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No, it’s Portuguese for

You mean that with the deletion of Marcel's thread my masterly takedown of creationism has been lost forever? Took me ages to nick all that science shit off Richard Dawkins and make out that I understood it...

The sun was shining and the cold wind from the last few days had gone, so I decided that a little bimble was in order. I topped the tank at our local supermarket and headed up to Coursan. Then across to the Narbonne northern bypass and peeled off north towards Ginestas. The traffic was pretty light, so it was easy going. A guy on a T100 Bonneville caught up with me just before Saint- Marcel - sur- Aude. We tried having a conversation at a set of lights, but engine noise and language barrier put paid to that! He turned off shortly after anyway. I carried on North and eventually crossed the Argeliers - Trebes road. This is where the ride starts getting a bit more interesting, as the road was then heading into the Corbieres hills. After a bit, I turned off this road to head towards the medieval town of Minerve. This road follows the hillside on one side of the valley of the river Cesse, so it twists and turns around rocky outcrops. French drivers have the mindset that nothing should be coming the other way on blind bends, so extra care is needed to not meet one of them on your side of the road when coming around these bends. I stopped just before the town to get some photos. The town is perched on a rocky point where two rivers meet and have carved two valleys/canyons through the rocky landscape. I rode through the town and headed up to the carpark that overlooks it. There's not much of a view of the town from there, so I decided to carry on up the single track road into the hills for a bit. There didn't seem to be too much more up in that direction, but there were some nice views towards the Pyrénées. It was a bit hazy, so the snow on the peaks was barely visible. I headed back down to the town and set sail for home. I stopped once more to take some pictures of a village, sitting between a low cliff and the river, which has no water in it at the moment. I took a slightly different route back. Going through Argeliers and Capestang, before peeling off towards the south again, through Montels and Nissan- les-Enserune and back to home. Not a huge ride, probably around 100-110km, but nice to get out on the bike for a while.

just some pics from the 3 hours i was out for today. weather is, as usual this time of year, wonderful. Blue skies. 25deg and a light breeze. I followed a route I had not really planned some tie ago but had forgotten to tick the box "avoid gravel" on the gps route planner...

Out for a tour of the countryside with the Missus....near Sumpter... Blue Springs summit.... elevation: 5,864 ft.

Decided to sod the front garden off for today and do my Annual Pilgrimage to Strata Florida Abbey instead. Most of you have seen these places before but if Pete can keep repeating himself them so can i LOL I set off a little late it was 10:30 by the time i was on my way the weather was overcast and cool, i had a nice slow road ride until i hit the road from Ystradfellte to Heol y Senny i always seem to get carried away on that road and it brought me to my first lane of the day where i ended up fixing the gate as it was off its hinges the dopey fucker who fitted it put the bottom hinge upside-down so all the weight is on the top hinge a rough fix it should go in the bodge section but it works fine don't know how long for though. While i was here i found one of those Geocache things it had a £1 coin in there a pack of fag papers and some weed so i nicked the quid and threw the weed i didn't have a pen to sign the register LOL I stopped to open a gate further on and when i turned around the bike was on the floor it had rolled off the stand and ended up breaking the rivet pin on the gear lever so this is what i had been riding with all day it was ok and it didn't make any difference to shifting and i saved the bits before they got lost there's been some tree maintenance on the next lane this was all enclosed, certainly was easier to ride not ducking under low branches Further up it's still overgrown The track goes down to the right in this photo and the easiest way to ride it is straight out into that fecking gate almost pushed my spine out my arsehole when i hit my head on it From here i headed over the firing ranges to Tirabad and through the Crychan Forest onto Cynghordy and this lane which is very wet and mucky though the winter months a lot easier to ride in the dry From here i was onto the Llyn Brianne road another one i seem to speed up on, no photos as the riding was fast and flowing and i didn't want to stop, the top end of Llyn Brianne brings you to the start of Strata Florida in the background is the road to Tregaron another great road When i got back to the bike i spotted a flat fox poor fecker Onto the baptism and there's plenty of water for it the river crossings were straight forward enough it was the puddles that would catch you out when i rode through two of them i knew they were deep because the bike went quiet as i rode though At the furthest point from home here just past Llyn Teifi and onto Claerwen Res Top end of Claerwen Res this kind of track is where the XR excels it is so nice riding it along here. Looking over the dam wall i'm heading for the track on the right of the river But there's another river to cross first i played it safe and swept around to the right straight through almost had me in last time A bit further along after Bobs step A long road ride from here to Talybont on Usk where i headed home over to Trefil and across to Merthyr Talybont Res i'm riding the other way just turned the bike around to take the photo same on the Pontsticill res photo Pontsticill res From here it was over my mountain and home, it was a ride I've needed for a while spent most of it on the pegs because my arse was sore. It was a 172 mile loop. I'm in the middle of changing the oil and filter now ready for the next ride.

