Hello all,

As the title suggests, i have started (well, on the 20th of May) my round the world trip. Like a lot of people posting on here, i'm travelling solo.

I have started a bot of a blog to keep a track of my travels, the website for this is www.theferaltraveller.com and ive been posting pictures on Instagram under the_feral_traveller , feel free to check them out if you're interested.

I'll past the first post or two in here and add them in periodically...

So take yourself back to May 20th...

Travel, remember that? Leaving the house and going somewhere just because you felt like it…

Like most of the UK (and world), I’m sat at home right now dreaming of times where leaving the house just because you wanted to, wasn’t as socially unacceptable as dropping a fart in a lift.

A large part of the reason for my time spent reminiscing about days of care free travel, is that I handed in my notice at work in the middle of November 2019, 3 months of notice to be exact. Then, from mid-February I would spend six weeks finalising my house sale, selling the remainder of my belongings and sorting my affairs before riding my motorbike round the world. My ferry to Spain was booked for March 31st.

You would be correct in assuming this has not gone exactly according to plan.

At a time when I had expected to have been riding round Spain and Portugal for 5 weeks and considering leaving Spain via the Pyrenees and popping into Andorra, I have in fact, not moved an inch. My initial plan was to get the ferry to Spain, head straight for the mountains and wild camp while moving slowly towards Portugal, sort of like below:



I had been holding out hope for the six weeks since my first ferry was cancelled that the Ferries would start again, the first round of cancellations ran until mid-April, I decided that I would err on the side of caution and only book a ferry for after the dates that the EU said the internal Schengen region border restrictions would be lifted, which was the 15th of May, so I booked for 17th May. Keeping an eye on the Brittany Ferries website I noticed that the late April and early May ferries had now also been cancelled, the new date bookings were being taken from was 15th May in line with the EU’s statements on internal borders.

At this point I was feeling rather smug, I’d done my research and felt like I was ahead of the game. Brittany Ferries then cancelled all ferries to Europe before June 1st. I was not ahead of the game; I was stabbing in the dark like everyone else.

Now, I appreciate that the Coronavirus pandemic is serious and that we all need to do our bit to slow its spread and, as we keep getting told, flatten the curve but this doesn’t change the levels of frustration felt when the dates travel will be allowed to resume, keep drifting further and further towards the horizon.

As a backup plan I had been keeping an eye on other routes out of the UK and through Europe, was there a way to start my trip without the use of the ferry to Spain?

Passenger ferries form the UK run to a number of places within continental Europe, these include France, Spain and the Netherlands. A quick google will let you know that the Netherlands has the least restrictive Coronavirus related lockdown measures of the 3 of these countries and in fact the ferries haven’t stopped operating at all during this pandemic.

I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

I’ve now booked a ferry to the Netherlands, what happens from there is anyone’s guess. I will need to be doing a lot of wild camping as hotels and other forms of accommodation will be closed, but this is OK with me and was always part of the plan. I will no doubt be restricted in where I can go and when but keeping abreast of the news will hopefully allow me to enter countries as their borders re-open.

I will of course be respecting each countries rules and restrictions but as most of Europe are weeks ahead of the UK right now, it makes sense to me to get across to Europe as soon as possible.

With current events as they are, I have had the same thing said to me countless times since Coronavirus, Covid-19, call it what you want emerged, ‘wouldn’t you be better off leaving this trip until next year’, and, ‘aren’t you worried about traveling while the virus is still around’. The short answers are no and, no. The slightly longer answer is, you will always be able to find a reason not to do something and you can’t panic and abort every time your plans take a knock. I do appreciate this is a fairly large knock, but it can still be worked around.

This pandemic will, without a doubt, change the nature of my trip. It will alter where I’m able to go and how I’m able to interact with people once I get there, but this doesn’t have to be seen as a bad thing. I will be visiting countries as they emerge from a once in a generation (we hope) event that has changed the way sections of societies interact with each other. I’ll be seeing the world in a way I perhaps won’t be able to see it again in my lifetime, regardless of how this turns out, it will certainly be interesting. This may not be the adventure I planned but it will be an adventure none the less.

So, time to get going...

When I was sat at home dreaming of this trip, a part of it, and quite a large part was centered around wild camping. As anyone who’s participated in a bit of wild camping will (or should) know, its technically illegal in a lot of places. For the most part though its overlooked as long as you adhere to the golden rule of wild camping, and that rule is this:

Don’t be a dick.

Now that seems like an easy rule to follow which is why its baffling that so many people get it sooooo wrong! The age old saying of ‘take nothing but memories (or pictures nowadays) and leave nothing but footprints’ covers most of it.

If you’ve read the ‘Traveling during Covid-19’ post, which can be found ‘here’ you’ll know that the original plan was to take the ferry to Spain and spend some time camping in the mountains in the north while heading towards Portugal.

In steps a global pandemic, its all goes to pot and I’m looking for other options.

Sweden, they have taken a very different approach to the Coronavirus pandemic than the rest of Europe, I’m not going to get into a debate about whether its right or not but I’m certainly happy to take advantage of their open borders.

The UK to Netherlands border remained open and the Germans had stood down their border in the northern regions bordering the Netherlands, this seemed like as good a time as any to start making tracks.

