Category: Memories

Terry Arnold

• 1. UK to Saint Omer
• 2. Saint Omer to Metz
• 3. Metz to Besancon
• 4. Besancon to Briancon
• 5. Strada Dell’Assietta
• 6. Col du Galibier, Val D’Isere and Col de L’Iseran
• 7. Briancon to Beaune – Heading Homewards
• 8. Beaune to Verdun
• 9. Verdun to Arras
• 10. Arras to UK

Terry Arnold

5 UK National Parks

Riders:- Clappo, Terry, John, Paul & Gareth

Background:- Covid restrictions severely limiting European travel – so toured in the UK.

• Digs:- Alston, Cumbria. Pleasant ancient rural town
  • Quirky converted chapel hall, with plenty of space.
  • Off-road parking down a steep slope
  • Only 1 attempted murder in the street while we were there
  • Couple of nice pubs serving good food
  • Nice and central for exploring the parks/moors
• Routes selected daily depending on the weather forecast
• Terry’s clutch slave cylinder was failing so needed increasing top-ups of fluid and bleeding (every stop at the end)
• Approx 1900 miles covered by all, additional 520 by Gareth & Terry
• Paul & Terry &then Clappo Met at Cambridge Services on M11 and West Barn before travelling onwards together

Wear, Tyne & Tees Valleys

• North out of town and up to Brampton
  • Local road closure re-cobbling the market square gave 5mile detour on all eastern routes
  • South to Langwathby, back through Alnwick and up to Corbridge for coffee.
  • A loop round on the lovely A68 bishop Auckland and on to Barnard Castle
• John joined us at lunchtime day 2 in Barnard Castle
  • Through Romaldskirk and into Eggleston
    • Here we encountered a procession of over 50 tractors, as a mark of respect to a deceased local farmer. 15 minutes watching them all pass by.
    • Through Newbiggin and over the single track moor road to Westgate
    • Through Allenheads and back to the digs
  • Dinner at the Alston House Hotel
• Route back to digs through market square blocked by Police tape where there had been a non-fatal stabbing

Yorkshire Dales

• South down to Appleby in Westmorland
• Down near Hawes and a big loop round to the west via Sedburgh and back to Hawes for lunch
• On to Reeth where Gareth joined us in the day 3 afternoon at a very nice coffee stop at a place frequented by SAS
• Up to Brough and Middleton in Teesdale, and back to Alston
• Very good dinner at the Cumberland Inn
• Drinks after at the Turks Head, excellent beers – very friendly barmaid

Lake District 1 – North

• Over through Penrith via the fantastic A686 Hartside Pass
  • Stopped at the top for a cuppa and a chat with some gathered bikers
• Across to Keswick and around Bassenthwaite lake
  • Held up here by an accident blocking very narrow road, waiting for the pick-up truck to collect the car
• South through Keswick, past Derwentwater and Borrowdale
• Stopped at the Honister pass mine for coffee
• Past Buttermere and Loweswater, looping north over the Whinlatter pass and round to Keswick for lunch
• Hearty lunch at the Filling Station cafe
• South down to Ambleside and along the eastern shore of Coniston water
• Coffee stop at the Lakeland motor museum, amid some lovely 70’s bikes.
• Up west of Windemere to Ullswater, Pooley Bridge and to Penrith
• Along the A686 and over the Hartside Pass in the opposite direction – Brilliant
• Drinks in the Turks Head, our new local and purchased food & supplies
• Eat in at the digs

Northumberland and Kielder forest

• North East in a pretty straight line up to Alnwick, coffee at Bamborough and then up the A1 to Holy Island
• Drove onto Holy Island as the tides were favourable
• Stopped at the farthest end of the road for an ice cream
• West to Wooler and down the A697 past Cragside and towards the Otterburn military ranges
  • Roads across the ranges were closed due to ongoing exercises
• Stopped for coffee at Otterburn
  • Man in Range Rover barely able to walk let alone drive properly, told us he was a surgeon and had mended many motorcyclists – Don’t you just love these people?!
• Used the Kielder Forest, Forest Drive – a 10 mile dirt track, E-W
  • Didn’t realise you are supposed to use an honesty box for payment
• South on the excellent B6320 wide sweeping road past Kielder reservoir
  • Paul nearly had ‘SCANIA’ embossed on his helmet during one late overtake, but strongly denies it. We 3 who saw it were all mistaken.
• Over to Greenhead and then south to Alston
• Drinks in the Turks Head

North Yorkshire Moors

• East over to Barnard Castle and skirting south of Darlington
• Across to Stokesley and here the roads improved again
• Down the B1257 which was an excellent fast flowing road
• Stopped in Helmsley for coffee, sat outside in market square
  • Chatted to couple who had sadly lost their son to a bike accident
• Through Pickering and up over the high moors, through Heartbeat country/Goatland to Whitby
• Very good fish & chips lunch and a stroll round the busy town. The swing bridge broke down and blocked up the flows.
• Headed for Middlesborough for a mystery tour – to see the famous ‘transporter bridge’ down at the docks
• Back through Bishop Auckland and to the digs.
• Arriving back, Terry had an altercation with a very big fair-haired man as he walked across in front of his bike pulling in. Loud, rude words were exchanged
  • Meeting later at the Turks Head, there was a very big fair-haired man sitting at a table across the way. I went over to ‘clear the air’ with him and offer him a pint. He said he would gratefully accept the offer, but it wasn’t him!
• Another very good dinner at the Cumberland Inn

Lake District 2 – South

• Over through Penrith via the fantastic A686 Hartside Pass again
• Turned south at Penrith for Shap and Kendal and west to Storrs
  • Used the chain ferry across Windemere
  • Stopped for coffee and cake on the far shore
• Up to Hawkshead and the beautiful Tarn Hawes lake
• Down the eastern side of Coniston water an lovely narrow lane weaving along the shore
• West over to the Irish sea coast and north to Gosforth before turning east
• Over the excellent Hardknott and Wrynose passes
  • Gareth had a small tumble on a hairpin when encountering other traffic
• Up to Great Langdale and stopped at one of the very few the National Trust pubs
  • The ‘Sticklebarn’ was closed for a NT training day!
  • We had a drink instead next door at the open ‘New Dungeon Ghyll’
• East over to Clappos-gate (Clappersgate), Ambleside and then up the Kirkstone pass and over to Ullswater.
• John took a tumble when pulling up for a comfort break and the roadside soil was soft. Unfortunately it pinned him against a stone wall and needed help to lift the bike off him.
• Through Penrith and along the A686
  • Stopped at the New Inn at Melmerby for a couple on the way home
• – and again – over the Hartside Pass to Alston.
• Last night dinner at the Alston House Hotel
  • Bought their raffle tickets and John later won a prize of a free stay
• Watched Emma Radukana win the US open tennis on TV

• Next morning we headed in seperate directions, Paul, Clappo and John heading south for home and Gareth and Terry riding north to join friends at Abington, Scotland

Scotland

• North up through Greenhead and into the border counties
  • Stopped for coffee at Hadrian’s Wall at Gilsland
• Rode across the border and up gentle valleys and hills and forests
• Stopped in Hawick tourist info for coffee and cake
  • Surprised to need face masks still in Scotland
  • Watched a charity procession with a bagpipe marching troop
• Over more lovely hills into Moffat, a surprisingly well appointed town
  • Clappo is right- it would be an excellent base for future rides
• The roads north from Moffat, A701 for 10 miles is as good as anything in Europe – Superb – then into Biggar
• Huge ice creams and eventually found a food shop for sugary supplies for the next day’s 27 mile walk
• Last short run into Abington M75 motorway services Travelodge
• Hid and chained bikes behind high wall as would be left all the next day.
• Joined friends doing a Lands End to John O’Groats walk for Charity. The aim was to walk a 27 mile section with then from to Abington to Hamilton.
• Had evening food in grim motorway services
• Went for drink in tiny Travelodge foyer that already had 2 elderly guests sitting drinking
  • Turned out he was a fairly minted business man with terminal cancer on a late tour. They very kindly gave generously to the guys’ charity collection – unprompted.

