Neil's in

Hey guys!

So after vaguely discussing the matter of France with Alex, be both agreed we weren’t too interested in the big expensive country that stood in the way of our objectives. Mostly because the fuel is so expensive (by comparison to Spain and Andorra) and the motorways you have to pay to use, and on the way home that’s the last thing you want to face.

Anyhow after a slow start on Thursday packing we set off with Noel in the lead we headed through Andorra for a fuel stop into La France; where Noel turned about near Foix and returned to La Molina.

Cue: afterburners.

Alex and I burned up the highways until we fell floppy on the roadside of a motorway service station (about 30 miles/50km from Limoges). We made camp with Alex’s tarp thrown over the bikes and slept surrounded by trucks and picnic tables (pictured).

We woke up at 7 and after a baguette and a coffee we powered, on through the day facing crap roads, expensive petrol (for Alex at least). Eventually at (rainy) Paris we decided to bite the bullet and pay for the toll roads since without them it was bloody impossible to do things in a hurry having to stop at 800 sets of lights at each town.

Just before Arras we split (pictured), Alex still had to get to Utretch (Holland)  and I still had to cross the channel over to England.  I turbo’d my little DRZ at 80mph (130km/h) through the rain to Calais where I arrived a wet shivering mess trying to muster up the little French I had to ask  for a change of crossing on my ticket. Lucky for me I had 30 minutes to wait and then everything fell into place.

Arriving at Dover at 9:30pm with 75 miles (120km) to go and no dipped lights or taillight I gunned the motorway with full beam and the brake light switched on; apologies to the offended traffic. I arrived at 10:30 surprising my mum being 2 days early.

Final slog was 577 miles (928 km) in one day. Just goes to show the DRZ can do tough stuff too!

After yet another very long hard day, and over 200 photos to go through. There’s no chance I’m going to sit here fiddling around to tell you all that happened and what we got up to.

However, what I will tell you is that we had great fun and all was good except poor Andy and his bike, overheating and spluttering and suffering the altitude and various other things.

Picture was taken at the top of a mountain we climbed (near Queralbs) it was in excess of 2300 meters and it was fab.

Tomorrow heading through Andorra for a refuel, then up through france on my way home on Sunday.  Pictures will have to wait.

*Update*

Here’s the much needed photographs:

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After a very very long day off-road in the heat the four of us have very little energy for anything. However, we did have a really good meal (4 courses!!) at a restaurant at lunch time for 12 euros.

Excuse the photos we only got our cameras out while we were on the roads it was a little too hairy to stop and get the cameras out while off road. Very steep mountains and loose rocks, I kid you not.

Here’s the pictures:

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Again thank Noel for his contribution.

So Noel, Andy, Alex and I met up for the presentation of the Mountain Madness event.  A little disillusioned by the whole thing, we took it very un-seriously and didn’t look at the map for too long before itching to go off road and try some trails.

At about the same point Alex, decided he should go off to look for a bike shop/garage to get some routine stuff to be done to his bike, oil filter change and such-like. He came back a little down-beaten by having lost yet another piece of his luggage on the road. He spent the rest of the afternoon filling out police forms and insurance things.

Anyhow we ate a really good meal down in town before sampling a trail where I nearly lost all desire to be here. It consisted of loose rocks deep ruts and sand… I was petrified and the bike decided to misbehave at low revvs causing me to stall and drop it in a 2 foot rut.  Confidence beaten I didn’t really care to go on, anyhow I carried on and we found more realistic trails.

Anyhow, here’s today’s shots. Thank Noel for the good ones…  (dog pictured for Elaine)

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Hey hey!

Since my last post I received a text from Noel (one of my team members of the Mountain Madness) saying he was in the area. We met up in Andorra de Vella, where i tried to discover why my headlight and tail light were not working and Alex meanwhile sorted out the food (pictured). We quickly decided that it would be cool if Alex could tag along in the Mountain Madness thing as well and before long the three of us decided to find a place to camp for the night off the beaten track and decided to head for Spain where thing are cheaper than France and more space than Andorra.

Riding 2 bikes and a blue van we headed back into Spain to a town: Sort (and beyond) and eventually found a really nice spot to pitch just off of the main road beside a river discreet enough for us to be able to light a fire.

Today, the three of us packed up camp and headed here to La Molina where the Mountain Madness thing is meant to be held. It was a bit of a repeat of Ripley with the posers all standing around perving over bikes and talking jargon until your eyes rolled out of their sockets. We soon packed up after realizing there wasn’t much to look at, and searched out for somewhere to sleep.