Its worth noting that Sweden also take a different approach to wild camping, they’re all for it, and the swedes bloody love it!

Day 1
So the date is the 20th of May, I’ve packed up my bike, said goodbye to my girlfriend, Char, and left Coventry, first stop, the magical town of Harwich. OK, so it may not be described as magical but it’s letting me leave the country so I’m pretty fond of Harwich for now.

I had a Stena line sleeper ferry booked for the Netherlands (which for the record is great!) with the aim of riding straight from the Hook of Holland port to Rostock in Germany for the overnight ferry to Sweden, it’s about 705km of motorway riding on a 250cc motorbike, you would be correct in thinking that’s a shit day out.

Day 2
None the less it got done fairly uneventfully, with the exception of being about as close to running out of fuel as I have ever been (without actually running out) on the German Autobahn, I’d underestimated how much fuel a tiny engine uses when trying to plow into a head wind and maintain motorway speed. When I got to the petrol station, I managed to get 9.7 liters into a 10.1 liter tank. That 400ml of fuel would have been good for another 5 miles or so in those conditions so maybe I could have cracked on a little longer.

So next is the ferry to Sweden, a cabin wasn’t mandatory on this ferry as it was on the previous so I didn’t bother, got some sleep on a chair and arrived in a slightly less fresh state than I arrived in the Netherlands.

Day 3
I arrive in Sweden, nobody checks my passport, I just ride straight off the ferry and into town. Brilliant.

This is as far as my ‘last min change of plan’ planning had got, I was now in Sweden with no idea what I was going to do next. A healthy dose of ‘winging it’ should suffice.

I pick a random spot on the coast and head to it, that doesn’t seem too productive, so I decide to head a little north and join the Trans Euro Trail for a while.

If you haven’t heard of it before, the Trans Euro Trail, or TET, is a network of over 50,000km of trails that run round Europe. The aim of them is to stay off road for as much as possible, if roads are needed the smaller the better. You can find out more ‘here‘.



So I sit on the TET for a fair few hours until I feel like I should probably start looking for a place to camp. My mum had told me about an app that campervaners (I don’t think that’s a word) use to record and log places to stop for a night. They can be carparks, laybys or in a lot of cases out the way little spots that you would have had to have spent ages searching for. If you’re interested the app is called park4night, ill put a link ‘here’.

With my new found app in hand I find a little spot by a lake, when I get there its really off the beaten track, if a big camper made it there I’m pretty sure they’d just have a living space full of smashed plates that had fallen out of their cupboards as it was damn rough.

I pitched my tent 10 feet from the water and cooked up a delicious noodley treat, day three was a winner!



Day 4
I start the day with a wash in the lake, good start.

I then decide im going to head over to an island off the east coast called Oland, but with the a pair of these fellas “ above the O.

The weathers changed a little now, its cold and wet, not raining, just spitting and, well the best way to describe the weather would be ‘shit’.

It takes a fair few hours to get to Oland, not a fun ride being cold. I’m also starting to get a little bored of the scenery (I have a very short attention span). Its lovely, its just the same, every house looks the same, red with white corners, some may be painted yellow, a couple white, I saw a grey one but I imagine the owners of that house were hauled into the town square and burnt as witches. Red, if your Swedish, your house is red.

Once in Oland I use the faithful app again to find a nice little field that’s left open for people to camp in. The app does let me adown a little here as there is mention of a toilet, that toilet doesn’t exist and the field is very exposed and there are a few other vans kicking about. I solve this dilemma by digging an en-suite in the porch of my tent.

Now, I was as apprehensive as I imagine you are reading this about the prospect of having a shit in my own tent but needs must! If I’m honest I was expecting to have to move my tent along if my en-suite was needed. In reality, putting soil on top worked a treat, like a long drop with a very tiny drop. Crisis averted, tent en-suite invented, created and trialed!



Day 4 wasn’t the best, time to sleep and move on.

Day 5
I decide to spend a little time planning what im going to do next, Sweden has the largest lake in the European union, Lake Vänern, I should probably go have a paddle in that.

It turns out that’s quite a trek for one day so I decide to split it in half, I have a group call with some friends in the evening so decide to treat myself to some accommodation with some Wifi.

Accommodation found (AirBnB), I head west, rejoin the TET and start north to my digs for the night, the TET got a little more fun, more muddy, more roots, more off-roading rather than gravel roads, I imagine it gets better still the further north you go.

Group call had, lots of laughs had, video call with Girlfriend after, lots more laughs had, bed time.

Day 6
On day 6 I had a fairly short stint to the lake, I got there in no time, I’d left the TET behind now so was on the road. With the help of trusty app again I found a great spot for the night. I did have to pop back into town as the Oxfod USB charger I had fitted to my bike broke. I had only used it for the previous 5 days so I’m a little peeved about that. Luckily, I had a cigarette style charger port fitted also so I popped into town to grab an adaptor and I was good to go.

See camping spot below:





Lake Vanern is great, and massive, I got the drone out to take some pics, being 87 miles across it obviously just looks like an ocean.