Day of the long walk.

• Set off at 4mph pace!!! Up and down BIG hills we tramped
• Walked mostly along the B7078 which runs parallel to the M74
• Companions did not wait for you at Pee stops, needing yet faster pace to catch up and sweet bars and drinks were taken on the hoof
• Eventually stopped for a bite after about 20miles, I had a Haggis sandwich
• Gareth’s and my legs stopped bending or moving in a forward direction after that stop
• We let the other two go faster and hobbled on at a snail’s pace to the finish line at Hamilton Racecourse Hilton. Thank F*** for that!!
• Race meeting was on, so was bustling. We sat in the bar and had pints of Stella delivered on repeat.
• The long walk to the men’s toilet was agony
• After the racing the bar filled with glammed up ladies and men in dinner jackets. 2 pissed ladies plonked themselves down on our sofas and would not leave, even whilst we had our meals.
• Taxi home on the motorway took 25 mins at 70mph – incredible that we had walked so far.
• Found a wheelchair in reception and took photos of each other in a disabled state. Wifey did not appreciate that photo from a bike trip with no explanation.
• Slept well.

Journey Home

• 5 more bikes hidden with ours, blocking us in
• 370 mile ride home, it was fine sitting on the bikes and, being on motorway, we didn’t need to put our feet down much, but when we did – it hurt.
• Lunch and fuel at Boroughbridge.
• Afternoon coffee at OK Diner near Stamford
• Home at last.

Terry Arnold

For 2020 the situation regarding Covid was severely limiting UK and even more – European travel. Although Covid rules had relaxed considerably, the hospitality sector in particular was operating under tight and variable practices, there were severe staff shortages and nothing could be taken for granted. As much as anything people were so glad to be out and about they were making up for lost time, meaning places were generally very busy.

We had earlier prepared and booked a trip to the French Alps for this year (see the 2022 Tour), but it was not to be. Therefore we cobbled together a UK tour to circumvent the limitations of the slowly un-locking leisure environment.

Instead, we decide to use Terry’s and Paul’s houses plus a welsh cottage to create a UK route over 7/8 days to include the Peak District, north Wales, Devon and for some, a final night in the Cotswolds.

The result was around 1600 miles following a threatening (and sometimes productive) rain cloud around the UK, overtaking campervans and some fantastic scenery.

