On the ferry

On the ferry

D day has finally arrived, March 12!  Headed off to Calais, very cold and foggy but didn't care.  Was amazing to finally ride onto the ferry after the years of talking about it and months of planning and prep.  Nervous about getting off in France as I've never ridden on the right side but Sean had an ingenious solution, tied a tag to my right-hand mirror so if in doubt I can see which side I should be on.  Plan is to wild camp most of the time but for first night would use a campsite, however not to be as most were still closed for the winter and the one that was functioning was closed for the evening, damn, perhaps starting our adventures in March will prove more of a challenge!  As getting dark Sean suggested a Formula1 hotel, hardcore adventure motorbikers or what!!!

First 'wild pee' spot!

First 'wild camp' spot

Headed south and amazing riding, found our first wild camping site on the bank of a river, ate whilst watching the sun set over the water, wow, stunning.  Fitful sleep, filled with dreams of angry locals shouting and shaking the tent, pissed off that we were camping in that spot - ah bless, the anxieties of the new and naive m/c adventurers, needless to say uneventful night, only local we saw next morning was walking his dog, really friendly, and wished us a nice day!

Sunning ourselves in Rouen

Onwards, towards the unknown and yet to be discovered, through the lovely french countryside, finding lovely spots to set up for the night and enjoying fine dining and even finer (very cheap) wine and beer.  Stopped in Rouen, gorgeous as most French towns/cities are, loads of reminders of the war with bullet riddled churches etc. Went through a small village, where for the first time I saw cottages that were covered in bullet holes, used to seeing it in major monuments in big cities etc but first time I'd seen it in a small unimportant out of the way place, really hit home how horrifying it must have been for ordinary people just trying to get on with life.  On through Poiter and passed through a stunning village called Candes des St Martin in the middle of no where and 

Candes Des St Martin

fucking amazing.  Several nights in did our first 'water crossing' - very thrilling (won't mentioned the fact that it was a stream only 8 foot wide and half a foot deep!).  
Top tip: when answering a call of nature in a forest, first check there are no nettles - they sting!!



Paddy's day we headed for  Bordeaux, stopped to have a meander, nice place, loads to it.  Took a dirt track looking for a spot to camp for the night, resulted in going through a road which was made up entirely of sand - fuck me it's awful shit to ride on, my first time ever and nearly came off twice - wonder what tracks in Africa are going to be like!!  Did our first campsite 'Camping La Canadienne' on 

'Fine Dining'

'Refreshments'

Sunday (Mother's Day) and turned out it was run by a bloke (Richard) who did the Enduro in 2009 (came 2nd - OMG!!) and in 2011 - seriously, wow!  Lovely site, wifi included in price, had all facilities you needed and we got nice weather to dry everything out as had been through some very wet spells.  Did two nights and was nice to stop for a bit and just catch up on stuff. Day we left everything was covered in ice - days really warm, nights, not so!  


Food we are having is quite varied, trying to keep it different each night so have been through some interesting mixes, including horse!  Nice actually, strong like game. Trying to stay healthy and have fruit as breakfast, with cereal bars as snacks and then one large meal at night with what ever we pick up in a supermarket - some interesting stuff but Sean is working his magic and turning out some gormet delights (and a few surprises!).

Freezing in the Pyrenees.

On March 21 we finally hit the Pyrenees, Sean had been looking forward to this since we started, so was I but a little more dubious as don't have the riding experience or skills that he has.  Crossed the Spanish boarder in the pounding rain and as we started to climb into the mountains the temp plummeted.  Rode for about an hour and the rain turned to sleet, which turned into pure and heavy snow, with visibility becoming very difficult - it was falling so fast it was covering the visors as fast as we could clear them - the very few vehicles coming the opposite direction were covered in snow and my back wheel was starting to slide - at this point I was starting to sweat thinking 'I don't like this'! The only conditions I refused to ride in at home were snow and ice - eeck.  Finally Sean stopped as it was getting far too dangerous, decided we'd have to turn back and find a spot to put the tent up - headed back down and wasn't many places as were on the side of a mountain so found a small space where a little waterfall was coming through and put the tent up. Were freezing and soaked to the bone so didn't give a damn if we were challenged, but of course we weren't.  Extremely cold night, very little sleep and at 2am both of us had to go for a pee, back in the tent got into absolute hysterics giggling, think the hypothermia was kicking in!!  Decided going through the mountains wasn't an option at the moment, so heading south for a week was the next move.  

Pyrenees in the sunshine

Spain is astounding, truly a breathtaking and stunning country.  France is gorgeous, but Spain has a beauty that is in a category of it's own - you come around one corner and it literally makes you gasp and think that's the most stunning thing ever, except the same thing happens another mile down the rode in another spot - really rugged and beautiful and the scenery changes quickly and continuously - truly have to experience it to get what it's like.

