That is most interesting.

Sat here in sunny Mid Wales, one could be led to believe that the rest of Europe is so well sealed up that not even a mouse is crossing borders.

I suppose the problem now is the quarantine coming back to the UK, although that is being challenged in court too.

Starting to feel as though I need another motorbike.......

Great pix, thanks!

I just popped on my logical thinking hat, there's no way any country is putting that much resource into border closures, its only on tarmac roads from what I've seen and in populated areas.

I'm not worried about the quarantine as I'm less than 4 weeks into a round the world trip so i cant imagine it will still be in place in a year.

The media has done a great job in hyping things up

Thanks for giving it a read and there's certainly worse place to be than mid Wales!

Cheers,
Mike

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

Instagram - the_feral_traveller

Fantastic writing and photos and what an adventure - my hat off to you sir, just subscribed.
How’s the bike? Happy with your choice?

Thanks, glad you like it!

The bike is great so far, its obviously not going to set the world on fire but its getting me about and being pretty good on fuel, so no complaints yet. if you've seen the 'The steed' section on my site you'll know its had some changes.

Thank you much, for taking us readers virtually with you!

Nice writeup and pictures!

You truely are travelling light - with very less! That you are even able to carry a shovel - should shame many vanlifers - who arent able to live traceless outside

I love the "small" bike which gives you much more freedom than most other extended travellers I did meet. Very funny that we did many similar choices - you with the bike, me with the car. You win (Landcruiser 200, V8 Diesel - but maybe also "tiny" compared to Crafter / Sprinter or truck based RTW vehicles, too with the "be able to go anywhere" approach)



I will follow your trip - thank that you even share it at Hubb!

I`m jaelous of the "additional" freedom, what your travelstyle bring you - also to be able to follow the single trails!

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Hi Surfy,

Glad you liked it.

Big fan of the land cruiser, a great choice for a long trip!

Feel free to add you email in the subscription box on the blog, you'll get told any updates automatically then

Cheers,
Mike

MOTORCYCLE TOURING IN FRANCE (+ANDORRA)

Day 22, 23, 24, 26 & 26

So, today’s blog post is going to skip a few days as I’ve spent a fair few of these days at my mums. She lives in a little place called Sardent, in France.

If anyone really wants to know about my time mowing the lawn, trimming a tree or filling a trailer with mud, please message me separately and I’ll fill you in on all the juicy details.

For the rest of the normal folk, I’ll resume on day 27.

Day 27

I leave my mums and head south, I’m heading for Spain after all and that’s where you’ll find it, if you’re in Sardent. Well, south west if you’re being picky.

I pick the town of Narbonne to head to, for no better reason than I spot it on a map and it’s south. You’re probably starting to get an idea of the extensive planning I’ve put into this trip!

This is going to be another ‘road day’, I’ve got somewhere to be (no reason to be there but lets not worry about that) so I’m going to get on with it.

I do the usual trick with Google maps, pick a load of tiny towns along the way to force the route onto back roads.

I like France a lot, I come every year. Normally I get off the ferry and head to the Alps as as quickly as possible to ride mountain bikes. I also really like the west coats, if you’ve been to Biarritz or Lacanau Ocean then you’ll understand why, if you haven’t, then you should!

Despite having been here numerous times, I’d not been to the south west, until now. The section between Sardent and Narbonne is fairly uneventful. It has got some beautiful little towns and is reasonably hilly but it’s not quite floating my boat.







I get to Narbonne and decide I’m going to head to the Mediterranean coast to camp. I use the good old Park4Night app again and end up in a nice little wooded area, there’s no epic view but it’ll do for tonight.

Day 28

It’s time to head to the coast to take in some of the joys of the Mediterranean, I get to Saint-Pierre-La-Mar and start pottering along the coast. It’s long, it’s flat and its sandy. But that’s about as exciting as it gets. I know, I’m riding along the Mediterranean coast of France, quite whinging! The problem I have is, it’s just not doing it for me. There’s no point going on a round the world trip of your’e prepared to settle for ‘Meh’.

I get the maps out again and look for something a little more exciting. Andorra. I’ve always wanted to go to Andorra but never got round to it. I’ve also not been to the Pyrenees before either which is odd, as I bloody love a mountain!

I find a potential camping spot and stick it in the SatNav, I’m off to Porte-Puymorens, or more specifically a little dirt track leading up a valley in that area.

As I leave the lovely 22 degree sunshine of the coast and head inland, I climb, obviously. And it gets colder, also obviously. It also starts to piss it down. None of this can make the Pyrenees any less epic. The roads are great and the scenery is stunning. What scenery I can see between the fog and rain is stunning anyway.

When I arrive at the chosen spot the navigation takes me off the asphalt road and onto a dirt track. This track leads further up the mountain. According to a crappy app I’ve just used while writing this (so take this with a pinch of salt), it’s at about 2200 meters I make camp.

Nature teaches me a lesson

I haven’t had the joy of putting a tent up in the wind for a while. You forget how easy mother nature finds it to make you look like a bit of a tit. I’m tired and cold and not thinking straight so I have one of those moments where you have to stop and have a word with yourself because you’re being an idiot. ‘Mike, if you try to put the tent up in strong wind without pegging it down first, it’s going to **** off down the hill and you’ll have to go get it’. Talk to self completed, I peg out the tent, then put in the poles. Camp is made!

As its getting cold and dark I decide to cook a quick meal in the mini vestibule of the tent and get some sleep.