• We gathered at West Barn in the Peak District, Colin, Paul, Will, John, Clappo & Terry
• As had worked well before we had a delivery of supplies from Morrison’s
• We anticipated that we would need to eat-in and prepared for BBQs and drinks at home – as eating out was now far more of a challenge.
• We used a different route to the ones we had used before, this time north east of Sheffield and up to Holmfirth – the setting for “Last of the Summer Wine“
• On the way we stopped for coffee and cake at a Midhopestones on the A616 that is very popular with cyclists. I had stopped there with Clappo on a previous ride we did together and when we weren’t allowed inside.
• The road south from Holmfirth is spectacular, descending into a wide deep valley with long views, we went past the 4 reservoirs to the north of Glossop and further on to Buxton.
• Northwest to Whaley Bridge and down to Macclesfield, then up and over the Cat and Fiddle pass back to Buxton
• At a fuel stop, John could not find his wallet which contained plenty of cash and all his cards.
• We stopped again for refreshments at Lognor and headed west back to Beeley’s Devonshire Arms to sample some more Jaipur.
• The next day we headed almost due west to Caenarvon in Wales. We had hoped to meet up with Gary as he lived near our route but that was not to be
• We stopped at a pub in Audlem for coffees and John searched his bike top to bottom looking for his missing wallet. Terry phoned Irene who was at that very moment heading for the Barn. Would she have a thorough search for the wallet?
• We rode on past Llangollen and into the Ponderosa Cafe for a hearty all-day breakfast.
• The scenery from here became very pleasant again with the welsh hills and lakes and roads. The A694 is a great fast sweeping road.
• We turned right at Bala and onto smaller roads. From Ffestiniog they became even narrower and it started to rain. This road as marred by Feckin motorhomes and caravans crawling along the narrow lanes inconveniencing everyone else.
• We found our way to the digs easily, it was a little off the road. Clappo had booked a pleasant cottage – Cae Berllan, another astute ‘bargain’ – and in truth – it was very suitable for us. Plenty of space, clean and well enough equipped. It could have benefited from a 2nd bathroom but we managed fine.
• The news about the missing wallet was not good, nowhere to be seen, so John started the process of having all his cards cancelled and reset.
• We ordered a van taxi to take us the 5 miles into Caenarfon for dinner. We waited ages, maybe 45 minutes, and then he drove quite erratically into town. We gave him a good tip and asked him to collect us later.
• Probably the 1st pub we encountered was the Black Boy a lovely black and white pub that was “full”. An outside table was vacated and we quickly nabbed it and fastened up our jackets as it was a bit nippy.
• We had some drinks, and Clappo worked on the barmaid, and when 6 seats came available inside she kindly relocated us to 2 seperate tables in the warm. Later we we able to sit together for a drink and chat.
• Our generous tip worked and our taxi driver duly appeared and took us back to the digs.
• For the Wales ride-out we zig-zagged about but basically headed north to Conwy and Llandudno. Arriving there we went on to the Great Orme peninsula and parked up at the lighthouse. We had lunch in the time-capsule of a cafe there, took photos of the lovely views and each other.
• Walking back to the bikes, Colin put his hand into his deep internal Rukka jacket pocket and pulled out an unfamiliar wallet! As John, Colin and Will all have identical Rukka jackets, it appears John had simply put his wallet into the wrong pocket when they were all hung up together. Bugger! At least he had his cash and lovely Louis Vuitton wallet back.
• We travelled south through the Snowdonia national park to Ffestiniog and turned west to do a lap of the Lynn peninsula. Along the long spit road shared with the railway line and into Porthmaddog, where we stopped for coffees.
• We followed the southern coast through Pwllheli and out to the furthest west point past Aberdaron. Clappo had visited before and correctly called it that you could follow the old concrete military road right up to the site of the former coastguard station – which we did.
• We parked the bikes and enjoyed the wonderful views over the sea to Bardsey Island. We took the obligatory group photos and set off back down. Descending the very-single track road with cast in concrete kerbs, we encountered a couple driving up towards us and I observed they drove past a passing place.
• As we met bumper to wheel (with 5 more motorbikes behind), the driver indicated that we should all back up. I explained to him that motorbikes don’t have a reverse gear and weigh a quarter of a ton and it was simply impossible for that to happen. His woman passenger began ranting and raging and we simply turned off the bikes and sat patiently waiting. Eventually he reversed the 20-30yards downhill to the passing place and then hurled profanities at us as we sarcastically waived thanks as we went past.
• We rode along the northern coast of the peninsula back towards the cottage. We were tired now and were looking for somewhere to buy food for dinner at home but saw nothing. Will and Terry rode on towards Caenarfon whist the others went straight back to the digs. We bought a selection of microwave meals and had a less fine culinary experience that evening.
• The next day we moved on nearly 300 miles to Paul’s at Holcombe in Devon.
• We rode down through Snowdonia and pretty much right down the middle of Wales North to South. Through the Brecons and through Abergavenny.
• We crossed the river Severn and then it was mostly M5 motorway down to Devon. Terry peeled off at the Cullompton junction to visit an aunt for a couple of hours and rejoined the group later at Paul’s house.
• Sharon had very kindly made us an evening meal and we sat chatting at the table for a few hours.
• Next day we did a 200 mile loop from the south coast to the north, riding down through Teignmouth and along the Devon riviera. Unsurprisingly for July, the traffic in those parts was nose-to-tail. It’s a beautiful area and everybody wants to visit. (all at once)
• We crossed from Kingswear to Dartmouth on the chain ferry and rode in a moving queue pretty much all the way to the A38 at Buckfastleigh. The traffic even extended up into the lower parts of Dartmoor before thinning out.
• We stopped at Barnstable for refreshments and a bite to eat before heading north into Exmoor and to the coast. We picked up the tiny road that clings to the hillside, overlooking the sea, from Martinhoe through the Valley of Rocks and into Lynton.
• Along the beautiful coast road and down the famed Porlock hill to Dunster, turning south on the very pleasing A396 to the Exmoor Inn at Bampton, where we stopped for a beer.
• South through Tiverton, skirted Exeter and then with Paul leading home on his local patch, we got split into 2 groups. I believe Paul led some along the Powderham coast road, while we followed the planned main road route, arriving at roughly the same time.
• That evening, Paul had a table booked at the nearby Smugglers Inn where we enjoyed a carvery meal and drinks. (served by a girl with plenty of piercings and tattoos)
• Next morning we set off for our respective homes however, Terry & Clappo were going to meet up with Colin and stay another night near Cirencester to halve the journey home. (Colin had temporarily left the tour to attend a medical appointment but wanted to do a few more miles yet on this tour.) We rode up to Exeter where John left for home on the M5, and turned south for Exmouth.
• We followed the coast to Axmouth and headed north to Axminster, Crewkerne and Shaftsbury. There, we turned north for Warminster and stopped for lunch at the wonderful George Inn and Norton St.Phillip – a beautiful medieval coaching inn.
• Next, we did some rolling sightseeing around Bath, stopping at the famous Crescent for photos. Further north to Tetbury where we stopped in the very smart and monied town and visited a quirky 50s/60s music cafe, sitting at a pavement table in our smart and elegant motorcycling garb.
• A few miles on we encountered a very strange sight. As we approached the Cotswold airport at Kemble, we could see in the distance, many (>20) BA Boeing 747s parked on the apron. When we got closer we could see that they had been taken out of service, had had their engines removed and were being further dismantled. Quite Eerie and sad.
• Then, Clappo was stung on the face by a wasp. Well! Him – a hardened miner! Apparently his first ever sting, he needed to pull over as he was feeling giddy and sick. He took a rest for 10 minutes before we moved on. What a fuss!
• Just a couple of miles to our digs for the night, and AirBNB, a grand old listed stone house.
• Here, we met up with Colin who was waiting for us.
• The digs were quite odd. It had clearly been very grand and had gone down a long way before the current owners had started to restore some of it’s self-respect.
• Rambling, creaking, bit messy, characterful, a pesky dog and a male host who we took to be drunk (from his dress and demeanor) but we later felt it might be a condition. The lady was friendly but a touch strange. Our rooms were up 2 staircases at the back and were perfectly acceptable.
• Our hosts recommended a local pub for food and we reserved a table and walked the mile or so down there. It was a decent meal with drinks in a very pleasant pub.
• After breakfast we headed north west through the Cotswolds and Buckinghamshire. We were headed for the Super Sausage cafe on the A5 north of Milton Keynes.
• Unfortunately, just before the cafe, Clappo (thinking Terry had moved off at a roundabout) crashed into the back of Terry’s bike, throwing them both onto the tarmac and Terry’s off-side aluminium panner along the road. The bikes were quickly upright and the pannier reattached with the help of Colin’s bungee strap. A bit of later panel beating and hammer-work straightened the pannier mounts and the box and it went on to give several years of trouble free service). At the time of writing (Sep-22), the Triumph still has a cracked mudguard and other bits.
• The Super Sausage cafe was mobbed, it was a lovely sunny day and bikers filled the car-parks. We queued for nearly an hour to order their excellent food, but it was worth it and there was plenty to see and chat about.
• Clappo headed north, I followed Colin south at breakneck speeds as he was now on HIS local patch. We waived goodbye at MK and all arrived home without further incident.

Terry Arnold

We had enjoyed 2 successful tours to Spain and Portugal with Brittany Ferries using the Parador and Pousadas hotels with half-board tour packages. Why change a winning formula? – for 2019 we selected their Spain Heritage Tour.

This time we sailed from Portsmouth to Bilbao as the arrival times better suited the links to hotels at either end of the tour.

There were 8 of us; Gary, Clappo, Will, Colin, Paul, John, Terry & Adrian.

UK to Lerma

• We pulled up at the Portsmouth ferry check-in leaving Clappo to perform his normal rituals with the clerk. A large group of mostly BMW GSAs sporting custom decals and loaded with accessories pulled in to the next booth. Who knew that some of these guys were to become good friends in later years?

Whilst having snack on an outside deck on the ferry crossing, a guy comes up to me and says “I know you – You used to work at Bankers Trust Company!” Embarrassingly, I couldn’t remember his name although he could, mine. “You’ll have to remind me of your name”. “Gareth” he said “Gareth Davies”. And that’s how we got another group member, we worked in the same firm 30 years previously, only ‘knew of’ each other, now live just 4 miles apart. “I never knew you rode bikes” – “Same”.

In the same chat, Gareth asked Clappo if he’d ever washed his Klim suit, so beginning the sparring between Gavin & Clappo

Amazing Coincidences.

• During the sailing the ships entertainment team had laid on a demonstration of Virtual Reality visors. Adrian and I had a go and it really tricked the mind into believing the images and surroundings, great fun.
• I have never been a fan of Tour / Hen Party style T-Shirts in public. However the shirt Clappo arranged for this year – with 3 skulls (again – an image I personally don’t like) – turned out to be a real conversation starter with the other passengers on the ship. “I’ve just seen your mates along there”, “Where are you lot all headed then?” Etc. It actually was great fun.
• We arrived in Bilbao and headed south and within just a few miles from the coast the scenery becomes very rural and beautiful. These were fast, smooth flowing roads, the sun was bright and the air warm. It was wonderful to be back.
• After about 60 miles the roads became even more curvy with hills and undulations for extra interest. At Burgos, we turned south and headed in to Lerma. The satnav took us up a direct narrow street that I wasn’t too sure about but that brought us into a large square with the grand parador on the far and left sides.
• A group of about 12 Ferraris that we had seen on the ferry had arrived before us and were carefully lined up and on display to satisfy the owners’ bulging egos.
• Another fantastic parador with a large central full-height lounge area, galleried landings with the rooms off them and large artworks on the walls.
• We checked in, spruced up and had a stroll around the old town, then back for a beer in the lounge. Terry misguidedly went for a run to try to maintain some fitness – he joined them in the bar soon enough! I did see the road we should have come up though.
• That night, Terry and Adrian had quite an argument where T accused A of excessive snoring. T then went back to sleep while A listened to T’s excessive snoring “all night long”. A peace-making deal was sought and agreed next morning. Alcohol and the cell-like room’s stone walls didn’t help.

