From Times Online, January 30

"A good value spa with river views, cheekily named treatments and first-rate, friendly staff"

Amanda Ursell from The Times, reviews the Captain's Club Hotels Spa

USP
The Captain’s Club Hotel to which the bijoux spa is attached is a strikingly contemporary, chic "pad" bang on the banks of the River Stour in Christchurch with superb river views from every room.

AMBIENCE
Men are not only "allowed" in this spa, they are positively welcomed which is ideal for couples taking a short spa break together. You can loll around and pamper yourself with treatments or thrash against the powerful jets in the hydro pool to get a full and exhausting workout.

There are three treatment rooms, a chill-out section scattered with big bean bags where you can go to flop after your treatment to prolong the spa effect, and a hydrotherapy pool facing the river.

QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE
 The spa staff, as with those throughout the hotel, were incredibly friendly but more importantly, compared to some hotel based spa employees, really, truly knew their stuff and their products inside out.
read full review at times online website

Last legs

After 2 days of 11 hours on the bike, the thought of getting up, let alone honing my bruised bum onto that bloody bike, filled me with dispair. However after more grey boiled eggs and sweet bread washed down with milky tea I was ready to face the roads to Kottoyam, not!
The grim reaper lead our team meeting before we set off, saying that historically this is the worst day for accidents. After putting the fear of Allah in us by warning us of Kamikazee bus drivers, hair pin bends and the most treacherous roads, none of us wanted to leave our hotel car park.
How right was the grim reaper though! Only 2 casualties. One guy came off on a hair pin falling 150 feet into a bush while his bike carried on until it hit the road below. Thank God I wasn't ahead of him. Imagine doing all this and getting hit by and enfield dropping out of the sky.
Concentration levels were so high we could not even think of having one of our delicious roadside lunches, we just wanted to get to our re group point in one piece, on our bikes, together. Coming off the bike with only hours to the finish line was not an option for us.
All 90 odd bikes met at 3.30 pm in a hotel car park. After a quick Doza with coconut chutney we donned garlands, flags, plastic buckets, wigs, anything to get us noticed. Like we needed to?!!Now we were ready for our curtain call. With the wave of a flag by man in a high vis vest, and a scream from a pea whistle we were off, together.
The roar of 90 enfields flowing through the last village beeping their horns with kids waving, and shouting "good journey good journey" was electric. I had goose bumps for half an hour. As the cavalcade drew to a halt in the hotel car park the welcome drums pouned" well done. well done. well done."( Well I thought they did)
Enfields were just parked randomly as everyone jumped off their saddles to hug each other, all of us were so emotionally charged there was hardly one biker that didn't have to wipe their eyes,if somewhat reluctantly. Everyone was here for their own special reasons, and after faceing and conquering their demons had finally made it through the most life enhancing journey, all to help people so less fortunate than ourselves.
It has been a true privelege to have done this journey, and I could not have done it without the huge support and encouragement that I have had from my friends and family.
Thank you so much, and bring on that Sauvignon and a Captains Club crab sandwich.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

300k to Thekkady

The longest ride ever but filled with so much beauty. Another early start meant that we were on the road for 7am heading back down the mountain range that we spent 2 hours climbing the night before.
After a 2000 m decent it was time to strip a few layers off to get cool. This coincided with us finding a roadside stand that was making Doza; a rice pancake with spiced ghee and green tomato chutney made by man and wife in a back yard where they and their children lived underneath corrugated sheets. After swallowing precationary Imodium we set off through a cardomum scented valley for the Tea plantations.
Nothing can ever pepare you for the beauty of this area. Its as if Capability Brown designed mile upon mile of mountainous landscape. This is an ornamental garden of epic proportions. As we slalomed down through the mountains on smooth windy roads it was just like skiing on tarmac, with every corner giving jaw dropping beauty complete with the clean smell of drying tea leaves.
A long day meant driving the last hour in the dark. Not to be recommend given that half the vehicles don't have headlights and the ones that do (usually genocidal bus drivers) have them on full beam.
By the and of today I feel absolutely exhausted and the thought of another sore arse day makes me want to throw Harry off a cliff the way 2 fellow riders did on a hair pin bend earlier.Riders are fine, apart from one broken collar bone.

295k to Kodaikanal

We'll it certainly was long, hot and sweaty( no jokes please). Most of us were quite nervous this morning about the days challenge. When we were told that we would face 39 hair pin bends going up to Ooty with sheer drops of hudreds of feet. The main raeson for the early start is to avoid kamikazee lorry drivers heading down hill with no breaks!
As we all headed up the steep climb you could look back and see this amazing giant mechanical centipede of black enfields slithering up the mountainside.
After a cup of chai at the top made by Jon who looked more like a coalminer than a tea maker, we headed into Ooty. Not just another chaotic city, but with a definate colonial feel about it. The hillside is littered with beautiful villas and has an English school that Ken my fellow rider actually went to when he was 6.
After riding through pineapple groves for what seemed like hours we stopped for a veggie samosa,a squashed donut thingy and a coke....... Things don't get much better for lunch on the roadside here.
Seven hours of driving brought us to the foothill of our next major climb. This climb took us up to Kodaikanal 1800m above sea level. While temperatures dropped from 38 degrees to 10 we kept winding and climbing until I saw what must be the most beautiful scenery that I have ever seen in my life. A huge lake and patchwork quilt of pineapple and coconut groves surounded by majestic tree covered mountains. We viewed this as if soaring like eagles ( with ears popping) above the cloud line. It was now so cold all the locals were laughing at the sight of their own breath, and the kids were pretending to smoke.
After a breif stop for deep fried chillies and charcoaled sweetcorn dusted with lemon and chili, we crammed our burning botox lips into our crash helmets and headed for the hotel. Please let there be a bath.... I would sell Harry for one right now.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Rest day