Pamplona

Combating stresses of the road with 'Mugs of Wine'

Stopped in Pamplona for a night March 22nd - fantastic city, could have actually spent a lot more time there wandering about and taking in the sights, we only stopped on the advise of a lovely English guy driving a camper, David, who recommended we take a detour to see the place. Bimbled on through some of the most fantastic sights to date.  Looking for a spot to set up, went up quite a steep rutted dirt track and found an amazing little space, not a house for absolute miles and only one small road nearby.  Sean found a flat spot about 20 metres on and suggested we moved there, 

First come off - tick!

and that was the place of my first come off!  Rutted ground, loads of bramble, sloped forwards and downwards and I made the fatal mistake of not giving her enough power and hesitating - tis that 

terrible feeling when you feel her tilt and you just know you're not going to get her back so there's that angonising wait for the slow motion descent until you hit the ground!  At least I remembered the golden rule - if everyone is ok, take a picture before you do anything else!

Another amazing wild camp spot

Sheep truely are the most stupid animal on the face of the planet - at least goats get that if something is scaring you, run AWAY - sheep work on a completely different rule, you run in terror towards what is scaring the shit out of you - makes perfect sense!  Didn't hit any by some miracle, though in hindsight would have solved the problem of trying to find dinner for the next few nights.  That evening followed a 'rural road' that evening to find a camp spot, (in other words, a rutted rubble dirt track) and got an out of the way spot, set up quickly as was fairly rainy.  Woke up in middle of night for a pee and whilst outside I heard a snorting and stomping (like you'd hear from a bull, but there was no cattle around) scared the ............. out of me, and I shone the light directly in the direction hoping to scare whatever the fuck it was (it was something big!) whilst I sprinted for the cover of the tent in olympian time - once under the false safety of canvas I listened but all had gone quite - was NOT going back out there again!  There was signs of deer about but I'm not sure stags snort - I know there are wild boar, but this was definitely something very heavy  ......  I sure wasn't fucking investigating.

Stunning mountains near Monserrat

It's the 27th and is hard to believe we're on the rode two weeks, not sure where the time has gone.  Really gorgeous and warm day, starting to shed layers like onions (and stink like them too, thank the gods for merino wool!). Riding this morning some planes went overhead, first time ever I didn't think 'I wonder where they're going and wish I was on them' - great feeling, I highly recommend it.  Hit Terrenga after 5 hours riding and started to look for suitable camp spot, no joy, so continued.  Getting late so headed for Igualada as biggest town on map, thought it would have a camp site, did it buggery, well we wanted adventure!. Onward and upwards saw us going through some truly staggering mountains, quite possibly the best views yet – on our left the cliffs rose to huge stony peaks and on the left the road fell 1000’s of feet.  Was like a view you'd would 

With amazing views

expect in the grand canyon - swept over countless acres of fields, rugged landscape, villages and towns and more mountains in the distance, with the evening sun hitting it in full golden glory – the air was the really warm early summer heat and it truly was awesome.  On through a series of tunnels cut into the mountain and down the other side in a mad set of twists and turns on the ribbon roads.  

Idiots spoiling the scenery

Passed Monserrat and headed for the town at the base of the mountains thinking that there would surely be camping – Hah, oh stupid us.  Another hour and were quite knackered, were starting to worry as the light was fading  when I say a track and thought ‘Fuck it’ it will do, was the entrance to a national park and became our site for the evening.  Sean whipped up a delectable

delight of noodles, sauce, salad, garlic steak and a dodgy concoction from a tin that was fairly rank, the rest of the dinner was mucho tasty.  Spent the next hour hunting for holes in our airbeds, Sean found loads, I discovered none, I think I’ll feel a little let down tonight!!  Airbeds are brilliant until they decide they don't like working anymore.

Display cake in shop window

Barcelona March 31st

Headed for Barcelona and stopped in a lovely campsite in a place called Gava about 5km outside the city.  Was on a beach so was fab, only downside was it was directly under the Barcelona airport flight path and there was a water treatment plant across the highway - pongy!!!! However the pong doesn't materialise until the evening so that was a surprise in waiting.  Decided to explore Barcelona and spent entire day on 29th there, we 

Birthday gyros

walked for seven hours and saw practically nothing, very disappointed as we'd heard great things about the place.  However whilst chatting to Neady on the phone the next day we discovered our mistake so for Sean's birthday on the 31st went back in and discovered the 'real' city.     Top Tip (thanks to Neady): you are visiting the city, start from down by the port.

Beach bums

Spent several days relaxing in campsite in Gava.  Bikes have been given the once over, tent repairs done, we no longer look like tramps (thanks to multiple showers!) so 1st of April heading up the east coast back into France, heading for Italy.  


Hopefully this time crossing the Pyrennes won't see us being hit by another snow blizzard!  Weather is amazing so fingers crossed it remains that way.