed and dashed all the way we could make the early ferry. It would be tight but we could do it in day light. We could see the signs. The mist was lifting and we made no mistakes. We arrived back to Liverpool with minutes to spare and back on the Isle of Man for about 10.00 pm. We hadn’t completed the challenge but for now we had done our best and learned a lot. We will take another go at it in the spring when we hope to have some good weather, a bit more day light and no punctures. It's not over till it's done.

We will have another attempt next year. We haven’t yet set a date but watch out, and for those of you that think doing this kind of thing is easy I or WE throw down the gauntlet - do it for charity whatever it is but do it. Have fun and stay safe.

Regards Charlie, Big H, John Turner and the There and Back team.

If you would like to follow The Lads on the Challenge you can click on the link below to see where they are on the GPS Mapping kindly donated by Foretrack.

Click Here to go to Map

Hi all,

The latest news on the thereandback challenge is that its all GO GO GO!!!
At my last hospital appointment in Liverpool I met with one of the surgeons who rebuilt my knee, he was very impressed at the speed of my recovery.

Although I am knowhere near full fitness I have already had a few test rides on my challenge bike with no problems. So the only problem left was insurance which we have now sorted. Don’t get me wrong there is still a possibility that I might not make it but it won’t be for lack of trying. Both. Paul (Big H) and John Turner our support rider will be keeping a close eye on my condition throughout the challenge and I have agreed that if they are concerned about my condition I will pull out and let John take my place. John will be covering the full distance with myself and Paul as our only backup he will be our spare bike and rider if anything goes wrong.

So watch out next weekend 19th September we will be leaving the TT grandstand at about 07.00am to start our 2000 miles charity challenge we hope to as many of you as possible there to see us off.

Regards Charlie

Hi all,

Since my spill its been a long time since I've been on two wheels. On Friday 14th I had a really good physio session were I did about 3 miles on the cycling machine, after which I asked would it be ok to try my mountain bike and was given the ok. So here I am now I have a bit more control of my physio I can start building up the stength in my leg. I was very careful and rode about 5 mlies the only problem I had was a pain in my ... don't they make the seats hard on bycycles nowdays !

Anyway going to build up each day now.
19th of September still the target

Hi, I thought you all might like to know I have just had my check up at Liverpool today Aug 7th. Every thing went well and the Doctors were happy with my progress and I can now start to put weight on my leg. This can be started of at 50% and building up over the next 4 weeks to where i can put full weight, so it’s looking good to be fit enough to do the challenge barring any setbacks.

Here’s a look at the at what the Doctors have done

Had my first real physio last week and got on very well. With very little help I managed to get nearly 90 degrees of bend on my leg with no pain and managed all the exercises with no problems.
I have also had my leg brace adjusted to give me 60 degrees of bend with my leg. No bikes yet though, but the next stage is to give me the 90 degree bend which I already know I can do, and one day later I get to bare weight on it!
L looking forward to it 7th of august will be the big day.

New date for the challenge will be
19th september, unless medical advice says diffrent. Charlie should be able to start full on physio in 4 weeks time so he is hopefull that we should be able to get on with the challenge on this date.

Welcome to the Official Website for
There and Back Charity Challenge!

25th - 27th July 2009

This is certainly a true fundraising venture by TT marshal and enthusiast Charlie Murray who, with friend and former TT rider Paul Hunt, plan to ride to Switzerland and back this summer in 48 hours!

'It is theoretically possible'

The distance is 920 miles each way, excluding the sea miles, and we have worked out that at legal speeds it should take about 18 and a half hours each way.

The clock starts running as soon as we leave the TT Grandstand so we hope to arrange for a late check-in on the boat.

Joining us for the very first leg to the Sea Terminal, we hope, will be members of the Purple Helmets, Moddey Dhoo Motor Cycle Club and police officers.

The route will take us from the TT Grandstand, by ferry to Liverpool and then we will head down to Dover where we will take the train or ferry to Calais.

From there we will have whistle-stop glimpses of France, Belgium and Germany before finally reaching Sankt Gallen in Switzerland.

The objective is to raise £26,000 from the jaunt which is scheduled for this July. The money raised is to be divided between three Island charities, the Rob Vine Fund, the Joey Dunlop Foundation and the TT Marshals' Association — and one Swiss charity yet to be decided.

We also hope as many TT and MGP marshals as possible will don their orange jackets and join us for a section of the run.

We will be wearing our orange jackets and there should be stickers on the bikes so we should be easy to identify. We will also have a GPS tracker system fitted to the bikes so people can follow our progress and arrange where to join us.

'There are TT and MGP marshals from all over the world, so we want the Orange Army to move through Europe with us."

Charlie plans to use his 1,000cc Suzuki V-Strom and Paul "Big H" is hoping to have a BMW GS1150 for the trip.

The plan is to stop every two or three hours or 250 miles for a break and we hope to be met at the Swiss border by Charlie's Swiss friends.

'We expect to arrive around midnight so, depending on the time, we may just have one beer then spend the night before we start the return journey,"