A Game Of Three Halves - A Ride Report

[Deleted account W]

I had a lay in, in a bed full of crisps and a nasty coke and Jim Beam spillage stain. The room looked liked some teenagers had had a party in it.

Even worse was the bathroom, the shower curtain had obviously got in my way at some point and now lay in the bath and the toilet seat was broke. No, I have no idea either but I also had a bruise on my leg?

So I fled the crap hotel in search of the France I’d been enjoying previously.

I found it soon enough and had coffee and pastries at a fine café.

I ploughed on with a monster hangover stopping for lots of coffees and a picnic lunch.

I didn’t need to be at Roscoff for my ferry until 10pm so I took a long route around the Brittany coast, this was a nice spot called Pointe de St Mathieu.

As it was I still got to Roscoff for 6pm so I wandered around the port. I rode to the end of a pier and watched the fishermen tossing about on their boats.

They let us board at 10pm and I found my cabin, I passed out instantly. I’d finished the middle bit.

The last bit started tomorrow. Bring it on

 

[MacFarlane]

Superb report, especially the photies of the Pro Action Hike Lite 1 Person tent!

Itchy feet from Northumberland

 

[Buz]

Excellent report so far, cant wait for the final instalment

 

[Aidan1150]

A great report in the classic Whatton stylee.

 

[STUBBS]

great writ up cant wait for part 3

 

[Deleted account W]

The last bit started badly. The inconsiderate bastards at Brittany ferries decided to play their “wake up happy campers” tune over the speakers in the cabins at 5:15 am, even though we weren’t due to dock until 6:30 am. They played this cheesy plingy plongy medley every 2 minutes.

I got up with a grumpy head on and mumbled onto the deck. Nice sky over Plymouth though.

The restaurant was opening for breakfast, which explained the early alarm, and they got six and a half francs off me for some vulcanized scrambled egg and bacon shaped cardboard.

Another peek at old blighty on the deck then off down to get back on the bike.

I got discharged out of the hold at 7am into a long nasty queue for immigration control. I managed to filter to the front and then had a bit of a frank discussion with a camper van owner about the morals of queue jumping and Englishness.

I had till 2pm to get to Fishguard in South Wales for my ferry to Ireland. This got done easily apart for a bit of “queue jumping” at road works during the last bit.

While sat waiting to board another GS rolled up and I recognised the rider. David from Istanbul who I’d met last year on the Turkey Trot. We swapped European road tales and then boarded with another GS rider and his son called Terry.

On the ferry David made a friend of Curious George the monkey. We had a debate about whether he could be classed as a monkey as he hadn’t got a tail.

The 100 miles from Rosslaire to Tipperary flew by and we made the hotel for half eight. Time for beers and bullshit.

This travelling lark is a piece of piss

 

[Deleted account W]

On Saturday the rideouts gathered and then left without me in tow. I went to the campsite to listen to Flash of the Gap snoring in his tent for a while then pottered into Tipperary town.

There’s not a lot to it really, after walking the length of the high street twice and buying another clean tee shirt from a hippy shop ran by a mad English woman I returned to get Flash out of his tent. It was 1pm after all.

A statue of Jesus stood on the hill overlooking the Glen and they’d kindly labelled it so there could be no confusion over who he was.

A sign also let you know its details and cost, you can’t really put a price on salvation though can you?

After dragging him out of his wank sack, Flash and myself wandered up the road to a closed pub and then back down the road to an open one.

The rideouts returned, we dined, we raffled, we bid on auction items, we drank and I went to bed to watch an episode of “Upstairs Downstairs” on Irish satellite TV.

Adventure Motorcycling at it’s most extreme

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

You at least could have shown a picture of this Christ so i'd know him if i met him in a bar

 

[Deleted account W]

I was first down for breakfast on Sunday and then packed and away with a plan to do the little road thing again. I was heading for Flash’s house in Wicklow for the night.

At a small town I was waiting to turn right at a crossroads and on the other side of the road were a load of old bikes and their owners stood outside a pub.

One of the chaps shouted at me to join them for a drink while they watched the tractors. Not being able to resist this unique invitation I pulled over and joined them.

So I stood there and watched a procession of old tractors trundle by while we talked about bikes and farm machinery.

The tractors were great but the people driving them were even better, a great hour was spent shouting and cheering them as they past us.

This little truck had a chap in it who must have weighed more than the truck itself.

When it was over I took a few photos of the bikes, this one being my favourite.

I swapped addresses with Brendon, the guy with the big beard and offered to put any of them up if they ever came over to the UK. Fine fellows.

I made it to Wicklow at teatime and we went out for a fish and chip supper then onto Tutty’s Bar for after dinner drinks.

I love this bar.

In the morning Flash and his very understanding wife cooked a wonderful full Irish breakfast for us. Indecisive and Shapeshifter had also benifitted from their stunning hospitality.

We mounted up and headed for the Dublin ferry, my 6th port and third ferry in three days.

At the port Indecisive had a bit of a worry when they told him he should have been on the ferry the day before and this one was full but after a call to Nutt Travel they eventually let him on. “Why is it always me?” He wondered.

Shapeshifter just smiled and winked at me.

And that was more or less it; a blast down past Betsy-Cowed and then a thrash across the A50 saw me home in time for tea with my lovely assistant. The last bit was over.

Four thousand, four hundred miles of little roads, big roads and happy encounters.

I had a ball in three of our nearest European countries and dare I say it a little bit of an adventure. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.



Roll on next year

 

[Coolcarbon]

Great stuff, cheers Kev....

 

[Deleted account rno]

Merci Beaucoup pour taking us en votre adventure

 

[Deleted Member I]

Great stuff! What an adventure!

What about the greatest find in 40something years?

 

[Deleted account W]

What about the greatest find in 40something years?

Ohh yes, big cold bottles of Guinness, a revelation. Far better than than draught stuff

 

[SamD]

Great report

 

[MikeP]

Normal service has been resumed.

Excellent read.

Thanks.

(If I'd known you were landing in Plymouth, you could have called round for breakfast).

 

[Timolgra]

Great trip report Kev

 

[neil 23]

Really enjoyed reading that Kev, great stuff !

 

[Keith Chapman]

Thanks Kev, I enjoyed that, another day on ukGSer rather than working

 

[cherokee]

COOL

Thanx for sharing that........Great read.

 

[wully]