Day 7
In what seems to be the style of this trip so far, and if I’m honest, how I hope it continues, I wake up and start to think about where I’m going to go next. I come to the conclusion that I should go to the coast, I pick a random town on the east coast called Smogen, pack my tent and head west.

Smogen is a great little town, I wandered round it for a little while, took one picture because I’m shit at remembering to take more and got the ever faithful app out again.



This time the app plays a blinder, it takes me about 45 mins from Smogen to a little cove that has a tiny patch of grass which is perfect for camping on. That may not sound like a big deal but most of that area is bear rock so a nice patch of grass right next to the cove was great to find.





Set up camp just in time to see the following sun set.


Not bad ey!

Day 8
Time for a lazy morning, all this getting up at whatever time I like and doing whatever takes my fancy had not at all worn me out so I think I deserved a rest!

First course of action is to take a bath in the sea, I promptly stand on what looks like an Oyster….it is an Oyster. The whole shore is littered with them, just wander around at knee depth and pick them up. Which is exactly what I did. Wild camping and foraging, this has tuned out to be a brilliant spot so I decide I’m not moving!





It’s this spot that made me think of the main rule of wild camping, people seem unable to follow it here. I carry a spade on my bike so if you’re in a van you certainly can. If you pop into the woods for a pee you will find many a surprise waiting for you. Like the rhyme goes, ‘if you go down to the woods today you’re sure to be in for a surprise’, it just wont be a teddy bears picnic, it’ll be a dirty big turd covered in toilet paper. Dirty bastards!

Little surprises aside, this has been by far the best camping location to date. Sweden has become epic again!

I’ll stop this post here as I’ve no doubt lost both readers by this point.

Feel free to add your email on the right in the ‘Subscribe’ section for the next update.



Soooo, obviously that last line is cut from my blog so you would need to go there to subscribe if interested in following along.

I have another post about the reasons i chose the CRF250 Rally which may be of interest to some on here.

Cheers,
Mike

Great stuff Mike, please keep posting!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Enjoy reading about your ride. Thanks

You're having WAY too much fun, you bugger.

__________________
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Day 9

Unlike most days so far, I actually wake up with a plan. A mate of mine has worked in Gothenburg and raved about the city, so that’s the destination.

As much as I like camping, while in cities I’ll be staying in cheap accommodation. So I’ve booked a single room in a Hostel in Gothenburg. I choose my accommodation by looking on a search engine and sorting price low to high. As long as none of the recent reviews of the top result report any murders, they’ve got themselves a customer.

For anyone’s that’s interested, I stayed at Gothenburg Mini-Hotel. It was £21 for a single room for the night with a shared bathroom, can’t whinge at that. It was clean, had a bed and TV, for the money I cant ask for more.

Stuff dumped in the room, it’s time for a wander. My mate was right, Gothenburg is awesome! It may be in part due to the main comparison being locked down UK where the streets are dead and the atmosphere is non-existent. Either way, the streets are busy and the architecture is great. There’s a real cafe and outdoor bar culture. The other main appeal is that there seems to be a lack of the usual city dwelling pretentious pricks, everyone seems relaxed and friendly!

During my trip i really wanted to get into photography. For this reason I head back to the hostel for an early night.

Day 10

An early morning follows. I head back to the places i tagged on Google maps the day before and take the following:









Time to leave!

As Sweden was never really on the plan, its been a little rushed. I’ll definitely be going back though.

I start to head south towards the Danish border, with the use of Park4night again i find a beach that the locals will tolerate you camping on and pitch up for the night.



Day 11

Sneaking into Denmark

My original plan to leave Sweden was to take the ferry back to Germany. Like many, I had not fully understood the Danish border restrictions.

Luckily for me though I met a German biker on the ferry, he had a plan to ride through Sweden, Denmark and back home. When I asked how he planned to enter Denmark he said that as he was transiting home, it counted as a ‘worthy cause’ to enter Denmark.

With this in mind I booked a refundable ferry ticket back to the UK for a weeks time and headed to the Danish border.

The ride from Sweden to Denmark is awesome, you cross a massive bridge that touches down on an artificial island between the two countries where it turns into a tunnel. I was tempted to bust out the drone for a picture of the bridge but didn’t think this would ingratiate myself too well with the Danish police that are pulling every motorist over on said little island for questioning.

I arrive at the police check point, explain I’m off home and showed my ticket. The police officer seems pleased with this and she sends me on my way…I’m in Denmark!

Arrived in Denmark

While in Denmark i decide to ride the Danish TET. I pull over after an hour or so for some food, thoroughly unimpressed with the Danish section of the TET. Its about 5% dirt and the rest is roads, almost doesn’t seem worth it.

Meeting other bikers

While eating two bikes pull up behind me in a car park, they had spotted me on foreign plates and pulled over for a chat. They turned out to be Alice and Henriette, two Danish ladies that pass their time riding dirt bikes. Henriette has done her fair share of traveling on a bike, check out her website, fortheloveofwheels.com.

As we’re all riding the Danish TET we decide to carry on as a trio. After Henriette wanders off route we end up at one of her friends small holdings eating koldskål, which, translates to Cold Bowl. As you might be able to guess, it was cold and served in a bowl. The Danish are not an inventive bunch when it comes to naming stuff!





