Back home

Crossing back was nice and smooth.    Even though it was a big boat with entertainment I am glad I loaded lots of films onto my laptop.

Met a chap called Tom who had just been around Morocco with a couple of his mates, so it was good to pass the time chatting with him for a while.

Back in the UK and sky was grey, but no rain at least, I had enough rain in Spain and Portugal.    Ride back through Spain in the high winds had taken its toll and my chest was really hurting.  I think all the wrestling with the handlebars and twisting of the body to counteract the wind did not help my rib at all. 

Going to rest now for a few days to recover and try to get it to mend, but apparently, it can take quite a few weeks to fully mend.

Of all the body protection I have, I did not have a chest protector, so now researching them.   I am guessing the back, hip, knee, shoulder and elbow protectors did there job in the fall as nothing else hurts and I did roll on the ground at least once. 

Still a fun trip in a perverse sort of way.   It's the mishaps and misfortune that lead to good stories.

Killing time waiting for the ferry.

Ferry is running an hour late, so that is probably a good indication of how rough the sea is at the moment.    Lucky me.  At least I am on a big boat on the way back so it should be smoother.   Apparently the boat is the pried of the Fleet.     

Went in search of some views and here I am high up over looking Santander.   It looks quite nice from up here.    Chorus of dogs barking in the background from all directions.   

WIll these dogs never shut up.........   grumpy mood this morning as did not sleep very well.  Also stood in more dog poo getting the bike out of the hotel garage.  Another reason why I needed to find some grass to wipe the dog poo off my boots as I don't want to walk it into the cabin.   

Spain is like the UK about 20 years ago

So went for a walk to get something to eat.   So bear in mind that Santander is a major port and quite a large City.   So this is where the comparison of the UK 20 years ago comes in : NOTHING IS OPEN ON A SUNDAY.....................   Not only that, there is dog poo everywhere, everywhere, not just here and there, but EVERYWHERE.   Great................

Went onto Trip Advisor to find a nice restaurant after walking the streets like a homeless man for an hour and a half with dog poo all over my shoes and, oh that looks nice where is it, CLOSED.   Oh that looks nice where is it, CLOSED.  Oh that looks nice where is it, CLOSED.  Oh that looks nice where is it, CLOSED.  Oh that looks nice where is it, CLOSED.   Eventually, I did find one that reviewed quite nice so went in.   Typical type Spanish restaurant, i.e looks like it is from the 1950's.  Menu in English, result.   Also, I fitted in very well as everyone had dog poo on their shoes.

Ok, now a question, why does Jonny Foreigner never employ a real English speaker when getting his menus translated  (re-wind to Manuel from Fawlty Towers saying "I learned English from a book", yes, very good).

So, really tired after a long cold ride.   I did have good intentions to have fish, really yes I did.   But who can turn down a Big Cow Large Steak?

And very nice it was too.   All washed down with half a bottle of a very nice wine that I asked the waiter to recommend, no idea what it was.

The town is only an 8 min walk from the hotel, but that is all down hill, and the next hill and the one after that.   Very steep hills.    Having eaten a Big Cow Steak I decide the best route home was via a taxi.   Does the hotel reception look so nice at night? I think so.

Back surfing the internet now.   Spent a lot of the afternoon trying to work out if I have a bruised rib or a broken rib.   All the riding has not helped.   Hurts when I breathe in deeply, hurts when I cough, hurts when I twist my body, hurts when I put my gloves on and hurts when I lift things up.  Not sure knowing makes any difference as the treatment is the same for both, lots of rest and no sport or strenuous activity.    Oh, and hurts when I turn over in the bed, so that wakes me up.   I will see when I get back to the UK if it is still hurting or not.

Cool shower

The sun has got its hat on.....

Just arrived Santander and the sun is out and it is almost T-Shirt weather.   

Booked into Hotel Art, this for £60 per night.  

 The bed is like two doubles pushed together.   