Lerma to Segovia

• In a previous report, I noted that the scenery in central Spain, on the plain, is not too interesting so it is necessary to detour to find the hillier and more scenic roads. So we headed in a loop southwest before swinging round to the west again. We went through the Parque National del Canon del Rio Lobos and the Parque National Sierra Norte de Guadarrama
• We stopped for lunch (which turned out to be very filling as whatever we ordered turned into a meal to feed the 10,000) and observed that we were making fast time and that it wasn’t very far to Segovia, our destination.
• Adrian decided that he was happy to continue with the planned route, mileage and timings and would head for Segovia on his own.
• We performed a little on-the-fly route planning and found a road through forests, that climbed up to a pass at 1774m and down the other side. It ran beside a huge lake, along a valley and back up the range we had just crossed climbing to around 1900m and then ran along beside the ridge at 1850m for a few miles.
• It reached a T junction at the Puerto De Navacerrada where we turned north down an amazing forested hill section and into Segovia. This was one of the real highlights of ALL our tours. What an amazing chance find.
• Our parador for this night was an imposing modern building set high on the side of a gorge. It was built with red bricks very open plan. There was a lovely outdoor swimming pool and an internal leisure pool that we all made use of.
• A bit repetitive but, another fine a la carte meal with wines was enjoyed by all.
• In the setting sun, we watched many hot-air balloons rising on the opposite side of the ravine with Segovia cathedral as a backdrop.

Segovia to Toledo

• The evening before, we could see an impressive and spectacularly floodlit roman viaduct. We decided that we should experience that so headed off-route to explore. It was too big to miss so didn’t take long, and after a few photos we decided to grab an early coffee up by the cathedral. We got separated from Clappo in the steep hilly one-way streets and parked up on the exit road – hoping he would come past. After a while he phoned to say he was up in the cathedral square, it was quite something to see and had a good photo for us, he then came down and rejoined us.
• Our route took us back up the amazing hill that we had descended the evening before. Colin led and we absolutely flew up that hill at very high speed. I think I may have some video of Colin slowly pulling away from me as he normally does.
• At one point, whilst hanging off round fast curves we past something like 40 (can’t be sure, I was quite busy at the time!) old Fiat 500s of all colours coming down the hill. Quite surreal
• We stopped for coffees and a rest to lower our heart-rates at the top, where it was very busy with tourists and coaches of school children. The road down the other side was fantastic too, with far ranging views due to there being fewer trees.

BTBMmc Segovia to Perto De Navacerrada (1850m)

• We entered the hills and roads to the west of Madrid, doubling back southeast to Toledo. Avila and the roads that lead to it are renowned as great motorcycling roads and we were not disappointed. We somehow got separated on the way to Avila but we spotted each other while some were refueling stop and decided to stop for lunch.
• The roads on this leg were straighter and faster generally and at only 170 miles we arrived in Toledo mid afternoon – very early for us.
• Again there was a lovely pool and everyone went for a swim and to relax. (Terry went for a second and last run, giving that up as a bad job, too hot, too hilly)
• Guests of the parador had a sectioned off (VIP) area on the large terrace over looking Toledo city across a ravine. We sat there and formed a deep friendship with waiter who was dispensing drinks. I think it was Adrian or maybe Will who fancied something other than beer so ordered a gin & tonic. The waiter’s method was to point the bottle at a large gin balloon and pour, counting 2 seconds. This resulted in a very large measure of gin, which having seen what was available, everyone else ordered too. A very merry evening ensued.
• We were staying at Toledo for 2 nights. Adrian elected to pass on the next day’s riding and took a taxi into Toledo for a day of culture, which he enjoyed very much.
• The rest of us did a 200 mile looping route to the west through the Parque National de Cabaneros along the shore of the dammed Rio Guadiana (which was extremely bumpy and had huge potholes and craters for many miles) We stopped at it’s dam and took photos whilst soothing our backsides.
• We looped east again and back to Toledo through the Reserva National de Cijara
• Back at the parador we repeated the successful formula of swimming pool, beers and drinks on the terrace and stonking dinner.
• We got a cab into town, strolled around and visited a bar or two.

Toledo to Salamanca

• We rode northeast towards Avila but turned off west to run along a mountan range of hills to pick up some hills, curves and hairpins.
• I don’t remember anything notable about this day, but the route map suggests it was enjoyable.
• We pulled into Salamanca where we had stayed before, cleaned ourselves up and walked across the valley to the old city.

Salamanca to Zamora

• As the crow flies it is 25miles between these cities, but we managed to clock up 198 miles in a long ride to the west and back.
• Today’s ride took us into Portugal and specifically part of the Duoro valley and national park
• Some of the roads here were quite exceptional and I remember a section of 20-30 miles of fast curving roads where we had a lot of fun riding very determinedly
• There were some marvelous roads in those parts and eventually we pointed to wards Zamora and had a trouble free run in.
• Another super medieval stone palace presented itself as our hotel. Parking was in a garage where two of our party took exception to paying €15/bike, so they left their bikes on the pavement.
• We got cleaned up and strolled out into the city. One memorable feature was of many storks nesting on chimneys of the buildings in the city and the huge white birds flying around and landing on their precarious piles of twigs.
• We found a bar down a side street and whilst drinking our beers, noticed that other customers had a very strange drink. A bottle of beer upturned in a glass so that it glugged down into what I think was a spirit or cocktail. Anyway – when in Rome… and all that – we tried and enjoyed them.
• We walked across the bridge over the river to the rear of the parador, along the far bank and turned back over another bridge to the hotel. We enjoyed drinks on the large sunny rear terrace, watching more storks nesting before having yet another great dinner.

Zamora to Santilliana Del Mar

• The 2 bikes had not be stolen overnight and we only paid €5/bike so everyone was happy.
• The route took us north to the south of Leon, where a little further on, the Picos de Europa mountains rose up out of the flatter lands and soon we were into familiar territory, Riano and Colin’s Caff again.
• We had ridden this leg in a similar direction before, but this time we turned off and ran east – parallel to, but further from the coast before heading up to Santilliana.
• We had been to and very much enjoyed Santilliana del Mar before. In fact, John had been there twice before already as his campervan had broken down nearby and had been ‘stranded’ there for a couple of days while it was repaired.
• Another lovely evening of drinks and food and chat with dear friends.

Santilliana Del Mar to Bilbao

• It is so normal in these reports to write about the short ride into the Santander ferry port, so it was wonderful to see that actually we rode to Bilbao and used lovely internal routes in the Costa Verde hills.
• We avoided the motorways and took the scenic roads. It started to rain as we swung the bikes along the mostly gentle curves, beside rivers and up and over wooded hills, but dried up later.
• At one point we found ourselves at height with the north coast clearly visible and stopped for some photos. (We couldn’t get the phone to stay positioned so Will took a photo, then I took one and I later merged them in photoshop to get the full team pic)
• It’s always sad riding the last few miles into the ferry port, as it means the tour is nearly over. We have so much fun, it’s hard to stop.

