Up bright and early around 5:30am breakfast starts at 6 am and having not eaten since lunchtime the day before I was ready for breakfast believe me. So cheese and ham, toast, croissants marmalade and coffee and a glass of orange...and then I went round again. My plan was to leave around 8 am I wasn't too bothered what time I would end up arriving at my house as it didn't matter, but this days ride was longer then the previous days ride so I didn't want to leave it too late to get away. So after stuffing myself at breakfast I packed then went out and cleaned the bike up a bit then loaded her up.
With everything packed up as watertight as possible I set off for Spain, now I planned the route as non toll roads but I could use motorways as long as they weren't tolls when I left the hotel the sat nav took me through some stunning French countryside along some amazing twisty roads which helped me gain a lot of confidence in the bike. I went through a village called Tarragon and another one called Cadillac I then rode through "Parc Naturel Regional Des Landes De Gascogne" Stunning scenery huge forests Châteaux round every corner and lots of campsites obviously a popular area. I pulled over while in the forest to phone Lorni didn't see a car for miles and miles.
Then it was on to Pau I noticed I was starting to climb there is an altitude readout on my sat nav and it was steady increasing as I made my way up the wonderfully twisty roads up the Pyrenees, I realised I was at an altitude when I started seeing Ski lifts and Swiss style chalets. The little villages I swept through were absolutely gorgeous real chocolate box lids stuff.
The roads got narrower and more twisty and certainly steeper, Doris was handling it all very well indeed in fact I have a feeling she was having a bit of fun I came across a dam which I think was being worked on as I could see lots of engineer types walking about and the reservoir itself looked like it had been drained.
As I got nearer I noticed that some French graffiti artist had been busy on the wall of the dam, they do have a sense of humour of sorts these French.
At this point I was also aware that there was a lot of livestock about and no fences there were cows and goats and sheep just wandering around on the roads this had me worried as there was a lot of...lets be blunt about this...shit on the roads which is lethal to motorbikes so I was taking it steady I then rounded a corner to find another little village full of people wandering about, cafes all open I thought about stopping but then thought better of it as even though it was a great part of the trip it had taken a really long time to do a few miles and I had a long long way to go, however as I went round the next bend I found the sign I was looking for.
I had made it to Spain and, touch wood, no dramas so far. this road went on for miles and miles twisty sections again with livestock all over the place cars parked anywhere and more and more ski resorts.
After a few more miles I found myself slowly descending again this was going to give the known Divvie dodgy front bakes a workout, at the same time my butt was getting a little uncomfortable and my neck was starting to hurt a bit I had been on the road for about five hours so I decided to pull over and have a break at the next available point. Two miles further down the road and I came across another dam and reservoir this one had a parking and picnic area next to it so I pulled in for a break and I was very glad I did as the views were...well see for yourself.
That was the exciting bit of the trip next came the boring bit, once I had come down the mountains and it was a slow descent as there were mile after mile of roadworks reducing the speed limit to just 50 kph for most of it, it was then 100's and 100's of miles of motorway I stopped twice for fuel and a bite to eat but god it was boring all the way to Zaragoza then another 200 km to Valencia at this point it was now dark and around 20:00 and for some reason my sat nav decided to take me through the middle of the city...that was fun then another 40 minutes to my house I arrived not long after 22:00 I had been riding for over 14 hours and I was totally exhausted so I unpacked the bike then took the bike round to the garage and locked her up I went back to the house had a cup of tea and went straight to bed.
And boy I must have been tired as I reckon I was out cold just moments after putting my head down I hadn't even unpacked yet
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