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Meanwhile in Canada ......it has been reported that overly cheerful bug-eyed humanoids are running amok along the beaches. DO NOT approach these beings as there is no telling as to what might happen.... HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

I've been taken out for breakfast this morning by my lovely wife, breakfast was excellent but I didn't get a candle in it though

On Wednesday night I had a call from a mate in Reading asking if I fancied meeting up with him and three mates, along with another friend from Southampton at the air museum near Salisbury. Seemed like a plan so set off to get there by 1130. Of course I arrived far too early. Then the rest of them turned up after I'd had the worst cup of tea in living memory. Was well pleased to see this Gloucester Meteor as I probably saw it flying from Llanbedr airfield when I was in primary school nearby And this was one of the drones that they also flew from there. Some of the exhibits My mate from Southampton trying to figure out how to get out Biggles Stopped at this War Cemetery on the way to Avebury. And then after riding past the stones at Avebury stopped for a much needed beer. We rode up to Swindon because the stupid GPS on my mate's bike led us there for fuel. A group bomb burst and a quick blast down the M4 to Reading for a kebab and red wine, before heading home on the Friday along a gridlocked M4 as far as Chepstow. Good to meet a few new faces, and hopefully there will be another ride somewhere interesting before too long. Great collection well worth visiting run by a knowledgable and friendly bunch of volunteers. Highly recommended.

Covered around 100+ miles around the country lanes, nowhere exciting, ride along some I have never been on before, the last thing that went down some of them was a horse and cart.....a couple of pics from the side of the river Trent.

Some more photos from todays day out. Old skool garage in Malmesbury............... The Market Cross The Abbey gardens............... In the gardens i also met Brutus.............. and Malmesbury Abbey..............

Bridge Spider - Larinioides sclopetarius at Rutland Water

Had a good ride today the route certainly wore the newness off the Beta, There were two groups of 8 but two of our group failed to show due to a busted wheel on their trailer which had them stranded on the M4. Some of the lanes were tough for our group but i'm sure the other group got around no problem. It was 122 miles from door to door for me and i was out 10 hours no wonder i feel pooped. Just a few photos and videos taken of a couple of the lanes we didn't stop much and when we did photos were the last thing on our minds This was our band of merry men you can see flat Holm and Steep Holm in the distance just off Cardiff bay, The weather stayed good all day Some kind of hold up ahead This was it one of many obstacles to negotiate throughout the day A lot of the lanes were like this which were easy going and the rest were like this which is quite a steep and rocky Alan this is your old CCM Further up the hill The Beta at the bottom waiting patiently for it's turn There was lots of waiting, being the tail ender meant i couldn't see what was going on and just had to wait there was a big rock in the way on this one there seemed to be big rocks in the way all day though. The guy in front of me here called it a day after this lane he had had his fill and headed home Shortly after something spooked the Beta and it tried to escape up a tree Not to self let the bike go don't try and hold onto it Last of the videos this is called pumphouse lane its got a bit rougher since the last time i done it, I dropped the Beta on this one, I got up the hard bit went to put my foot down and i couldn't reach the floor and over it went, sure was easy to pick up though. More of Alans old bike being punished And this was the best effort of the day he was on a CRF250 rally It was a tough day with a good bunch of lads all willing to help each other along Last photo for you Pete just before i washed it. i do wash them i just don't do a very good job

Few pics from today, Jenson Button was racing the blue car. Last pic was the car park , millions of pound sitting there

Well, the rain and wind storm they were calling for sure has arrived. I had a really busy week and I'm thinking it is best to just relax today. So I started a warm fire, made some more coffee and now I'm working on a new Grasshopper's Path video.