Bilboa to UK

• There were severe delays to the incoming ship, a passenger had needed to be helicoptered off so we sat in a cafe cum duty free building on the dock for at least 4/5 hours. At least we were early enough to get seats and there was food.
• It started to rain heavily as we queued to board and we were held in a covered ‘pen’ for a while. Moving off, a goldwing, rider and passenger toppled over onto Adrian, taking him down too.
• Loading my bike, a big, shouty deckhand was very rough strapping my bike down, causing the seat to bend in half – literally. I had a huge row with him and a small girl supervisor interjected and calmed things down. He was “a real pain” she said. She filled out a claim form that had to be validated by the captain. During the crossing my name came over the tannoy and the Vice-Captain escorted me down into the sealed lower decks, overriding the access locks as we went. He accepted the apparent damage and we went back up. It all came to nothing as the seat unfolded itself with no visible lasting damage, and I couldn’t be bothered to take it any further.
• When we met on the boat, we were both shaken and distressed and took a while to calm down. Beers helped. Anyway, we were on the ferry and settled into the rhythm of the 24 hour crossing.
• This year Colin and Will had brought along ukuleles to entertain us with. Thankfully I was having a nap in my cabin for the main performance on an outside rear deck and I missed it. Apparently a lady had taken issue with them for singing political songs and she was offended! We didn’t realise the Strawbs song ‘Part of the Union‘ was so contentious.
• The captain radio’ed that bad weather was expected in the Bay of Biscay during this voyage. He didn’t lie. Around midnight it started to whip up a bit choppy. Most people had gone to their cabins but Me, Adrian and Paul were finishing drinks in the bar. Poor Paul was turning green and was really struggling, vowing to stay awake all night.
• Adrian and I retired to our cabin, bouncing off the corridor walls as we went. Actually we slept surprisingly well, I managed to imagine that the pitching and rolling was really me riding my bike up and down hilly curves. It worked for me. We rose quite early and went to a deserted breakfast area where we could look out of the windows at the horizon. Most people that were about looked pretty sickly.
• The captain had taken the ship nearer the coast around Brittany and we sailed between many small islands. This reduced the ship’s speed greatly and the crossing overran by about another 6 hours. While we were walking to the car decks together he said that the delay would take nearly a week to ‘iron out’ of the timetable.
• The rest of the crossing was uneventful and we docked at Portsmouth, rode up the M23 and onwards to our homes.

Terry Arnold

After the success of the Brittany Ferries Tour package in 2017, we decided to keep a good thing going and booked their Pyrenees and Rioja tour.

8 of us on this one, Will, Colin, John, Paul, Adrian, Terry, Clappo & Gary

This tour was different in that we stayed at just 5 places, 3 for 2 nights and we were able to ride out for a day without luggage and return to the same rooms.

Clappo arranged surprise Clappo&Herbert tour T-shirts, defining our tour logo and co-incidentally so had John, introducing the fantastic BTBM logo- see Tour Tee Shirts

• We arrived in Santander late afternoon and had a short run down to Limpias, arriving near to dusk
• Drinks taken on the terrace before a fine dinner
• Day2 – we set off along the north coast motorway – which is about as good as a motorway can get. Fast, surprisingly sharp curves, very enjoyable
• Turned southeast just before the French border and down into the foothills of the Pyrenees, then south to SOS del Rey Catholico
• A hilltop village, nearly fully restored with another lovely hotel and a super terrace for evening drinks in the setting sun
• Paul retired early as he felt ill and had a high temperature
• Next morning, Adrian and I had a stroll around the village and visited it’s ancient church and was shown around by a proud cleric.
• Today we rode north up and over the Pyrenees and then turned south and came up and over another pass
• Coming down a mountain road, Paul passed Clappo shouting “I can’t stop!!“, his ZZR clutch was apparently failing.
• However he had to stop when a herd of sheep blocked the road. Terry gave him a push/bump start once the sheep had cleared the road and he continued on back to the parador.
• The final road back to the hotel is possibly the bumpiest tarmac road I’ve ever used. However, Will’s RT apparently just sailed over the rough surface
• On day 5, Paul was feeling a bit better, but he opted to take his bike in to a dealer at Pamplona for a repair – and to catch us up at the hotel later
• We moved on towards Bielsa. We travelled further southeast until turning up another major pass route and high into the mountain range
• As these cross-range passes are important crossings Spain-France they are wide and smooth but curving, following the hills and the ravines, great roads
• Bielsa is up a 10km side road – sitting at the end of the navigable part of the valley. A large wooden ski-chalet style building
• Paul rejoined us having had the clutch master cylinder/handlebar control replaced
• Unfortunately John became poorly towards the end of the day – Paul stressed vehemently that it definitely wasn’t the illness that he’d been experiencing and that it was pure co-incidence that his room-mate had identical symptoms.
• John decided not to ride the next day and instead went for a very enjoyable walk up the valley
• Day6, we did a loop in the southern foothills, over the top and along the northern heights of the range
• Unfortunately, Terry got a wasp sting under his eye and John kindly provided emergency anti-histamines.
• Lunch was taken in a supermarket car-park, sandwiches and pop.
• One sting was not in itself, a problem. However, early afternoon another wasp then went up his sleeve and stung him on the arm. Bugger.
• Knowing that this was likely to require a hospital visit to deal with the reaction, we pulled in for some coffee whilst I figured out what to do. A google search identified a hospital 10km up the road and on our route.
• Tour Medic -Will very kindly accompanied Terry into a small modern hospital and with a wave of an E111 card a doctor triaged and accepted Terry’s description of how it is normally handled in the UK and prescribed Steroids, Anti-biotics and anti-histamines. A pharmacy in the high street dispensed all the drugs (whole boxes) for 7euros! Unused tablets were used on the 2022 tour.
• The guys had kindly waited the 90 mins or so it took, we had another coffee and set off back to Bielsa in the setting sun.
• As we were on the northwest of the mountains the shade developed quickly but we still had many miles of challenging roads to cover needing headlights on the hairpins and making things difficult.
• We got separated by the traffic lights at the longish Bielsa tunnel and when reunited 10 mins later we rode the last downhill section and up the 10km road to the parador.
• John had recovered well, and joined us for another great dinner.
• The next day we rode down from the Pyrenees for the last time and across the Rioja wine region, which was predictably flatter and covered in vineyards – very pleasant all the same.
• We turned southwest just short of Pamplona and past Logrono into Santo Domingo de la Calzado. This was another spectacular medieval parador and town with ancient buildings to visit. The architecture of the lobby and lounge with it’s high stone arches was breathtaking.
• We wandered round and paid to enter a tall bell-tower on the corner beside the hotel. There were about 100 steps to the top and fantastic views over the town and the local area. Clappo got chatting with an american lady tourist, like he does.
• The next days ride-out took us in a 200 mile loop to the south and west. The hills were not as high, but these were still beautiful roads to be experiencing.
• We had a lovely lunch of bocadillos in a place called ‘Irene’s’ (Terry’s wife’s name) – always bocadillos because they were like baguettes/ sandwiches and the locals understood what we were asking for. (mostly)
• As it was a fairly short distance to Santander, instead we did 220 miles in a looping run into the port – through the northeast corner of the Picos de Europa.
• Boarding the ferry was trouble-free as usual and we settled in to our new routine of a 24-hour ferry passage.
• Our second self-organised tour had sadly come to an end, but we still needed more………

Paul later had the clutch SLAVE cylinder replaced, thieving spanish mechanics! At least the bleed they gave it kept it running for the trip.

