Off to Spain

This trip was pretty hectic, long days riding and then a rush for cold beer when we arrived at the hotel, followed by shower and dinner…just couldn’t find time to update along the way; so here’s a full update of the trip finished when I returned home.

Wed/Thurs 7th & 8th June 17

Making our way to Spain

Left home at 7am to meet Bernard, Stuart and Steve at Loomies café near Portsmouth for breakfast at 9am. Rob and Garry went out a day earlier. I arrived on time, no sign of them..15 mins later still no show; time for coffee and get my breakfast ordered. 9.25 they turned up.. apparently the panniers on Stu’s Triumph are so wide he can’t filter though traffic and has clipped 2 cars in the process, and dropped his bike trying to do a U turn..the Adventure has begun! ? Amazingly we make it to the ferry on time and are loaded quickly.

The ferry crossing to Bilbao was smooth, the dinner surprisingly good and a full breakfast next morning.

We arrived on time in Bilbao and the sun was out and it’s warm. Off we go and within 20 mins we are onto smooth twisty roads ?We meet Rob and Garry at our agreed rendezvous and now we are 6 and set off on the 4 hr ride to Potes in the Picos d’Europa it’s 28degs by now. Great roads all the way, hardly any traffic and great scenery.

We arrive at our hotel hot and ready for beer..straight to the bar and down 2 pints of cold beer. For dinner I had ham egg and chips.. see pic, washed down with several glasses of Rioja. Off to bed wondering what the election result will be in the morning.

Friday 9th June
Potes to Laciana 324kms

All talk at breakfast is about the election..what a mess! Forget about that, let’s ride! Immediately we left the hotel we climbed up into the mountains and into the low cloud. Thankfully it was clear by the top..just as well, that was where we met the cows being driven along the road! The roads are great, the scenery spectacular and very little traffic.
Lunch was a sandwich with ham, cheese, egg, tomato AND asparagus in..fantastic. After lunch we were entering a town when I heard loud exhaust noise, looked behind and there was a a big red motorbike behind me.. he had overtaken the other 5. I followed him and he turned off on the same road as ours and was obviously looking to play, so game on! He was on a Moto Guzzi 1200 sport, he obviously knew the road and could ride. I sat on his tail and we blasted up the mountain with sparks flying from my toe sliders as he tried to lose me..no chance! As we neared the top he pointed to the road.. evidence of cows ahead! Time to ease off. I waited at the top for the others to catch up and admired the view.
Our hotel that night was up in the hills near Lacania, very nice family run place. Beer, shower and dinner, wine and plenty of boy talk, then bed..another day done.

Saturday 10th June
Lacania to Tineo 370kms

I was up early and had a quick walk round the village in the morning sunshine, then finally breakfast at 8am when the hotel staff appeared..this included coffee served in what looked like a soup bowl. Different and a new one on me.

Another fantastic day..great roads, brilliant scenery, and hardly any traffic ..and a couple of Sat Nav moments. We have 4 Tom Toms and 2 Garmins..we have come to expect issues between Tom Tom and Garmin, but it seems that some Tom Toms take different routes to other Tom Toms!

When riding we tend to break into three groups..fast touring, touring..and Garry ? Periodically the front group will wait for for the others to catch up.

We arrived at a junction where our route would take us off on a narrow, but newly tarmac’d road.. this would save us at least an hour compared to the main road. As we sat at the junction discussing the options and watching the cows in the road ahead of us a couple of local bikers turned up and stopped. We had a sort of conversation and indicated we were planning to go down the narrow road.. they seemed to think that was a bad idea! Anyway off we we went, fast tourers leading, (Bernard and me) the road was narrow but great fun..soon we had lost sight of the others. We were enjoying the road so much we missed a left turn ..several kms further on the sat navs were saying turn round. We stopped, discussed our options and turned round. The sat nav picked up a route and we expected to see the others, but no sign of them; so we carried on until our planned coffee stop. We thought the others must have been ahead of us but then 10 mins later as we were sipping our coffee to our surprise they turned up. Apparently they had taken the left turn which turned out to be even narrower and more twisty; they had then stopped to have a moan before carrying on..and they were still moaning over coffee ?.. all good natured of course.