Woke up feeling normal, today, and went for a ride to check out the RARET. Even though this didn't create the photo content I was looking for I have just recently found about this bit of history and it interested me, so here it is. RARET is short for portuguese RAdio de RETransmissão (Retransmission Radio). At the time Portuguese leader (dictator) demanded that this station only retransmitted content created elsewhere, and no person worked there that wasn't a sympathizer to his party, the Estado Novo, to do this his political and censorship state police went through every worker with a fine tooth comb. (PIDE - Police for Investigation and Defense of the State) Portugal wasn't really a place of free speech or liberty back then, which is quite ironic since this station started to retransmit the american "Radio Free Europe / Radio Free Asia" mostly trying to convert people on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Salazar's phrasing very roughly translated by me, it's a difficult speech to convey in English: "A big number of European countries, threatened in their life and liberty, are now counting with the aid of the United States and with the help of each other for the defense of divulging their patrimony. It seems difficult, in such circumstances to be absent from this." The content transmitted would in languages very much foreign to most portuguese residents, so people from the Eastern block were in charge of monitoring them to make sure they wouldn't be retransmitting Russian programes. Mr Pasqualino (an Italian), a guy who was fluent in 12 languages was the master linguist, often pointing out they were receiving the Russian transmission which arrived here in far stronger signal than the American. It's very recognized that without him this station would frequently be transmitting the Russian signal, and that would be most inconvenient. He would receive transmissions from Germany in Vila Franca de Xira, record them, and then drive them over to Glória do Ribatejo for broadcasting those recordings. Strange times. Eventualy, this was streamlined... The engineers brought from the armed forces to work the radio and electronics eventually got into a groove and found themselves with plenty of free time, hence they were put to use in a Technical School that was built in Gloria do Ribatejo (name of the town translated to Ribatejo's Glory). This school was open to whoever intended to enroll, and was responsible for a big increase of kids from this village to get a quality education and a substantial increase in their progression to Universities, not much of an occurrence before that. The RARET obviously had a medical facility to care for it's staff, this was quickly put to use and open to the community, their ambulance and maternity ward made a big difference in the lives of those people back then. The RARET transmited from 1951 until 1996, which quite surprised me. Upon shutting down, some building were donated to the community, some were converted to the local council management, some modified and converted for community groups to use. All the now obsolete radio equipment was dismantled and donated to the local council, who having no alternative use sold it for scrap. The whole thing was a big positive influence in the quality of life of this village, and it stopped with the best impact it could have. The main buildings are currently abandoned just a couple of kms out of town, and I went to have a look. Unfortunately I couldn't really get a close look at the thing, I rode around the entire compound searching for an opening but it would have involved climbing over a fence or forcing a gate, and I wasn't going to do that. Main entrance: A glimpse at the compound homes, now unused, apparently 70 homes used to be occupied by people working here. The main building in the distance, Typical local broken road around the fence, plenty of houses around though. Rear entrance, also pretty shut On the edge off the Village, a few posters with period pictures were posted this year, celebrating the 70 years of the first transmission in 4th July 1951. Popped to the village for a pick me up expresso, old builders' homes converted to a new community building and park, named after the Radio Free Europe president: During this RARET operation, Portugal went into war in Africa and Asia over it's colonies independence, the last country in the EU to have colonies is not the proudest moment in our history, but even worse is that the way we left was very damaging for those countries's future. A small memorial to a couple of local soldiers who died overseas. It started getting warm, and I headed home. I was a little disappointed that access to the buildings wasn't easy but I did stop on an abandoned crumbling building for your delection So here: Exiting, the property owner stopped by me on his pickup and was apparently very irritated that I took a couple of pictures of his crumbling building, even though it's door was wide open and I didn't go in. As I asked why he was getting so aggravated he started to get more and more irritated, and proceeded to move his pickup a few meters forward to write down my plate number, which he did over a thick cloud of dust when I got on my merry way, what a twat he was. A brief stop over my favourite bridge on the way home, Ponte Rainha D. Amélia: Plan was to pull some weeds in the afternoon, but it's too hot and I'm not feeling that right now. This report turned into too much of a history lesson for my taste, sorry about that, but if you're up for more here is a link to a page with some old pictures of the radio station: https://restosdecoleccao.blogspot.com/2014/07/raret-radio-retransmissao.html

Had a grey day ride yesterday on my Honda, Charlotte. Almost made it home before the rain started, but not quite. The bike handles great in the rain! I love the Michelin Road 5 tires too!