Meeting new and interesting people on route is one of the great things about traveling, hopefully many more encounters like this to come! Thanks again guys for your hospitality!

Finding a camp spot

After leaving the guys at their friends small holding I head for another spot I’ve found on my faithful app and pitch up on the coast just in time for another awesome sunset.



Day 12

This is the second day i wake up with a plan, hopefully this wont start being ‘a thing’!

I’m going to make some good progress today, head down through the rest of Denmark and back through Germany to the Netherlands. I’m not planning on doing any sight seeing in Germany. Northern Germany doesn’t hold much appeal for me (sorry Germans). I lived in hamburg for 8 months after I graduated so I’d prefer to spend my time in places I haven’t been able to explore before.

Getting through the German border was fairly straightforward. I use the same story I used at the Danish border only this time the police officer isn’t so interested to see documents.

Once through the border I pull over and cancel my ferry ticket, its done its job!

After that its many hours of riding through Germany to get over the border and set up camp in a little woods. Not much else to say about that!

Day 13

Back in the Netherlands and time to slow down a little, I’m meeting my girlfriend Char in Amsterdam in a few days and its not far away.

If you’re going to do nothing for a day, there’s no better place than a beach, so I pack up camp and look for a beach near by. Luckily in the Netherlands there’s a fair few lake and canal beaches.



That’ll do!

I’m not going to lie, very little happened for the rest of the day!

After I decided to take my traditionally sun burnt British body away from the beach it was time to find a camp. I find some sand dunes on Google maps surrounded by a forest and head for that.

It turns out that these sand dunes are miles of sandy tracks surrounded by forest, what a find! After an hour or so of riding round these trails i find a spot to camp.



Day 14

Being the tourist

When in the Netherlands, what should you look at…windmills of course. Time to be a complete tourist and Google ‘best windmills in the Netherlands’. Turns out, there’s a lot! Keeping focused around Amsterdam I decide to head to The windmills at Kinderdijk. These bad boys are an UNESCO world heritage site which I assume means they’re good?!

So I’m heading west with google maps set to follow the dyke along the river Lek. If you’re in the Netherlands and want a good way to see the country, I can highly recommend you follow a dyke for a while. I’m normally a mountain lover but flat has never looked so good!

To YouTube or not to YouTube

After a short break at a river side beach to top up my lobster tan, I get to the windmills. At this point I bump into a couple of guys riding awesome retro motocross bikes. After a while chatting it turns out that one of the guys is a British chap called named Graeme who is a travel vlogger. He has a YouTube channel with his wife called ‘Babe, where’s my passport?‘. Go and check these guys out, what a life they lead!

This made me think, maybe a YouTube channel would be a good idea!

After Graeme and his father in law had headed off, I wandered into the windmill site to take some pictures:



Back to camping

As has become part of the daily schedule now, it was time to find a campsite again. This time I knew where I was going, I’d seen a great little patch of grass just below the Dyke next to the Lek river.

I get there and cook some dinner. As i start to think about putting the tent up a couple of Dutch chaps rock up for a nights fishing. We get chatting and they’re fishing for eels, apparently they’re illegal to fish for but really good so they head there a couple of times a year.

As I’m not the fishing police I leave them to their evening and get the tent up.

I’ll leave it there, feel free to add your email to the subscribe section on the right.

All links are available on the blog itself if you're interested.

Next blog post, Amsterdam, Luxembourg and sneaking into France

Cheers for reading,
Mike

Blog - The Feral Traveller - My solo round the world motorcycle trip

Instagram - the_feral_traveller

Great posts, many thanks.
Please keep posting your journey - don’t be like so many on here and just fade away.

Are you still out there?
No updates on blog for a few weeks.

Nor on his website, I was wondering the same thing.

__________________
You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

Sorry, been a little distracted in Spain!

Here's the latest! (if you would like links to work, you'll need to go to my blog)

SPAIN, JUST SPAIN!…. AND PORTUGAL

Rather than break this bit up into days, I’m going to split it into chunks. As you’ll know from ‘Travel during Covid-19‘, it was always my plan to start my trip in Spain.

This was in part to visit one of my mates who lives on the south coast for a couple of weeks, almost like a little holiday really. You know, before you spend a long time on holiday, you need a little holiday, right?

Anyway, I didn’t start in Spain so I’ll get back to the point.

Soooo, I’m in France, its day 33, I’ve skipped a couple of days as they just involved hanging around in France waiting for border to Spain to open.

Below is right next to the camp site I was at in France. As you can see it wasn’t really a hardship hanging round for a while, it was just an annoyance because I HAD to wait.



Med coast 100m from my camp site in France

Leaving France


Anyway, heading into Spain takes about 15 mins. Its pretty good to be moving again. I’ve had a little look at google maps and there’s a little lake amongst some hills (Terrain setting is great!) an hour or so over the border. It seems as good a place as any to start so that’s where I head.

As I start to get into the mountains, the roads go from good to great. After a little while the lake appears, its stunning…




If you want to look it up, have a look ‘here‘.