As we are all coming from different directions we met at a Greene King pub near Portsmouth Port on Sunday evening. There was a lot excitement, roast dinners and chat. We board seamlessly at 23.00, exchange cabin numbers in case of emergency (no mobile reception) and get straight into our cabins, we dock at 6.30am french time (5.30am uk time), my alarm goes off at 4.30am and I instantly think - who’s stupid idea was this South West Caen (Ouistreham) Port obviously not in 7hrs 33 mins as it was an overnight ferry. Off the ferry and five mins to a cafe right next to the port for a quick croissant, a chat about the route, riding in France and to allow the ferry traffic to dissipate. Glad I had my ipad on hand to show the priorite a driote signage as only one person was familiar with it and they appeared often on our ‘no-motorway’ cross country route! It’s grey, rainy, not the most fun for riding and no matter how hard I try the pace is a bit too slow to be fun but it takes folk time to warm up to riding on the other side of the road when you’re not familiar with it and I’m kind of glad I’m not dealing with any kamikaze riders. Quirky little house over three floors, surrounded by grape vines, as you’d expect in the Loire Valley. We arrive in Sancerre far too late to tour the vineyard which is a bit of a shame but after so little sleep on the ferry everyone is exhausted. The day has stretched out far beyond all comprehension and with a supermarket stop to pick up some steaks we only make it to the house after 7pm. Another friend joins us at this point ready to party and finds us all in zombie mode I may have avoided taking everyone into Paris but the cross country route was not without a price to pay!

Some fine wine, hot food, good sleep and by the next morning most were raring to ride over the border to the Swiss part of Lake Genèva for a bit of lunch and snap a pic with Mont Blanc in the background. Of course it’s end of the ski season so a lot is shut and lunch turned into a vending machine affair Whilst enjoying the lake our ‘on the spectrum’ friend (there’s always at least one in every group isn’t there ) whacked out three different water colour paintings of my mates house in under two hours! It was gorgeous out there Still a bit chilly from the mountain air we opted for quick showers, warm jackets and Kir Royals to warm the cockles. This was followed by far too much wine, we were still laughing about what we couldn’t remember the next morning

No.....not the bike! Obviously I have no idea how to do shit like that. I'm talking about the reservoirs, because we've had years of very little rain. And there's now a serious drought situation. Now I'm not one who normally looks for more rain, but every year the price of straw for the horses has been going up. We used to pay around €400 for a year's worth......but last it was €1200 and we had to have it brought in from Albacete. Which is about 150 miles away. So an increase in rainfall and the filling of the reservoirs is critical.....not just here, but throughout Spain. So off I went to check the current situation. Luckily, the weather was great......around 20c! So it was perfect conditions! The approached into Castril.......and the wall of the Dam. This is The Style! I was amazed when I saw the levels in Castril because when I came here last Summer it was very low indeed. This is probably the highest I've seen it in 5 years! It's nowhere near it's highest, but the water line has gone up a lot. Two car loads of a Spanish family then turned up......three generations of them. So I ended up having to take a load of group photos of them. They weren't from Andalucia because they were speaking Spanish in a grammatically correct way rather than slurring words and leaving out letters in words. Lovely people......couple of hot girls in their 20's with them. I wanted to get a photo with those two, but I couldn't very well tell the rest of the family to get out of the way! Then it was on to San Clemente.......the levels there had risen a bit but nothing like the scale it had in Castril. Most of the land you see here was underwater when I came here in 2005...... Had to get the obligatory shot on the bridge.....obviously destined to be BOTM for April. Bike ran great as usual.......these rural roads are the perfect place for it. And it actually made me think......"Why am I considering selling it?" Well there we are! I got out and did something......and in doing so, I made a positive contribution to the forum! Some of you lot should try it sometime!