My weekend started today as i have taken today off work. Just fitted some carpet on our landing only taken me a year and 2 hours to fit, it was an offcut from a new carpet my parents had fitted, it's been rolled up at the bottom of the stairs for a year and that's how long the wife's been nagging me to fit it, she must have got smart and used reverse psychology on me because last night she said take that carpet to the dump tomorrow if your not going to fit it, got up this morning and just laid it WTF i hope she's not going to make this a regular thing

Just to prove it.

A TDM blast from the past! Bought a couple of cushy sofas for outside my home today, currently enjoying a glass of wine under a pretty evening sky Sitting slightly higher I can now see a sliver of the Tejo river in the distance, good stuff!

After our ad hoc late lunch we headed up and over the Conor pass, the view from the top was stunning. and crossed back to the east side of the peninsula over the Caherconlee road- which was especially nadgery with a lot of loose gravel. In fact the road was effectively a river of gravel, which made for some very exciting descents. With just one short stretch that had enough grip to stop and put feet down.

Today, got lost, found a windmill, bought some MacDonalds outside Sudbury and was riding looking for somewhere nice to eat it. Saw the cows next to a hotel whilst still in Sudbury, it just looks like the country, did a wobbly u-turn and went and took some pictures, my food was cold by the time I sat down later on.

Fuck your luck Tym

Summer days gone by...

A little more of a jaunt on the scoot today, just 100 miles but most of that is single track, supermoto style roads Up over the Blacks again through Llangadog and onto the West End Cafe in Llandovery, an expensive bacon roll and cup of tea (£5.90 robbing bastards) Then onto the lane up to Llyn Brianne Overlooking the damn, looks like there's lots of construction work going on there Anything over 40mph on these roads get's pretty exciting, very tight and twisty but rarely used by cars Some of the stunning views, my pics don't do it justice On to the view point, yes I had to ride a little "off piste" to get there Last stop at Llyn Brianne before moving on Down the "Devil's Staircase" and onto Abergwesyn Pass, again, tight twisties, gotta be careful here, the road often drops away with hidden dips but these are often immediately followed by a bend, go over the hump too quick and you'll run off the road and down the bank Into Llanwrtyd Wells (the smallest town in Britain then through Tirabad and onto the Sennybridge ranges, these are military ranges with a road running through them which is mostly open to the public except when they're using live fire maneuvers They have a fake village in the ranges where they hold exercises Onto the A40 and turn off at Trecastle to get on the Trecastle road and head South on the East side of the Black Mountain I rode over earlier Straight down the A4067 to home then, very nice few hours out relaxing and fun at times, especially nearly getting taken out the other side of the blacks by a Lambourghini, Ferrari and Porche none of whom seems to be able to stay on their side of the road when coming round bends< I suspect they were there filming as the road is often used by motoring programs

Done a 100 mile loop on the new Beta today and one of the guys i was riding with turned up on last years model, the other was on a DR350 bloody good bike that so probably bored him to death talking about the Beta's LOL. It was an uneventful day as in no spills or mechanical failures. Encountered an angry farmer on one lane where we agreed to disagree and went on our separate ways the new bike was great but the suspension is shit needs some work to get it to perform right for me Not many photos and the lad on the other Beta recorded 100 miles of nothing on his Gopro because the memory card hadn't been formatted

The mid August day was cooler, as the hot summer days seemed to have passed. A light rain the evening before had made the gravel roads a bit less dusty and the forest brightened up with a fresh green. My Himalayan was running just right, a happy single just thumping away. With all that and some quiet roads through the forest, you have a wonderful August excursion. A short stop at the lake doesn't hurt either, to make the ride there that much sweeter.