It was that good I’m going to head back through on the way out of Spain, I’ll try to take a video as there are a load of sports that would be good to show but aren’t really feasible to pull over and take a pic… There’s a higher chance that I’ll forget and just ride through it with my mouth open again, so don’t hold your breath!

After a wee lake visit its time to start heading down to Paul’s place. He lives in a place called La Alcaidesa, just along from the rock of Gibraltar. It’s a hell of a long way so the plan is to split it into two days riding. As the centre of Spain, during the summer, is slightly hotter than the surface of the Sun, I decide to stick to the Coast road.

Bad for hotels, good for me!

While heading to the coast I pull over to have a look for a camp spot for the night. It then dawns on me that although the borders are now open I cant imagine there’s an influx of tourists just yet… maybe I can get a dirt cheap hotel?! On to booking.com I go, other generic booking websites are available.

I find this hotel for £15, no, thats not a typo…



Obviously it was neater than that before I turned up!

It’s in Alicante, and can be found ‘here‘ (AirBnB link although I booked through Booking .com). They definitely could charge way more. I’ve stayed in a lot of places and this is the best bang for buck I’ve stayed in anywhere! It does have a shared bathroom but it was really nice and for £15 I’m just glad it had one at all!

Leaky bastard of a fork!

After a good nights sleep I get back to the bike and notice fork oil leaking down from the left fork leg…balls.

This gets fixed by the following process…

1. Buy a little bottle of water, bottle must not be corrugated
2. Cut out a little seal mate type bit of plastic
3. Pull down dust seal
4. Push new little tool up past the oil seal, move it round the stanchion and remove
5. Get and eat and ice cream



Problem solved I carry on to Pauls.

Mini holiday No. 1

I wont go into any detail here, visiting a mate doesn’t make for a good round the world trip blog. Basically we had a few s, ate some food and went to the beach… on repeat.



Above is where he lives, not to shabby at all!

Anyone that can spot us in the picture wins a crisp high five…

One thing I did get done while at Paul’s was drop my bike at a Honda dealers in Marbella. The bike has an extended unlimited mileage warranty so unfortunately this means services at the recommended mileage at an approved service centre.

Portugal.

After a week at Pauls, I head of for a short break in Portugal. Myself and Paul have planned to head to Tarifa the following weekend for a windsurf lesson, so I really only have 3 days. I’m OK with this.

The first day is mostly riding from Spain to Portugal, on arrival it seems the Portuguese REALLY like graffiting stuff!



As its a late arrival in Portugal, I find somewhere to sleep for the night. It turns out that the large coast car park I’ve picked is some sort of dogging hot spot. There’s cars coming at all hours of the evening until about 2am. They seemed to stay on the opposite side of the car park to the campers so they were no bother to me, I’m sure they were having fun!

In the morning I pop to the beach for a wash, there’s nothing better than a wild bath to wake you up!



I bet your bathroom doesn’t look that good!

After a wash it’s time to head inland and find some trails to ride. There are a fair few fun dirt tracks to explore in Portugal so I end up spending most of the day just sort of wandering the back roads.



As I’m restricted for time (restricted by myself but still), I start to make my way back to Spain. On Google maps I find a nature park on the Spanish coast and decide to head to one of the car parks along its coastal edge.

Back to Spain.


On arrival the only thing that can detract from the beauty of the area is the huge amount of rubbish left by other campers. It’s almost like they can’t figure out that people will be banned from camping if it carries on. Luckily, being on a bike I find a spot that hasn’t been too trashed.



As the sun was setting I decide to head out onto the cliffs by my camp spot and take some pictures. I do the same in the morning, I’ll put some of my favourites of these below.





Following the above photos, I start to make my way back across the south coast of Spain again. Staying off the highway and in the national parks means riding through pine forests. Annoyingly Spain even do Pine forests better than we do!



Tarifa.

So myself and Paul arrive in Tarifa. From the first time we walk through the little gateway from the new town to the old we’re sold. Its awesome! The place is full of little bars, cafes and restaurants. It also lacks the usual pretentious feel of most action sports destinations (kite surfing and windsurfing Mecca).

While in Tarifa we decide to sample the local sports. We book on for a windsurf lesson. Turns out its a lot of fun, obviously I didn’t take my camera into the water so here’s a picture from lunch after!



The next day we head out to see what the mountain biking is like in the area. I shipped my bike to Paul before setting off so he brought it with him in his van.

We completely balls up the climb up and end up doing a 2 hour hike with the bikes to get to the top.



This should give you an idea of the terrain we were dealing with.



Always satisfying getting to the top of a big hill!
Once at the top we descend the Buddha trail, its as savage as the climb up but makes the climb worth while.

Seville

After Tarifa we decide to head to Seville for a visit. Its supposed to be a beautiful city. The first thing you notice though isn’t the beauty, its that its bastard hot!

When we get there and start exploring, we wonder why the city is so deserted. Shortly after we realise that it’s because nobody else is stupid enough to be walking around a city for hours in over 40 degrees.

Still, it allowed for some awesome pictures!









I guess Covid-19 might have also played a big part in us pretty much having a city to ourselves!

Back to Pauls

After all this, we head back to Pauls.