6 of us from Fowey went up to Devon today to see the National Hillclimb Association first event of the year. We stopped for breakfast near Poundstock. They thought us old fuckers must be dodgy as we had to pay before they would serve us any food. I personally was flattered that they thought I could do a runner. . It was very nice though and they warmed up after awhile When they realised we were behaving. Trip Stats It was an interesting meet with several interesting bike’s although most seemed to be modified crossers. There was one combination so I guess that won its class. Hartland Point was vey pretty with Lundy Island out on the horizon. Some pretty big balls in terms of pace. Mental buggers. Some interesting stuff in the car park, well to me anyway. Also our little band, my other mate wouldn’t take his Ventura into the field Don’t Blaine him it probably weighed over 300kegs We stopped in Bude for a cuppa on the way home. Had a chance to look at my mates V4 Ventura on the way home. Detuned V-Max motor. Very big bike but beautifully put together. Bloody good day out with the old codgers.

Might go with this one, not sure yet

I’ve been down to Weston hospital today as my mother was rushed in yesterday. Anyway she was much better today although she’ll be on beta blockers for the rest of her life now, she’s not doing bad for 85 years old . I went on the donkey as hospitals are a fevking nause to park a car .

So some peeps on here go on about rugged individualism and what it takes to ride a bike. In my book that involves getting out there and riding no matter what the conditions are So none of your going out on a dry sunny days to visit some DBM's in an abandoned building or luring some poor cockney into a pic nic area so you can show the poor sod your groin !! This is rugged individualism , ploughing on through all conditions .................... You might have to stop at a cafe on the way .................... but that's fine because you're not scared that your bike may end up covered in shite ............................

I often wonder what goes on in my, admittedly very spoilt, Jack Russell crosses head. Everyone of his toys has a gimped right front leg, non of the others are touched but he always attacks and takes the stuffing out of the right front. The only exception is his walrus where he has gimped the right front tusk. ???

Bollocks to all this politics, you can look at my motorcycle instead! Had a little bimble over to Trebes, which is in the foothills of the Corbieres. It was slightly chilly when I set off, but it warmed up a bit on the way back. I didn't actually go into Trebes castle, I'm saving that for a visit with Mandy, and to do a bit of a walk in the gorge there too. The roads were pretty quiet once I'd got past Narbonne, so it was a nice ride.

Quite impressed that you managed to affect another country’s whole politic discussion to suit your son, Pete!

Just heard from him, he is dealing with family stuff and his home PC is fucked, I think he accidentally shat on it.

More shit riding today…..

Went for a bimble round the Clay Country today, cold and dry but Twas a joy to be out and about on my own. The Blue Bells were out on my walk this morning and saw the Ugly Boat.

I feel it. That degenerate moose-fucker had better get back here tomorrow afternoon and sort his shit out or I’ll be the next one to flounce…

