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Left Faro not having a clue where I would go next, half an hour into the ride I stopped for a while, having to make a couple of calls and send some emails, my office for my morning stuff, right after the twistiest nicest part of the N2 in southern Portugal. All you need is decent coverage and a laptop that doesn't crap out from all the vibration on the bike, my choice would have been for a cafe as I was a little needy of a coffee, but all my options so far had a few people around and I am trying to stay out of people's way. Can't really stand sitting in a cafe wearing a mask so I don't. I felt like riding back to the Alentejo, but temperatures are supposed to go into unpleasant levels, and I had just come from there, so instead headed west into the Atlantic, but via mountains and hills, a Algarve most tourists never see. I rode a mix of nice smooth roads you would be happy to take a fast sports bike on, mountain roads less smooth and more twisty, good gravel roads, and less good gravel roads Onto dirt: Someone must have been shot to death here, place looked grim with a british plated transit van half disassembled, I didn't stick around. The nice dirt road turned into a sort of dirt highway you could drive two TIR trailers side by side, some corrugations also made it unpleasant, didn't take pictures of that ugliness, and it was proper hot there too so didn't feel like stopping allowing my own dust to catch up. Then some nice enough roads through orange orchards, also no pictures, but then a nice dirt road near the Funcho dam. By 14:30 I was a bit hungry, climbed the Monchique serra, which I've posted about before, and had a cheese and tomato sandwich there Then, because the guy took forever to put a few slices of tomato and cheese inside some bread, and I didn't know where to go next, I took forever to leave. Decided on going to spend the night in a hotel I have wanted to stay in ever since the first time I visited Sagres as it overlooks the Sagres point from a similarly tall (50 meters) cliff. It's expensive but what the hell. Made quite good progress and enjoyed the bumpy roads coming here, brief stop by the Cape Saint Vincent lighthouse, my favourite building in Portugal: Didn´t hang around much as I really felt like a swim, plus I'll stop by a little tomorrow before going: The room is a disappointment, but the view as I'm posting this right now: Going for a walk on a cliffside, and dinner in a bit...

I thought mine looked ok with a small screen.

Not a great deal of words today as I'm going all Pedro-like. I went to have a look at some new (to me) Droves on the Somerset levels today. On the way I dropped down over Burledge Hill where there is evidence of some great lane management.......... Up over the Mendips and down through Wells, Glastonbury and Street to get to Somerton and onto the fun stuff. You get miles of this..............

I had never shared a pool with a seagull before. Although it looks summery, that is 50 meters high on a oceanside cliff, the wind was quite strong and not very warm at all. Took a walk before dinner, and you can see the wind on the water below

and here's a couple of the race bikes he's built. The first one was called 'Bum Trinket'

possibly man... but if we all had a bong we'd all get along.

So Earache posted lots of photos of a car parade the other day and one of them looked like the Willys Coupe that my boss used to drag race. I thought I'd put up some of the photos that are in our tea room...............

A bit further on and it started to get a bit sticky, there is no gravel surface under this grass, it is pure peat and with the amount of rain we had yesterday it was slicker than a Beavers back end. The fun bit is trying to guess where the tractor ruts are under the grass so that you don't tip over in them............. After heaving my way though my thermostat started reaching boiling point so some clothing was removed and I made it back to terra firma. I carried on to do some more Droves which were pretty uneventful and then came to the North Drain. The North Drain does exactly what it says on the tin in that it drains the water off the Levels, there was a big shoal of Roach basking in the sun........... I started to head north now and back towards home, here you can see Nyland Hill (an extinct volcano) in the forground and the Mendip Hills in the distance as viewed from the Levels.......... Once I got up on the Mendips I stopped near Priddy at a convinient tree stump to sit on for lunch........... I had a quick look at a campsite (for future reference) and then made my way home. There will be some bike washing to be done tomorrow.

Did you ride any of them, are there any photos ? Asking for a friend.................

I can never understand the purpose of these big naked bikes in a Judge Dredd type of style! What are they for? They always look to me like a sportsbike where the fairing has been taken off. This is what a big naked bike should look like to me.

Likewise Pedro. Another GS is good. Does everything that I can do, and is comfortable to boot. The T7s are nice too although too tall for me. Seat is too hard and the top end whine from the Africa Twin spoils it for me. Something like Pete's bike will be the next sensible option I think.

@Tym the last thing you need is anything mind altering, that ship sailed decades ago.

I thought this was one of Bob's holiday snaps, but it's the wrong way round.

Those puddles are all new to me Pete, a Drove is a 'way' where cattle and other livestock were driven to market in days gone by.

I nearly forgot this one. This lovely young lady came down for a magazine shoot, as you can see it was a very hot day. Unfortunately for me she came on my day off.......

i wish i'd kept loads i sold

I see that I got a good reflection of the washing machine

Yeah it was @Six30 should have kept it.

I dunno, if you are a bigger sucker then a sturgeon, are you a bottom feeder too?

bike hasn't , not having a screen does not bother me , some people cant have a bike with out a screen ..... oohhh its to windy ...my necks hurting ,..... Gay

Good newsfor you cheap socialist bastids, the govt is here to help, plenty of free parking behind the VFW in the woods by the RR tracks. For the Brits you can throw your bikes in that open sewer to the left Of course, the ladies will notice how cheap you are, they always do....Cant even get drunk on $20 nowdays....just saying, butt, that might be part my fault.