More chat over beer and dinner and another day draws to a close.

Sunday 11th June 17
Tineo to Sarria 334kms

On the road by 9am and up into the twisty mountain roads again, this time we encountered mist/clouds at the top with sheer drops off the side of the road! Soon the sun was out and we could see where we were going and the fantastic scenery.. hardly any traffic as usual and smooth road surface; no potholes here and great corners..more sparks from the toe sliders :).

It was time for lunch at our planned route point, off the main road into a small town. We arrived in dribs and drabs and realised that Garry was missing, he is our very own “Captain Slow” and always the last to arrive. Steve went back to the main road to wait for him and came back 10 mins later.. no sign of Garry. He has a new Tom Tom which is currently not charged on the bike..we thought maybe his Sat Nav had run out and he was either lost or had kept going expecting to find us waiting for him.

As we ordered lunch we called his phone, no answer; probably still riding and didn’t hear it we thought. Steve has “find a friend” on his phone which shows the position of another phone. Garry’s was showing 50kms away past our lunch stop and still moving! Finally we managed to connect and found he had stopped nearly 60kms further on!..by now the rest of us were on our second lunch course. We suggested he wait where he was and order some food .. we’ll meet up after we’ve had our 3rd course and coffee…turned out all he could get to eat was a ham & cheese roll. Well it is supposed to be an Adventure, not a holiday..to coin a phrase ?

Finally we were 6 again and set off on the last lap to our hotel. The road turned to beautiful, fast sweepers with good visibility, just what we needed after the 1000’s of mountain corners so far.

We arrived at our hotel after another sat nav moment tried to turn us down a pedestrian precinct to the front of the hotel. We rode around to the back and found that a guy from the hotel had heard us, came running out and directed us to the entrance to their back garden where we  could park the bikes; then the cold beer arrived.. what great service!

Monday 12th June 17
Into Portugal.. Serria to Freixiel 430kms

It was a cold start as we headed up into the hills 14degs and to the border with Portugal. We reached an old border crossing with now disused control point surrounded by cows. The road became very narrow and bumpy and strangely with cobble stones on some corners. We stopped for coffee in a nice Spa town after which  we headed for the N103, one of my favourite roads due to the variety of corners, good road surface, little traffic and changing scenery. The road up to N103 was very narrow and at one point we met a parked lorry and just managed to squeeze though feet down. Unfortunately it turned out that the lorry was obscuring the entrance to a road we needed to make so we had to turn round and negotiate the lorry again.. the gap between lorry and a wall seemed tighter on the way back. Made it through and waited at the junction with 103 for the group to re-assemble.. but where was Stuart?
We realised he must have had a problem getting through the gap with his wide panniers. We imagined him having to remove them to get the bike through ? Finally he arrived saying he got stuck between lorry and wall and had scratched his new panniers..just bring a roll bag next time Stuart!

We zoomed off along 103, 30 degs by now and rising, stopped for lunch which was negotiated in a mix of broken French, Portuguese and English. Sill 100kms to go, some of it Mway for a rest and cool down a bit. When we arrived at Freixiel it was 38degs ?..another good day done and cold beer time ? The hotel was very remote and had its own vineyard; we had to wait till 8.30pm for dinner which turned out to be rather disappointing. The slow cooked lamb had very little meat on it and the cod steak didn’t have much cod in it..but the local wine was drinkable and low cost.

Tuesday 13thJune 17
Back to Spain..Feixiel to Ponferada 430kms

After breakfast I went to the bike and found a colony of ants had climbed up my side stand and were swarming all over the bike, eating the many dead flies I had collected along the way. Cleared as many as I could then hoped the wind would blow the rest off on the way.

We headed for the N222 which is a windy, picturesque route through the Duro valley wine region.. check out the pic. We had a couple of sat nav moments as we headed for Spain, my Garmin got the blame again, and the group got split up as some followed the Tom Tom route. My group then found Rob along the way, standing by the side of the road on his own having lost his group. By now we had picked up the main route again, which much to Steve and my delight ( both on GSs) included a stretch of a few kms of badly cobbled rutted road through a forrest. So we stood up on the pegs and whizzed through it, leaving the sporty bikes of Bernard and Rob to pick their way gingerly along, they finally arrived as we stood waiting with big grins on our faces ?
The final part of the route included fast downhill sweepers and we were lucky to have missed the police speed trap, which apparently had packed up a few mins before we arrived..great timing!
That night it was beer, red wine and very good pizzas in a restaurant next to the hotel.

