All Over

Approximately 12,000 kms on the bikes & 13 countries in 2 months its home for a rest. The V Stroms have performed brilliantly again. Only problem has been my smartphone which died & caused a few gaps in this blog in the last 10 days. To bring you up to date, we left Ireland at the port of Rosslare & ferried across to Pembroke in Wales on dead calm seas. Our only night in Wales was in the Welsh hills at Abergavenny, camped at a golf course camping ground. We managed to avoid the thunder storms around us, for our last night in the tents. All good trips must come to an end & the following day we headed to Horsham, to meet up with the rest of the Kiwi team of seven bikes for a last night dinner at the local in Billingshurst. Bikes had to be cleaned thoroughly before loading on the 19th at Felixstowe in the container for the journey back to NZ.
Until next time, thanks for following this blog & our journey. We have crammed a lot in, in a short time, as this was my first visit to this part of the world, every day brought something new. A great trip, if you ever have the oppurtunity, give it a go !

One night of glamping, never hurt, our last night in Ireland was in this B&B

Success At Isle of Man

Bruce Anstey from Auckland NZ took out the Superbike Final in a race record time to add to his current lap record from last year. It was a proud Kiwi contingent heading back to our campsite & a hastily made flagpole with the Silver Fern flying from the top. In today's Supersport 600, Bruce came in second only 8 seconds back over 240 kms of racing. A great effort Bruce.

Had to add this photo of a guy blowing up an airbed in the departure terminal for our ferry to Larne in Ireland. The ferry departs at 3am, so a long night ahead of us

Isle of Man

These guys racing motorbikes on these roads at 300 km / hr is crazy. They get airborne going over the rises in the road. IOM is a beautiful place, even though the weather has not been perfect. The sheer size of the event & number of supporters has to be seen to be appreciated.

Castle at entrance to Peel Harbour on east side of IOM

New Zealand Memorial

We were camping the night in a farm camp site in Northern France & a Brit also camping there told us that there was a NZ memorial & cemetery in a near village that we had passed by, the previous day in Le Quesnay.  It was well worth backtracking to. At the entrance to the town there is sign giving directions to the memorial. It was the efforts of the NZ soldiers breaking into the fort held by the invading German troops in WW1 that gave the NZ troops the respect that they are held in even today

. We signed the visitors book which contained names from recent visitors from NZ. The cemetery is kept in great order by the village  community.

Sobering

We are camped at Verdun in northern France for 3 nights while we wait for the other riders in our group to

catch up before going on to Calais for the Chunnel crossing back to the UK & on to Isle of Man. Verdun is the centre of the action in WW1 & the memorials & war cemeteries are everywhere. The largest single cemetery by far is the United States with 14286 soldiers buried on a hill side with the nearby monument of remembrance erected by the US, with a replica of the Statue of Liberty at its 200 ft top. The view from the top takes in all the surrounding villages & farmland.
The vastness of the 104  acre US cemetery,  each with a marble cross or Star of David  & the soldiers name, rank, hometown & any honours, is truly sobering. We have also passed numerous French & German military cemeteries in a 20 km range of Verdun. It is estimated that over 700,000 of 2 million troops in the region either died here or suffered serious injury.
Tomorrow we hope to lighten things up a little with a visit to some of the locks on the canal system.

Got To Be A Winner

OK guess what this is. Yes its a coin operated dispenser of that staple of the French diet, a baguette. For €1 you get a fresh warm baguette, out of the machine.Boy did it taste good. Most of it was gone by the time we got back to the campground. So for you young entrepreneurs, this has got to be a winner in NZ. Better than the overdone coffee pedlars on the side of the road.

Border Hopping

Three countries in one day, seems crazy, but I left the camp site in the morning in Austria on the Rhine Delta , which is a huge lake feeding the impressive  Rhine river, rode back through Switzerland & ended up camped just over the border of France in Colmar, camped beside a river full of  trout. The farm land either side of the Rhine is very fertile with crops looking good for the summer harvest. In this region the villages are only a few kms apart, with traditional multi storey homes. The early summer season is seeing camping grounds with about 75% occupancy compared to when we first arrived in Europe when they were empty.

Trout at the doorstep, not sure why I bought salmon at the supermarket.The water was crystal clear too.

French Signs

Still not sure if the sign said enter at your own risk or do not enter. Ignorance is bliss so I rode on, on what must be a track to service the numerous ski lifts in the Autrans Valley in France where we are currently camped. Its not often you can get a motorbike to the top of a quad chairlift, so I could not miss taking a photo to prove it. I only saw one man on 40 kms of track, working on a ski lift tower. He seemed disinterested so I carried on. Gordon is doing the healthy thing today & gone for a tramp in the hills. The valley must look great when the trees are in autumn leaf & the first of the snow arrives. Tomorrow we leave & cross into Switzerland to Lake Geneva & hopefully if the weather behaves across to Zermatt to the Matterhorn, another bucket list icon to tick off.

