Day 1 Sunday May 4th Rochdale to Plymouth 320 miles
We left Rochdale in the dark at 05.00 am to give us plenty of time to board the 16.00 ferry from Plymouth to Santander. It was Sunday May 4th on a bank holiday weekend, and after 45 minutes riding dawn broke and we enjoyed a lorry free journey with good weather. Jackie and I were riding a 385cc Suzuki Bergman Scooter whilst Sandra and David were boasting a far more powerful Kawasaki ZZR1100 D. Despite the difference in performance between the two machines we settled down to a steady 70miles an hour and soon gobbled up the miles. 320 miles later we were in the queue ready to board the 42 tonne Pont-Aven . After a tricky boarding we departed on time and started our 20 hour sail at a top speed of 27 knots.
As a sailor myself I thoroughly enjoyed my time at sea, the refreshing breeze, the crash of the bow wave and the empty horizon. Unfortunately this was not the case for all our party. David started out ok but soon deteriorated as the rocking motion took its toll. He was forced to retire to his seat, another sore point as to keep costs down we had decided against a cabin. After a tour of the ship the remainder of our group returned to our luxury reclining seats to settle down for the night.
Even my optimistic outlook was dampened by a night of slamming doors and snoring strangers, but I found it a fraction more comfy than an plane seat.
Day 2 Monday May 5th Santander to Bilbao 70 miles
We awoke early and the group returned to high spirits as we had a brisk walk round the decks of the ship, a round trip of 400 meters . David kept his breakfast down, and the sight of land and the thrill of riding up the ramp and off the ship with 150 plus other bikes will stay with me for a long time . By 3.00 we were on dry land and looking forward to the 50 miles or so riding to Bilbao. This was my first time abroad on 2 wheels and I was not disappointed , we took the back roads and the scenery in this part of Spain was stunning , my view was confirmed by the large number of walkers and cyclists in the region . Our first night in Spain was spent in a F1 hotel on the outskirts of Bilbao.
I must mention that I was impressed with this budget hotel group , it was basic but everything was adequate and worked and the self-cleaning toilets and showers were brill . The evening was uneventful , we walked round a local shopping center , had a meal and then went to bed knackered.
Day 3 Tuesday May 6th Bilbao- Zaragoza- Teruel 472 km
Breakfast was spent studying the map and planning our route to Teruel a town 200k east of Madrid. David had the use of sat nav but seemed to distrust it . I have never owned one myself and don’t know much about them so I cannot comment on their reliability. I can only draw some conclusions from the constant cursing and threats that were leveled in its direction during the trip. After loading up the bikes we got ready to leave.
To my horror the scooter would not start. I felt sick our first full day, all loaded up and the scooter completely dead. Luckily help was at hand, as a fellow motorcyclist offered us a set of jump leads, he also mentioned that when looking out of his hotel window at 1 o’clock in the morning he saw a faint glow from the scooter taillight. The conclusion was then drawn that some pillock had left the parking lights on.
We were soon burning up the km’s, this was a long day’s ride but I was enjoying it, the roads were good and so quiet compared to the UK. We passed through Zaragoza a name I had heard many times due to its football team. The trip was really underway now, both machines were performing well despite the difference in engine size. We arrived at our hotel hot and tired but feeling very satisfied that we had done our first full day.
Today was the day the trip turned from holiday to adventure. The route now headed towards the coast and picked up the A7/E15 which is the main transport route from France right through to Portugal. There were two reasons for us following this route, the first we had tickets for the Alhambra Palace in Granada, and secondly we wanted to visit the region described in Chris Stewarts book “Driving over Lemons”. An oddball region south of Granada. The downside to this route was the volume of traffic mainly Lorries. Keeping an average speed of 75mph we were constantly overtaking heavy lorries and then having to duck back in between them to make way for tailgating cars travelling at well over 100mph.This was not pleasant driving .
We seemed to take ages to get through Valencia, the scooter had a range of 150 miles and our fuel was low. Sandra and David were in front when the scooter cut out luckily we were in the inside lane and our momentum carried us to the hard shoulder “SHIT”.Lorries were thundering past so we decided to push the scooter back towards a slip road where it was quieter. Our troubles seemed to disappear as we realized we could now use the two triangles we had been carrying, I can’t explain why but it was fun setting them out on the road in the required position. To cut along story short we were eventually saved by the Greenwoods who found us after an hour or so and siphoned fuel from their tank.
This episode added two hours to our journey, we arrived at our destination La Pinilla a small village west of Murcia with just enough energy to shower eat and then sleep.
Day 5 Thursday May 8th Day of Rest
We had two nights at John and Pats , an English couple who had first moved to France found it too cold and moved to this delightful house in the country side near Murcia . Despite non stop rain we enjoyed our stay eating home cooked local food and drinking excellent local wine .
Day 6 Friday May 9th La Pinilla –Granada via Sierra Nevada’s 300km
Ok let’s get this over with. Jackie had passed her motorbike test in August 2006. She drove a few hours on the 2nd day and was fine. She decided to drive today and within an hour the scooter was in a ditch, Jackie was in the back of an ambulance and I had to follow a police car at 90 mph to the hospital on a damaged scooter with no wing mirrors. We came off on a wet slip road whilst accelerating. In the end we were ok Jackie was sore and had a bad friction burn on her shoulder, and we patched the scooter up. I would like to thank the 2 Spanish guys who called the ambulance and helped me retrieve the scooter from the ditch and also the hospital staff.
Once Jackie had been discharged we were back on the road, still with a full days riding to reach Granada. The accident left us all subdued and I can’t remember much about the journey over the highest mountain range in Spain. We did get caught in a storm, driving rain wind and even hailstone but it quickly passed and the skies cleared. We were relieved to reach our destination and once again were pleased with the accommodation, a deceptively large villa on the outskirts of Granada.
Day 7 Saturday 10 th May Alhambra Palace
The Alhambra palace is a world heritage site gets 6000 visitors a day and needs pre booking to avoid lengthy queues. We were pre booked and had an allotted time of 3.30 pm, miss this time and you are not going in. It was difficult not to be impressed though David tried his best .Not knowing much of its history we wished we had selected the option with the taped commentary, maybe next time. I can see us returning to Granada we didn’t have enough time to explore the old town, and there was a cold wind blowing off the mountains. Its was the unpredictable weather that put us off spending another day exploring the “Lemons “ area and we decided to head west the next day for the sun.
Day 8 Sunday 11th May Granada to Sagres a whopping 600km
We were undecided whether to take 1 or 2 days for the rest of the journey, but once we saw signs for Portugal our minds were made up and we kept on going through Seville towards the border. The roads were good and the Lorries had largely disappeared, at times we had the road to ourselves, just how I like it .It had been an ambition to drive the scooter to our apartment in Portugal and we were nearly there.
We have now had time to reflect on the trip, the highs and lows make for a memorable time , Jackie a more reluctant adventurer than myself can now add this adventure to her, sky diving , trekking in the Atlas mountains , lost up crinkle crags , and a night of misery on the highest campsite in England.
