A Yam, a Kwak and a Trumpet

The start

It starts! 11 pm Newhaven ferry port. Ben and Shiner had ridden up from the South West,Uk that afternoon. They arrived at mine early evening, we fuelled the bikes up and then proceeded to fill ourselves up on stodge! Large cod and chips for all three of us! Fuel for the ride ahead! Might have had a pint or two as well?

Leg 1

The ferry docked in Dieppe around 04:30, we had had no sleep overnight as the excitement had been building ever since we had left from the UK, thus it was coffee on tap and sit down to plan the route. Ben who had only recently passed his test and had never ridden his Ninja 600 more than 50 miles was full of trepidation, like most newbies he was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to keep up, but a few reassuring words from us two calmed his nerves and we stated there and then “we will go the speed of the slowest man” no rush, no pressure, no problems. We are a team so lets enjoy it as a team! Off we started, into the darkness through Dieppe and onto Rouen, a simple stretch of dual carriageway suited to riding with headlights. Allowing us to get in the groove and remember we are driving on the right! A fuel and coffee stop south of Rouen saw the sun coming up, all of us had a giggle as we swapped our clear visors for our ‘gucci’ iridium ones, shielding our eyes from the sun but more importantly making us look cooler than whole gang!

Leg 2

Prior to starting the trip we had agreed to get to Spain as quick as possible, so we had elected to use the French autoroutes all the way down to Bordeaux. Great roads but by christ they are boring, save for the odd race with a couple of boy racers in their tricked out cages! So, after a few more fuel and coffee stops and us practising some synchronisation manouvres that would have struck jealousy into the hearts of the Red Arrows had they seen it, we finally dropped off the straight route to go have some twisty action on the A and B roads. FUN button engaged!

Twisty time

Having had a good blast on ‘las curvas’ and maybe getting slightly “locationally challenged” we got to the border, two of us passing through with ease but a certain Triumph Speed Triple rider being pulled and having to dig out all of his kit from tail pack and daysack! He was not happy, I didn’t have the heart nor the balls to tell him I had had a word with the security guards! Anyway, we reached our stop for the night in San Sebastian, parked the bikes up, showered, changed and went out to seek local refreshments! Thirsty we were, so drinks we had a plenty and so commenced the stories and laughter from the run down that day.

To the 'Happy Place' !

The following morning (slightly later than planned) we had a big breakfast, somewhat reviving us from the day before, we all noted that our Bum cheeks were sore, so we took a ruler to our seats and measured them! After much scrutiny we had to admit that perhaps our seat padding wasn’t all it could be, especially on my R6! Off we went again heading for ‘my happy place’ the N-240 and Embalse de Yesa. What a road! What a place! Stunning to ride and amazing vistas. Handrailing the border to the North we arrived at our nights stop in Viella (just inside Spain). Ditching our tailpacks and kit we went for a rag around on the N-141 taking us back into France, if you don’t know it then get yourself there! Knee down giggles every 3 seconds! Having stopped to take various photos and ease the ache on our jaws from so much smiling and laughter we headed back to the hotel. Showered, changed and went out to feed and water ourselves, again much laughter ensued reliving the days ride and the awe inspiring vistas.

Barca!

Our next waypoint was Barcelona! What could go wrong there? if you have never driven/ridden around Barcelona then let me tell you that it is an expreience, some would say its an adventure in itself! Trying to watch the Sat Nav, keep your mates in sight behind and concentrate on road craft/safety whilst every local on bike, scooter, moto, car and bus is cutting you up going about their extremely cool lives! Stress levels were at DEFCON 5! We eventually found our hotel, shoehorned our way out of our ringing wet leathers, showered, changed and went to find bebidas! the guys treated me to a large one!However, that is not me featured in the photo, i'm far scruffier.