The Route: Poles of Inconvenience 2023

Which would have been nice if my rally bike hadn’t basically exploded twice. Now imagine that line but a little straighter.

There’s no set route for the Poles of Inconvenience, so it’s up to individual teams to decide which poles to aim for, scattered across the map from Nordkapp in the North to Dakhla in the south, East to Georgia and west to Devonshire, collecting inconvenient checkpoints along the way.

The Team Regular route for 2023 will start in London, UK via:

France, Belgium, Germany, Czechia, Italy, Spain, Morocco and Western Sahara, and all the way back again.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Well shelve those lofty imaginings and be prepared for what’s actually happening:

I’m riding my 1981 BMW from London to Dakhla, straight there, and back. No messing around. This is personal.

Look at this lovely sand dune at Erg Chigaga. Maybe I’ll get to it, maybe I’ll swing by Erg Chebbi, who knows, but I’m getting to Dakhla.

I wonder if I can get Guenther up the Atlas Mountains. Probably. Will I do that? Maybe.