And it's a room with a view 

Going to have a hot shower and then a rest before going out for something to eat.  It was another tough trip today In the cold and wind.   Luckily there were lots of long tunnels where I could slow down and take a rest from the cross winds.   

Lucky me.

Freezing. 

And by chance

Stopped off at the same service station that I broke down at on the BMW a few years ago.   

So cold.  Double coffee time.  

So cold today.

Stopped to put on my puffer jacket

Hail Ian

So, looked at the forecast and Portugal was in for lots of rain.   So, thought that I would try heading into Spain.  Started off quite good, but as I approached the mountains South of Salamanca I saw something quite worrying;

See the mountains, covered in snow.    Hmmmmmmm, and it's really windy again, really windy.   Chest to the petrol tank sort of very windy.

So AGAIN, rather than camping, I turned to Booking.com.   Deal of the Day just in Salamanca up ahead, sounds good, let's go.   Just as I arrive in Salamanca a Hail Storm......................  Ho, hum........

Not just crazy dogs you have to worry about

Killer robot snails

Blue’ish skies this morning, but a bit chilly

But the forecast is for lots of rain

What happened to the weather!!!!!

So before I set off this morning I did two things, I checked the weather and I researched a campsite. 

So looking at the weather front it was moving from SW Portugal to North Portugal.   I worked out I could follow it up staying in the sun.   Great roads on the way up.  There is hardly any traffic on the roads as the population density is quite low and I am staying off the main roads.  But, you have to watch out for the drivers coming the other way as they have a tendency to cut the corners.  It's all manageable though. 

Some great roads and views going North.

I stopped off at this castle town on the way through for lunch.   I am surprised at the number of castles all along the Spanish border, they are everywhere.

So, spent some time researching campsites before setting off as I did not want a repeat of the nightmare last night.   So found this really nice campsite with an average review score of 9.3.   So I headed off to it.   Ok, the clouds came in and it started to rain and rain and rain and I know things do not look their best in the rain and with grey skies,  but it was a dump.   Looked like it had not been cared for for years.    I am starting to think that I had been spoilt on my first foray into camping, staying at campsites in Germany, Sweden and Holland.   I stayed in those countries in campsites that were 9+ and they were all amazing.   Portugal has a 0 - 10 rating system, but I now think that a score of 10 means that it is barely adequate.    So I now understand when I turned up at the 9.3 score site today and it was just below barely adequate............    I think I may kip over to Spain tomorrow.

SO, again, I turn up at an underwhelming campsite in Portugal and make a hasty exit.   Fire up Booking.com and.................. I am in the middle of nowhere, no hotels for miles and miles and miles.........    Find a traditional Portuguese hotel, Deal of the Day, and book that.    Zoom across and find a really nice isolated small hotel along a private drive.    Book in, time is now 18:15 and the chap says the hotel is empty and the restaurant will close at 19:00.   Ho hum.  Pouring with rain outside, so decided to stay.   Sandwiches or omelette!  So I go for the ham and cheese omelette and a glass of red wine.   Both actually quite nice.   I say thank you and start to leave the restaurant and the chap says he has lit the fire in the lounge for me.   Very nice of him, a nice fire with logs is there to greet me and my second glass of wine.  So here I am typing this blog in front of a nice log fire.

Re-injuries: Left arm hurts a little and I get a bit of a pain still when I breathe in deeply.  Disappointingly no bruises visible still.   However, I did sustain the first serious injury of the trip today.

A cracking lump is developing.    And how did I suffer this head injury?  I stood up while I was unpacking and the bag that was under a window and the wooden shutter was slightly open, caught the corner of it.  It hurt, a lot.  I said some very very bad words, repeatedly.  

So, the quest for tomorrow is finding the sun, I know it's out there somewhere, and a nice campsite that is better than barely adequate.  

Great night sleep, but I ache all over.