Terry Arnold

For our first self organised tour, Clappo suggested using Brittany Ferries’ deals using Spanish parador & Portuguese pousada hotels on a touring package, which was on a half-board basis. He performed all booking and cat-herding duties and Terry planned the routes.

• Originally I was not going on the tour, but decided to join late on . That meant I needed to book the ferry and all the hotels as a single room.

The Paradors & pousadas are fantastic. Not all beautiful, sometimes former castles or palaces or sometimes a repurposed government building – the government scheme aims to raise tourism for economic reasons in areas needing a boost.

Accommodation is normally spacious and well equipped (sometimes a bit Spanish-traditional ie rustic/dark woods). Evening meals are 3-courses – anything off the menu – and starters can be half one dish + half another – WoW

Wines & drinks are extra but necessary

• We met at McDonalds near Portsmouth for refreshments and moved on to the ferry-port for boarding
• Our first sailing was a pleasant experience, Clappo prebooked the ‘a la carte’ restaurant so that we could dine in style – good call
• We enjoyed catching up in the evening in the bar, slept well, had breakfast and had a relaxing day as the ship sailed towards Santander
• We had a new member for this tour – Colin’s mate Mark. We got to know each other during the voyage and he fitted in well and easily.

Santander to Cervera De Pisuerga

• Docking around 5pm, we rode south in the evening sun to Cervera de Pisuerga our first stop.
• Our first experience was very positive – in truth, all have been positive, for me at least. Many have been exceptional
• What we missed due to the dying light and the earlyish departure was that the hotel sat on the clifftop of an incredibly beautiful wide national park ravine.

Cervera De Pisuerga to Salamanca

• The next day after an excellent buffet breakfast we moved west along a lovely winding brand-new tarmac road for 30 miles beside a huge man made reservoir
• Nearing Raino the reservoir level was very low as it was late summer
• Riano is a strange new town that has been rebuilt after its original valley location was flooded and it has quite a strange atmosphere.
• I had been there before in the car, and so had Colin. A small bar we used for coffee and snacks became known as Colin’s Caff as we have been there 4 times on tours over the years.
• At Riano we turned south and skirted east of Leon and then Zamora. Here the scenery changed noticeably. I had never appreciated the true meaning of ‘the plain’ – as in ‘the rain in Spain…….’ The middle of Spain is a massive flat plain at 1000+m alt.
• This makes the views fairly unspectacular, but highlight included
  • huge areas of ripened sunflowers all bowing their heads – and-
  • a big dust cloud in the distance turned out to be massive flock of sheep being driven by shepherds with alsations, of course! – German shepherd dogs!
• Salamanca is an exceptionally beautiful city. We walked into town in the late afternoon and the sun was still strong, illuminating all the wonderfully ornate buildings.
• We strolled along a main traffic free street amongst the locals and other visitors.
• Took a group photo on the huge Plaza Major.
• We found a bar on a small square that was frequented by students which, we discovered, served the cheapest drinks in town, hence they were all in there.
• Another excellent dinner was served and we agreed the now normal ‘early’ start of 09:00 wheels rollin’, stressing that we needed to be on time, we’d leave stragglers behind

Salamanca to Torreira

• Next morning we had breakfast and John and Paul weren’t to be seen
• We prepared the bikes for the ‘off’ and I went in to the loo before leaving
• As I walked through reception, there were John and Paul, checking out. They’d overslept
• Paul was in a high state of panic shouting “they’ll leave without us!” – John calmly pointed at me as said “well they’re not going just yet if Terry is over there”
• We headed west towards Portugal and the Serra Du Estrela mountains and over to the coast at Torreira. Very beautiful with meandering curvy roads through valleys and up and over countless hills.
• The hotel was a 1960’s Jetson’s style building, long and low set on a sand-bar with the atlantic on one side and a huge internal lagoon on the other.
• There were no available rooms at the Pousada for me when I booked later, so I reserved a nearby AirBNB and I peeled off about 3 miles before the hotel
  • It turned out to be a scam, there was no such address, what could I do?
  • I called Clappo and he agreed that I could bunk in with him and Gary
  • Clappo made Gary give up his mattress and he slept on the divan base, whilst I slept on the mattress on the floor
  • They claimed I kept them awake all night snoring
• I joined them for dinner which I paid for separately and all the guys raided the buffet breakfast and brought me the most random breakfast I’ve ever had

Torreira to Viana Do Castelo

• When we set off next morning there was a dense sea fog making visibility very poor
• As it was only about 50 miles directly to the next hotel, we headed of northwest into the hills to find some nice roads
• This led us up to and along the Douro valley with its steep hill sides and thousands of acres of vines. The roads were excellent too
• The twisty and hilly going, combined with the 224 miles distance made this a very hard and stressful day
• Paul got a puncture that Clappo fixed by the roadside, giving the impression he knew what he was doing, but confided later that he was winging it.
• We got a bit lost and went up a perilously steep road through a mountain village, watched by puzzled locals
• Tiredness and darkness set in and I seemed to take every turning in the wrong direction
• Colin kindly came to the front and offered to lead us in, so I gratefully accepted
  • Once stripped of leader duties, I could suddenly operate the satnav again and just relaxed and enjoyed letting someone else have the responsibility
• The approach to the hotel was up a small pointy mountain and the road was like a helter-skelter, we could see it at the top and we wound around and upwards towards it.
• Viana Do Castelo is an EXCEPTIONAL Pousada. A former palace on a mountain top with its own grand church and gardens. Absolutely magnificent.
• At check-in I was told the single room I had booked was not available so they had given me an upgrade. The suite was more of a luxury apartment with massive state bedroom, hallway, living room, dining room, kitchenette and a huge private terrace with sunbeds and dining furniture for 6 people!
• I understand the other rooms were pretty good too.
• Great dinner with wines again of course and then we relaxed with drinks in the uber-luxury bar/lounge area

Viana Do Castelo to Ribadeo

• We rode northwest and back across the border into Spain
• Our memories of Portuguese roads were that they were mostly marvelous
• Clearly, huge amounts of EU money had been spent on countless tall ravine bridges and tunnels, necessary due to the very craggy landscape
• The only poor roads we saw were where there had been huge forest fires and the roads had melted with massive blisters in the tarmac.
• At lunchtime, we stopped at a small bar where the pavement was its outside seating area, spilling into the road
• Hardly any english was spoken, but a young woman was translating for us. We called her over to us and it turned out she had her leg in plaster! Sorry.
• Basically we ordered the full menu without understanding it – we ate very well.
• At this point, Mark said he felt unwell and Colin offered to ride on with him – and Gary also chose to go with them, perhaps the pace was too quick, and they left first and were first to the hotel later.
• Myself, Clappo, John and Paul stuck to the planned route which took us up past Ourense and Lugo and here the road became unbelievable good.
• The N640 up to the coast remains one of our most memorable riding sessions.
• The curving road wound left and right in wide curves in a quite regular pattern, so it was possible to ‘click into a groove’, flowing with the bends and all at a fairly high speed, but feeling comfortable
• The 4 of us rode in fairly close formation at a very good pace for 60-70 miles. Truly wonderful
• We pulled into the hotel just after the others (who I think took a more direct route) and we 4 were Buzzing.
• Another very pleasant evening with great food, drinks and company.

