
Ride Spain & Portugal: places we see & people we meet Part 1
Regular readers will know I have been travelling on my motorbikes for a good number of years, and for the last 20 or so have done some terrific European Trips. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I was getting ready for this year’s trip – to Spain and Portugal. This particular trip had the very simple name of RT24b – which is derived from the Road Trip being in 2024 and it being the second trip of the year. The first had been another trip to Ireland at the end of July.
Where was I heading?
The general plan was to head across the Pico mountains, down through Portugal and on to the town of Ronda in Spain. I planned to stay in a few places on the way there and spend three nights in Ronda. I had decided on Ronda largely on account of its location. It really is ideally situated to a number of excellent roads in that part of Andalusia.
After that I planned to head east, towards Granada and Almeira again staying in one or two places on the way. Then finally I planned to head north towards Ubeda and Avila then back into the Pico mountains before heading back to Santander and the long ferry journey home.
As I have said, Ronda really did seem a good place to stay, as I was keen to ride the A397 that runs from Ronda down towards Marbella on the Mediterranean coast.
I was there last year
Last year I had stayed in the remarkable caved town of Setenil de las Bodegas (a dozen miles from Ronda). Setenil is certainly worth a visit, some people visit it as part of the ‘white village’s tours’. It’s quite a sight with its unique white washed houses built into the cliffs underneath boulders and overhanging rocks.
I had stayed there before
I had stayed there a couple of days in 2023 and taken the A397 down to Marbella which was superb. The only issue was that I had ridden it on a Sunday which wasn’t the best day – local riders/weekend traffic etc. Heading that way to do the A397 again provided a bit of a focus for this trip.
Different trip, same old shirt
For more than the last 20 years every road trip has started with me wearing the same shirt. It’s become a tradition that I’ll keep going for as long as possible. As you might expect the shirt has long since passed its best and has been repaired a few times – but it still does the job. There are some pictures below of the old shirt in previous days (and with me looking a little fresher and more youthful)
No right or wrong …
I don’t suppose there is any right or wrong way to travel – the right way has to be the one that works best for you. Over the years I have pretty much worked out what I must take along with what I ought to take and generally I tend to pack and travel pretty light.
I think it makes it so much easier at overnight stops to load and unload the bike, quite apart from the simple waste of time of over packing. Of course there is no perfect way, but I must be honest and say that sometimes I really do scratch my head and wonder at just how much some bikers take with them.
Travelling light
You can pretty much see what I take in the pictures below. The items on the garage floor include: waterproofs, spare gloves, a few tools, chain and a disc lock. These have to fit under the seat and in the small Kriega pack that stays on my seat.
The chain lube and tyre slime gets fastened to the frame of the bike using cable ties. My clothing, documents etc. have to fit into a 40L top box. My camera and bits and pieces that I need quick access to fit in my tank bag.
You can see the totality of my luggage in the second picture.
Off we go
I was away from home by mid-morning on the Saturday, but wasn’t going directly to Plymouth.
As with last year I had decided to break my journey with an overnight stay in Mudford at the Half Moon Inn and just a few miles from Yeovil.
Part of the thinking was that if the weather was bad breaking the journey would leave me with just about 95 miles or so and less than two hours to the ferry port.
New tyres
It was the first time out on the new tyres that I had fitted at MW Motorcycles the previous week (see this post).
Although the run to the south coast is pretty much a dull and boring motorway slog I did the first 30 miles or so through some Cheshire back roads to get the tyres nicely bedded in.
I had opted for Bridgestone T32’s which went on to prove to be a great choice on the F900XR
Pretty routine but …
The journey down to my accommodation was routine for the most part, with reasonable weather and with tempertaures around 21/22c.
The Garmin XT sat nav was indicating what looked to be significant delays on the M5 with a road closure and diversion, which seemed a good cue to stop for a coffee.
As good chance would have it a Traffic Officer stopped as I sipped my coffee and I checked the delay with him.
