NEWSLETTER NOV - DEC 2002
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NEWSLETTER NOV - DEC 2002
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THE
"RODE" TO RONDA September 2002 |
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Athough this was to be the fourth trip to Spain, things were to be a little
different this year and it was like starting over. Due to various problems,
we had not managed to “ride the bike in”…or ourselves
either for that matter. The Lake District weekend, which normally puts miles on both bike and bums, had proved disastrous for us. The bike had developed an electrical problem, Dennis had developed a chest infection, and the haversack, not the riding, (thank God) had given me a bad back. June, July and August came and went and we still had no saddlebag supports, hadn’t tried out the new luggage and still hadn’t ridden the miles. Come September and the supports were ready so I filled up the bags, clipped them on the bike and set off on a test run. After doing a few laps of our local roads, trying to cover all eventualities, we turned for home for more testing. The bike is very low by itself, but how low will it be with both of us and the luggage mounted? Lee arrived and it was time to find out. Bags loaded, Lee took the bars, I took the rear and Dennis took the measurement…..two and a half inches – maximum!! That’s LOW. We did a bit of bouncing about while Dennis watched ( for grounding purposes of course). Testing over, we agreed, that if the ramp wasn’t too steep, we would get on the boat. So let’s GO… |
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| Friday
13th |
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| Glad we weren’t going today, bad luck and all that. Eventually I squashed all our gear into two saddlebags, loaded the bike, checked all our bits and bobs, money, passports, tickets – all present and correct, we were ready. |
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| Saturday
14th Warrington to Portsmouth – 240 miles |
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I woke up early, looked out
and the sun had got its hat on, a great day to ride to the ferry. As luck
would have it (or maybe not) I nagged Dennis to get the bike out early so
I could park both cars on the drive. Then it all started to go downhill.
As Dennis was getting the bike out of the garage, the handlebar stud sheared off – panic. We had nothing that would fit, Lee stripped Flipper but to no avail. “Don’t panic!” said Lee, “I’ll pop over to The Trading Post and get something.” And off he popped. In the meantime, I was frantically yelling into Bill’s answering machine and ringing the gang to tell them to go without us. |
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| Lee made it to
Bill’s in record time, was handed a package (Dennis had managed to
speak to Bill and told him what was needed) and, with a few strange looks
from customers in the shop, fired up the V-Max and headed back. It was agreed to change both studs and after a lot of careful pushing and shoving (the bike is wired through the bars) at 12:30 pm we were ready to leave. We made good time, had one stop for petrol and food, then Dennis decided to crack on. Lee clocked us at 112mph (hope the police aren’t reading this) and then he noticed there was something wrong with our exhaust. We pulled into a service area to check the exhaust and as Dennis flicked the side stand down, the spring flew off! Dennis said “Oh dear me” or words to that effect, and Lee said “Don’t panic” and magically produced a colour co-ordinated bungy cord to fix the stand and a black (what else) cable tie to fix the loose exhaust. No more problems encountered, we arrived at Portsmouth and were greeted with an NHC welcome as they waved us into the pub car park. 6pm…just time for a drink before boarding. We waited ages to board and then all of a sudden they rushed the bikes forward. Because of the ground clearance, I asked Tony if I could ride with him onto the boat, so I hurriedly tried to get onto the back of his Road King. It’s a lot wider than the bike I’d just got off, so, much to Tony’s and other people’s amusement, I eventually, in an extremely unladylike manner, mounted the beast. We all boarded, found our cabins, found the bar, the evening passed into the night and the night passed into oblivion. That’s one birthday I’ll not forget in a hurry!! |
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| Sunday 15th | ||
| We had a lie in until
about 11:30am, had breakfast, then lunch, did a bit of shopping (nuts
and bolts from the on-board fitting shop) and then the sea got rough. |
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I’m not the best of sailors, so I spent the rest of the crossing in bed hoping for better things to come when we reached Spain. |
| Monday 16th Bilbao to Avila – 259 miles A8 / E70 / A625 / N1 / N110 |
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| The boat docked on time and once on the quayside, Dennis fitted the “shopping” to the exhaust and we were ready for off. Lee had picked the route, off the motorway asap and head for the village of Pancorbo for the first stop. | ||
The road over
the mountains was very picturesque, somewhat “bumpy” and a
little twisty in the wet. However we didn’t lose anybody and the
first morning’s ride had given rise to a few comments…Annie’s
“I’ve never ridden a mountain pass before breakfast before”
and Tony’s “I thought Spain was flat” were a couple
of the cleaner ones. |
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| Tuesday 17th Avila to Puertollano – 181 miles N403 / N401 / N420 |
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| It was dull
and cloudy as we headed out towards Toledo, the roads were empty and scenic
and we were making a good pace when our clutch lever pin flew away. We
were stopped on a bend out in the middle of nowhere. Dennis and the others
were walking up and down the road looking for the pin, when, as they do,
Plod appeared. |
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The roads were
really good and I was enjoying the scenery as we climbed and descended
towards the lunchstop at Fuente el Fresno. Would I have enjoyed it quite
as much if I had known the front brake was non-operational on the last
steep descent?
