Heading to Spain and Morocco

It’s a calm crossing from Portsmouth around Brittany and across the Bay of Biscay to Santander in Spain.

Phase 2 of the long haul of flying from Melbourne to London (phase 1) to collect my Moto Guzzi Breva 1100 and ride to Morocco.

Stopped for a pint at the Ship and Castle next to the ferry terminal before joining the queue to board. There were plenty of bikes doing the crossing but only one Moto Guzzi.

My sister lives in London and it was wonderful to spend some time with her before embarking on this adventure.

Visiting the lovely little Lyric Theatre in Hanger Lane to see a play.

And heading to the south of England to go walking along the Avon River

And in the New Forrest

Next stop Spain!

It’s all packed up and time to Go Go Go!!!

It’s my last day in Melbourne before I fly out to the Northern Hemisphere

First time in a couple of years, 2020 when I was locked down in Spain and the UK

I took the mighty Breva for a little ride to warm up the oil before it went into hibernation.

I have to admit late April and almost summer weather in Melbourne

Almost made my question my decision to leave ALMOST

But I did get a last swim in for the season

There is an method to storing motorbikes

Both bikes got a good wash, petrol stabiliser in the tanks to ensure the fuel doesn’t go off and over inflating the tyres to ensure no flat spots. Then there is hooking the batteries up to chargers so they are not dead when I return in 6 months or so.

My dear biker friends if you haven’t got a lift table to work on your bike do!!!

No more laying on the concrete to get to the sump plug or trying to get the oild tray around the centre stand. Agh Bliss.

So my Melbourne bike fleet is all packed away and my Northern Hemisphere Breva is serviced and ready for its next adventure.

There is always something quirky in a blokes garage.

Mine is a clinker rowing boat I built back in my sailing days.

The bow seat makes a great hanging space for my riding gear.

It’s a long haul flight from Melbourne to London.

And by the time I got to London the full planes on the flight left me in no doubt that long distance air travel was back following the pandemic.

It is two years to the day that I left London at the first of the covid 19 onslaught on a repatriation flight back to Australia.

It’s time to recommence the journey I was on then when I was locked down in Spain on my way to Morocco.

It’s spring here and the flowers in the local park add colour to the day.

And the familiar sites of London, the old Red telephone boxes and the red double decker buses are there.

In a couple of days I pick up the mighty Breva ii and make make final preparations to catch the ferry to Spain late next week.

So yes cautiously international adventures are back.

So let’s raise our glasses and have a drink to that.

Desert gives way to Rainforest in the Bunya Mountains

The Bunya Mountains are west of Brisbane in Australia’s Great Dividing Range and house the world’s largest Bunya Pine forest.

The Bunya Pine is one of the few plants surviving from the Jurassic period -200 million years ago these magnificent trees developed and the Bunya Mountains is the place on the planet where they are still prolific.

What a place to camp for my last nights before reaching my destination.

I love the Bunya’s droopy branches and leaves.

To me they resemble giant rastas with their shaggy dreadlocks towering above the forest.

Walking in this beautiful cool rainforest wa such a contrast to the hot dry heat of the central Australia.

Walking amongst the trees

Walking through the trees.

Gardens on the ground

And in the trees in the shape of ferns and moss on the trees.

The gentle wallabies are in the camp grounds and on the trails.

At the northern end of the range at Mt Kiangarow, the forest is drier and grass trees prolific.

The view from Mt Kiangarow magnificent

By day

And at sunset.

That is just over 10,000km completed since I left Melbourne on 1 March 2021

What a ride:

Along the Great Ocean Road

Through the Coorong

Into the Flinders Ranges

Up the Oodnadatta Track

Immersed in the Red Centre

Across outback the Northern Territory and Queensland

Climb into the Bunya Mountains.

And now it’s the wedding on Saturday and I made it on time.

Travelling in the time of Coronavirus-the Spanish lockdown

I arrived in Jerez de la Frontera the day the Moroccan Govt closed the border with Spain

That was the end of the Morocco trip

I had booked into the alburgue in Jerez. I extended my booking a couple of days so I could think of the next move

In Jerez some sherry tasting a must

No tasting for this adventurer

I guess it was a sign of what was to come.

So I had to console myself with some garlic prawns and red wine

The was hardly any activity in the Square. Some locals and a few tourists, from the USA and UK by the accent

The cafe owners strangely subdued. Maybe they new something was about to happen

Maybe the lost income from the covid19 pandemic was weighing heavily on them

That Saturday night the lockdown was proclaimed for 15 days

Everything to shut except food stores, pharmacies and petrol station.

Stay indoors

The streets of Jerez totally deserted on Sunday mid day

Initally I had thought Id sit out the lockdown in Jerez.

Sunday all seemed OK. A long term rate could be negotiated. Fix it up Monday morning

It was warm in Jerez, the alburgue was modern big grounds to exercise in and a pool. Perfect place to sit out the lockdown

Monday morning all had changed. Tuesday I had to be out.

Thinks change quickly during a pandemic!

Sunday France had declared a lockdown so travelling back through France was off the cards

Frantic work on the phone.

Booked a ferry spot from Santander to Portsmouth the next Saturday.

All the hotels were shut. Where to stay.

Thank you to the good hearted souls who have given me shelter via airbnb

It was a cold ride from Jerez to Valladolid where Im currently staying locked down

It had snowed the night before on the skifields south of Salamanca. But the sun was out

I pulled into a parking bay. Pulled out my little burner and made a coffee and had a snack of cheese, olives and manderine

And though Spain is beautiful even in the time of a lockdown

At 10pm at night in Jerez, in Valladolid and across Spain. People clap and cheer in appreciation of the health workers.

Cause they are on the front line of the pandemic

The Spanish are beautiful people

Nimes to the Dordogne and beautiful gorge country.

The Pont du Gard sits near the southern end of a series of beautiful gorges that run over 400km north into the DordogneThrough the Causses et Cevennes and the pretty village of FloracRoads winding through the beautiful Gorge de la Vis and the Cirque de Navecelles.To Millau and the Viaduc de Millau, the tallest bridge in the world, that spans the Tarn Gorge with its steep precipitous cliffs.From Millau the roads continue through windy paths till reaching Cadouin in the Dordogne with its beautiful 12th century Abbey where a room can be found

And chamber music in the Abbey Church.