Just got home from a manic day with my youngest. Not moaning I enjoy her company but it’s been busy. First off I taxed her bike this morning so it’s road legal now, £25 for a 125. Adjusted the back brake, Mirrors, checked the oil and tyre pressures then left it out front. Got the Hornet out as we had errands to run. First off to Dameralls via a fuel stop to get the spare key for Chloe’s CB125F. She was grumpy as she wanted us to use her bike for the Dameralls run but a 40 mile round trip for the pair of us on duel carriage ways on a 125 didn’t appeal Had a mooch around Dameralls but it was chaos as they were having a major bike reshuffle. The Dear Maid did think it would be good if I got a new red NT1100 and to be honest I can see the attraction. Funds don’t allow so it will remain a wish. Got the key blank £13 which I thought was okay for a Honda part. Then headed back to St Austell to get the thing cut, which took seconds and cost a fiver. Cheapest vehicle key I have got in recent years After the key cutting Costa was the next call to sweeten grumpy boots up. After this faff we had to go to Holmbush Post Office to get a postal order and post off my other daughters driving licence application. The nearest office to Fowey FFS. Normally you can do the payment online but because she hasn’t got a birth certificate which was replaced by her adoption certificate you have to send a cheque or postal order to Swansea. Of course my bank has stopped issuing cheque books for my convenience. Bloody lash up but that is the way it works. £51 and out of there. After that back home to swop bikes. Now we headed down to Golant for Chloe’s first ever riding lesson, in fact the first time ever she has been on the business end of a motorcycle. Before you ask it is a private lane where her grandmother lives. Made some good progress I thought. Taught her lots of basics but she has mastered clutch control and braking. A small step but she did very well, the first step is always the hardest. After about 45 minutes she was frazzled plus we had to head back to Fowey as she had a dentist appointment. All good and she was hungry again so I bought her an ice cream from Game of Cones and a tea. Holidaymaker prices it was a £10 FFS. Finally while I was finishing my tea Chloe gets on the bike and says ‘now the bikes legal I can drive you up the hill’. I pointed out she was 16 with no licence and no insurance. Also she doesn’t know how to change gear yet. ‘Oh’ was the reply but I gave her credit for trying. Anyway it was a good if expensive day but I am absolutely knackered. Apparently she wants her next lesson on Thursday as the is the next break in the weather. I don’t mind we get on well but I have told her the goodie runs won’t happen every time.

I've got a few...don't know wich one to pick.

You’ve got no idea @Marcel, it’s insane! They also wait and everyone gives people space and right of way while people patiently drive about. Makes no sense!

Stopped at the garage first thing this morning to grab a baguette to have for breakfast. Stood behind some young woman who had picked up a couple of croissants and wanted to pay for them using her smartphone. Despite repeated attempts to pay resulting in more aggressive tapping of the phone on the machine it didn’t work. I’m hungry and wishing she’d just fuck off but no, now she decides to try every fucking bank card in her purse. None of them worked and I’m proper grumpy now but still managing to resist the temptation to grab her croissants and eat them in front of her. Only when there was no other option she gets some REAL FUCKING MONEY OUT OF HER PURSE TO PAY.….. Still resisting the urge to assault her for her two croissants I had to laugh when the bloke behind me pointed out that my baguette was probably stale by now.

if you're playing " one-upmanship" in this domain on this forum, I think it should be made clear from the start that neither Yamahead nor Bob Oneleg are allowd to play , They should have a league of their own where weight loss due to removal of body parts is a legitimate thing and the rest of us can sit and quibble about who's getting oldest the fastest...

He’s definitely had gender realignment, if you look really close you can see the top of his new minge. To be honest he should have had them make a smaller one because that glimpse of gash looks like it’s going to be as wide as a size ten welly top.

Was the name of this years TRF Christmas trail ride and someone much better than me at photoshop came up with this for the header photo The day was starting from Abergavenny, so the bike and gear went in the marmite wagon last night ready for the off at 08:00 this morning just as i was gong through the door i realised i hadn't put in my bike trousers so after a quick visit to the garage i was on my way. 51 bodies had signed up for the ride and then split into groups of between 7 to 9 members and given routes with varying levels of difficulty. The group names were Chick Chasers , Sleigh riders, Mincing Spies, Tree Fairies, Frank Incensed, Myrrh and Tinsel Troupe. I was assigned to Frank Incensed group who were one of the smaller groups at seven and a harder route of around 70 miles so that suited me fine. Some of the members at the meeting point, Kim was the only one to dress for the occasion she said it looked nothing like that when she got back lol This was our route there were a number of different routes and some groups had the same route but would ride in opposite directions to keep the numbers down. I like riding this area as the lanes can be difficult and there are not many gates to open and close The ride leader kept up a good steady pace throughout the ride and with no navigation mistakes so i only had a chance to take photos when someone was stuck or we were waiting for others to catch up , The first of the lanes summed up the rest of the ride they were slippery muddy and very wet in places The hold up ahead was someone having to have their bike picked up of them i was a bit slow getting the camera out i need a go pro LOL We had to negotiate a few fallen trees on route due to the recent weather And some twat of a farmer deliberately blocking the road, he had the bucket of the machine close to the tracks it was tight but we all got though. Things never look difficult in the photos The Frank Incensed group Waiting again, one of the guys was falling off regular and as the ride went on it was getting noticeably more frequent we found out he only got into trail riding a few months ago so was understandable and to be fair was doing well I had a walk back down the lane to see what was going on and here they come It was harder to walk back up to the bike than ride up This was the last photo i took and was the last lane the lad that was falling off done as he decided to head back to the vans as he was fucked and the next few lanes were quite difficult We missed out the last two lanes on the route as it had got dark when we got back to the vans the yellow weather warning arrived i had just finished loading when it hammered down. The bike is and gear is going to have to wait until tomorrow for a wash now The jackets not too bad But i think i'll need a shovel to clear the pavement after i wash the bike off Still waiting to hear how the other groups got off and i think there might be some videos of todays ride turning up later Got to say a great end of year ride i must get out more often next year i think