Weds 14th June 17
Ponferada to Potes 477kms

So we headed back to Potes for our last night before the ferry home. Another day of great roads with hardly any traffic..this part of Spain really is a bikers dream. Each day we have left at 9am and generally arrived at the hotel by 6ish..long days but fantastic riding and the weather has been great; mostly mid 20s with several 30 degs+ times. Wish we knew how many corners we’ve done, must be 1000s..and Garry is getting better with all the practice ?
Today was another great day as always. Just haven’t found time to update blog along the way!
At our lunch stop my bike suddenly started clicking when it was turned off.. informed opinion seemed to think it was coming from the solenoid. Googled it and others have had same problem, but only when battery was flat, which mine wasn’t..started easily..strange, must have been the ants!

Our last night started with cold beer on arrival, followed by steak for dinner, red wine and more beer..see the happy group pic ?
We always sleep well at night for sure!!

Thursday 15th June 17..Potes to Bilbao..217kms

We had two options for the route to Bilbao; more twisty roads, or Mway and get there quickly. We had 5 hours for the journey so we decided to do the pretty route. This turned out to be very twisty and climbed up into the mountains and into the cloud and with it some fine drizzle. difficult to see the way in mist and the road was now wet. Not so much of a problem going up, but a challenge coming down the other side with the tight greasy bends..good opportunity to practice smooth riding 😉

After a coffee stop it started to rain more, we stopped for those who needed to put on their wet gear..would Garry now turn into a wind sock? It was decided to get onto the Mway and give up on the pretty route. After a number of kms on the boring Mway the rain had stopped so we came off and picked up the original route and finished off on more twisty roads. The next challenge was to find the ferry port, so I set the destination in my trusty Garmin and lead the way. All went well till we were about a couple of kms away when I missed a turn and the others carried on the right route. Mine took me into the Port, the commercial port! I explained to the man on the barrier that I was looking for the ferry and he indicated how to get out of the maize of roads and follow the yellow signs to the ferry. Finally I found my way out and arrived at the entrance to the ferry port to find the others waiting…minus Stuart! He had missed another turn and got separated from the rest.

We waited, and waited..tried phoning. Finally got hold of him and found he had ended up in the town of Bilbao about 5kms away. Thankfully we were ok for time, which was just as well as it was 20 mins before he turned up and we were 6 again.

We loaded the bikes, got to the cabins and met for some beer. Some wanted to watch a movie that night so we had an early dinner and off they went. I decided on an early night in the superior outside cabin Bernard and I were sharing, complete with window unlike the interior cabins of the rest..the perks of the instigators of the trip 🙂

I woke up early, showered and went for a walk on deck. I was having a tea and enjoying the sun when suddenly heard the sound of a helicopter approaching. It was about 7am and very few people about; the helicopter made straight for the boat and began to hover just above me; I could see the winch man was lowering something. After 5 mins it rose up and went away..hmmm what could this be? Turned out that someone had been taken ill and the helicopter had dropped off a doctor. The boat was virtually stationary by now and stayed that way for 2 hours until the helicopter returned to collect the doctor/patient. As a result our arrival in Portsmouth was delayed by 2 hrs. Had breakfast and then spent the rest of the time on deck soaking up the sun and got my forehead sunburnt!

Friday 16th June 17..Portsmouth to home

As soon as we hit the M27 the traffic was heavy and some filtering was required…such a change from the empty roads of Spain, but at least it was dry and sunny. The M3 was really chocked with rush hour/Friday night traffic, filtered for miles till I turned off on A34 and the traffic eased. Stopped for coffee and then home by 7pm. Total miles 2000.

All in all a great trip and many thanks to Bernard who had spent hours tuning the routes we took last year to include every twisty road he could find and booking all the hotels and ferry. Thank you to Stuart, Steve, Rob and Garry for your company and providing many funny moments along the way..it certainly was an Adventure!