Check out is at 12:00, so taking it easy this morning.  Had a nice breakfast and now researching camping sites to try to find a nice one.   Also, I will do some maintenance on the bike tonight, so I do not want to turn up at a place too late.

Woke up to a sunny sky and looking at the weather maps I made the right decision to head East.  I will now head North.

This hotel was a great find, especially as booking.com had a 50% discount on the room rate including breakfast.   I love late booking with booking.com.

Forgot to say, AND the nice man upgraded my room to one that is on the same level as the parking.   He also rides a motorbike and knows the pain of carrying luggage around.

And

It still hurts when I breath in deeply.   No hero bruises though unfortunately.   

Now going to get my daily fix of all things Trump.

A nightmare of a day today.......... nightmare.......

Last night was so nice.  A nice meal at Wim Motors, Wim's wife is Thai and she made a great Thai spread, some nice Portuguese wine and then a sauna.

Woke up this morning and the world had disappeared.   A thick fog lay everywhere.   But by 9 the sun had started to burn it away and we ended up with a scorching hot day. 
Then back on the large oval (think of a speedway track with loose dust, sand, rocks and all on a slope so one side is up and the other down).  Back on the skid turns, yes, getting good at these now on my 200kg bike. 

Started off on the little 125cc Enduro bike, warming up with fast oval circuits and skid turns.   I am getting good at this on the small bike now sliding the back wheel round the corners and feeling the ground with the front wheel as it bounces and skits across the stones.   The occasional wobble is steadied by putting a leg out and using my foot as a third wheel.    Lots of rules about using the foot as a wheel getting the balance right, toes up so your foot does not get caught on lumps, bumps and larger stones, and making sure your leg is straight forward so if there is any impact you do not end up twisting your knee as you leg is pushed and rotated back.


Then on to my bike.  Started off with some off road playing around.   This involves riding the rough grass, sandy, bumpy, lumpy and rocky areas between the ovals and the tracks.  Really quite challenging.   But as there is no real route I am able to experiment and get used to the bike bouncing around.



Ok, so now you need to understand how to ride off road.   All change, you have to stand up for this on the foot pegs........  you steer mainly with your feet, so if you want to go left you add weight to your left foot and push your right knee into the bike  If you want to slow down you pull the clutch in, if you want to speed up you let the clutch out.  Or, you can change down a gear to slow down, my bike has something called a wet clutch, if you did this in a car you would burn the clutch out.    You use the throttle to control the engine revs, not acceleration.   If you use the front brake you lock the front wheel up and fall over (never use the front break on dirt track) , if you want to really slow down then use the back brake, lock it up and you slow down faster as the dirt builds up in front of the rear tire and helps slow you down (ABS is tuned off as I pulled the fuse out).  To turn fast you can pull the clutch in, turn and use the back break to skid the back wheel round (better at turning quickly).

So, off to Level 1 Enduro course.   Now you have to understand that all the Enduro courses, Levels 1 - 5) are designed for lightweight Enduro bikes (less than 100kg) and each course is twisty (why you need those skid turns), changing surfaces, changing slopes (going up, going down, camber and negative camber) and mud and rocks and sand and gravel.   So its all a bit challenging for my bike, or more correctly, me on my bike.    So off we go.   Loose dirt is not a problem, neither is deep gravel, a couple of tight turns which I have to sit down for one of them and put my leg out for stability.   Then some mud.........  Mud is counter intuitive.   Slow down before you get to the mud then accelerate and look 50 yards ahead.   As you accelerate the front wheel lifts slightly and is less prone to sliding left or right.   Going faster brings into action the gyroscopic affect on the front wheel and it will naturally want to go in a straight line.   Look ahead so you are not looking at the mud.  You need to hit the ruts in the mud front on so both wheels go into the same rut.   If the front wheel is in one rut and the back wheel in another then the bike will crab and you will fall off as the back wheel tries to overtake the front wheel .