France has, until this year, avoided having an MOT equivalent for motorcycles. they have now invented one, and have somehow managed to take all the stupid bits of everybody elses MOT or equivqlentand roll them into one pointless surperfluous and inefficacious bi-annual visual inspection. The statistics ( these are generated by the French "Sécurité routiere" organisation who are rabid anti speed, anti motorcycle road safety advocates and remain incontested by the govt. and ratified by the majour insurance companies) - the road infrastructure is directly implicated in 25% of all road traffic acidents. - in road traffic accidents involving motorcycles, The fault is imputed to the motorcylist in less than 40% of cases. -the number of motorcycles on the road has increased by 30% in the last 5 years. -over that same period the number of mortorcycle deaths has decreased by 20%. - Mechanical failure or defect is implicated in less than 0.5% of accidents involving motorcycles. Now I have nothing, as such, against a regular MOT type test if it can be shown to be beneficial. it can't. the govt has just announced how the test is oing to work ( bearing in mind that this is supposed to be in place for january 2024) and it appears that the test centres will not be required to have anyone on their staff with a motorcycle licence! The staff will be required to undrego a 1 day raining course on how to carry out the check, and this will include instruction on how to move a motorcycle around the workshop and " instruction on how tp pick up a motorcycle should you drop it". Needless to say, this raises some eyebrows, not least those of the insurance companies who maintain that if you do not possess a motorcycle licence, and you damage it whilst in charge of it then any insurance would be void... Is it only me that can see some charges of GBH on the horizon here...? anyway, yesterday afternoon, despite temperatures around 0 c we went and made some noise and fucked up some christmas shoppers saturday afternoon, to display our discontent. we stopped in front of each of the main MOT centres in town. They were closed of course but it was easy enough to set their alems off with a couple of bikes up against the building and half a dozen backfires... this fucked up their day as they then have to get someone out to shut the alrm down. It should be mentioned that the police ;otorcycle escort managed very successfully to be busy at the other end of the convoy whilst this went on... as that last pic was taken, the camera battery succombed to the cold, which was a shame cos as we started to move on one of the dozen of BMW GS's refused to start and had to be assisted by a guy on a 1990 Honda transalp... of course i laughed like a drain suggesting they were using the Honda to carry out a " reliability graft". 30 seconds later, Karma struck and the tiger refused to start. Victim, I suspect, of an hour at idle speed with heated grips on full power. The convoy dissapeard down the road and I started to ring Mrs Moon to bring me some jump leads ( i've never tried to push start the tiger and wasn't about to start in the middle of town in saturday afternoon traffic... Then an angel came to rescue me, one of the FFMC outriders ( either a girl or a guy with very pretty eyes...) had seen me pull off to the side, guesse what had happened, ridden forward to a colleague she knew had a booster in his top box, and bought it back to me. Luckily the battery on the tiger is easily accessible under the seat so we started it from the booster and I followed her to catch up with the main group. The battery seems fine now so ai can only think that it was the heated grips drawing more power the the constant idle was providing charge to the battery. the battery is at least 6 years old so it may well be on it's last legs as well. After the group dispersed I rode into town with a mate and we found a bar in the centre square that was doing christmas ale and mulled wine. On top of that, the landlord announced that he give a 10% discount to motorcyclists at the weekends. Result! got home well after dark and with temps down beloz freezing. Lukily the ride home was nly about 5 km so no real challenge. I don't expect the demo will have the slightest effect on the installation of the new technical inspections set up, but at least no one an acuse us of not have protested from the beginning.