That is a gobsmacking structure. What is that made of, is it hollow? I've heard of Reims and I have no interest in racing at all, but it has obviously been repeated enough around me to make it stick in my memory.

I have been planning a couple of longer trips, 3 or 4 days, but am not sure anymore how many hours I can ride comfortably in a day having not done any longer trips since the problems with shoulder and now knees. So despite the weather forcast being shyte and our region being on yellow alert for storms I decided to see how long I could last. I had heard tell of a road near Reims that was once a race track, and the stands have been left intact along the side of the road. I saw it on the telly a couple of weeks ago so though I might go have a butchers: Reims, and most of the Champagne region is on the Marne river plain so is obiously strewn with cemeterys and memorials of the first war and the battle of the Marne ( i did a ride report from Chateau Thierry and the american cemeteries and monument a few years ago) so, this being kind of my pet subject, I had to visit this, the National Monument to the 1st battle of the Marne ( sept 1914, with the advancing Germans just 30 miles from Paris, Marechal Joffre ordered his retreating 6th army to turn around and attack. The BEF on his flank did the same 24hrs later and the german advance was stopped and 5 days later was in general retreat) a small British cemetery nearby I also rode past a huge French military cemetary and an Americain one also but it was pissing down with rain so I didn't stop. The weather cleared again and as the sun came out I found a lovely quiet spot to eat my sarnies, in a village called "Oyes" the whole time I sat there eating and reading my book, about half an hour I guess, not a single car came past...lovely! Moving on, I crossed the Seine at Romilly and found the old race circuit pit lane and stands at "Gueux" just west of Reims being a Sunday there were a few people about as it's obviously a meeting place for the local petrol heads the grandstand opposite I went on Into Reims for petrol and rode home stopping a number of time to shelter form the heavier rainstorms that came through, they don't last long but they drop a huge amount of water on you and you can go from dry road to 3 inches of standing water in under a minute, so I prefer to pull over and shelter for 5 or 10 minutes if the opportunity presents itself, as it did here in a derelict Service station which I had to document for @XTreme I did try the door but it was locked. all in all 450km and 7 hours including stops, I could probably do another hour or even 2 after a longer break so i'm pleased to find I can manage so long and can now plan accordingly.

That's confusing, I thought Johnny was a Louisiana boy

That's too much fuss for me. In Portugal we're spoiled and used to taking good expresso for granted. You walk down a city street, pop into a cafe, enjoy a shot of good (actually good) expresso without even sitting down for 0,60 to 1,00€ depending on location, and walk on having spent one minute in the cafe. I couldn't be bothered with all that in the middle of a bike ride. I might get a really small container like @bobonelegand see how it works in order to be really hipster and have a coffee on top of a mountain with nobody else around. Might as well take a rum flask and have some añejo, if it's winter ... Having said that, I have a fond memory of when I was in Brazil when I was 19 and stayed for a month in a small three or four room inn in Tibau do Sul, a small village in the northwest. As I was about to go out to meet my girl and her friends after dinner the guy next door invited me for coffee as he was about to have some outside so I stayed. He was a traveling salesman selling whatever all accross southern america, and brewing coffee was his night ritual. He roasted the beans with a small torch in a metal sheet, then ground them and then boiled it in an open container, no machine or press or nothing, just waited for the coffee to settle and poured the clean liquid on top. That is my favourite coffee ever, just the smell left from the roasting is better than drinking some of the modern stuff. Took him long enough to brew that cup of coffee, too!

I put Italian expresso in mine (Lavazza at the moment) and top it up with boiling water so a bit like an Americano, does the job for me

husband then ...... and so what .

Same thing, even worse I nearly dropped my bike today when stopped looking at google maps and up my collar crawls a giant grasshopper very curious about my face

A driftway, a lovely wide lane with plenty of grass (for on the move snacking) to make your sheep, cattle, turkeys etc walk along, promising them a nice Christmas as they make their way to Smithfield Market. I did hear that the Norfolk drovers would dip the turkeys' feet in tar to protect them on the journey.

No, I will have this bike till I die, regardless of getting another to share the load. I meant love from members here in the vote for BOTM

How hot is it over there? looks like a swamp to me, mud and grass and water just screams giant mosquitoes

That’s six, Peado van Rapist.

I have a few I really like from the past three days, trying to get the love for the big GS back

That looks very casual, just hanging around the shop in her thigh height boots and bikini

Looks very nice, did you think it looked too nice and thus put that monstrosity on the back?

i think yamaha got it right first time with the xjr

Fantastic stuff Pedro.....brilliant pics! And this one has to be a contender for BOTM......

I’m an idiot, had 7000 miles when I got it had 13000 when I sold it, I need my fucking head checked for selling it.

easy dude , just trippin..... Hey man...if you clean a vacuum , do you become a vacuum cleaner ?

Are you Dick or Head?

Were ami i from? Well, i was born in an USN hospital, butt im not from the navy, pa was us air force, long story, he thought the navy doc's were better at child birth then the air force docs, many today still blame the USMC for chit like that. what was the question?

@Six30 meant yours.

Only when i stop.

had an R couple of years back , good bike

Nice!!! Went there in 2008, very enjoyable. Lovely to see it again, thank you