Ok, round a few turns, hit some scary mud, balance through, accelerate, easy, I did it all yesterday.  Go through the next  corner to fast, not in position for the rusts in the mud, push the bike over to get it linedu, but not quite make it, going into the mud rut at an angle, far too slow because I took the bend wrong, then it all goes into slow motion...............  I know I should accelerate, but self preservation is kicking in and saying the bike is going over.   I see the horizon start to skew, I feel the back wheel slid under me and all of a sudden we are going 90 degrees to the the right.   In an instant as the bike starts to fall over to the right I push off with both feet and launch myself off the bike and I hit the ground hard.   The first thing I think of is "Roll" so I roll to allow the impact to be spread over a longer period of time to cushion the shock.   You have to remember that I also wear the best motorbike armour that money can buy and as I lay there with the wind knocked out of me I know it was a worth while investment.    Wim, the owner, runs across and makes sure I am ok.   I ended up about 3m from the bike.   I stand up and and check myself over and all is ok, but it now hurts when I breath in deeply, but nothing broken.

We get the bike upright and we dissect what I did and what happened.   All down to me not going fast enough, counter intuitive as I said.   So back on the bike again and ride a few twisty turns, but I know my confidence has taken a beating.   More mud and this is worse, I stop, tough...........   I ache and things do not feel right.   I paddle through the mud and get ready for the final section which ends in a 2-3m jump starting from a raised area.   I hit this too slow and the front suspension bottoms out.  I am not in the groove.  So I go back to the workshop and call it a day.   Tough.   But at least I had a few hours training, but now know it is time to stop.

I pack my excessive amount luggage into the bags and head off saying my goodbyes.    The weather is really changeable at the moment and they might be rain in central Portugal, so I decide to head South to Faro.   I stop off at the Motorcycle Club of Portugal to have a look around but it is empty.   I did hear they have rooms, but they are upstairs and it looks like there is no secure parking and I can not be bothered to carry everything upstaires.  So I decide to get back to the original plan and find a camp site.   Hmmm,  one nearby but it reviews at 5.6.  But there is onother at  about 5km away and it reviews at 8.9, lets go........   So arrive at the camp site reception, pay my Euro 10 and drive in to pitch my tent.   This is possably the worst place in the universe.   Envisage a refugee camp where the refugees all have camper vans, think the caravan camp at Dovercourt.   AND, its next to a railway track.   I ride around a few times trying to find the best place to pitch up and realize that everyone is living the dream.   The dream of owning a tatty old motor home and traveling the hotter climes through Prozac induced spectacles.   It is truly horrible.   I start to unload my camping gear and just want to go, so I do.   Thank your Gods for Booking.com.  Those last min deals are amazing.   So its 17:30 and I need a place to stay.  Out of the fog of war of cheap Algarve hotels with mice and cockroach problems appears Pestana Pousadas Portugal at 50% discount.   Photos look good, reviews at 9 out of 10, 10km away, lets book.    WONDERFUL...................

BUT, just add insult to injury, as I was arriving at the hotel working my way through a sleepy Portuguese town two dogs came charging towards me.  I slowed down and move to the right, but one of them launched itself at me an bit my leg.    Good thing I am wearing Ballistic Cordura (Kevlar) and Body Armour otherwise it could have a nasty bite.   Then the hotel.   Park up and question if they will even let me in.......  but they do.

Haaaaaaaaaaaa, luxury........

A view over the Orange Groves

Some town in the distance.

Amazing rooms like this all over the place, very nice.

Weather looks bad tomorrow, but may change.   Check out is not until 12, so lot of time to decide what to do.

Another tough day

Had a good rest yesterday and a very good nights sleep, so were out training again today.

Spent time playing with the tire pressure, it was at 30psi, but now down to 21psi.   This is giving a lot more feeling to the back wheel when I am doing the skid turns and also when in the mud.   