For @XTreme, a nice NC750x, heavier, not less gay and above all no more topbox!

In this case the BOAT is a Byway Open to All Traffic, It seems that Merthyr council have been sly dogs and not put one of the byways on the map and nobody knows it exists, that was until they had a sly meeting where they have proposed closing it which meant they had to put it on their page for the public to see and luckily somebody spotted it, so the plan today was to ride up to it and ride it while it's still legal which is a bit ironic because everywhere i rode to get to it isn't legal LOL. Anywho set out around 08:00 this morning, it was quite frosty and was -1.5c but with clear blue sky's and very sunny. I had around 3 miles of road riding before i got off road and after the first mile i was already thinking about turning back to put warmer gear on the heated grips were working overtime trying to keep my hands warm inside my summer enduro gloves but i stuck it out because temperature is a different story when you hit the dirt This is the mountain where i spotted that tetradactyl before LOL This was one of the legal lanes, it felt a bit exposed to the right now that everything is dying back for the winter, the bridge carries the A470, Merthyr to the right and Cardiff to the left I ride up past my parents house and onto trials of my past heading down towards the old Cefn Glas railway tunnel as i have done many times before Further on i have to cut through the forestry to avoid a deep mud hole i didn't fancy riding though it on my own and risk getting stuck, the cold has gone now and i'm feeling quite warm After the forestry it opens out to this moorland, a stretch of land I've hated riding from the age of 16 as it's riddled with ruts hidden by the long grass its quite slow going picking your way through the ruts although I've seen good riders go through here like it's tarmac Back into the forestry and its still frosty in the shade all the water from here on is frozen typical Merthyr weather I end up taking a detour due to get around fallen trees and end up having to negotiate this, something i wasn't comfortable doing on my own and as usual it doesn't look that steep in the photos but believe me it was and i'm now steaming hot and sweaty This is the last time you see my mirror There's a steeper short drop off onto the forest road and i decide to walk the bike down to be safe but i loose my footing when the front wheel drops off the short step and i end up falling down the bank taking my mirror with me when i go back up for the bike it's also taken the Radiator Shroud off where it dragged on the bank knew i should have just ridden down doh! From here there was lots more mud and fallen trees to negotiate and eventually i got onto the Byway i was looking for. The start was nice and easy so i could catch my breath and cool down heading into the sun now An nice drop down into a gully and back up. the trail goes sharp left up to the top left corner of the photo and was similar dropping down to where i am Back on some easy stuff About halfway along i get lost, there's trails going off in all directions and i end up by the Abernant railway tunnel it goes from Merthyr to Abredare and theres rumours their going to reopen it for walking and cycling This is a photo of the inside from stolen from on line, i would have loved to have got in there again its just under a mile and a half long. I went through there on a Honda 400 superdream when i was 17 years old but it's all locked up now with a thick layer of grease on the gates to deter anyone climbing over One of the fallen trees to get over there were quite a few like this on route no real problem for the mighty Beta And this would take me into Bike Park Wales mountain bike center, the fallen leaves from ere on hid lots of slippery rock which got me all hot and sweaty again A bit more road work to get my onto Heol Cymro which is a half mile steep climb covered in loose rock made worse today by the low sun flickering through the trees blinding me From here it was a gentle ride over my mountain to the petrol station for a wash before home You can clearly not see my missing rad shroud here Another good day's riding lit the fire when i got in so it's all toastie in here and i'm now sinking a few pints of Skippy piss chilling out

You’re a big girls blouse.

We had a couple of nice days in Spain and didn't see 1 dago midget. I reckon that Pete is hording them! We visited a Fort and the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres. Then got a train to Barcelona the following day. Then visited Salvador Dali's House and a lighthouse nearby and then took the scenic coast road back to home, passing through the abandoned border post between Spain and France.

