Neil's in…

Well it’s been all a bit hectic! I’ve been to Spain (on holiday), I’ve moved home. I’ve had to try and sort out all my inoculations and above all work a job. There has been some huge hiccups on the way: removal people refused to do the job in full, my driver’s license didn’t renew correctly, my bank didn’t issue the credit card I ordered and so on. However, most of it is coming together.  I’ve had my last Rabies jab, my driver’s license arrived just now as it should be.  My carnet is sorted…. all that is left is to pack and leave! I’m so excited I don’t know how to begin to tell you!

Something I didn’t add earlier, it’s in Spanish but you should enjoy all the same. During fiestas in the village people have a Coche Fiestas which basically is an old heap decorated up to drive around the village wrecklessly. Here’s ours:

The car is an Aixam 400 diesel, which is a microcar for use without a drivers license.  You’d be surprised how powerful and durable it is.

Hi all!

In less than 12 hours time, Ed and I will head down to Portsmouth to commence our 4-6 month trip through Africa. We’ll board our trusty Brittany Ferry ship (Port Avon) and head down to Santander from which we will head back to my family village of Covaleda. We intend to spend around about a week there.

Yesterday, I had a couple of visits, Dan (from last year’s trip) came to see how I had kitted up the bike and view the new house; which was then followed by that tyrant Ed, who has latched onto going to Africa with me… hehe! I think it was more his idea than mine.

Despite everything in my department seeming to be fine and good, Ed in his wisdom decided my front brakes didn’t deem road safe and had us stressing out all day trying to find a replacement part. Alas, we found plenty of sources, but I settled for going without. I’ll risk it!

Anyhow here’s a couple of photos from yesterday:

I look forward to writing more and posting more stuff from Spain soon!

Hi hi!

After a difficult night the night before departure with nerves we left at 7am and headed off to Portsmouth with Mum and a sack of food. We made good time, had plenty of time to kick around. Ferry set off all on good time, but soon we realized how bored we were going to be… we found a good place to pitch up and stayed there until bed time, actually the story of our ferry journey was incredibly dull, however it was warming to be recognised by fellow bikers when were queuing to exit. Anyhow here’s yesteday’s pics

Today our ride through the north of Spain was beautiful, I expected it to be but still surprised how great it would be.  We filmed a bunch of things, hopefully when we’re less tired we’ll have a look at uploading them to youtube while we have abundant internet.  :D

Right, I’m off to sleep. Tomorrow more!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwZewjGWajI

Here’s the long awaited vid.. .I doubt very much we’ll publish any more until we get back. However, this was just an experiment. Enjoy!

Hi!

I’ve been struggling to write anything when I’ve had the opportunity to get online (mostly due to the hectic family crisii that seem to occur every time I get my head down to concentrate). Suffice to say, I’m now writing this all elsewhere with the intent of pasting it on my blog when I get the opportunity to do so.

So the past few days have been fun, last Friday, Ed and I moseyed along to “Castroviejo” on our bikes for something to do. Castroviejo is a rock formation in an area of outstanding beauty, despite we ruin the scenery in our photos, and I hope you can just enjoy the “idea” of it.

Saturday, started off as a lazy non-event day, in which we decided that we’d change my inner tubes in order to reduce my luggage, since after all we have puncture repair kits as it is, and the extra-heavy-duty-don’t-stand-a-chance-of-getting-a-puncture tubes I have fitted are suffice to do. PLUS: Ed is carrying 1 set of spare tubes which between the two of us will do if we have a valve rupture or suchlike.  Anyhow, my luggage has now got an extra 10 litres of space or thereabouts.

After dinner, we decided to go passed the plaza to see how the wedding was going (Wedding of a cousin of Vidal), which to our surprise we were invited into and ended up spending the rest of our night, laughing, dancing and more laughing.

During the night, Vidal suggested we’d go to the Pico de Urbion (one of the highest mountains in Spain) in the morning, which sceptically we agreed to do, and so on Sunday morning we rocked up to his house were we went and got his 4×4 and drove up to the top, fortunately we weren’t alone when we got there, so we got a group photo.

From there, we were taken down to the Refugio (for paella) with my friends from always Laura, Tamara, Trini and Ruth and co.  It was gorgeous and even Ed who doesn’t like seafood really enjoyed it. So it couldn’t of been that bad eh?

In other news: my debit card replacement has arrived at home… and now it’s just a question of getting it sent to Barcelona. My ever helpful bank that is “there for the journey” decided to pre-emptively expire my card just before I left on MY journey, which they had NO intention of telling/re-issuing; until I called them to tell them I was about to go on a journey to Africa; to which you could happily expect to hear a nonplus telephone manner about “sorry, we can’t send your card abroad” along with the great security suggestion that: “before you get someone to forward your card overseas, could you give them your PIN and ask them to withdraw some money in the UK first otherwise your card will be defective”.  I am totally enamoured with my “for the journey” bank. Cheers LloydsTSB!  (Don’t get me started on the Credit Card of non-existence which I have asked to be reissued twice….”ooh the fury”)

Enough of the digression; we are heading off to my uncle’s in Lodosa (near Logroño) on Wednesday, hopefully to buy myself some clothes. Yes, 3 t-shirts and underwear (inclusive of worn) aren’t sufficient, and no:  boots & sandals aren’t covering my bases.  We hope to head into Zaragoza for a couple of days too but not entirely sure, and then from there, head down to Barcelona for the 14^th where we have made reservations at a hostel on Las Ramblas. Don’t ask me about parking.