Once back i take advantage of the track pump he has and fit a new tyre to the bike. I’ve heard good things about the Mitas e-07, apparently they last an age…we shall see!



Unfortunately the front I’ve ordered doesn’t turn up, this means I have to sort one on route. The one I find is in place called Jean so that is now the first stop once leaving Pauls.

I have planned to meet my Girlfriend in Barcelona in a few days time. Its her Birthday so were having a long weekend somewhere neither of us have been before.

I set off from Paul’s to the Tyre shop in Jean, I plan to spend a couple of days after the fitting on the Trans Euro Trail getting to Barcelona.

I’m an idiot!

I arrive at the tyre shop, I go to find my wallet…it’s not there. At the last petrol station I have filled up, put my wallet on my pannier while having a drink and then forgotten about it and ridden off. What a tool!

I spend an hour or so using Google translate and getting my mate Paul to speak Spanish to the shop owners to explain the situation. They agree to get on with the tyre fitting while I figure out how to pay.

While I’m waiting, in 43 degree heat for the tyre shop to re-open. They close at 14:00 and don’t open again until 17:00…gotta love Spain! I get an email through my website…you know, this one you’re reading. Its from a Police Officer named Guille Pedre, he’s had my wallet handed into him and its ready to be collected. He’s sent a picture, its even got the money in it! What a legend!

This means a 2 hour ride in the opposite direction, a small price to pay!

Once the tyre is fitted a mate suggests I pay in installments using Google pay on my phone. It works!

Outside the tyre place i get chatting to a chap called Jose, he’s bike mad and telling me that he has to get up and be riding by 06:00 otherwise the heat is too much! Lovely guy but what a lunatic! I can see why though, the heat during the day is unreal!

I’m still an idiot!

So, I read the address for the police station and pop it in the SatNav. When I arrive it looks nothing like the street on google maps. It turns out that if you make a slight typo in the town name it takes you to exactly the same street name in a town about 50km north… I know what you’re thinking, surely you could tell you’re heading in the wrong direction, Mike?! Clearly I couldn’t, not a bloody clue!

Soooo, I’ve missed the opening hours for the Police station, time to camp for the night. I find little spot of grass and set the tent up. It doesn’t get below 30 degrees all night so its not the best nights sleep.

The next morning i wake up early and get to the police station as it opens to get my wallet. Its all there, I’m back on track!

Well, not quite, I now have 630km to travel and Char arrives tomorrow. There is not a cat in hell’s chance I’m getting 630km of an off road trail done in a day and a half so its a motorway slog for me. This is punishment for being a double idiot!

Barcelona

I wont tell you about the trip to Barcelona, it was long and not at all fun, lets leave it there!

I get to Barcelona and check into the Hotel, as its Chars birthday treat we are staying somewhere nice. We have booked into the Novotel in the city. It ticks all the boxes for us.

Once checked in, the kit is abandoned in the room and my bike dropped of in the underground parking I head off to the airport to meet Char.

We have a hire car for the 4 days as it makes life a little easier than traveling around on the bike.

For the 4 days we wander around Barcelona. We head out to the hills for views over the city, walk around La Sagrada Familia and the Gothic Quarter and drive to beaches both north and south. I’ll add some pictures of our travels below:











Our 4 days draw to a close all too quickly and before we know it Char is back on a plane.

Time to leave Spain

Its a shame to be leaving Spain. It is now by far my favourite country, it’s got everything!

As I leave Barcelona the heavens open, its a new type of rain, its rain but without the spaces between the drops!



It definitely warrants pulling over and putting my rain hood on! Rain hood on I carry on, amazingly everything except my gloves holds the water out!

I decide to head out the same way I came in, past the reservoir pictured in the last blog post, which can be found ‘here‘. This time I camp on the banks.



And hide as the thunder storm returns!



If you want to know how bad the storm got, you’ll need to head to my Instagram ‘here‘ and view my story highlights of Spain with the sound on!

The next morning I take a bath in the reservoir, pack up and leave Spain through Andorra.

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FRANCE AND ITALY


Its been a busy couple of weeks, so make yourself comfy, you’re in for a long read!

If you’ve missed any previous posts, you can catch up here: (if you want to, it’s not mandatory!)

Chapter 1: Wild camping (and week 1)

Chapter 2: Traveling through Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands (week 2)

Chapter 3: Amsterdam, Luxembourg and sneaking into France

Chapter 4: Motorcycle touring in France (+ Andorra)

Chapter 5: Spain, just Spain!…And Portugal

So we pick up our story on Day 56…

Day 56

As you’ll know from your background reading of chapter 5 above, day 56 starts in Spain. From here I’m heading into Andorra. I know the title of this sections is France and Italy…bear with, I’m getting there!

Time to head to Andorra la Vella with the aim of taking the same road as last time. I covered this in a previous blog post so we shall fast forward to El Pas de la Casa. El Pas de la Casa is the closest town to France just in side the Andorran border. It’s Bastille day. This means that half the population of South West France have headed to Andorra to stock up on cut price cigarettes and Alcohol. Its rammed!

Best to move on quickly and leave them to them to it.

Leaving through the Pyrenees never fails to deliver some awesome views!