Afternoon at Leeds castle , big fire work display in a bit

Weather is slowly changing so are the leafs....had a few mornings with frost on the car windows already....temp is OK around noon but you have to plan to be back 5 or 6 o'clock. Few pics from today. the third pic is the town of campbellton in the distance....where my Aberdeen princess was born in 1970..

the twins had friends round, they actally slept over but as they didn't arrive till after the ice rink closed at midnight I was snoring loudly when they got here. We have a tiny house and I'm A-social at best so I was up and breakfasted before they emerged from their lair, just took the time to say Bonjour and the ran away fro the day with a packet of sandwiches and a flask of coffe, abandoning Mrs MooN to her fate... I left at 11 and, knowing the horrers were due to leave at 4.30, arrived back at 4, just in tame to say Au revoir... in the meantime 285km, blissfully solo. weather was 15 down to 10degc mostly sunny with about 5 minutes of rain around Moulins Engilbert. I stopped and ate my sarnies at the church in Glux en Glenne and made use of the relatively well maintained public lav that I knew to be there. Big bonus of the day was the backroad through from Chateau Chinon to Glux via le haut Folin which had just been resurfaced like they were expecting the tour de France at any minute. Only photos I took were along there

We didn't exactly leave at first light, after a lazy breakfast we eventually got the bikes out and made it to Spain after no more than 10 or 20 km. I always get a kick at how the road surface changes immediately when you see a border. We did a detour over a dirt road, what looked like a scenic road in the map turned out to be a few kms of gravel road over a hill, the views were nice and all but not really the stuff to which the Speed Triple and it's fancy Pirellis call home. After a bit we stopped for a taste of the shit Spaniards call coffee, pitiful really, but the rain was holding off and we were headed to proper hills and nice roads, the skies were shy about turning blue, but all was good, we rolled on. A lunch stop while all hints of bad weather vanished and temperatures climbed, and shortly after I'm being led around some lovely mountain roads. Cantabria is known for mountains, higher altitudes and green pastures, cows with plenty to graze on because of a lot of rain. We saw mostly drier rivers and reservoirs in what looks like a worrying lack of water in a high temperature September. Some lovely views and really nice roads, I now understand why this is such a migration area for motorcyclists from Portugal and the UK. Sofia had done her research and took me through the least travelled roads, which included some interesting canyon roads with very little traffic. I could get used to this. That's @Sofia down there in the road: The last hour, as the sun was starting to lower was pretty cool. The roads, the forrest, the colours reminded me of my time in the Nurburgring a while ago, it was a very nice ending to a great day on the bikes. We settled into a small countryside apartment, our base for two nights. Lovely view from the back window: There's a small restaurant the across the street from the place we were sleeping in, but turns out it was closed. We took the chance to have a nice longish walk to the next open place and it did feel nice after a warm afternoon on the bikes. A nice dinner and a (now feeling longer than the first time) walk back through Ucieda. Long day on the bikes, nice long walk, well fed, I slept soundly. The next day we would ride around the area, check a couple of nice looking roads and a few scenic locations, and come back to the same place for the night. Bonus is leaving the luggage behind for the day, although I don't really feel a big difference on the GS with it on.

Ps, if you’re looking for sympathy, you’ll find it in the dictionary about half way between “shit” and “syphilis” …✌

Got it like it end of ride report .

Had a little tunnel run on the bikes tonight to show a mate who's a train driver who wanted to see it. Good ride but was very humid with the drizzle.

The next day I realised why I'd heard a few sirens during the night. Hotel was opposite the fire station. Then it was south again, on the motorways. We stopped for coffee and fuel, and for Titus to look for insects. Another bit of motorway to Plasencia where I had read of an aqueduct that was supposed to be worth seeing. By the time that we got there my brain was nicely cooked so after grabbing some photos and slurping water it was back onto the motorway heading for Caceres where we were to camp for the night. We arrived, with my brain cooked a bit more, at the campsite and before even going to the pitch it was beer time. Back on the bikes and up to the pitch. All a bit strange having out own toilet and shower! A guy rocked up, barney who was a few pitches down from us. He was in the queue in Millay behind us. Small world. Anyway it was time for more beer and tapas so that was it for the night. A very pleasant evening after all the motorway riding.