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| WEDNESDAY 18th Puertollano to Antequera 172 miles N420 / NIV / N331 |
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| Rain - heavy rain - Dennis & I, Keith & Elaine and John & Annie decided not to set off with the gang but to give the weather an hour or so to clear up -and it did. We continued south, the rain had stopped completely by the coffee stop and the sun came out -for a little while at least. We passed the others parked up, couldn't stop so we carried on to Lucena for lunch and then the gang went by us. | ||
| We had already decided to
stay at Antequera overnight which would leave us about 50 miles to ride
the next day to get to Ronda. The others wanted to get to Ronda today so
it was a bit if a surprise to find them parked up in the Town Square as
we arrived. They had stopped for a quick brew and were ready to ride off,
obviously they had stayed long enough to leave their mark-a giant poster
of 'Saint Turkey' was looking down on us from the church wall! |
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We'd stopped outside a hotel that looked okay but we decided to have a look around. I boarded the armchair on the Goldwing with a lot more grace than I had the Road King and Keith & I set off around the narrow streets. Nothing better was found so we booked in, downed a few beers, had a nap, dined and sat outside - yes outside - for a few more drinks. I telephoned Tony to see how they were doing- they had taken a wrong turn, arrived in Ronda just a little later than planned, had a problem in finding accommodation and were just sitting down to their evening meal- it was 11 pm! |
| THURSDAY 19th Antequera - Ronda - 57 miles A343 / A382 / A357 / A367 |
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| We were ready
to leave when a drunk accosted Elaine, Keith dashed to the rescue and the
hotel staff restrained the assailant. Elaine was unhurt but shaken, not
something you'd expect to happen at 10:30 in the morning! The hotel staff
were very apologetic and had called for the police - we decided to leave
pronto - our Spanish isn't up to composing a statement. The road was fabulous, Ronda sits on a mountain and the views riding into the town were spectacular. After a quick phone call to Tony we negotiated the very busy narrow streets and a waving Turkey guided us in, we'd made it and the sun was shining. We parked up in the square outside the very impressive Parador de Ronda (Paradors are a chain of state run hotels that are usually situated in castles or buildings of that nature). Lee and Dave kept a watchful eye over our machines whilst we settled ourselves down outside a cafe (bar of course). As luck would have it we were opposite an "Oficina de Turismo" so I popped in and got a list of hotels and a map. We opted for the aptly named Hotel El Tajo (History lesson - Ronda is famous for the bridge - El Tajo - where, in days gone by, persons of ill repute came to a sticky end). Map in hand Annie and I set off on foot and easily located the said place - checked out the rooms, cost, garage - all OK so we booked in and returned to get the bikes and gear. Locating the hotel by machine was a little more complicated - however eventually we arrived, unloaded, changed and met up with the gang for lunch. |
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| We were sitting
in a cafe / bar which was situated in one of Rondas narrow streets, the
sun was shining and Turkey was displaying his newly acquired sandals, (shame
about the size) Pete only takes size 5 and had bought size 8 -so watch out
girls - he was wearing my sandals one evening. Anyway back to reality and
wind up time. Turkey decided it was warm enough to sunbathe and to my horror
said he was going to do it right there and then in his underpants! In my
sternest voice, as he was undoing his jeans, I cried "NO you're not
doing it here" , to no avail off came the jeans to reveal he was sporting
a snazzy pair of shorts, wind up or what! After lunch we meandered through the town down to the bridge and on crossing over into the old town spied Glyn, Linda, Stuart and Ian having a sedate lunch in a cafe overlooking the gorge. We waved but they didn't appear to see us - so we all lined up along the edge of the bridge and whistled Dixie or was it Boggsey - sedate lunch no more! The old town in Ronda is well worth a visit, beautiful courtyards, magnificent historic buildings and very narrow streets. Comment from Turkey as we meandered along – “I could do some fu**ing damage with my truck through here”. Others saw it from a slightly different perspective. Back to the hotel, nap time, shower and out again for more food and beer, |
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| FRIDAY 20th |
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| We had booked the hotel in
Ronda for 3 nights, so everybody did what they wanted. Some went to Gibraltar,
some set off for the coast, carried on to Gib but were unable to enter-no