Day 29

I wake up bright and early at about about 05:00. This happens for many reasons. 1) I went to bed at 21:30. 2) My inflatable sleeping mat has failed in the middle of the night and I’m now just lying on the floor, which is cold. And 3), which is probably the most important one, I’m busting for the toilet. I’ve let it get to the point where I’m doing the little sleeping bag dance trying force the urge to go away. It doesn’t. I’m forced to get out of my lovely warm sleeping bag and open the tent. It’s colder than a snowman’s nipple outside but the cold and the toilet urge suddenly vanish when I look up.

A lake of clouds

I’d seen pictures of mountain views where the clouds flood the valleys and look like a lake but I’d not seen it in person before. It was absolutely stunning. The sun was just starting to poke its head out too which made the view even better. I manage to snap out of the little trance the view has put me in and grab my camera bag.

As I’m starting to set the camera up the cloud starts to rise. It does so a lot faster than I’d expected and within a few seconds the cloud has covered my camp. I’m a little bit pissed off at this point as I’m pretty sure I’ve missed the opportunity to try to capture the image I woke up to.

At this point I get the drone out, I may not be able to get the picture I wanted but I’m sure I can get something. The fog is pretty thick and I know you’re no supposed to fly drones out of sight, but as the age old expression goes, **** it.

I send the drone up, it’s limited to 500m above the take off point which is a shame but I manage to get some stunning pictures. I’ll pop a few of these below.





As I’m flying the drone about I notice that the cloud starts to head back down the valley. It settles back down in the valley in the same position I woke to. It turns out that the cloud cycles through this process repeatedly. In this case about every 10 minuets it would start to rise up the valley again, sit around the top of the mountains for a little while and then head back down.

This gave me lots of opportunities to try and get a good image. As is always the way with photography, only a few of these result in anything worth looking at. I’ll share my favourites below.



Andorra

Following a hundred pictures of clouds in a valley I head for Andorra. Obviously the first thing I do is ride back down the valley into the fog/cloud.

This fog/cloud doesn’t go anywhere for the rest of the ride into Andorra. I arrive in El Pass de la Cassa, it looks like fog, I don’t hang around.

Following the signs to Andorra la Vella I have two options, the tunnel which cuts out the Envalira Pass, or ride over the Pass. If you go to Andorra, DO NOT take the tunnel, unless its snowing or the pass is closed, then knock yourself out! The road to Andorra la Vella is epic, the Envalira Pass is like a work of art. It’s near constant hair pin turns on a near perfect road surface. Whats not to love?!

Now, I imagine you’re sat there thinking, great, I’m about to see a picture of this epic road. You my friend, would be wrong. I’m fairly new to this writing a blog thing. I’m currently perfecting hindsight photography. In hindsight, it would have been a great idea to take a picture of that road. I didn’t, lets move on!

Imagine picture of epic road here…

Once in Andorra la Vella I pretty much rode round for a while then returned along the same road, I’m not attempting the Spain entry until the borders have opened so its back to France for me. I did actually take couple of pictures of Andorra la Vella, see, I’m slowly learning!







What I did take a picture of however, was the mountains on the way back along the epic road that you dont get to see. This was just before dropping back into El Pass de la Cassa.



I take a slightly different route back through the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast and I’m glad I did:





Fitting in with the locals

When riding in foreign countries I tend to want to learn what is and what’s not acceptable as far as filtering etc. is concerned before doing anything other than sit in the line of traffic. In some countries its illegal to filter for example. So there I am, sat in stationary traffic staring at the gap between cars itching to get between them and make some progress.

Then, two motorbikes fly past on the hard shoulder, cut across further up and squeeze themselves between the outside lane of traffic and the central concrete barrier. I was expecting some concerned looks. Maybe some head shaking from the people around me. Nothing. Complete indifference. Another goes past.

It dawns on me that not only is filtering allowed in France, its socially acceptable to do so like a maniac. In the UK, on a major road, you filter between the outside lane of traffic and the next, as a rule. In France you filter wherever there’s a clear 6 inch of daylight between cars, 4 inches if you’re in a hurry.

Being one to encourage cultural integration, I do my bit for Anglo-French relations and join the hard shoulder, at speed. I’m now making some serious progress. At one point I’m coming into an underpass, there’s no room to pass on either side. People almost stick their cars in the wall to make a space for me…gotta love the French! Progress resumes. I’m riding in a way that would encourage mutterings of ‘look honey, that guys riding like a complete douche bag’ if i was in the UK. But I’m not, I’m in France and everyone is OK with it. I could get used to this!

Camping on the med

I decide to leave the entry into Spain until the borders officially open. The internal restrictions within Spain are still in place sop i would have to sneak between provinces also. This seemed like to much hassle and as it was only about 4 days to wait, I decide I can probably cope spending this time on the coast of France.

As I want to stay put for a while I’m going to opt for an actual campsite for the first time on the trip. A quick Google search finds a little camp site just next to the border with Spain. It works out t about £6.80 a night so I decide to pay up until the day the border opens. Its quiet, and there’s showers, not much else to report about it.



Day 30

I wake up to more people arriving at the camp site, it seems this isn’t going to be as quiet as I’d hoped! I’m starting to remember why I wild camp. I’m all for family camping but it gets a little tiresome to hear the constant shouts from parents… ‘Put that down!’…’ Come here!’… ‘Stop hitting your sister with that spade’… Well, I assume that’s what they were saying, my french is no where near good enough to know for sure!

Oh well, I’ve made my bed, best make the most of it and get out for a walk along the coast and leave the families to it.



I can certainly deal with this for a few days, more than makes up for the noisy neighbours!

That will do for today’s blog entry!

Please add your email to the subscribe sections, either to the right or below, depending on if you’re viewing this on a computer or a phone. This will notify you of future updates.

Thanks,

Mike

Blog http://www.theferaltraveller.com