One more evening of multiple courses, fine wines, cheeses and lots of laughing, the next day we start the journey back to the ferry. This was a tough day. We had stayed up late, used up all our fun tokens and were tired before we even headed off to our first stopover approx 6 hours away (at thats without adding in any breaks n fuelling). Cue the one person who ignored the request to make sure you have a phone with plenty of data that works in France and Switzerland or some sort of sat nav getting split up from the group and completely lost. This led to 1-2 hours circling back and fourth in the shittiest section of the journey in very jammed traffic trying to find them. It was hot, everyones clutch’s were having a good ol’ workout in the stop, start and stop traffic and the frustration of finally getting to the guessed location and not seeing the missing person was starting to get the best of everyone. After a very broken call and a dropped pin being sent by nabbing some free wifi we were reunited. On the left - Miss Lost n Clueless in Geneva and at the very back a rider about to pelt accross the car park and throttle the guilty party With some whip cracking we made it to the only supermarket in Gien still open on a Saturday evening with just 10 mins to spare (who knew a lot of France shuts at Saturday lunch time ) then over to ‘Villa Hotel’ which was in the style of a Spanish Motel, cheap at £33 a person, with parking right outside your door, very clean, smelling of fresh linen with copious amounts of very hot water and decent water pressure Everyone collapsed into bed after an 11 hour day but they were all up ready to go early. Which is good as this is ferry day and so far we’ve missed all our daily eta’s by hours! The next day we make good time. The slower group member has sped up, no one gets lost, everyone follows the instructions to fuel up at each stop regardless of whether they think they should or not, everyone DID pick up ambient food at the supermarket to speed things up and everyone is getting back on their bikes quickly after stops - miracle! We get one stopping point away from the port and have made such good time there’s hours to spare! As it’s Sunday afternoon and the supermarket’s shut, we decide to take a longer break and a classy style impromptu late lunch sitting on the car park floor. The tarmac is warm, the food and sun is having a very soporific effect. One by one in this warm deserted spot everyone succumbs to a snooze in the sun, who knew the a car park could be so comfortable. Someone kindly took a pic of me with my waterproofs round my knee’s dozing like a hobo waiting for an ambulance, friends ay We arrive at the ferry fairly happy. One of the group has spent the whole week saying they’d like a smoke while waiting for the ferry (even though they gave up 20 years ago), some snacking saucisson sec was handed around to see if that would fit the bill.. although nowadays it’s classed as being as carcinogenic as smoking I then realise we all left reality behind long ago As usual we can’t go to our cabins as the turnaround is so fast they are still being cleaned.. but the bars open.. what a brilliant last night on the ferry together. Usually at the end of a group trip everyone is a bit tired of each others company and just want to get home but there was something in the air and the announcement of a silent disco in the bar had two of the less inhibited in the group up and dancing in an instant. It was so very funny to watch their moves on a silent dance floor, soon others were joining in and a bit of vino later the silent disco wasn’t quite so silent anymore with raucous singing and even some of an initially rather sneery group of men unable to hold back getting headphones on and joining in, sometimes people just about manage to get out of their own way and have a good time The next morning we aren’t so chipper. We say goodbye on the vehicle deck as there’s not really a pulling over point after security. Little did we know as we trickled off in different directions all focused on getting ourselves home that one group member had been detained by counter-terrorism who wanted to know why she had been near the Afghan border last year, fortunately he had just obtained his full bike license so the conversation was mostly taken up with what his first big bike should be Fini.

The next day as my nervous friend has now warmed up about the whole road riding abroad thing we planned a mix of motorway and a beautiful gorge to ride through. However this was not to be, an accomplished enduro rider she is but looking down fumbling for your card at the motorway toll booth meant a quick slap down and a broken clutch lever. A side of the road bodge with some epoxy resin and duct tape and eventually we were away again, but we had lost a lot of time and the dodgy clutch lever meant a change from the scenic route to the most direct that required the least number of gear changes was needed. It was an odd ride and was a mix of these two routes which look similar but there’s quite a time difference so with the unscheduled break and fuel stops we again arrive much later than anticipated after a fairly uninspiring ride. We arrive on the French Swiss border in the Alps next to Lake Geneva as late as can be (although still daylight so thats a bonus) fortunately to a great host who’s wisely greeted us with beer and a slow cooked delight able to withstand random acts of extreme lateness He also has a workshop and ta da daa a spare lever