passport (I'm not saying who) and some stayed put. Dennis and I set off to get petrol and jet wash the bike. We missed the garage in the town and found ourselves on the road down to the coast. I know this sounds strange but you have to climb out of Ronda before you go down the 40 rniles or so to sea level- anyway on the uphill we ran out of petrol. Having never used reserve on this bike we turned round and just managed to splutter into the garage that we had obviously ridden past on the way out. Petrolled up we found the jet wash, gave the bike a once over with a spanner as well as water and let it dry in the sunshine as we partook of a little light refreshment in the bar, next door. Back to Ronda and decision time, the weather forecast for the next couple of days wasn't good and I had wanted to do two things when we got to Ronda. One was to ride to the coast. We had driven (in a hire car) this road a few years ago and had said it would be fantastic to ride it on a bike. The other was to ride the 'best riding road in Europe' as quoted in an article in Bike Magazine by two riders (on Japs I must add) who had ridden up to Ronda from the coast and thought that was the best until they rode from Ronda to Grazalema. I had also read an article in a travel book suggesting a 50-mile round trip through the national park to Grazalema, down to the lake and back to Ronda. Decision made we'd go for it, found the turning to the national park, fabulous scenery, no traffic and NO road, to speak of anyway. Obviously the travel book wasn't expecting you to be riding an extremely low custom Harley. Nevertheless we made it, Grazalema itself appeared closed so we took a few pictures and set off to find this "Best Road" and the lake, We did and it was well worth it - but I must disagree with the article - the road from Ronda to the coast at San Pedro is the best Once back in Ronda, normality resumed, nap time, shower, food, drink, the by now daily text from Turkey, 'Mum where are you?' and we all met up for a resumé of the day’s events. |
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| SATURDAY 21st |
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| Drizzle - what
to do - Tony had set off for Malaga to find the Harley shop, others were
having a day of rest, so as the skies were clearing and this was our last
day in Ronda, Dennis and I decided to go down to the coast The road from Ronda to San Pedro is a forty-mile twister with spectacular views at every turn and is definitely the road to ride if you're ever down that way, From San Pedro we took the motorway to avoid the traffic in Marbella and then onto the infamous N340 (Malaga to Cadiz death trap) to La Cala. |
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| You may or may not know, that Big Phil, Kriztina and Kriztianne now live in Spain and we had spoken to them earlier in the week about meeting up. As they only live about 3 miles from Joe's bar I gave them a bell, woke them up from their siesta and they rode over for a few beers. On the way to the bar we'd passed Tony on the opposite carriageway and I was just about to phone him when my phone rang - he was parked up about a mile away and had been looking for this bar on his way back from Malaga. He joined us, as did two of Kriztina' s 'Swedish' female friends for a few drinks and a chat. |  |
As the sun began to set it
was time for us to leave, not only due to the drinking and driving bit but
we had to be home before dark - no front light! We left a club T-shirt and
some stickers at the bar to mark our visit and set off upwards back to Ronda. The usual normalities over, the gang merged at our Hotel to plan the trip home. Glyn and Linda were going to stay another night and then go to Seville before heading to the boat whilst Stuart and Jan were going to leave a little later than the rest of us and catch us up on the way. |
| SUNDAY 22nd |
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| We took the easy
road out of Ronda towards Campillos, bypassed Antequera and eventually,
after doing a couple of laps of a sleepy (until we rode through) little
town, stopped just outside Archicdona for coffee. We had decided to go 'across country' to join the main E5 at Jaen, glad we did it was a brilliant road with a lake on one side and mountains on the other. We met up with Stuart and Jan, took some pictures and then took a wrong turn (I don't think anybody noticed). After lunch at a place called Don Mendo (shame we couldn't find Don but as luck would have it, this time we didn't need any Mendo) we re-routed and headed towards Jaen. Not having passed any suitable accommodation en route we headed for Bailen and to a hotel Keith and Elaine had used earlier in the year. Hotel Zodiaco was hosting a wedding at the time of our arrival and I must say everyone was completely unfazed by a gang of leather clad bikers mingling with the guests. Would it happen in England - I think not! I don't know if this happens to all men over 50 who ride Harleys but Dennis, in his younger days could spot 'a perfect 10' a mile off. Now it's jet washes, and true to form there was one next to the hotel. Even though it looked like rain we bathed the machine before tucking it up for the night, nice and warm in the basement garage of the hotel. |
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MONDAY 23rd |
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| Heavy rain
- the boys set off whilst the couples waited for a break in the weather.