Santillana Del Mar to Home

• Rather than head the shortish distance along the northern coast of Spain – the Costa Verde – to the next stop, we headed south east and inland – back to the Picos de Europa region.
• Truly stunning motorcycling roads here and we wound our way down to Colin’s Caff at Riano again, where we had some lunch
• Leaving Riano to the northeast meant that we had ridden the roads in all 4 directions of Riano’s X-shaped cross-roads.
• Super roads again up to the atlantic coast and we followed the coast into our next destination Santillana Del Mar. This was a medieval town that had been restored in recent years and whilst a bit ‘Disney’ perfect, it really was lovely.
• There are 2 paradors here ours was mostly accommodation and across the wide stone street was another with a lovely terrace, bar and restaurant
• We went out for a stroll round the restored town, buying souvenirs from the tourist shops, and then to the bar for an aperitif or three
• Another superb evening meal and drinks and chats – fantastic

• As we had an early morning departure for the ferry, the hotel made us takeaway breakfast boxes.
• It was raining as we set off and this was of particular concern to Paul, whose rear tyre was bald and he was nursing it back to the UK – puncture repair and all
• We arrived in good time at the port, ate our breakfast and watched lorries backing 100m long wind turbine blades into rows – all at breakneck speed.
• The ferry crossing was fine again with the famed Bay of Biscay storms holding off (see the 2019 tour report)

Terry Arnold

You’ll need to forgive me for my patchy memories of a 6-year old event, please help me fill in the blanks, add detail or corrections – -use the comment form.

Each of has a different backstory but, we all responded independently to an advertised tour of Slovenia and Croatia to be run by GuidedMotorbikeTours led by a Chris Segal. The company has closed down now but we owe it a massive thanks for our meeting up.

Back – Heather, Darren, Andy, Hilary, Clappo, Andy2, Colin, Gary, Paul, Chris2, John, Terry (Chris in front)

12 strangers met up at a McDonalds car park near Dover, some having stayed in the same hotels overnight, giving the impression that some knew each other. Chris, Hilary and his wife Heather, Darren & Terry, John & Andy, Paul & Colin, Andy2 & Chris2, Clappo & Gary – 6 of whom are now BTBM core members.

Our first overnight stop was at Saarbrucken, this is where were billeted in the pairings as above. Most of us were a bit nervous how this would turn out and not all our concerns were unfounded! 10 of the group are now thought to be solid folks, Chris the Tour leader had an inflated ego and actually wasn’t a leader of people, just the guy out front. Another had health problems and carried a back-pack full of medications and some interpersonal skills development needs. Towards the end of the tour he was last seen kicking a petrol pump and riding off into the the distance, never to be seen again. We hope he got home/better.

The first hotel was pleasant but I don’t remember much apart from parking being undercover at the back, and the reception carpet was red. Oh and John and Colin were normally the first to the bar then – and still are.

Tour fuel stops are defined by the bike with the smallest tank/range, and Andy2’s bike had a range of only about 100miles, which was a nuisance for most other people. This, combined with the leader Chris’s chain smoking and other smokers seizing an opportunity – caused over-frequent and over-long fuel stops in the opinion of most of us.

The next day ended at the hotel Votterl southwest of Salzburg and just into Germany. The routemap shows this as 377 miles and one of our overarching memories was of large sections of days being spent on motorways – whereas the tour was sold as scenic riding. Well, the miles needed to be covered to reach Slovenia and Croatia so maybe this stage wasn’t unreasonable.

The intention was for us to ride over the magnificent Grossglockner pass which was risky in October and sure enough the temperature at the top was 27degF and it was forecast to be closed overnight.

I think we started to bond as a group this evening, it was a traditional german Gasthof with the waitresses wearing dirndl dresses and locally themed menus. including sweet chestnut pie.

Sure enough, the pass was closed and it started to snow lightly the next morning. Chris re-routed using the motorway, I am presuming the new Brenner pass and I remember feeling pretty cold as was John whose handlebar grips were metal and unheated and he habitually wears gardening gloves! Anyway another 3/4 of a day on motorway and we stopped at a hotel at Villach, Slovenia, which was a spa hotel set beside a supposed thermal springs fed lake.

The receptionist was a wonderfully fierce and direct lady who used expressions like “you will….” and “you must…” – all with a strong german accent – not a lot of negotiation was possible with her. She explained about the all inclusive spa facilities, steam rooms, saunas etc and lake swimming off the jetty. The lake was supposed to be a constant 16degC year round.

When we got to our room Darren suggested that we should use the facilities and go for a lake swim. So Darren was a BIG lad and he’d brought his swim shorts so he was going in. I hadn’t so decided to go in with my pants alone. We changed in the changing room and put our clothes in lockers but couldn’t figure out how to work the locks, so being trusting, just left them and went outside.

F**k me 16degC is COLD. Plunging directly into the lake – I thought I was going to have a heart attack! We splashed about for 30 seconds and made a rapid exit, shivering on the jetty. Next we went in to the sauna, mandatory to be naked. Darren and I sat staring at the ceiling on the mid-level shelf while a very friendly and chatty woman lay on her back – legs akimbo – and facing directly at us……! We sampled the cool and medium steam rooms and then confidently moved into the hottest steam room. Here, people were gathering and soon the lower and upper seating rows were full, shoulder to shoulder.

Then our Sauna-Artiste arrived with a wooden briefcase and a selection of towels over his shoulder. He opened the case and displayed a selection of small bottles which it transpired contained fragrances to be cast upon the red-hot sauna coals. The Artiste would select a scent, dribble it on the coals and then deployed a fantastic wafting of the scented steam onto us admiring spectators. With a whip of a towel he could project a jet of hot, sweet steam at individual people or a group or a section, I never realised such skills existed or were needed!.

After a cooling dip, we then joined the other guys who had gathered on the terrace with a very pleasant your barmaid delivering beers as fast as we could down them. Clappo and Paul put on a show, parading around naked for photos with howls of laughter.

When we went to get changed into our clothes Darren found that his were missing. I got changed and went to the reception to report it and the officious lady announced that it was against the rules to leave the lockers unlocked so, she had confiscated them! He could only have them if he came to claim them in person – naked. Hahahaha. I eventually persuaded her to give me his clothes and his modesty was restored.

We enquired about where we could eat dinner and we were told that they don’t serve food on that day. This was another example of the poor level of organisation for this tour. We walked into Villach for very nice pizza and got to know each a bit more.

The next day we had a meandering route though Slovenia ending up near Ljubijana. The roads were quite small and the surfaces were poor as we wound through very rural areas. There was some light rain and the going was quite tricky.

We had quite a selection of bikes and abilities ranging from a scarcely roadworthy Suzuki RF600 to modern BMW GSAs, my Multistrada 1200, Clappo & Colin on Triumphs and John on an Uber-cool MotoGuzzi Audace cruiser with an Italian flag helmet. As we struggled round these difficult rocky roads, we marveled at John not just keeping up but properly ‘holding his own’.

The Suzuki had had its fairing removed and was converted to a twin headlight ‘streetfighter’. Andy2 thought this very desirable, everyone else thought it a dog. All the wiring that would normally be hidden in the fairing was in the open elements. In the wet weather it was misfiring. Clappo very kindly managed to stuff all the wiring into a condom for water protection, but unfortunately it partially filled with water like a venus fly trap plant.

