Did a simialr trip in September this year. I would suggest that you spend at least 2 days in Salamanca, it fabulous city with so much heritage, great restaurants and bars too. You could do this on the way down? On the way back why not think about putting in some Pyrennes time? Drive over to Seville spend at least 2 nights there too - Spains most beautiful city and then head up to central pyrennes via Madrid and Zaragoza. Head East to Andorra - not much there apart from some decent bike stores. Over to a lovely resort called "Roses" just north of Barecelona. Take a day on the lovely beach, then over the boarder to North East France. This is a wonderful corner of France nor often visited by Brits. From there start to head back across France via Clemont Ferrand - National park area, up to la Rochelle and onto St Malo. You can get the Ferry back from here and cut out a lot of the boring stuff and still take in some Atlantic coast sites. I have done this on 10 days no problem. Best of luck and enjoy!

It hadn't occurred to me to come back via St. Malo

Did you travel the TransPortugal also?

After much Google-Fu and Mapsourcing I now have the entire off-road route planned out in a .gpx file if anyone is interested in a copy?

Thanks,

Rich

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"There are no Foreign Lands, It is the Traveller only who is Foreign" - Robert Louis Stevenson

Hi Rich:

Looks like you have an interesting trip ahead of you.

I've done quite a bit of riding in Portugal, Spain, and France. I have one suggestion to make that is a modification of the route you presented in your map (below):



The portion of your northbound route from the Portugal-Spain border up to about Burgos in Spain is (in my opinion, anyway) boring as heck. It's all sparsely settled cattle country.

I think you would find it much more enjoyable to travel more or less straight north in Portugal, through Braganca, then exit the northern border of Portugal and ride through the Picos de Europa mountain range of Spain. Not only are there some excellent roads all the way north through Portugal, the Picos area is awesome riding, easily on par with riding in the Alps.

I recommend you stay off the motorways in all three countries. In Portugal and Spain, try to ride the next level of road down from the motorways. In France, try to ride the 'D' (Departmental) roads, which are the second level of roads down from the motorways. Doing this will add a wee bit of distance and a considerable amount of time to your journey (about a 15% distance increase, and probably double the enroute time), but it will triple your enjoyment relative to riding on motorways. You will also save a bundle on motorway tolls, which are darn expensive in all 3 of those countries.

Michael

Once you get down towards the Alentejo you'll run into some access problems on the Transportugal route and lots of lovely deep sand too...

The north however is spectacular!

Would 2nd the suggestion about to head over to the pyrenees. The N260 is a must if your in the area. The Vibraction RB5 is also another option for an off-road route.


Nick.

Oooooh never ridden on sand before.. I here you have to keep your weight positioned as far back as possible and keep the power on to keep the front wheel light <-- does that sound about right?

You say access problems... are we talking about huge chunks of the trail or the occasional land owner who's blocked the way?

Thanks,

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"There are no Foreign Lands, It is the Traveller only who is Foreign" - Robert Louis Stevenson

You'll find a few locked gates. If you see a sign saying Caminho sem Saida (No way out) then find another route around.

There is one decent that I'd do on a 250 enduro but not on a loaded Adv, I'll see if I can find the co-ords for it.


Nick.

Hi Romulus

Ive driven sections of the 'transportugal' route, in 2013 and 2014.

The mapbook I use is from the original Toyota trip, 2008 I think, and there have been a fair few changes - in particular theyve been building dual carriageways, which can chop some routes up.

The Barragen do Azibo lake below Branganca is now off-limits to drive round, the cafe owner phones his mate in the GDR when he see's people setting off on the route around it, think he's on commission!

Some landowners are getting a bit funny about access, the norm seems to be a piece of blue poly rope across the track to indicate its closed, but we only came across this once.

Generally though, theres always an alternative.

We used a variety of offline maps on a gps tablet and didnt get lost, but we also found a gated exit on a very large olive farm as someone else has mentioned.

If you want to check your route with what we did in September let me know.

Cheers

Pete

I did not do the trans Portugal you have planned. I came up from Ayamonte - Spain to Lisbon then onto Porto and across to Valladolid. Best of luck, when you have settled on the route, would be great to see it posted.

Hi All,

Would anyone have any suggestions for maps of Portugal - I am aware of the Michelin Regional Maps for Portugal (I think 3 cover the country in total) but they don't seem to get particularly good reviews (missing details, scale too small etc)

I had thought of taking my iPad with me should there be an option for offline mapping apps....

Thanks,

Rich

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"There are no Foreign Lands, It is the Traveller only who is Foreign" - Robert Louis Stevenson

Hi Romulus, like you I am leaving the UK but on Thur 30 April riding to Dover, ferry over to Calais on Fri 31st then on to Perpignan via Milau bridge. From there its down south through Spain and then up north through Portugal and heading to Normandy where I have to be for the 24th May. It's my first solo trip out of the UK (gone in groups before) and I have no route and no plans. My only considerations so far are no more than 300 mile a day absolute max and camping couching all the way eating crisps and cheese sarnies in a bid to keep costs down. I will be leaving Normandy on the 29th May back to Calais, ferry back to Dover, camp somewhere for a night and then home by Sat 30th.

I am fairly certain that at some point we will not be too far from each other?

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www.frothandflames.com
2012 Kawasaki W800
1997 NX 650 Dominator

Very Likely

Am thinking of putting in the miles on a few days and heading over to the HUBB meet in Germany for the last few days.

There's a post on here asking whether there'll be much in the way of English presentations, if it turns out there are - I may well head that way being as the UK's meet has been laid to fallow for 2015.

So many decisions still yet to make

Rich

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"There are no Foreign Lands, It is the Traveller only who is Foreign" - Robert Louis Stevenson

Paper maps dont really exist below 1:200,000

There are some decent offline apps to use, but in addition to these we planned the route out on one of them, then took screenshots at the best resolution we could manage without distorting the googlemap images.

This gave us a mapping at about 1:15,000, worked very well - downside for a bike being that you dont have a navigator to keep an eye on which tile you are currently on.

We put all our routemaps online, I will find the app we used - if its the trans Portugal you're following it should be very similar to our route.

Generally internet is available on campsites, and many villages have their own free wireless network you can use.

Cheers

Pete

Romulus,

Just spotted you're in Somerset as well !

Anywhere near Bridgwater?

Pete

Hi Pete,

Not far - Down in Yeovil.

Have friends in Bridgwater that I visit regularly (just the other side of the bridge from Riders)

Rich

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"There are no Foreign Lands, It is the Traveller only who is Foreign" - Robert Louis Stevenson

That is the problem with Portugal. There map's are not as good as OS map's in the UK. On the other hand OS map of Portugal are better than the one's you get in Portugal. It's pay your money and take your chance.
John933

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To buy petrol in Europe. Pull up at station. Wait. Get out a 20 Euro note, then ask someone to fill up the bike. Give person money. Ride away. Simple.