Author Archives: Gary

About Gary

Over the past four decades I have travelled more than 400,000 miles by motorcycle, while my 2002 BMW R1150GS Adventure has covered more than 260,000 miles of its own. In 2011 I was honoured to be selected by the Ted Simon Foundation as one of the inaugural Jupiter's Travellers, an experience that encouraged me to look beyond the motorcycle itself and focus on the people, places and experiences that make travel so rewarding. Tyclyd is where I share the photographs, stories and memories gathered from a lifetime on two wheels.

Amsterdam Nightlife

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P&O came to fore again and bumped me to an early boat – and riding through Flanders I was struck by the sheer numbers of vivid red poppies growing as far as the eye could see which bought to my mind the the three battles of Ypres. Calling into the town of Ghent for lunch and basking in the shadows of the city’s medieval architecture I got chatting to a couple of BMW riding Dutchmen who recommended a good stopover in Amsterdam so… at the end of day one, I find myself alongside a canal having a beer near Stadhoudersnade in the setting western sunlight with a small plate of hand salted Norwegian smoke salmon for company.

So this is how it starts

 

Final Preparation

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Today is the final preparation day before I leave the UK – back end of August with a rough itinerary and a small handful of cash. Have to say the bike looks a lot better than this now after 2 months of total refurbishment by Mike, couple of minor niggles to get sorted today and after a Sunday panic had the frame section welded on Tuesday… bit last minute for me but learning to just go with the flow… and there are not many MOT stations where you can strip down bits of your own bike and rebuild before they do the test… many thanks to Castle Garage. R1150 GSA March 2013

Goin and The Duke of Lancaster

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On August 10th, 1979, a former Sealink passenger ferry called “The Duke of Lancaster” was beached at Llanerch-y-Mor in North Wales. Until she was converted into a car ferry, many claim she was one of the finest vessels afloat at the time. But perhaps their was a more “protective” reason for her design and installation – what ever you believe, DuDug have recently been repainting her and one of my favourite images is The Council of Monkeys by Goin.

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