Ireland Northern half

   Start mileage 37201, End mileage 38991 =1790     8-14 July
         Charlie and Darren

Met Darren at 05:45 at Reigate Hill and set of for Wales. After a couple of stops for fuel and food, we got to Fishguard an hour early, we were soon on the boat with the bikes strapped down, so off to the lounge for meatballs and chips.
   The crossing was smooth, and 4 and three-quarter hours later, we were in Rosslare. We went straight through immigration and customs, and headed to Tipperary to find a campsite. We found one that was really nice called Glen of Aherlow a few miles South of Tipperary.

   After setting the tents up, we went to the local pub called "The Coach Road" for a nice meal and a few pints. We slept well, after covering 436 miles. Next morning we headed to Limerick and went to the "Green Yard "cafe which did a very nice "Full Irish" then off to Kilrush

which was a nice little town where I got some cakes and watched an old dog wandering up the road like he owned the place.
    Next, we went to have a look at "The Donald's"Trump International golf course at Doonbeg

   Then we went South to Loop Head lighthouse

Later, we went back to Doolin and camped at O'Connors camping and caravaning site

Next morning (Tuesday), we went to a hotel for breakfast where I had a tomato, 7 sausages and 5 rashers of bacon, next we went to have a look at Doolin pier, and we could see the Cliffs of Moher

We then headed for the top of the Cliffs past a nice castle,but when we got to the Cliffs

they wanted 8 Euro's per person to walk up a path. No thanks!.
   Next on the agenda, was Doolin cave, where we saw the 3rd larget stalactite in the world

   Next, after riding up the coast, we came to a Lidl, where I got some Frikadellen , then rode "The Burren" coast road

 then followed the coast past Galway and ended up at Gurteen Bay campsite next to mountains and the sea.

   Next morning, we headed for a cafe, but most of them were coffee shops, but we found one eventually, for our Full Irish, then we went round the coast of County Mayo, and ended up at Lavelles Campsite on Achill Island, which had a nice pub 100 yards away, where we heard 4 more kids had been rescued from a flooded Thai cave.
   Next morning, we worked our way up the West coast through Cashel, Srahanarry, Fallmore, Ballycastle and Letterkenny

then went looking for a campsite. The first one we tried was no good, but the next one was ok, really friendly , clean and cheap. Next morning we went to have a look at Malin Head about 17 miles away, and is supposedly the start and finish of "The Wild Atlantic Way", we went around Malin Head and had a look at the old signal tower

After a good look round, we discovered that this is not the end of the W.A.W, as the route carried on going round every inlet, so we followed it for a few miles then gave up, so we set the satnav's to Rosslare, then about a half hour after a cafe stop for our last Full Irish, we found we were still following the W.A.W North, even though we were actually heading South, then a few hundred yards later we found a sign saying "End of Wild Atlantic Way", then almost immediately the road signs turned into M.P.H instead of K.P.H, the streets had names on them, and I thought "Bollocks - we're in Northern Ireland. We were in Derry / Londonderry depending on which particular branch of religious kiddie-fiddler you listen to, so we headed South to get back to civilisation in Southern Ireland.
   It took a couple of hours to get to the border (it had all been kicking off again in Northern Ireland at the weekend) and crossed at Aughnacloy, it was nice to see the speed limits in KPH again, and we decided to take a chance on an earlier boat, but it meant getting a move on. About 192 miles later, we were in Rosslare, and with no problem changing our ferrry time we were on the boat 45 minutes later.
   I had the usual meatballs, then we went to watch "Jumanji" which was quite amusing although there was  a mad old geezer in the lounge who insisted on playing his harmonica badly and singing loudly and tunelessly, but it takes all sorts.

The ride from Fishguard to Crawley takes over 5 hours, so i got home at 03:30, and my youngest (Holly) was waiting for me (hiding under a car).
    Excellent trip!

Isle of Wight

21 - 22 June, Charlie & Jeremy

Headed off to Portsmouth and met Jeremy in the ferry queue, we had to wait about an hour as it was very busy (Isle of Wight Festival), we were queueing up next to a van that had a couple of Alpaca's in it..