Not unsurprisingly, the Suzuki expired in a very remote part of Slovenia. As tail-end Charlie that day, it was my job to wait with Andy2 while the others went on (I had a Satnav and the route to catch them up). He called his UK break-down service and they asked where we were. No idea. We used my satnav to obtain the co-ordinates of the location and they quickly agreed to send a recovery vehicle.

As I could do no more, I left Andy2 and set off in a determined way to catch the others. I had a blast! Ragging it round empty country roads for miles. I’d zoomed up a series of hairpins and switchbacks up a big climb and as I crested the hill, there was a line of the guys bikes parked beside the road. I circled back and they were just finishing a lunch and they waited as I had a hot bowl of soup and then were were off again.

We struggled to find the route to somewhere and as will be seen later Chris’s satnav was flakey. It turned out that we were looking for the Lake and castle Bled. We did eventually find it and parked up to visit the castle set high on a rocky outcrop. The scenery around the lake was lovely and – this, we felt – was what we had signed up for.

The hotel neat Ljubljana was very strange, it was in a flat open farmland with paddocks and was very ‘out of place’, a shiny new square, blinged up building. It looked like a drug dealers palace or a massive money laundering operation. Shiny marble tiles in the reception, all very incongruous. The evening meal choices featured many different cuts of horse! All written in piggin english.

Mid-evening, in walked Andy2. He and the bike had been taken to a bike shop in Ljubljana and he had been given a Skoda rental car until the bike was repaired. For the next 3 days he followed us bikes, ragging this Skoda to keep up.

We had an interesting conversation/badgering with some locals in the bar who insisted that we abandon our route plans and visit their magnificent capital Ljubljana. It was interesting how different our cultures were, they meant no malice but their manner was very insistent and directive.

I have very little memory of day 5, the route shows we went through rural Slovenia and into Croatia. I think it was here that we saw deserted and destroyed buildings and villages – a result of the regional war approx 15-20 years earlier. It really was very disturbing to see all the remains and the destruction.

At one point we stopped for coffee and I made the mistake of parking my bike on a carpark that turned out to be the local police station’s. I was immediately instructed very forcefully to move it without delay. The cafe was full of the police from across the road, about 20 of them. Once the bike was moved they were all very friendly and we chatted. Apparently the border with Bosnia was immediately to the rear of the cafe, across a river – and it was still dangerous for locals to stray over that side.

The day’s riding ended at a very nice modern tourist resort hotel at Brela on the Adriatic.

Day 7 was designated a rest day. While everyone else decided to travel in to Split about 20miles to the north. Instead, I decided to travel down to Dubrovnik about 100 miles to the south, as I just fancied it. Darren decided to come with me for a while and he left me after about 10 miles, taking his GSA onto some off-road trails – he was hoping to ride the TET (Trans Europe Trail) at some stage.

The ride to and from Dubrovnik was fantastic, an almost deserted, wide, smooth, curving road winding along the eastern shore of the Adriatic. Bright blue clear sky, 30degC, azure waters, a truly wonderful day.

I had lunch in the old city by the sea at a lovely restaurant, took and posed for photos on the city walls and then headed back. Whilst refueling, I asked a guy where I could get chain lube as I hadn’t seen ANY. He phoned a mate and told me to follow him. He led me through a smart residential district and into a gated underground private garage. There his friend greeted us and opening a wide electric garage door, his collection of Ducatis was revealed. He thoroughly doused my chain with chain lube, we chatted about his bikes and I set off back on the long, arduous commute back to the hotel. Magnificent.

I gather the others had had a great day in Split, even dressing up as roman centurions as part of some event – help me fill this in guys.

Leaving the Hotel we headed north riding the coast road beside the Adriatic, past Split and up to Trieste. For me this was one of the best days of the tour. Like the Dubrovnik trip, the roads were excellent and Chris, Darren and myself, had a very spirited ride along the coast at high speeds. Chris could really make his Honda Africa Twin hustle along and Darren was equally quick on the BMW GSA. I could use the speed of the Multistrada to hang on to their shirt tails, but only just. Andy2 had gone off to Ljubljana to collect his repaired bike and joined us at the hotel in the evening.

The maps show that we should have gone along a scenic route to the Brenner pass and into the german alps stopping near Garmisch Partenkirchen. In reality, we used mostly motorways to cover the near 300 miles.

Earlier in the tour we had completely missed a scheduled excursion to visit some ‘famous’ and extensive caves, but Chris’ satnav was malfunctioning and he couldn’t find them. Eventually we reached them and had some lunch. Then we went to the caves entrance we learned that we needed to buy tickets for the train and the next available was 2 hours later – so we gave up on that and left.

The point is that Chris’ satnav was malfunctioning. He was constantly stabbing at it and later criticising his UK assistant for her incompetence and – I think – he was making up a lot of the routes on the fly – using the main roads/motorways to reach the somewhat over optimistic distances.

The stop at Ettel was a typical for the area, lovely german chalet restaurant/hotel. That evening Darren became very withrawn and then announced to me in our room that he was going to travel the rest of the tour alone. It transpired that he and Clappo had had a minor disagreement that day over something trivial, it really was a disproportionate response. I wasn’t comfortable with Darren riding alone so, I proposed that we ride together to the last night’s stop.

Amazingly, I knew where we were as I had ridden that exact road the year before with Adrian. The planned tour route for the next day was to the north but I knew that if I reversed last year’s route it would take Darren and I on a very scenic route including the Black Forest Hochstrasse N500. A plan was hatched.

I told the rest of the group over a wonderful german dinner, where Paul – true to form – accused me of stealing his meal! In fairness, I had accidently taken his choice and apologised. He still reminds me of this.

The next day we went our seperate ways, us heading south to Garmisch, along the north shore of the Bodensee, an area very rich with fruit growing. Up we went through the Black forest, crossed into France at Strasbourg, though the Vosges and up to the classy hotel Campanile at Metz.

The main tour group should have followed a broadly similar path but for some reason (maybe the satnav issue mentioned) they were led almost entirely on motorways for the whole day.

We pulled in to the hotel about 10 minutes after the other guys and they were pretty pissed off at the different experiences of the day.

As this was the last night of the tour, Chris had included the meal in the tour price. Well, how generous was that, a totally forgettable meal on formica tables in a Campanile. The best part of the evening was when Chris encouraged everyone to tell the others something they wouldn’t know about themselves.

The most memorable was when John stood up and announced that he had only passed his full bike test 6 months earlier and this tour was more miles than he had ever ridden. We were all totally astounded and were in awe of his achievement. Respect, John.

The route from Metz to the tunnel was entirely on motorways. Very dull. When we arrived at the ticket booths, any organisation fell apart, some went into the terminal building and others went on to the boarding queues. So effectively the group tour just evaporated, ending like a bit of a damp squib.

As a few of us arrived at the train, Andy2’s bike cut-out again. An officious lady told him that the bike had to be driven on or it couldn’t board. Somehow we got it started and he was able to ride it on, but that was the last time we heard it run and a pickup truck was to move it from the train to the fuel station in the Folkstone terminal area and we presume that happened?

We rode up the M20 and introduced Darren to filtering on the M25 for the Dartford tunnels – he wasn’t nearly as fast there! I peeled off for Essex fairly soon and the others all found their ways home safely.

In summary, we all really enjoyed the tour even though there were clearly some organisational issues. We had found a sub-group of people we felt we could be friends with. I think it was Clappo who said “we could organise this better ourselves” – so we did – hence the establishment of Clappo Tours and later Clappo & Herbert Tours.