My plan, or as close to a plan as I’ve concocted is to head along the south coast to Monaco. Because i want to make some progress down the coast I leave it late to find a place to sleep for the night. In the end I stay in probably the least picturesque place I’ve stayed to date.

I didn’t take a picture, I’m pretty sure i cant paint an ample picture without though. Imagine a carpark just off a motorway slip road (a good start ey!). Then, if you will, add in 25 camper vans spread out around said car park. Imagine a surrounding of dry scrub land. In the corner of this little oasis is a little bit of dead grass. In the dusk I pitch my tent on this little stink pad. I get in and go straight to sleep, pointless spending time soaking in my surroundings.

Day 57

When I wake up to pack my tent, I spot some little treats around. About 3 feet from where my tent as pitched was several piles of used toilet paper. I imagine they were accompanied with little piles of poo underneath, I just didn’t investigate to confirm my suspicions. Still, at least I hadn’t slept on the potential poo, that would have been shit…

So I’m now packed up and leaving this splendid spot, on the way out I dispose of what rubbish I’ve accumulated in the bins. Ah yes, I forgot to mention the local bins that are also in the car park.

The aim of today is to get to Lac de Sainte-Croix. Its a good stop off on the way to Monaco.

I’ve set the sat nav to adventurous routing and allowed it to navigate un-paved roads, which is exactly what it does! At one point I’m pointing down very steep hill made entirely of pool ball sized rocks. I have zero grip and ABS seems to not want my wheels to lock, so down the hill I go and come to a stop lying on my side. No harm done, pick the bike up and crack on.

I’ve set myself a little rule while riding solo, if the bike feels like its going down, I get clear and let it happen. I can replace the bike or parts, a broken leg would be immeasurably more shit.

I need to remember to stop and take pictures with a dropped bike, always good for a laugh!

Anyhow, I didn’t, so here’s one of it upright when the road became a normal farm track again.



From this point I can see the lake, Its not long until the views improve!



From here I found a car park for a lake beach that the police didn’t seem to mind you camping in, so that’s what I did.

Day 58

Time to head to Monaco.

As I’m leaving the lake, its very apparent I’m in the foothills of the French Alps, the first 20 miles takes me about an hour as I keep stopping to look at the view or take a picture.



Not a bad view at all!

The rest of the ride there is fairly uneventful with the exception of the manic traffic the closer to Monaco I get.

When you get into Monaco, the massive excess is hard to avoid. Any car with a Monaco plate is worth more than my old house and don’t get me started on the boats!



Big floating piles of money, surely they wouldn’t miss one of the little ones?

There are a lot of people with a lot of money! Fair play! As I am not one of them, after a couple of hours of wandering round I head back to the bike and head out.

As I’m on the way out of Monte Carlo a BMW GS 1200 rolls along side at a traffic light, a German accent starts speaking to me asking me where I’m going.

This conversation lasts for about the next 4 or 5 traffic lights. Time to meet:

Harry & Jens



This picture was taken at the end of the tour but if I hadn’t have said, who’d have known!

So eventually the explain they are heading on a route they have been told about which takes in 21 mountain summits in the Alps and would I like to join. 21 Alpine summits, Italy can wait!

All I have to do now is keep up with two bikes with a minimum of 5 times the power for 700km, easy! In fact, in the case of the KTM 1290 Adventure R, 8 times the power!

The rest of Day 58, 59 and 60

Off we go…

The next 3 days are a fairly fast paced Alpine exploration. Much to the surprise of the guys I’m able to keep up. I only keep that pace for the first two days, day three I back off, the bike has to last a long time and I have to use every one of my 24bhp all the time to keep pace (Harry definitely could have gone faster!). It was well worth delaying Italy, the roads are fantastic and I wouldn’t have thought to do this particular route if I hadn’t met Harry and Jens.



Carrying a load of extra fuel as they’d heard there was a lack of fuel stations….there wasn’t but better safe than sorry!



Harry on the left, Jens on the right…and my bike

On the second day of the mini tour, we get to the bottom of the highest pass on the route. At the bottom of the hill we find Harry talking to a group of supermoto riders (he talks to everyone!). They turn out to be an awesome group of lads who seem to only ever use one wheel at a time. Made me really want a supermoto!



Super friendly bunch with some amazing bikes.



The obligatory sticker exchange…

When the guys left to head up the way we came, Harry couldn’t resist chasing them up the hill so myself and Jens waited at the bottom while he went to play!

If either Harry of Jens read this, I’d like to thank them for their generosity, for the entire time (3 nights!) they refused to let me pay for accommodation. If I protested too much they’d revert to speaking German until accommodation as booked and then tell me in English that it was sorted and we should just get going! They even paid for food for the entire time, except the last night where i managed to persuade them to let me pay. What a pair of legends!

Day 61

I part company with Harry and Jens and decide to head to a lake close to the Italian border. I want to have a crack at a bit of astro-photography and this looks like a good spot which should have limited light pollution.

I have a quick chat on Instagram with a mate (Sam) who gives me a few tips on the subject. Here are the results:



Lac Mont-Cenis

Day 62

I chalk it up as a success head on into the Alps a little further. To find a camp spot I just head into the mountains on dirt tracks and camp where the road runs out. It tuns out I only have videos of this so lets pretend it didn’t happen and move on!