(they were in the back, not driving it!). We had a very calm crossing, although there was the usual car-alarm chorus. 

   We headed East along the coast, and Jeremy told me he needed to buy some bungies, so the first town we came to (Ryde) I spotted a hardware store, and he was soon the proud owner of two fat bungies.

   Next, we travelled along the coast to Nettlestone Point, then Bembridge, then down a dirt track to Whitecliff Ledge for a posh sandwich..

Next was Sandown, then Shanklin, but we couldn't get past Ventnor as the road was closed, although I got a photo of the paddling pool my missus used to play in as a kid...

We had to divert to the middle of the island to get round the road closure, then drop down to Niton, then we rode along the Southern coast road with some nice scenery

until we came to Stoats Nest Campsite, (6 quid a night) which was very nice, and run by a lovely lady who was very helpful

   The tents were soon up, so we went for a short ride to "The Needles", then along the North coast and down to Newport as I needed a new SD card. Next, back to the campsite, parked up and wandered over to the pub next door, I had an absolutely wonderful chicken in garlic and stilton sauce, and a few pints of Lounge Lizard which went down a treat. Jeremy was struggling to keep awake, as he had only had an hour sleep from the day before, as he had been in Poland. 

   After a good nights sleep, we went looking for a cafe, and found a nice one at Totland Bay

We realised we had seen all we wanted to, so headed along the coast and back to the ferry. There was a bit of a queue, but we were soon on board and headed back to Portsmouth. A really pleasant trip, and it turned out a lot cheaper than the last time I went, as they couldn't charge us a fortune for car parking!

Northern France June 2016

      Charlie, Clive and Larry. Start mileage 36517, end mileage 36785=268 miles

Met Clive on his Enfield 500 at 07:55 at Pease Pottage, and set off for Tesco Ashford to meet Larry on his 1800 Goldwing. After a quick fuel up at Ashford, we were off to the Channel Tunnel. we got there early and were soon boarding the train. It wa a lot quicker than last time, and were surrounded by mostly "adventure" bikes with all the latest kit. (Someone actually told me that my GS500 was not suitable for touring as it is too small - I explained that I have done over 282,000 miles on a GS400, so there are no rules as to what is suitable).
   We were soon in France, and I was looking for the coast road, but couldn't find the turning, so we were stuck on the A16 for a few miles, (1.60 euro's), then got off on the D940, which wa a lovely coast road, long sweeping bends, and great scenery from the cliff tops.
   Next we arrived at Audinghen, and just past the villiage we came to Todt Battery...

The Todt battery is a truly awe inspiring site, it had 4 x15" callibre Krupp guns with a range up to 55.7 km, the 4 bunkers were hit by 2,000 tons of bombs, but survived  intact.
   there are many interesting artefacts in the bunker, including a rather nice Kettenkrad...

Next we headed for Mimoyecques, but stopped off at Estaminet le Saint Eloi for jambon and frites (lovely), then off to Mimoyecques.
   Mimoyecques is mostly underground, you get your ticket at a portakabin and walk down the entrance tunnel, that is quite large and surprisingly long

   There are many tunnels branching off, we went down all the open tunnels, and had a look at a mock-up gun that is fired with multiple charges, with a muzzle velocity of 1500 metres per second, just as well it didn't work properly. The tunnels are quite misty, and are the winter home of a large colony of rare bats. we could only explore half the tunnels, as the other half are closed to the public.
   After Mimoyecques, we headed off to our hotel (Bal) for a meal and a few beers. Next morning, after a continental breakfast, we had a look through the local guide book and Clive suggested a trip to a car museum (Les brigades de l'Aa), so we went. When we arrived, the owner of the museum insisted on looking after our bags and crash helmets, and gave us the full tour. he spoke no english,and we couldn't understand most of what he said, but the tour was exceptional none the less.me and Clive kept seeing cars of a type we had worked on (we are both ex -mechanics), so we were having some nostalgic moments for the shit-heaps we had worked on in the past.
 

