Spoke to Mike at Cardiff Motorad this morning just to bounce my electrical ABS and breaking gremlins off him – thanks Mike (you must dread these expeditions). Arrived in Sorrento yesterday for some R&R – my wife and daughter arrived from Naples at around 7pm, really nice to catch up with them again after time away from home. Planning some additional tours from this base to include the excellent mountain passes at Stigliano and Bellosguardo. Acclimatising to the heat is crucial – even the locals are struggling with mid to high 30’s and 60-70% humidity, sun rises at 4:30 at the moment and its wonderfully cool and clear at that time of the day.
Category Archives: Travel Blogs
Running repairs in Tuscany
Travelling south on the A1 the brake warning lights on the GS started to do their Christmas flashing routine. Pulling over into the shade of the services and musing over a iced tea I checked the bike over – nothing obvious but seemingly voltage related as the lights and GPS are playing up as well. I decided to press on and that night in the shade of the rest stop in Preto I stripped out the CanBus and doubled the power feed to the lights and Sat Nav via the battery charging system. Its amazing what you can achieve with a few lengths of wire and some tape – being confident and familiar with your own bike is the secret – wonder if this would have been possible with a new 1200 (of course 1200 owners might argue their bikes never misbehave) – Day time temperatures are in the mid 30’s at the moment so early morning and late afternoon travel is called for.
Salmon fishing in the Rhone
Excellent days riding today after an inauspicious start – living out of a Touratech pannier requires a certain amount of OCD and my routine of ignition key storage was thwarted last night in the torrential rain with the result this morning of a lost hour trying to find it… only to have it turn up in my waterproof trousers pocket. Managed about 530 Km today and arrived at Voreppe around 18:00. Stopped in the pine forests near Arinthod to each fresh peaches with only the insects for company and hoards of brown and white butterfly’s – looks like the rain is long gone. Met two old fishermen casting for salmon in the icy waters near Lagineu – comparisons with the Usk remain.
Eastern Europe (rain like little knives)
Today started auspiciously enough, turning up like a drowned rat at the P&O port in Dover elicited enough sympathy from the check-in team that they bumped me up to the earlier ferry – just as well considering riding conditions over the Channel. Initially I made good time stopping for mandatory coffee when ever a road side café loomed into the horizon. About 100 miles north of my overnight stop the sky darkened over a period of a few minutes and lightening danced on the horizon north of Troyes. Without a gentle lead into rain the heavens opened and the road became an impassable sea of rocks and mud scattered by oncoming traffic and churned to slurry in the maelstrom – like all good hero’s I took refuge under the canopy of the petrol station and made my way onto Bar Le Duc – its takes a while to get into the rhythm of mileage – tomorrow is a new day and the forecast looks promising.