Sadly it seemed a horse had got loose (you can read the story here) and was going to need to be sedated before it could be put back into its horsebox – he was waiting for the vet to arrive.
I asked his advice about an alternative route and he suggested that if I finished my drink and got on my way within a couple of minutes I would get through any delays quickly and before he put a full motorway closure in place! I didn’t need to think long about that one.
Good accommodation
My accommodation at the Half Moon Inn was good and with excellent service and secure bike parking. I was happy to be staying there again. On the downside the weather forecast for the morning journey to the ferry port was looking pretty dismal.
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through.
Can it rain even harder than this?
The weather for the first hour of my run down to Plymouth was beyond dismal and I was so glad that I had decided to break the journey the previous day with the overnight in Mudford.
Thankfully by the time I got to Plymouth it had stopped raining but I was so wet that I called into a Morrisons car park to dry my hands and change gloves so as to be able to handle my tickets etc at the port. Check in was straightforward, security was pretty rigorous as you might reasonably expect (including checking the undersides of bikes with a mirror).
Sunday morning and ferry boarding picture gallery
There is a series of pictures in the next picture gallery from Sunday morning, including some that sort of show the ‘process’ at Plymouth.
I know from questions I have had that many riders making their first ferry crossing are unsure of how it all works and have plenty of questions about the bikes being strapped down – hopefully this will help a little.
One thing I would suggest is that you get a couple of photos of your bike once it’s strapped down, just in case it’s a rough crossing and any bikes go over – evidence of before and after will make light work of a claim for damages.
So many bikes
As ever the variety of bikes heading out on the ferry was fascinating. There were a couple heading for a few weeks camping on a fully loaded 2 litre Harley Davidson, there was an old boy heading out to the Piston Rally on his old purple bike that he had owned since 1965 (when he had bought used for £10) . His bike stood on the docks complete with a petrol leak that when mixed with the rain water on the ground matched well with the paintwork on his bike.
Oops
There was another guy on a KTM enduro style bike who was heading for 10 days of off road riding but had got his booking mixed up (wrong port and wrong year … really) but the ferry company had been able to sort him out on this ferry (albeit a day late for him) and for an additional premium of £250.
He had intended to go to Bilbao rather than Santander but at least he had got a sailing – although no cabin and just a chair for the crossing (not something I would do to be honest)
Good call
I had decided to book myself a four berth cabin, with TV and tea and coffee. In my opinion the extra cost is pretty marginal for the extra comfort and I was glad that I had booked such a cabin.
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through.
It’s only a game but it’s a small world
It’s true that football is only a game, but it’s a sport I enjoy and the downside of this particular sailing was that it clashed with the Manchester City v Arsenal game. Had I not been on this trip I would have been at the Etihad in Manchester. As it happened I had transferred my ticket to my wife and I settled down to watch it on the live stream on-board the Pont Aven.
As chance would have it the person I sat next to was also a biker, was a Manchester United fan and was biking down to Lisbon for a meet up with his two sons who lived and worked there and his wife (who was scheduled to fly into Lisbon a couple of days later),
… and the thing about the small world
Happily John and I got on well, shared a couple of beers, and swapped a few bike stories and bike plans whilst keeping an eye on the game.
Things got a little bit weird as we chatted – it turned out that John had the same name (surname as well) as my wife’s brother in law, had lived in Leyland (Lancashire) where I was born and now lived in Preston (where I once lived).
Not only that, but John has a family member with the (uncommon) middle name of Anselm …. the same as my late fathers middle name!
We swapped contact details and kept in touch during our respective trips. I’ll come back to that later in this series of blog posts.
Oh and the game finished 2-2 with City scoring the latest of late equalisers. That left me happy as I headed back to my cabin and a decent night’s sleep.
Part 2 -off the ferry and onto Ojedo
You can go directly to Part 2 with this link
Nice write up. Shame about the weather on the way to the port.