More To Come

• Just a quick update, we rode 480 kms today & ended up renting a ski chalet for the next two nights in the alpine village of Autrans, high in the mountains out of Grenoble. To be honest we had no idea that was where we were headed. The ride up out of Grenoble is just hairpin after hairpin. Just what every biker dreams of. The ski lift starts just behind our chalet. It looks kind of strange to see an all grass ski run cut out of the surrounding trees. Tomorrow if the predicted storm is not too bad we will ride out up another pass to another ski village & field. This is the first night that we have not tented in Europe but with thunder storms &
  
   4 deg, just a bit much for the old timers.

Millau Viaduct

It was on my to do list & did not disappoint. The Viaduct is a huge suspension structure spanning a valley  on the motorway just out of Millau. As you can see in the attached pic, it is higher than the Eiffel tower & the largest of the pyramids will fit below the deck in the centre.

It cost €4-50 to ride over but well worth the cost. The scenery here in the south of France is unique & very different to our NZ mountain scenery.

The ride out of Andorra over the Pass de La Casa started with a visit to the biggest booze supermarket I have ever seen. All because of the duty free status of Andorra. At the border into France the customs were checking vehicles for those buying in Andorra & re selling in France. Did not give us a second look. Must look like genuine travellers, on the bikes.

Looking up Andorra Valley

About to enter 3.9km tunnel under mountains.

Millau Viaduct.

Scale of viaduct compared to Eiffel Tower.

A Day In The Mountains

Today we left all our panniers & gear at our camp  at Gerb in the mountain area of northern Spain  & did a 150 Km loop up over the Col shown in the photo Needless to say I led Gordon up the garden path & got  onto a track that was not made for me or a V Strom with fully inflated tyres. We back tracked out of there through some spectacular mountain scenery including views into the Andorra mountains that we intend to visit next. We could see the rain & probably snow on the tops falling in Andorra. Our day was a little windy but sunshine all the way.
Rock climbing is very popular in this part of Spain & there are several climbing parties staying in the camp as well as a group of geology students from the Netherlands studying the limestone formations here.
Weather permitting we are off to the Andorra area tomorrow.

Hello From Balaguer

Try & find that on the map.It is about 140kms south of Andorra in Nth East Spain. Tonight we are camped beside a lake in the mountain area. It never ceases to amaze where people live here & the fact that every prominent rock outcrop on the ridges has a castle or fortress built on it. Presume that the purpose was to see invaders coming from all directions. The weather is a hot 33 deg at the moment with low humidity. We had stopped to have a look at our maps when 2 police stopped to have a chat. They gave us good advice for the most scenic route & could not believe we were from NZ. They did not even check our licence or carnets but were pulling cars in for a check.
Not sure how I am going to convert back to the left hand side of the road when we go back to the UK. All going good, Northern Italy here we come !

Every Village Has A Castle

Today we left the town of Santa Pola on the coast as we were getting tired of the end endless Surfers Paradise type towns that populate the Mediterranean coast line & headed inland to the small mountain village  of Albarracin just west of Tuerel. This is a popular spot in summer & winter for hikers, bikers & skier's in winter. Temperature today is a very warm 33 deg. On the way in from the coast we passed numerous small towns that all seem to have a very old castles built on the highest point. There is literally thousands of hectares of grapes in the hills & numerous piggeries.  Tomorrow we will visit the Castilla La Mancha,
See my Spanish is improving.  The locals find it difficult to understand our NZ accent  which  they believe is very strong. Other than the occasional wrong turn in the town because the GPS struggles to keep up with the numerous roads & alleys, navigation & riding on the right is not too difficult.

V Strom On Top Of The Rock

Across the straits of Gibraltar, you can just see the North Africa coast in the distance

This is the top of what is British Territory. I had to produce my passport to gain entry to the  Rock.

Barbary Apes, not far from the top feeding on food scraps from the British Military installations on The Rock.

V Strom on top of the The Rock. This is the view into the very busy port of Gibraltar. The military have their own port, that had one warship tied up. The British also have a very short landing strip for military aircraft.

The view of Gibraltar across the road from our camping ground. The rock is 1380 ft high. Formed from limestone, it stands guard over the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. 

l  received a few black looks but managed to get within 30 metres of the top on the Strom. They are an adventure bike after all.

The Algarve

Those of you who know this province will know it is the district that the rich & famous come to play. Well we don't really qualify for the rich & are only a little bit famous. Tonight we are staying in a Lagos resort / camping ground that is truly over the top for our motorcycle cruising style. You can order a golf buggy thing to take you to the restraurant from your site. Getting out of Lisbon this morning was always going to be a challenge. Traffic  meant we only moved 10 kms from our camp in 1 hour, but once we were on the huge suspension bridge that spans Lisbon harbour we were away. We had some of the best riding to date along the coast on the secondary roads with great scenery & plenty of twisties. The waters along the coast are crystal clear  & would be great for divers. All the small villages have seen a building boon here in the last 10 years to service Europeans from colder climates.
Our NZ number plates & NZ stickers draw plenty of comments where ever we go. One guy wound down his window at the traffic lights in Lisbon & yelled out  All Blacks.!!