Hey hey!

Ed are on our first night away from the warm embrace of my Spanish family, and currently a day’s ride away from Barcelona. We left Lodosa this morning and rode idly down tertiary roads all the way to Barbastro, which is a nice little city (much to our surprise).

We stopped today at Ejea de los Caballeros to eat our lunch in a shaded pedestrian walkway eating the food we were provided by my cousins. Only to discover on leaving that my bike didn’t want to do anything.  An hour later the problem was discovered to being a simple battery connectors after stripping redundant electrical parts from the bike.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXG7FLykleA

Anyhow, the passed few days in Lodosa has been great, we’ve done a bit of everything from bull running to pool tanning, to tapas and general socializing. To even pretending to not speak Spanish in order to ignore the hostel owners where we stayed.

Here’s a few pictures from the past few days:

More soon!

I’m currently in Barcelona. Ed and I arrived yesterday in the afternoon from Barbastro,  I have since bought myself a mobile phone with the intent of getting it unlocked, so I can use it in Africa; however, after buying it and taking it to be unlocked, I’ve been informed it’s not un-lockable despite being told otherwise from the person who sold it to me.  Bummer eh?

I didn’t take any photos yesterday, none, not a single shot. I’m not proud. Although, in my defence the road from Barbastro to Barcelona was incredibly dull stretch of main roads. Hopefully today I should get some decent shots in.

I’m meeting Bea from last year later on, I hope she enjoys the birthday present I’ve been carying since England… (my luggage space should appreciate it at least).

Ed has bought himself a gigantic box from the post office and is going to send half his things back, and going to buy it all over again (so it seems).  Don’t ask!

Anyhow, bike has been running nice and smoothly, so don’t worry! I’ll be getting out of Spain at least.

Post more later!

Well hi there!

So we’ve finally left Spain which is much to the scepticism of some that this trip was about crossing Africa.  Our stay in Barcelona was a blast, and while I was on the ferry trying to piece together in my diary what I had done in which order there still seems to be a few blanks.

Note to self: I must keep the diary up to date.

So in summary of the events in order: We arrived on Monday to Barcelona, and were unable to book ourselves into the same hostel I had reserved for Tuesday; however, luck being what it is, we were fortunately pointed to the sister hostel on the next block which did have 2 spare beds.

After the laborious task of walking our possessions from our bikes (parked as close as we could get them) to the hostel, and sorting ourselves out.  Ed had decided he no longer wanted his armour he spent all year convincing me to buy, and we marched off to the post office to find out how much it would cost to send a package home. We bought a box and then returned to the hostel where we befriended Joe an Aussie backpacking Europe, we agreed on going on a bar-crawl or similar together.

Things as they are in Barcelona, invariably all offers are a scam; which luckily we did not subscribe too. We turned up to the first Irish pub where we agreed to meet the organiser, then we refused to pay the crawl fee, which thankfully worked out for us, as the “special discount” they were offering didn’t exist and we were served drinks (well Ed was) at the same rates as all the other punters.  I’ll spare you every last detail of our night out being taken in with a group of ERASMUS Students from all over Europe.

Tuesday; after a weary start to the day after a late night, and changing hostels with all our possessions we settled in and met up with Bea (from last year), where we bought Ed a new biker jacket, and spine protector, then went for a ride up to la Rabasada, where we ate pipas and enjoyed the view and Bea got to practice her English. Following from the night before, we decided to have an early night in and stayed put.

The following day, Ed and I sent his big expensive box off to England and then went to the beach after a wander along La Rambla, and to the port. Where we saw various stripped down bikes… promising. It was rather windy and we got sun burnt tanned, that evening I was feeling rather under the weather from a cold I had been coming down with, so I left Ed to his devices that night with a group of Germans and Americans while I slept in.

Thursday; I woke up (2 hours after Ed arrived home) at 8am, had breakfast, sent a postcard (yes Mum, I’m still thinking of you), and in so doing befriended Amara (a Mongolian girl from the hostel) which we then agreed to go and visit Castell Montjuïc  with her dorm friend Claudia… (this was all while Ed recovered from his night out).  Later that evening Vidal phoned me to let me know he was in Barcelona and we arranged for me to pick him up from the industrial estate in the port. On returning, we met Bea and her boyfriend, Vivi (Bea’s friend) and had a meal. Ed by this point wasn’t feeling so good and decided he would leave us to our Spanish thing while he recovered in the hostel. It was a good night with my friends.

