The Beginning. Plymouth to San Vincente D L Barquera

I arrived at Torquay from Leo another red supporter who lives in Bournemouth. The bike had been left at Garys for a couple of days and after a sandwich I set off in the dark for Dartmouth and an overnight stop.
Before I left I tried to tax the bike but couldn't due to DVLA not recognising the registration or the document number. I knew I would get stopped by the police for no tax but had no option but to continue. The bike was already playing up and it seemed to take forever to get the short distance to the small ferry across into Dartmouth. I was in Dartmouth last year on another ride and knew there was a good shelter there with 24 hour toilets and free showers. 4 pints of Guinness in the pub that is the location for the filming of the Onedin Line and I settled down in my 5 star shelter, only to be woken at 1 am by the police.
Are you not bothering about Road Tax they asked. Amazingly they believed my story even though they found the bike registered to me on their computer. They were so nice they even suggested I slept in the shower area as it was a cold night.
Up early to a blue sky, but yet again I broke down after fuelling up. The problems with a two stroke, with the oil in the petrol, is it seems to sink to the bottom of the tank and straight to the carb. I stripped the carb down and was off and even made it to Plymouth for 11 am for a 4.30 sailing.
It wasn´t long before I was joined by the big boys on their 1000 cc bikes. All of whom seemed quite happy talking to themselves and left me alone.

Leaving Plymouth on a beautiful day for a gentle cruise to Santander

The ferry to Santander was fantastic but sleeping rough was more comfortable than the cabin I had to have and was 50 quid cheaper. However the Bay of Biscay was astonishingly flat and a full moon out made it feel like I was on a fortnights cruise.

There was entertainment too from an Elvis tribute singer and I have to say he sounded pretty authentic , but physically only his waistline was a likeness.

There are only so many times you can walk around the deck of the ferry and I was trying to avoid spending any reserve cash on food as I was expecting to break down often on the route.

It was particurlarly agony the next morning watching everyone tuck into their full English but I soon spotted a few hash browns left overs which I sidled up to and devoured with gusto in case the people came back to the table.

Land was soon in sight and time was spent smoking the Gaulloise that I
bought at the bar and trading them for roll ups off other passengers.

Approaching Santander with the Picos de Europa just visible

It was exciting seeing Spain and knowing the ride was about to begin in earnest. I spent lots of time talking to other people who were making a dash across Spain to their holiday homes or people returning to their native home such as the lad from Lisbon who was returning to his fathers after living in Birmingham for a time.
There were other bikers too just off for a lst ride of the year around the North of Spain.
It took an eternity to arrive at Santander harbour and after returning to the bike we were the last to disembark due to being in the bowels of the boat.
But at last I had got the Derbi back on home land for a great adventure and was so excited at what may be laying in wait for us.
I eventually left the ferry at 13.30 and after stopping for tobacco in Santander and the inevitable plug failures and replacing I was underway.

The day was sunny and warm and it took a while to get out of Santander and onto the coast road. I mentioned the problems of finding the lanes rather than the motorways and today was no different. But i succeeded in the end and finished on a traffic free route along the coast towards Llanes

I was hoping to make Llanes but eventually settled for San Vincente D L Barquera, a small fishing port with a spectacular backdrop of the Picos de Europa.

My first consideration before anything else is to find an area where I can sleep for the night. Tonight was not going to be an exception no matter how spectacular the scenery in the background appeared.

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You have to agree though that this is one great bedroom location. I woke here with two dogs barking at me, from a distance I add, but they were harmless and were just doing their territorial exploration for the day.

The only disadvantage to this location was that the bar was too far away and so too the toilets that I needed.

A view of the Picos de Europa from the bridge by the quay






This view I photographed the evening before and is so beautiful. It was not the original destination or route for my second days ride but as Llanes proved difficult to reach with the motorway signs I decided to venture into the mountains.