Let´s get this show on the road...

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It seems I´ve hardly started and already 3 weeks of my 6 week trip have gone! Cricky. Better get on with the travelblog...

EXCERT FROM DIARY, 14th OCT 2006, On the Ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao (Spain)

I´m in my cabin nursing a BIG hangover. I supposed to be looking at maps and planning my route through Spain and Africa but my brain just wont work. Oh well. What´s happened so far?

I turned up at Portsmouth with the bike WAY WAY overloaded. As well as ´the essentials´ I have a rubble sack full of food from Sainsburys ´just in case´they dont have any food on the continent. This is ridiculous! I look like a snail with my home on my back! I´m steering like a cow! This is not the kind of sexual bike imagary I wish to protray. Must find a way to trim down.

I turned up at the port and was waved directly to the front of the massive queue waiting to board. Bikes Rock! Got checked out by the other biker dudes as I park up, all of which seem to have virtually zero luggage. How do they do it? Do they not need stuff?! I feel like a greenhorn with insecurity issues. After chatting however it seems one group are broadly on my route, ambling through Spain and into Morocco. And the other are a bunch of Glaswegian pilots! I feel much better. Much more like a character from Easy Rider...

On board the ´mini cruise´ (36 hour crossing, cabin obligatory) I quickly make mates with another lone biker, a paediatric surgeon from South Africa (do bikes develop characters, or do characters ride bikes?). On settling into a comfy seat to watch the Caberet (song and dance from Grease, Abba tomorrow...) we decide that sobriety is a bad thing and promply get hammered. The barman tells us a significant number of the passengers are not actually going to Spain but will drink solidly for 36 hours, get chucked off in Bilbao for 8 hours (to clean the ship), then do it all the way back to Portsmouth! I order another round. At 3am alot of the Brits have pushed off and the Spaniards have appeared from somewhere and swarmed onto the dance floor. FINALLY some good looking women. But why do they think that having a mullet with a short savage fringe is a good look for a girl?

Need to sleep. We dock at 7am tomorrow and I still have no idea where I´m going.

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Photos

My view of the road...
Don´t worry, I wasn´t actually riding at the time

The trimmed down luggage!
This is what I have distilled my luggage down to. The bear essentials. Bear in mind their are two side panniers filled up with cooking stuff and breakdown gear. Not cool

Comments

[Garry Stanton]

Saddle Sores
Hi Adi, glad to see that the bike is being put to good use. I hope that you aren't too saddles sore from all of those miles. Safe biking. Garry

[James Hoy]

Kitchen sink?
What happened to the kitchen sink then? Hope you are having a great time by the way. Everything is good here, the next door neighbours have cut down that fir tree you wanted to get rid of. Apparently women with mullets is in these days:) After reading your comments claire has decided not to get her hair cut. Take care and see you soon, James and Claire

[Gayu]

Biker chicks
Hey, glad to hear you're still alive and haven't abandoned the bike for a more sane mode of transport. There's got to be a lone female biker chick amongst all these "mid-life finding myself" type blokes. Hopefully no crazy mullets involved. GG

[Paul Beere]

Where are you now?
Hi Adi, thanks for link. Sounds like you’re off to a good start and having fun. Are you off the boat yet? or have you succumbed to the charms of the barman on the boat? You need to put up some more photo's so we can see the 'in-between' shots so we can see what’s happening after the 'before' and before the 'after'. And I know exactly what you mean about Spanish woman… I once dated a spaniard who had hair everywhere except where you'd expect it. And like you I forgot to take photos! Write soon...

[Ann Sharratt]

Have big fun!
Hey Adi! What a cool machine [even if a touch overloaded!] - hope you're having big adventures! Enjoy every moment...and look forward to hearing ALL about it when you're home! Ann x