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).

Scotland North Coast 500 October 2016

   Left home at 3a.m. Wednesday morning, met Darren at junction 3 of the M25 at about 3:45 and headed North. We stopped at Peterborough services for breakfast, and then headed  for Hadrian's Wall as Darren had missed it on a previous trip due to his bike messing about. We followed the wall for about 30 miles, then headed up the M6 etc. until we got to Inverness 660 miles later. A campsite was soon found about 2 miles west of Inverness, and the tents were soon set up.

It was quite cold that night, probably about 1 degree above freezing, and as I had left my sleeping mat behind, a trip to Go Outdoors the next morning was in order. We also went looking for a cafe for breakfast, the first one was in a pedestrian precinct which was no good as we couldn't keep an eye on the bikes, the next "cafe" we found only did soups and vegetables, probably run by the "knit your own sandals" brigade, then found out there was a Morrissons nearby, so we soon got ourselves outside of a "full Scottish bigger breakfast".
   Next on the agenda was a visit to a motorcycle shop near the campsite, as I needed a new balaclava, and Darren came up with the great idea of photographing the map of the NC500 route they had hanging up (this was to prove very useful!).
   We then headed up the East coast, which was nicer than expected, and soon arrived at John O' Groats

Next we headed West looking for a campsite at Thurso, we couldn't find it, so headed back towards John O'Groats to one we had passed earlier, but it was closed, so headed back to Thurso, and 100 yards past where we had stopped looking, we found the campsite, but it seemed to be closed, and just as we were about to head off to look for another one, I spotted someone in the shop on site, and we were soon booked in..

Next morning the usual cafe hunt but there was nothing but coffee shops, so we gave up, packed up the tents and headed West and got to a place called Melvich, and the pub landlord said we would only have to wait a few minutes for the cook to arrive, and she would cook us breakfast, which turned out to be excellent.
  Later, we went past Dounreay nuclear power station on the way to Smoo cave and went on the boat trip

The pool of water in the cave has 4 foot long eels living there, but you can only see them when the sunlight hits the water from above (there is a hole in the roof).

  After a good look around, it was time to head further West, past the Cape Wrath ferry which was closed for the winter, and then South along the twisty roads, then found a nice picturesque harbour

and then found another campsite at Achmelvich which was also next to the sea

The coast had some lovely scenery, with some white sandy beaches

Next morning we headed onto the Applecross peninsula along some amazing roads, then headed down the "Pass of the Cattle" which is quite awesome

the best bit starts about 12 minutes into the video. Next we headed back towards Inverness on mostly main roads, and back to our original campsite for the last night.

   The next morning, we packed up the gear and headed back to Morrissons for breakfast, then headed home. The round trip was 1841 miles and the bikes were perfect for this trip. below is the picture of the map...

France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Poland trip 2016

I met up with Neil near Crawley, then met Pete at Clacket Lane, and finally Larry at Folkestone services. We had a large queue for the Channel tunnel, and realised someone had broken down in the queue ahead of us, so we sneaked across a pavement and saved ages. The trip across was smooth and we were soon arriving in France..

We were staying the first night in Osnabruck, but we had a lot of trouble finding the hotel, as the road it was on was closed both ends, so a bit more pavement riding was called for, and we eventually found it. I then headed off to find a campsite for the night, and found a really nice one under a massive tower.

Next morning we all met up and headed to Peenemunde, the weather was really hot, We found the hotel ok, but when they parked the bikes in the front of the hotel, they got a lot of abuse from some old fraulein, so I disappeared to find a camp site before she turned me into a frog!
   The campsite was just down the road, but the owner told me it was completely full, I walked in just as he was turning away some other people, but then he told me to wait, and he eventually found me a space as someone had just left early. He told me that all the campsites in the area were also full.

The next morning we went to have a look at the V2 rocket site

 Next on the list, after we had a look round the Peenemunde power station, we walked across the car park to look at a Russian Submarine...

It was very cramped inside, worse than the U995 we were due to visit the next day.                      
 After a good look round, we decided to go for a Hot-Dog in Poland

That evening Neil very kindly offered me space in their hotel and I was then able to go out with them for an evening meal.That evening, Neil went for a swim in the baltic, Larry had a paddle, and me and Pete dipped our fingers in the sea. The next day we headed for Laboe, and it absolutely pissed down, and I discovered my waterproofs leak. Apart from Larry with his cheap plastic waterproofs, we all ended up with soggy nadgers. It dried out by the time we got to Laboe, and we had a look at the sub

Next,we went into the Marine Ehrenmal which is next to the sub, it is just under 300 foot tall, and is hollow inside, and built between the first and second world war

As you can see, the tower is quite high, 

Me, Larry and Neil walked down the inside of the tower, while Pete opted for the lift. It is quite awe inspiring, and as Neil doesn't like heights, he didn't look down at all!. Will have to finish this blog later as I have to go and do a night shift...

....Continued.

After a good look round, we decided to split up as they were staying in kiel, and I was camping. I found a nice campsite about half  a mile from the sub, and put up my wet tent.Next morning, I went to Kiel and met the others for the ride to Arnhem. I led the way, with Pete second, his sat nav was working, and I was expecting problems, he didn't disappoint. I stayed at about 70, then 65, I could see his headlight flickering behind me, and the slower I went, the further behind he dropped. At one point I was doing about 55mph for around 6 miles, and he still didn't catch up!

At this point I gave up and got back up to 70ish. I stopped at around the 120 mile mark, filled the bike up and had a nice meal, and was just about to head off when they caught me up. His sat nav had died again, so Neil had taken over the lead. We eventually set off again, with Larry behind me, but on the way to Arnhem, Pete dropped back again. The 3 of us visited Neil's dad's friends grave, then had a look at the Airborne museum - very interesting.Neil texted Pete to say where we were, and that we would be visiting the museum, but he texted back that he was going to the hotel. I then headed off to find yet another campsite.

   The next day we headed for home, All went well, until just before the passport control, Larry's bike wouldn't start, so I pushed him and his beast up the queue, then walked back to get my bike. I rode back up to Larry, who had by now gotten his bike going.That was the  end of the adventure, just a matter of going through the tunnel and home.

   Really enjoyed myself. The bikes were -  Charlie GS500

                                                                      Neil Triumph 900

                                                                      Larry Goldwing 1800

                                                                      Pete Kawasaki 900