Packing/Prep and “I’ll just check tyre pressure”

Murphy’s law struck and I found I had a puncture just before I went to head off, and was doing my usual packing at last minute. The culprit was a bit of glass causing a slow leak. So stuck a puncture plug in and hoped for the best. Bit daunting turning a slow leak into a gushing hole via the spike thing you have to use to roughen up the hole.

Murphy's law strikes

So I’d like to claim it was the puncture that mean I didn’t sleep the night before. But really it was just disorganisation and stuffing around that meant I was leaving at 4:30-5 am from Watford (north of London) to get to Plymouth.

To plymouth, ferry to santander, spain

The dark (mut not stormy) road to plymouth

Surprisingly decent temperature (was wearing summer gloves rather than winter + inner gloves). Ran into some old guys while filling up on classic/cruisers who said they were doing 1000 miles in 24 hours, crazy bastards. Although I can’t really talk.

Sun came up as I was travelling.

Made it through the night, sunrise at speed.

So ferry from Plymouth to Santander (city in the top coast of spain) takes 24 hours, just got the reclining seat option (getting a cabin is not economical because they don’t do single rooms, always doubles, quads etc and you pay for the whole thing if you’re single traveller). Was 110 pounds for a one way. Bit expensive, but last blast from Spain to Calais cost a small fortune in freeway tolls, was miserable/cold/wet like you would not believe and I’d rather spend it sleeping.

Caught the last ferry until next year. Brittany has a strange definition of running services all year round.

Spread my inflatable mattress out on the floor and got a semi decent sleep. Stupid drunk english skank woke everyone up a few times because she thought it was funny to stick her head in and scream and then run away. So sleep wasn’t the best and I hope that if nothing else she has a neighbour move in with a Harley Davidson who likes to rebuild engines a lot.

Santander and westward to Portugal

Arrived lunchtime to a brilliant sunny day. This is more like it!

Blue Skies of santander, Spain.

Not a cloud in the sky, a bit of a contrast to my last trip past this part of the world a month ago (went via Bilbao on the way back to London after my alps/pyrenees/Barcelona trip and it was pissing down and gusting like mad).

Snow ahoy! Thankfully far away this time!

I headed west along the coast and toward the snow-capped mountains in the distance, although keeping between them and the coast for warmth and to avoid having to ride through snow.

Hitting the fast roads west towards portugal.

Got a few kms under my belt and then hit the back roads. Some lovely winding roads although the trick is that there are bits that don’t get the sun and subsequently have ice on the corners (Only on the corners it seems.. funny that!).

Frosty patches where the sun had missed during the day. Always seemed to be on corners funnily enough. Had a few "wiggles" of my back tyre as I found these on the roads.

Found a spot to camp inland and down an abandoned grassy road near some farms. Woke up with frost over everything to the extent it looked like snow.

Frosty morning awaited my rise. Made a note to camp in spots that would get sunshine earlier in the day.

Amazing the difference crossing into portugal. The landscape was quite beautiful. Trailed a guy in a 600cc ninja through the canyons for fun, then pulled over to check my camera and he did a U turn and came back to see what I was up to. A bit of broken English later and we’d chatted about bikes and riding and decided to head for a petrol fill up and then go for a coffee at his friend’s work who spoke better english. Good to have some company and a bit of a chat (weather, bikes, why cars are inferior, camping and why I was crazy to be travelling all these distances alone..).

Friendly locals

Said farewell and headed on my merry way thinking that Portugal was indeed a friendly place.

Camped that night in a pine forest and had a proper fire which was quite nice and meant I headed off to sleep warmed and sleepy from the flickering flames.

A heart warming fire to doze off to sleep with. Beats the cooking stove for heart warming efficiency.

Even smelt like home as I’d used Eucalyptus (gum trees to Australians) sticks to get it going. Awoke around lunchtime with the sun finally finding me in amongst the trees and it was time to head down the coast to Lisboa (lisborne).

To Lisboa/lisborne

Racing the Christmas holiday clock I managed to find a bike store just minutes before closing time (well, actually the shop was closed, but a knock on the window got me in), the old guy didn’t have michelin pilot power IIs so I bit the bullet and replaced front and back. Got about 12-13,000kms or so out of them, so not too bad. Pity I had life left in them but don’t fancy my chances of finding sports bike tyres in Morocco so I’d rather have a brand new set.Anything would have to be better than risking the tour with a temporary plug that was already up to 1100 km!

Also replaced my pretty thin front brake pads too, so an expensive stop over. Found that the guys from the triumph place in Barcelona where I got my front fork seals replaced had done the old “tighten the shit out of things with power tools” and the guy had a hard time getting the bolts undone, had to replace them because they were stripped. No thanks to the mechanics in Barcelona who were the last to touch it. Anyhow, enough ranting and back to the touring. Many thanks to the old guy at the Kawasaki place, seemed quite conscientious and put up with an xmas eve drop in like myself.

Lights were up for xmas in lisborne and it looked quite pretty to ride through.

Pretty christmas lights in Lisboa

Stayed two days to do a bit of riding around lisborne and to find that there’s absolutely nowhere to get food on xmas eve, then headed south for more adventure.

Nathan

PS the accompanying video will be up shortly (when I finish editing!)