Wim, the owner of Wim Motors Academy has been the person training me.  Such a nice man.    He says I have excellent balance, which is really good when you lock your rear wheel up when turning.

So this is me on my first attempts at skid turning.   Hopefully I can get some better videos of me doing it properly.   So the idea is to skid around each tire in turn.   Approach the tire, pull the clutch in, turn the handle bars and as the bike starts to turn lock the rear wheel up by pressing hard on the rear break (rear break is operated by your right foot).   Then as the bike skids round, lift off the break, let go of the clutch and accelerate to the next tire and do the same again.

Problem with all this hard work is that your boots get all smelly and mudy, very, very, very smelly and your cloths soaking with sweat.    Not nice.

Trousers having a good airing...........

A day of rest

It was a tough ride down from Spain when I first arrived in the high winds.  Now that combined with the tough training day yesterday where I dropped the bike a few times resulted in lots of aches and pains this morning.   So I went to see the physiotherapist.   I had pains in my legs and pains in my neck and I was just tired.   Anyway, apparently all my muscles were tight and I needed a lot of work.   He first hooked me up to a magic machine.  This had pads stuck to my back and when he turned it on it was like someone massaging my back.   Apparently the machine cost Euro 18,000……..   After an hour of that and some specific massage treatment I felt a lot better.    But he recommended I take today off and I would feel like new tomorrow.   So thats what I am doing.

But I did decide to take a walk around one of the tracks today, the Level 1 track that I did yesterday on my bike.

I was going to take a hero shot of where I fell off in the mud, but by the time I got there to take the photo it had dried out in the sun.  My problem was I took the mud on the left and fell over where the tree is.  If I had gone through the middle, or even to the right I would have been OK.

This is a shot looking up the steep hill on the Level 1 track.

This is a shot from the top looking back toawrds the accomadation.

And as you get to the edge this is what it looks like.  On my big 200kg bike it is a case of putting it in 2nd and just let the engine take it down.   If you touch the breaks then the wheels just lock up (I had the ABS fuse pulled out).   It took me a few mins to summon the courage to make the decent on the bike, but now I have done it once I know how easy it is.

What a tough day today

First day of the trainig.   Started off on a 125cc dirt bike.   I looked like a cartoon elephent on a cartoon mouse's motorbike.  Any way, Wim, the owner was soon very happy with my progress so he moved me up to train on my bike.    So, lots of circuits on a dirt trak oval learing to slide the rear wheel out and do skid turns with the back wheel.   We had to pull the ABS fuse to stop the ABS working on the back brake to allow me to skid control the back wheel by locking it up.   Problem is I want the front ABS to work so I dont lock up the front wheel on some of the crazy steep downhill sections.   These hill are so steep with loose gravel that you could never walk up them on foot.   I have poseted a message on the Hoda forum to see if someone knows and easy way for me to do this.   I hope someone with have a solution like "cut the yellow wire" in a bomb desposal type mannor.

Only dropped the bike twice, both for going too slow.   First was on really rough lumpy bumpy ground.   I was not going fast enough to take me over a big bump, I put a foot down to steady myself and there was nothing but air under my foot, so down I went.   The second time I was going through deep slippery mud standing on the foot pegs.  Got through the first bit ok but lost too much speed and I was too slow putting the power back on.  By the time I twisted the throtel the front wheel was pointing to the left, so the back wheel tride to over take the front.  I over corrected and the back wheel slipped under me and I went down.

Absolutly exhusted, but great fun.

T-Shirt weather

Glad I have fitted big block knobbaly tires.  Lots of grip in the dirt and mud.

A wonderful morning at the Enduro Academy.

Lots of serious Enduro competition riders here.   Nice guys all on their monster Enduro bikes for competing in the Sahara Challenging and the Dakar.     Apparently I will be starting on a  small 125cc this morning.     

Can you see the monster steep track up the hill in the distance to the left of the tall tree.  That's where I am going to be going.