Lisbon History

This statue of the Archangel Gabriel was carried by Vasco De Gama on two of his voyages of discovery

This Royal Barge is over 300 years old & was last used in an official capacity to transport Queen Elizabeth II  on her official visit to Lisbon 

No visit to Lisbon  is complete without a visit to the iconic statue commissioned in the 80,s to honour the sailors of this great seafaring nation.

A view of the building that  houses the Naval Maritime Museum of Lisbon. This was a must do for me with a life long interest of matters nautical. Portugal led the world in the 16 th century with nautical feats & voyages of discovery financed by the king or queen of the time.

Tomorrow we are heading down the coast on our way to Gibraltar, with a night half way. This morning I made contact with the other bikes in our group of 7. Hopefully we will all meet up in Gibraltar.

Slumming It In Lisbon

Gordon selected this camping ground not me. It has a restaurant, bar, supermarket , just to name a few of the facilities. What he did get right is the sun is shining. Today we rode over 500 kms from Santander to here via the mountain area of Guarda . There are numerous small villages with the usual apartment blocks, tucked in against a hill, with the ubiquitous cathedral on the highest point in the village. We could be in trouble leaving Portugal as I took the wrong lane at the border, for locals only..We have now had 4 languages to contend with since leaving the UK so you can imagine the head is spinning a bit. We are going to stay 2 nights in Lisbon to give us a chance to visit the maritime museum etc, while here. The traffic here is crazy & no one obeys the speed restrictions, so we will definitely be going in to the city by public transport. Our plan. Is to hug the coast from here down to Gibraltar.
The beer is cheap & Gordon has just bought a glass of port for 1 Euro I suppose I should keep him company.

Blame The Navigator

At the last minute this morning I suggested to Gordon we go through the mountains past a couple of ski fields to Salamanca in central Spain instead of hugging the coast to A Coruna. What a great idea that was , just as much rain, but with alpine temperatures plus a howling gail.

 Our bikes are covered in salt , from the salted roads  & it was hard to stay upright with the wind. No problem to kiwi bikers of course. The roads through the mountains are awesome. 4 lanes all the way with huge viaducts & numerous tunnels, all obviously built in the last 10 years. No wonder this  country has a debt problem. Guys today we passed at least 50 Valley pivots yeah!! & they were not rusty.. Tomorrow we will head out to Lisbon, Portugal, & please some good warm weather.

SPAIN WITHOUT RAIN

It has been a couple of eventful days.

We have left the rain back in France & today crossed the border into Spain. Not that you would realise you were riding into another country. I gave two policemen a wave, but they didn't seem too interested. The country side has changed dramatically from the flat arable land of France to the rock cliff's of coastal Spain. Certainly  made the riding more interesting, and hopefully the road toll's of France will end. The fountain in the photo is in the centre of Bilbao where we stopped for a break & Tapa's. Tonight we are in a nearly deserted camping ground in Santander. The  large lighthouse is right next to our camp site. Tomorrow we plan to move on to a small fishing village close to Al Coruna, that has been recommended.  Our ride will hug the coast line, so hopefully some sun to go with the scenery.
By the way I have not taken up diving, this shark was in the aquarium at La Rochelle.There are lots of signs along the roads in France & this part of Spain warning about roaming wild deer, don't really want to see any at close range on the bike. Yesterday in the south of France finally saw some centre pivots, sorry guys they were all Otechs & badly rusted, probably high iron content.

Rain Rain Rain

We are currently staying in a little village on the south coast of France, 28 kms north of La Rochelle. We managed to get our tents up before the rain started, but it is raining constantly now. The campground owner is very obliging & between my limited French & her limited English we have managed OK.
It has been over 50 years since I took French at college & believe it or not it is pretty rusty. Of course our NZ accent makes it difficult for the French to understand our English, let alone my poor French. The young French are OK because English is a compulsory language at school. Kids if you have the opportunity to learn French or Spanish & you travel later in life, you will appreciate the effort.
Hi to the pupils at Kirwee school I know some of you are following this blog & our trip. As you may know in Europe you drive on the right hand side of the road & the steering wheel is on the left hand side of the car. The confusing rule is at round abouts you give way to the left, but at uncontrolled intersections without stop or give way signs you give way to the right as we do in NZ.
The rest of our group of seven motorcycles crossed over from Dover to Calais in France today, on the Chunnel. It only takes 30 minutes to cross the English Channel & you are in France. We rode our bikes on to the train & sat beside them. There is no sense of speed, inside the carriage. Most of the country we have ridden through is gently undulating, with the predominant crops being, barley & canola. There have been virtually no fences or cattle, but a lot of piggeries. Easy to pick on a motorbike. Inland, around Paris a number of farmers were irrigating with hard hose guns. I have not seen any centre pivots at all.
Internet is not always available, so posts may be infrequent. When the rest of our group arrives & the rain stops we will ride on down to Spain