Finally got around to writing this up, I have been way too busy with union stuff at work. A couple of weeks ago I went for a run out to the border with England while it is still open, if the Scottish Nazi Party get their way it will be closed at some point. I went down the A68 which would be a great motorcycling road if it wasn't for all the speed cameras but that isn't much of an issue for the tractor. As there have been complaints of not enough pictures I went out of my way to take some. So here we are just outside Edinburgh, with those lovely wind turbines. Who doesn't love a nice wind turbine? Obligatory picture of the beast. Some miles later I headed off the main road towards my first planned stop. Which was Scotts View, said to be Sir Walter Scotts favourite view in Scotland. It was an even better view this time as this beauty was there. I continued along the lanes and was going to take in one of the Abbeys in the area but it was closed still so I headed to the Wallace statue that looks over the Jedburgh Valley, it was a bit of a walk though the woods to get there, luckily I wasn't raped by trolls. They live under trees like this. Here is the man himself. and his view of the lands he won back for Scotland before he made a twat of himself and suffered a brutal end at the hands of the English. I didn't go down the hill as there were strange noises and I am a lazy fucker. I headed back to the bike, it was at this point I realised I should have asked more questions of the person I spoke with earlier who said I might see "raptors" near the Wallace statue, I looked and looked and did not see any hawks in the area at all. However on the path back through the woods I met this bastard. Luckily a couple of English fatties walked up at this point so as my reptilian friend and his family took to eating this feast that were too wobbly to get away I took a swift walk to the bike and left. I headed back to the A68 and did not stop until I got the border. Where I turned around and availed myself of a cup of tea and a cheese burger and a cigar before heading back. I even got picture of some porn for Pete, these are English sheep.

I’m in prison. It’s now a hotel. I am imagining it is the room where Sux got arse raped for being a convicted paedo.

A Sparrowhawk in my garden

Robin - Erithacus rubecula

Well someone had to do something like say, go to the beach...nice calm day at the Rock. Just before i was attacked by a great white and saved by flipper, my camera died. Sorry.

Oh fuck off you sad twats.

A beautiful September morning! The view from my dog walk this morning, love how the clouds hang in the trees. Hope everyone is having a good day!

I have done fuck all today. It has been raining pretty much non stop for 48hours which was my 2 days off... I did take the flame thrower to the weeds in the courtyard if that counts? I reckoned there was less chance of me setting the neighbours houses on fire as it was raining...

Racist Welsh bastards Can't believe they used to keep black people down the mines

I was just thinking about how something that was originally planned as an adventure/dualsport motorcycling forum has actually evolved! Because over the course of 17 months we've become a type of hybrid of a general motorcycle forum and an OAP's drop in centre! Never saw that coming.......guess it just shows how the demographics have changed over the years! But still.......if the direction of the site is driven by the members that has to be a positive! One person's vision and direction is never going to be a good fit for everybody. So if you know any other sad old cunts who are also past their sell by date then bring them in! Do you think it would help if we became www.sadoldcunts.com

A song for Pete. Daago, daaago, sunlight comes and the internet goes down, daago, daago....another spanish day run by clowns...

In the most touristy places €5 is about average for a pint. However… we Lidled. €1.99 a can .80c for a bag of ice and used one of my panniers as an impromptu ice bucket to chill the beers, worked very well. We got to Bray and to our dismay found there were no campsites at all, most had closed down due to COVID, gone bust. So…. We gave up and crossed to Holyhead last night and stayed at my sisters house - who conveniently happens to live in Holyhead. I’m nearly home, just having a break near uttoxeter. The guys enjoyed our week away, something a bit different and better than expected with the great weather and even the bad weather wasn’t too terrible.., though I’ll never enjoy packing up a tent when it’s raining. A deep breath and start thinking about the Dolomites and Austria/Black Forest next year. All being well and we get back to some form of a normal life. my left ice bucket as mysteriously acquired a souvenir!!