Friday, was mostly a non-event day, mostly due to the heavy rain outside and the cool climate, we sauntered to find some clothes and bought Ed a pair of shorts and me a pair of España boxers (€2 you saw them here first). The evening was followed by much riotous behaviour and general shenanigans that westerners do when they’ve had too much to drink in a foreign country. I ended up coming home early at 2-3am leaving the others to cause their own mayhem.

Lastly, Saturday (our last day in Barcelona), we were meant to sail at midnight that night, however, through an email from Grimaldi Lineas we were informed our crossing to Livorno was delayed until 6am the following day, with a check-in at 4am. Our hostel was unable to book us in another night (being Saturday and all), and the misery of moving all our things from one place to another we decided to just set up camp in the common room space in the hostel until the ferry.

However, prior to all that, we went to the market and then  met up with Bea and co and hang out a while, talked bikes and the usual. We had a really difficult time trying to sleep in the common room in the hostel and despite Ed being able to sleep, I wasn’t so lucky. We got to the port in the dead of night unsure whether the boat was going to sail or if it had already gone.

Much to our distress after boarding, and finding that we were on a freight boat, with heavily ventilated (which means loud and cold) common rooms with leatherette sofas to sleep on, we enquired about a cabin to find that they were €140 each, and turned our noses up. Later on we were informed by one of the other passengers that due to the delay (having still not set sail), that they were offering all passengers a cabin as compensation.  Much to our joy we had a lovely cabin with a shower, fresh sheets and towels and all the luxuries we’d not had since Lodosa. Just before we nodded off we had a minor disturbance from one of the deck-hands hammering on our cabin door regarding a motorcycle leaking fuel (yep that’s mine, float bowl seems to be jamming), I rushed down and closed the fuel tap, problem solved; this was about 5:40. We fell into a deep sleep and we awoke about 12 Sunday.

In order to preserve some sanity Ed and I paced around the boat walking the 2 available decks (a canteen and an entertainment room) and the outdoors areas to keep ourselves active. The freight of the boat was mostly Mercedes-Benz vans and from what I recall seeing last night a load of petroleum/oil tankers.  Later we enquired what ghastly hour we were going to be arriving in Livorno, fearing that 2am would be on the books, but much to our surprise the arrival time was predicted to being 6am Monday morning, which is approximately 12 hours later than the estimated arrival time, I later questioned the actual departure time, and found that we hadn’t set sail at 6am as predicted but much later, which meant that most of the time we were asleep in our cabin we were still docked in Barcelona. How odd was that??

So finally, today:  we docked almost 7am (not 6) in Livorno, got Ed some fuel, drove to Pisa took some photos. We arrived at Bologna at 11, found a hostel by 13:00 which looks like an ex-school building,  finally, ate  our first food at 16:00 by which time I was at my wits end, shaking in a nervous state (although we had a pastry at 7:30am so we “had” eaten… and I’d been up since before 4am). Not a good day for Neil today.  I hope to get some rest now.

Additionally, we’ve gone about repairing the float in my carburettor as it’s annoying me now. I filmed it but it got dark before we finished.

Anyhow, enjoy the photos!

Ok not yet, but give me 4 days and a day of Visa processing and I’ll be riding my trusty little bike in the Middle East/Africa.

Today, Ed and I have been walking the alleyways of Venice and doing all the usual tourist things of photographing gondolas and posing on bridges… and avoiding beggars. We survived, so good job! Tonight, I’m staying in a campsite, yesterday was a 1 star ho(s)tel.. it hitherto  claim to be a hotel but even as a hostel it was pretty damn awful. Sudden noises throughout the night, lots of mosquitos and poor quality service from the staff. Suffice to say, I’d rather suffer on a campsite.

Anyhow, here’s today’s photos:

I cannot tell you when my next post will be, but I hope it’ll be soon and frequent.  Thanks for reading!

Hi just a quick line to let you all know that I’m now officially in Africa.

…and another few lines to tell you:

Yesterday, we pulled in to Alex at 2pm… spent 4 hours in customs being issued visas, insurance, driver’s license, number-plates and everything else… all in the baking sun, no idea what we were paying, and all paying different rates for the same thing.

Then by sunset we set off to look for the camp-site…. that camp-site in the middle of the city. Yet again, GPS failed us. After riding in the slums of Alexandria in the dark with pack horses and everyone driving without lights on (no joke everyone drives in the dark here) for about what seemed eternity, we got found by a local who could speak English, luck being what it is… he was a delightful host, and after finding us a good enough hotel for us, and a good place to park our bikes, he took us out for dinner which was delicious. Alexandria is famous for it’s seafood, and we had some great calamari and then grilled fish.  It was delicious.

Anyhow, today we’re going to try and get to a camp-site… yes a camp-site in Cairo. I’ve not seen many backpacking, caravanning, types here in Egypt. I’ll keep you posted.