We were hoping to get to within about 50 miles of Madrid today and a place
called Aranjuez was favourite. Today we were going straight up the NIV
(a main thoroughfare) without detouring so after about an hour the rain
had stopped and we set off. |
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| We set off and
then were diverted by more Plod to the service area - the road was not passable
for motorbikes – the flood was too deep! As luck would have it (or
maybe not) we were only 5 miles from Aranjuez and there was a hotel at the
services. so we decided to book in. No joy - it was full, so we had a coffee
or two and waited for the storm to pass. The slip road was blocked by mud so we followed the directions of the 'Bobby' who after a few vicious toots on his whistle, walked through a gap in the armco and waved us back onto the road - Frightening! We arrived in Aranjuez at rush hour and all parked up while Lee did a lap to find a hotel. The staff were very accommodating, there was a small room available for some parking and space outside for the rest of us to park. But what a shock when we opened the huge door to our room, the door was as wide as the room itself - it was the worst room we had ever had. Needless to say the bar called and normality took over. The city of Aranjuez hosts many historic buildings and a very old renowned restaurant 'EI Rana Verde' (“The Green Frog” to you) where we all enjoyed a splendid meal. |
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TUESDAY 24th |
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| I was up early due to
the awful night’s sleep whilst others were up early due to the JCB
outside their windows, never the less the sun was shining as we set off
for Madrid. |
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As we were only about 60 miles
from Bilbao we agreed to stay here in Haro for two nights and settled in
to enjoy the comforts of the hotel. Obviously I was wrong to assume we were
all tired, for one of us was 'rearing' to go and ride for a little longer-
Turkey, nude on an exercise bike, is a sight not to be missed. |
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| WEDNESDAY 25th |
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| A lie-in, breakfast
in bed, a leisurely walk into the picturesque old town, then Dennis was
at it again-you've guessed, he'd spotted a jet wash! The rest of the last
day passed relatively uneventfully. Lee had arrived earlier in the day and
we all made plans to leave early the next day to get to the ferry on time. |
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| THURSDAY 26th |
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| Blue skies and
sun, the weather looked good for the last day’s riding in Spain. There
was a big mountain between us and the boat and the higher we climbed the
colder it got, it was actually freezing. An unscheduled stop to warm our
hands etc caused a split in the pack but half an hour later saw us all together
again waiting to board the ferry in the warm sunshine of Bilbao. Only one night aboard 'inward' as they say, the weather forecast was for calm seas, so I chanced a meal and a few drinks in the carvery. No problemo - the food stayed where I'd put it and I managed to stay topside for the rest of the evening. |
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| FRIDAY 27th |
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Dennis hates
this day on the boat, just trying to pass the time until docking is not
his favourite pastime! Luckily we arrived early, Stuart and Jan made a
dash alone for home (or something like that) and the rest of us rode together
for a while. Then Keith and Elaine blasted off, Dave was going to Oxford,
visiting, Lee and Tony were going straight home and the rest of us were
looking for a hotel. When anybody asks me 'What was your holiday like?' I reply 'it was an adventure' and I hope everybody else enjoyed it as much as I did. |
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Special thanks to Lee, for without him there'd be no tale to tell. Janet |
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