Bought a ticket for this event that I'd always fancied attending months ago so the day arrived. I was meeting my mate Titus who was coming up to Oxford from Reading while I took the A40 route rather than the M4. Most of the photos are Titus's as I ended up taking loads of them for him when he was posing around the place. I stopped here for a brew somewhere near Burford I think as I was way too early as usual, as is my want. I then went to a McDonalds on the ring road to meet up as we were far too early for the 1700 opening of the event. I was only about 45 minutes too early at this time. Having checked in at the gate we got the tents up the same as everybody else. Then after some wine it was up for an explore around the site. There was a recorded video from Ted Simon who couldn't attend as the Covid travel regulations were all a bit too much for a ninety year old. His bike however was there. After a few more beers talking with some guy from Northern Ireland it all got a bit vague and it was time for bed. Woke up to accordion music. This guy had been busking at some time, and thought it a great idea to stimulate hangovers at some ungodly hour. Fred might remember Titus's morning garb from the Moon Rallies. Quite chuffed with this somewhat surreal photo. There were several speakers. We attended I think four, it might have been more but it interfered with the drinking, besides many of the people we met had interesting travel tales to share. Besides, a good excuse to go again. I think the first talker we listened to was Elspeth Beard. This is her bike that she rode around the world, and had ridden to the event. Until recently the first recognised woman to do the RTW. Also listened to Mary Sievier. I seem to have unfortunately lost the photos I took so the link says it all. She was absolutely brilliant. I hope she gets a book written. There was also Mark Holmes who shared an extremely personal tale of his circumnavigation on a Triumph Rocket! I'm reading his book at the moment. He also did a talk on some research that he's doing on how many people have circumnavigated the world on a motorcycle. At present 303 I think. The last talk I think, as I probably have these all mixed up, was by Ian Coates from Hebden Bridge who roamed the world for I think fourteen years.. He must be one of the most. entertaining speakers that I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, and I was in stitches most of the time. Brilliant. I got photobombed while photobombing! I forgot that this was hanging off the pannier frame in line with the exhaust. Oops! A few more random photos.

Too hot!!

Now at Killarney and we’re going to stay here until Thursday morning, came over Mills gap and it’s pass, that’s the road from kenmare north into the national park, which was really nice. But obviously a Sunday so a lot of trippers. Normal workday tomorrow onwards so should be much better. Probably Dingle peninsula tomorrow, Ring of Kerry on Tuesday and Ring of Beara on Wednesday. Back of an envelope plan. More photos from tomorrow as today was mostly about getting here. One of the lads got to stand in the Atlantic!! Exciting. Anyway 18:45. Tents are up and shortly a walk to the pub/carvery along the road. We’re a little way out of Killarney. Quiet campsite, set back from the “ring of Kerry road” - I’m tired. 551 road miles from my front door, a lot of the roads today have been quite nadgery, narrow lanes with grass up the middle. It’s been fun. Despite the damp start.

Had a great ride today but only took a few photos Stopped here waiting for the rest of the group to come back as they went the wrong way. I done this lane a few months ago and thought it was for the first time That was until i got to this barn, once i saw the dummies in the windows it all came back to me but it was probably 12 years ago the last time i done it No idea what the the story is about them or if there is a story Only other photo is of Yoshi fixing a front puncture he done it in 10 minutes unfortunately it went flat again towards the end of the ride. There was plenty with Gopros on so might get some videos later

Moon

My most sentimental place in Portugal, you had bad weather:

Had to go out and get some more meds for my back so took the long way round to test the scoot is all working as it should Parked up next to some locals but they wandered off as even they didn't want to be seen next to it Continued on via the tight single track roads that weave through the woods, you know the sort where it's so little used that a grass verge has grown down the middle, scoot handled it well On past Pontardawe to Brynamman and up the Blacks where I saw this lot obviously on their way to the supermarket with their shopping boxes Here's the obligatory top of the mountain shots Just getting used to it really, I haven't ridden a twist and go since 1980 and that was inside the indoor shopping centre in Romford, up and down the stairs, pissed as a fart with a girl on the back, I'll try to avoid such shenanigans on this one Back down via Ystradgynlais, visited a friend then off to get the meds Very comfy ride, in fact my back is far better when on the scoot riding than when off it, she hits the speed limits very quickly, plenty for overtakes, very sure footed and natural in the bends, very pleased so far

Ive never seen a fair election in my life, why start now.

The Milky Way core over my Divvy 900 at Llyn Brianne

Red Kite - Milvus milvus, mid Wales