Day 63

Day 63 is making up for time spent riding round the Alps for 3 days, I make a b-line for Pisa. No other reason than I’ve heard about it. It seems they have a wonky tower that I should go Look at.

When I arrive I head into town to have a look around. Now, I will try and describe Pisa in my usual eloquent, articulate style so as to not offend anyone that may read this who calls Pisa home…

Pisa, is a dirty shit-pit of a town that wouldn’t be on anyone’s travel list if it wasn’t for a dodgy bit of engineering some years ago. I think I nailed that.

As I’m in a city I have booked a hostel for the night. I head back with the aim of getting up early to take a few pics.

Day 64



Wonky tower



wonky tower with the sun



Pisa river

As a side note, if you want to get a picture of the wonky old tower without 500 people taking pictures pretending to hold it up, id recommend getting there at dawn!

I did ask the guards at the tower of Pisa if I could send my drone up. They seemed very unimpressed that I’d asked and their machine guns were telling me it was time to go!

Breakfast at the hostel is consumed and its back on the road, this time to Rome!

I have booked two nights in Rome in a hostel again, I’m not sure they’d be a fan of me pitching my tent and having a wash in the Trevi fountain.

To break with tradition of constant dawn photo shoots I head out at about 22:30. I figure that Rome will look good lit up at night. Make your own mind up:



Castel Sant’Angelo



The Colosseum…obviously



Trevi fountain

So far I’m a big fan of Rome, its quite the City.

Day 65

decide that I’m going to look at the Vatican City today. When in Rome and all that…

Its about 11km round trip and its 40 degrees…I clearly haven’t learnt from Seville! Walking is my chosen form of transport. If only I had a motorbike to use!

I had a quick look about, saw where his popeyness addresses the masses and made my way back. I didn’t get any pictures that do it justice but I’m sure you know what it looks like anyway!

Day 66

Time to head back north, I like the idea of heading to Sicily but I don’t think time allows without there being a lot of very big road days over the next week.

San Marino is the destination. When I get there, it’s just a town on a hill…maybe I’m missing something.

Either way the heavens open when I arrive, biblical style. My waterproofs do not hold, I reach ‘**** it’ and I book the closest hostel. Down to Rimini I go.

It turns out that Rimini is a town famous for 18 year old’s going to party. It was nice that the hostel had a bar that was at least open with a bit of music on. Not a bad place to spend an evening while my kit dried in the room.

Day 67

While packing up I meet a German chap called Bart. It seems a lot of Germans love a bit of motorcycle touring! Here he is, go check out his story here.



Bart!

Soooo, the plan is, head north, spend a couple of days in Venice, do the tourist thing…etc. etc.

About 20 miles from Venice I decide that I’m sick of cities and hostels, my boat is well and truly about to sink and these places are not offering any buoyancy.

Out comes google maps, there has to be somewhere to wild camp. I find a river north of Venice which looks good.

When I get there I’m able to park right on the bank. Access the river for washing and drinking water. Boat is afloat again!



What a place!



Camp is set and I’m a happy camper again

Day 68

I’m being a little more brief now as I’m aware this is a big post and I’m sure half of you will be asleep by now!

In the morning I head to Lake Como on a mates recommendation.

When I arrive I can see why its been recommended. The place is beautiful. The only problem is that since I’ve been traveling I don’t really check the calendar. Most of the time I don’t know or even care what day it is. Today is Sunday. It’s amazing weather and I think every Italian is at Lake Como. Its manic!

After slowly riding round the majority of the lake in near stationary traffic I look for a spot to stop. There’s a little river/canal that looks promising.



Camping spot near lake Como
Turned out nice again!

Day 69

I decide that my little trip into Italy will come to an end and head back to the French side of the mountains. I have got a bit of a taste for night photography so I’m going to scratch that itch again.

I find a little reservoir on the map and plot a course.

The route takes me back past Lac Mont-Cenis where I took the night shots above. When I get there I remember looking at a map last time i was there and seeing a little track that went up into the mountains. I’m not in a rush so I go check it out.

Its quite a long track, but when at the end I’m at 2,300 meters and the views are pretty impressive.



Apologies for being in the way!

I decide this is going to be my spot for the night!

While setting up camp, I start talking to a French chap called Emmanuel, he invites me for a with him and his family. You wont catch me turning down a , that’s for sure!

They spend a couple of weeks each year driving around in their 4×4 with their 3 kids on board wild camping, what legends!

Before leaving them to their dinner and to be able to speak in their won language, Emmanuel offers me some GPX files of some great tracks hes been following. I’ll be sure to be taking those once I leave Morzine!



During the night I crack the camera out again.



Silhouetted biker staring at stars



The obligatory lit tent shot.

Day 70

After a night of pictures it’s an early morning. I decide to head to Morzine for a bit of battery charging. Its the cheapest place to stay in the area.

And that is where I write this.

The next update will be a little way off as I will be here for a little over a week riding mountain bikes. I’m not sure that will make for a great travel blog so I will exclude that and resume when I’m back on the road.

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fantastic places to visit lots of trail to travel , keep going .