Zollernalbkreis

8 September 2017

Left home at 03:40 and headed to the Channel Tunnel. I was soon in France on the motorway, and spotted a tourist sign for "La Coupole", so I did a bit of a detour to have a look, saw the place from the outside, but didn't venture inside as I am saving it for a later trip. I then headed back to the motorway. I was not feeling too good, as I had spent the previous weekend sanding down loads of gloss paint, and breathing lots of dust, which allowed a flu bug to sneak up on me, so I had the shivers, etc.
   France seems to have a toll on every stretch of road, but at least it has places to stop. The rain only lasted about 200 miles, but I kept my over suit on until Germany. There were lots of roadworks and crashes on the French side of the border, so long delays. Germany was easy, and the scenery a lot nicer, and I was soon in the Zollernalbkreis area, which seems to have a schloss on every hill.
   I arrived at 19:30 German time 14 and three quarter hours after setting off. I think I was the only British person there, I started to put my tent up, but there was only about 3" of topsoil, so one of my German neighbour's loaned me a hammer as the ground was very hard. Later one of the girls from a French team showed me where the toilets were so I could get fresh water and I had a good look at some of the trucks

I had an early night, and it rained heavily. Next morning, I headed up the quarry towards the competition, it was very steep. I was soon enjoying watching the trials, although not all the teams had turned up (no Tatra's)

It was mostly MAN's and Merc's competing with some Ural's and Gaz's, and more Mog's than you could shake a stick at!.The 8x8's did well, but I noticed that they were easily damaged by the large boulders. while the Eastern European trucks were a lot tougher. After a great day watching trucks and eating Currywurst

  I had an early night, and it chucked it down again all night and I was awake at 5:30, so i stayed in bed until 06:30 when the rain stopped long enough for me to get into my waterproofs so I could pack up my camping gear. I then set off up through Germany, Belgium and Holland, avoiding the French tolls, and eventually got home at 10pm. the trip was 1270 miles and good fun.

Wild Atlantic Way

19 June - 24 June 2017

Start Mileage 29259, End Mileage 30464 =1205

Charlie, Darren and Jeremy

Met Darren at Reigate Hill at 05:30, we were both half an hour early, then we headed off to meet Jeremy at Cardiff services, we were half an hour late due to my bad planning. We headed West to Fishguard and got the ferry to Rosslare. They gave us a £5 food discount voucher as they had changed the sailing times, so I had meatballs and chips in sauce. Very smooth crossing,

 and we were soon in Ireland. We carried on heading West, and when we got near Waterford we headed South to a campsite near Tramore,

 it was very clean and pleasant, had a good sleep, and next morning had a look at the "Metal Man" statue on one of three columns

and across the cove we could see two more columns,

 they were put there by the Admiralty to warn off shipping "Between Two and Three, No Harbour Be", its where the Seahorse sank, drowning 363 sailors, there have been many more wrecks at the same point.
   Next we headed along the coast through some fantastic coastal scenery, passing old copper mines and went to Kinsale

where Jeremy was christened (it's a vicious rumor that the water in the font started to boil when he was near it!).

and we saw the house where he spent his summers as a kid (no blue plaque though).
   Next we went to Old Head of Kinsale, where the Lusitania was torpedoed and there is a nice memorial there

Next we headed to some standing stones at Drombeg

and then onto Skibbereen, where we found a nice campsite,

 and Darren has just been shopping with Jeremy, and bought me back a packet of cakes which I am about to eat after my curry...Then we had a storm.
   Next morning we found a cafe in a converted church, which was very surreal

Then when riding away from the cafe, I noticed my rear shock had blown ( probably because of the full Irish Breakfast), it was like riding a pogo stick.

 We headed to Mizen Head as its the most Southwestern part of Ireland. There is a bridge round the back of the visitor center, but they were charging £7:50 to go across, but we didn't bother. Darren did a marathon while we were there...

   I was hoping to see Fastnet Rock from the shipping forecast, but the mist was too thick.

 Darren thinks he saw it as the mist was clearing but I didn't. Git. We found a nice campsite on the ring of Kerry

that had a nice restaurant and bar,

 there was another storm overnight, but we woke to blazing sunshine then off to find a cafe...found a cafe, had another full Irish, very nice, carried on round the Ring of Kerry, saw The Skelligs where they filmed the last Star Wars film

kept stopping for pictures, and had a coffee at a bog village, then headed off to a campsite near limmerick (20 euros), went to a cafe in Adair by the traditional French market(!) for a full Irish then headed cross country and a lake

stopped at Cashell castle

and another castle at Granny

Then we headed back to a campsite near Rosslare. Next morning up at 5 for the ferry. Excellent trip and excellent company (the GS500 got a new shock from a Yamaha R6, so it is also happy).