A picture of the owner

After the museum, we went to find a cafe, found one that was open on a Sunday, but they were not serving food (!) so we had coffee's and a coke. Later, we decided to head back to the tunnel, as anything else would have been an anticlimax after the museum. we got to the tunnel 2 hours early, and they offered us an earlier train for 18 euro's each, which we declined. A quick trip into burger king was on the agenda, then we noticed that we had about an hour and a half delay on the departure board, so w had a quick look around the duty free, then Larry noticed that our train was going to be an hour earlier, so a quick dash to the bikes and we were off, and soon back in England. Great trip, Great company, and really enjoyed myself. Thank's, guys, looking forward to the next one!

North Yorkshre Moors trip May 2018

Me and Darren, Start Mileage 34902, End mileage 35673 = 771

We met up under Junction 3 of the M25 at around 6 a.m. and headed to Peterborough services for breakfast, then off to find our campsite in Goathland, where Heartbeat was filmed. The scenery on the moors was spectacular, unfortunately, I had a fly stuck to my video camera which blurs the view a bit

At the campsite, the owner (who had a motorcycle) asked us where we were off to, and we told him we were going to Rosedale Bank Chimney as its oneof the steepest roads in England. He told us he had ridden down it but would not ride up it as it is too dangerous.

The route the sat nav took us from Goathland to Rosedale Chimney Bank is one of the best roads I have ridden in England, but I didn't realise how nice it was going to be, so I didn't switch on the camera

Next we went off to Whitby to find a cashpoint, very pretty town, then found a cafe for some cake and a drink

That evening we had a few beers in the Goathland Hotel which was the Aidensfield Arms in the series

As you can see,we were next to Scripps garage,which we went into to have a look around..

Then it was back to the tents to snore the night away.                           

The next morning we headed over to Scarborough for breakfast, but struggled to find somewhere to park, as it was all pay and display (even blue badge holders) then Darren checked on his phone and discovered that you can park in any car park for free - result! We were soon getting ourselves outside of a delicious full English then off nortwards up the coast. We visited Raveenscar then Robin Hoods Bay, Whitby, Sandsend, Runswick Bay and Saltburn

We stopped at Goathland Station, that was used in Heartbeat, and also was used as Hogsmead station in Harry Potter

Next, we headed to Mallyan Spout in the villiage

The walk up from Mallyan Spout was difficult in leathers carrying gear on one of the hottest days of the year, but I eventually made it, and then after a rest in the campsite, it was back to the pub for an evening meal. Next morning we packed the tents up and headed home. Excellent trip.

La Coupole and Blockhaus d'Eperlecques

19/3/2018 start mileage 34005miles  end mileage 34256= not a lot, Clive,Charlie and Neil
After a cold snowy weekend, there were lots of Met office warnings about travelling,however, I set off to Pease Pottage services to meet the others, then onward for a cold ride down to the Channel Tunnel. We got there at 10:43 to find the trains suspended. We could either wait or be re-booked onto the ferry. It would have been a choppy crossing so we decided to wait for the train.
   After a couple of hours we were allowed to board, and eventually we set off THE WRONG WAY!!! I had a look at my GPS and we were heading up towards Ashford, going backwards, and somehow did a loop and then headed back to the tunnel still going backwards. After a slow trip through the tunnel we arrived in France at about half three. The first place we were planning to visit closed at 5 p.m., so we didn't really have enough time to visit, so we went to find our hotel instead. After booking in, we decided to find a cafe until the hotel restaurant opened

so we had coffee's and bolognaise flavour crisps (we know how to live in style), then it was back to the hotel for an evening meal and a few pints

                                         
                                             Hotel Car Park

Next day it was off to La Coupole which was about half an hour away. It is a huge concrete dome with a massive tunnel complex underneath where V2 rockets were assembled and launched

                                   Large generator

Next we went up in a lift to the dome where they had some rockets on display

V2 Rocket Motor

Next we got back on the bikes and headed to the Blockhaus d;Eperlecques about 45 minutes away, the Blockhaus is huge, with obvious damage from a Tall Boy bomb

And it was even more impressive inside...

Tall Boy bomb

Liquid oxygen pump

Halftrack outside the blockhaus

V1 on launch ramp

After a good look round we then had to make our way back to the tunnel and home. This trip was far better than I was expecting, the Cupole and Blockhaus far more impressive and the company great as usual.

    Charlie