Stayed up late last night around the camp fire drinking beer and whisky, so by 1am I thought it was a great idea to sing stairway to heaven.
So today I was extremely busy relaxing in the sunshine watching monkeys play and deers graze.
Tomorrow is going to be very challenging. We are heading high up into the mountains facing 39 hair pin bends before we reach Kodaikanal. We have been told it will be a long hot and sweaty day and we will need to be on top form.
Hoping for a good nights sleep.

Fw: Back to the jungle

A late start gave us the opportunity to spend a couple of hours exploring Mysore(head) and a chance for me to think about how lucky I am having the friends family and home that I do. This is the first time that I have been able to think of anything other than be safe on the road.
As I was without cash the first mission for my persnal tuk tuk driver was to find an ATM machine with cash in. Bingo machine number 4 had cash, so off I sped to the flower market, which was a vibrant vegetable and spice market with the odd marigold stand. You see what we regard as exotic flowers eveywhere in the country side, yet all you can buy in the flower market in minging marigolds on a rope? Anyway," tuk tuk man take me to a silk market, I need a made to measure shirt for my last night in India". My ride which resembled a ghost train ride in Blackpool,lead me to the indoor silk market. After whitling my fabric choice down from112 to 2 I was finally measured up.My plan of exploring more of the city was scuppered due to me being unable to pay for my shirt because I had left my debit card in the ATM machine. This led to, an over 18 ghost train ride back to the ATM machine, an interview with the bank manager, a letter from me to say sorry, and another ghost train ride (this time armed with my debit card) back to pay for the shirt!
Right, deep breath," take me back to my hotel tuk tuk man I'm late for mid day departure". No.It wasn,t happening. No matter how many times I said that I didn't want to go to the famous street that sold fragrant oils, and that I hate oils, or that I would never buy a fragrant oil,that I was allergic to fragrant oil he still tuk me there! I bought Jarnagada oil which is good for spots, from the only Indian man that I've seen with acne.
After being pestered, by an Indian playing Frere Jacques on a flute, to buy one, I started a wonderful stress free ride that took us to the beautiful elephant and tiger resereve of Masinagudi, where I whitessed the majesty of 5 elphants in their home land. We were warned not to stop, so we got off our bikes and took loads of pics.
They are just awesome creatures. This magical journey was through Tamil Nadu, the heartland of rural poor and the home of vegaterianism. This is why on arrival at our jungle huts we were offered beefburgers and a beer, followed by a supper of spaghetti bolognaise. This is the first time I have had meat in India......I'm sure it makes sense to somebody.
The people here are the poorest of the poor matterially, but they are without question the frienliest and most decent Indians that we have met. Tamil Nadu is my favourite part of India so far, it is heavenly.A friendly Wild West.
No casualties today apart from 5. Riders with the trots. Going to drink lots of beer and whisky tonight as the only thing I have planned tomorrow is a massage.

250k to Mysore

I had a surprisingly good nights sleep under canvas thanks to ear plugs not man eating Tigers. My room mate is off the road for 2 days after getting too friendly with a hedge on a hair pin bend and may have a broken wrist.
After a hearty breakfast of grey hard boiled eggs and curried eggs with rice we had a beautiful windy ride down through the coffee and tea plantations. The smells lilies in the country and incence inthe villages were almost hypnotic.
After a roadside chai break, where Suzie buys 4 of us bright yellow garlands for our bikes so that we can spot each other easier, we head onto the busier roads, driving through the Deccan plateau where the temperature is now reaching 34. These roads were something else. As the luxury of smooth tarmac builds your confidence and speed you suddenly hit half a mile of dirt track littered with pot holes the size of a hot tub forcing you over to the wrong side of the road. Some roads offering head to head challenges as everyone aims for a central piece of smooth tarmac to claim as their own, avoiding the empty hot tubs either side.
Your eyes are in a constant state of REM as you try to watch for these craters and still marvel at people washing elephants, naked monks taking a morning strol on the roadside, women carrying half of their home on their heads and suicidal cows.
As we headed into the sunset we reached the regal city of Mysore(arse). Mysore(knees) is an amazing city where the Brits had a government in the days of the Raj. However even in a big city like Mysore(eyes) a couple of bulls will just be standing on a dual carriage way just because they can.... Its mental.
Checked into a proper hotel thank God with beds, water and sheets but no luggage yet the truck is lost. I couldn't face going on the organised bus to see the palace. There was just no competition. Do I get in a bus with 80 smelly bikers with a driver that should be in court for attempted genocide to see the palace lit up?....m or do I have a bath?!
After a delicious lentil curry in the garden we had a presentation from UNICEF which just hammered home exactly why we are going through all this. It was quite emmotional for eveyone, to see children that we are actually helping, in a country where 2 in 10 children under the age of 12 have AIDS.
Shorter day riding tomorrow giving us a chance to explore Mysore(arse) in the morning.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device