Beyond that, Noel got his bike out of the van and the three of us took a quick spin looking for this cool little unmentioned refugio/hostel half way up the mountain with free wifi and all the commodities that a bike traveler requires.. shower, food and a wandering dog searching for a stroke.

Anyhow most of the good pictures… if not all the good pictures were taking by Noel. And here’s a few.

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Oh by the way, I found the Oakley sunglasses afterall. I didn’t leave them on the bike I had taken them up to Bea’s place and they had fallen under the bed. I had given up on them completely.

Hi there!
Isn’t amazing how you find internet everywhere?

Anyhow, I was sad to leave my very kind host Bea yesterday, but I was soon distracted with riding with Alex behind . We came to Andorra in an über slow manner. We set off at about 3:10 and arrived about 8:30 (don’t ask!). After changing my head light and tail light (which both miraculously broke at the same time) to discover that the new bulbs didn’t work and refueling; we did a detour via Montserrat where Bea and I went a few days ago to enjoy the road again. Alex loved it and felt he must do a back flip to prove his excitement (pictured), it’s not everyday you ride with a stunt man as a companion.

We stopped in a Lidl to buy some food in a town named Solsona where we sat in the shade of a wall to rest a bit from the heat. The bellowing clouds of a forest fire south of us concerned me but we carried on forward winding up the B road till we joined the C 14. After facing some terrible oncoming traffic leaving Andorra where we found our hostel for the night. I cannot express how happy we both were to come out of the boiler climate of Barcelona to the cold mountain breezes of the Pyrenees just 200km away.

We cooked our dinner in the dorm room and chatted for a few hours getting to know eachother some more.

Anyhow, I did a little experimenting with taking photos from my phone whilst riding and got some good results (pictured).

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I felt obligated to see some Gaudí things before I left, even though my Barcelona experience was already good without doing the sight-seeing.

Firstly Bea and I went to the Parc de Guell and then to La Sagrada Familia. To be honest, if I ever want to feel  like a tourist I’ll catch an open top double-decker back home and sit on a bus with yanks and hear them yack away about the weather.

Anyhow,  two more things ticked off on my list of things, I’ve accomplished.

Today, I’m leaving Barcelona heading nothing to Andorra where I’m meeting Alex (the guy I met in the mist/fog on my way into Spain). I’ll be sad to leave my kind host and this amazing city but I got to keep going.

By the way those lovely Oakley sunglasses I bought in Porto… they went bye-bye. I’m a bit sad about that, but my fault, I clumbseyly left them on the bike seat outside Bea’s house and they would of vanished anywhere. Oh well, silly me.

Here’s the pictures:

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After faffing around yesterday doing this and that, and buying myself a new main jet for my carburettor, Bea and I took a ride upto Montserrat to enjoy the bendies. Now, I’m glad my face was full face, because my facial expression was similar to the day I rode into spain through the Pyrenees and any onward coming cars may have driven off the mountain edge in sheer terror of my demon posessed face.

However, the ascent helped prove a point about the carburation from see level to 1000m in 20 minutes caused the bike to pop a lot. I’ll be at over 2000m in a few days time and so far I’ve not been that high in this bike. I hope this works!

Anyhow here’s a couple of generic pictures of Bea and I taken near the top overlooking the mountains below.

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Just to point out, we both got sun burnt and I had a biker tan forming (insides of my legs have no colour… outsides are lobster red).

So I took the plunge and rooooode 500+ km to Barcelona in one hit. I set off at dawn and made better progress than I had thought. The day started off pretty chilly and I was happy riding with my jacket and gloves on, obviously being early accounted for this. I circled the ring road of Zaragoza at around 11am and gave myself a chance to take a break at a truckers’ cafe.  The ride was pretty simple and uncomplicated to be honest, however the heat got stiffling by midday and at which point I hit a re-visit of Norway’s: “no-move traffic jam“; where the steady flow of trucks came to a unannounced halt and left me standing on a plain in an oven like climate waiting for something to happen.

By the end of the journey I had to stop a few times (finally in Montserrat) to clean my eyes from the sweat and sun lotion going into my eyes leaving me blind… it was quite odd to have this experience.

Anyhow arrived all well and good at 4:30pm and spent the evening with Bea hanging out with her friends and talking about bikes and stuff.