I am having breakfast on the Pont Avon, only few hours from Santander. When I get off, all the booked parts are done and dusted. From now on I will just look on my old map... Choose a likely looking place, choose 'no motorways,' and press the GO button on the zumo 550... It sure finds some weird places ;-)
My route is to trace (very loosely) the sea going route of HMS Usurper, a RN submarine, which was lost with all hands around the 3rd Oct 1943 somewhere around the bay of Genoa.
My grandfather, Leonard Jackson was lost too. Obviously I never knew him but apparently he might have been a bit of a bugger, so he sounds OK to me



This is mainly for family to keep tabs but feel free to join in, especially if you have knowledge of submarine ops in the Med in WW2.

I am aiming to camp mainly, so WiFi will be patchy, and 3's europass doesn't include tethering (the swine). But then again Leonard couldn't contact home on his last trip either.

Potes has been recommended so I'm headed to Potes. Shortish ride to get me zeroed in.




Pete

I like your intention to follow the sub but you have posted this 3 times in total - maybe I will follow your ride report if you can settle down to one or other of your postings!

Bon voyage!!

__________________
Dave

Tks Dave- fixed

My apologies.... The WiFi on the Pont When, and fat fingers on a nexus 7 are to blame.

Hopefully better this time.

Yesterday was my first days riding in Spain, and as intended camped just outside Potes. Fair to say I packed too much as usual, probably half a pannier of 'wotiifs' that you can never do without but never use. I blaming it on the need to cope with the Alps on the return leg, which could be a bit chilly. (It better be, or the electric jacket I'm carrying will be a waste of space, as will the log burning stove... And I'm just kidding about the stove)

What to say about the Picos mountain area? If you've been, you'll know... If you haven't, then do go. I cut through them with all motorways banned on the zumo.
Hardly saw any other bikes, and only a few cars.

I'll try to get some pics up... But it might be an edit when I get home and have a PC to fool with, as my inability to function here on the tablet has been mentioned already :-P

Tonight residing in a hotel, 25 euros..... If the bike is still there tomorrow I will continue....

After Potes, I stopped in Salamanca. Th was the 25 euro hotel mentioned before. It wasn't my choice, the zumo was taking me in ever decreasing circles trying to find a campsite and I chanced up the hotel. Once I had wrestled the young lady from her card game, and demonstrated my total stupidity at speaking Spanish, an air conditioning unit came along with a room.
The 'restaurant', which the young lady was at pains to point out was a 'separate business.
Asked for a menu.... Got blank looks in return.. There was no choice. But, a salad to start and omelette with cheese and peppers.. 11 euros.... Including 2 s.... Mustn't grumble, as the boss tells me.
Anyway, the Strom was there, so after lugging all the stuff back from the room to the bike and working up a right old sweat, I couldn't find the sumo. Mucho panico (see the Spanish is improving already ;-) ) Unpack top box....Unpack both panniers... Repack both...look under bed.. In cupboards... Start thinking how you report theft to the Spanish police.. Then find it under my bike jacket... I wonder what the Spanish is for dork...

Hit the road, and did some miles. Have seen some beautiful scenery, brilliant roads, from smooth curvy, sinewy roads, to little more than tracks. Like I say, Garmin... Four those out of the way places.

Spain is such a great country to ride in, great roads, and the people generally have friendly vibe so far, even if we can't understand each other :-)

Tonight I'm in Portugal, although never noticed a border. Zumo took me to a campsite that is having some kind of exposition going on,, so no camping again. This hotel is 13euros... I have asked a few times if that's right.. But I'm told it is. Hopefully no nasty surprises tomorrow.

My helmet is causing me some grief.... That's my BMW flip up helmet. Something is pressing against my cranium, which it appears is not as soft as some people say! Quite localized pain, about an inch above my ears. I'm pressing the polystyrene in,,trying to stop the pressure. Time will tell.

I have seen places today that I would have liked to linger, but couldn't. The route today was partly 'the route of castles' and there were some, although lots were derelict. I can see me going back to explore these places another time,... Time to learn some oif the lingo.

Should reach Gibraltar tomorrow, but with no camping, and little in the way of hotels on the web, it might just get bypassed...

So, 13 euros see sounded too good to be true, and it was! It wasn't a massive surprise to see 30 euros. Still a good nigh rest is worth the money. Apart from a fellow guest seeming to be tapping out Morse code on the pipe system for half the night, and what sounded like two drunk women going to bed.. The loudest one being the one that was telling the other one to shhhhhh!

Departed under grey skies and a spit of rain in Portugal. Good roads back to Spain, still avoiding the motorways, and as usual they were pretty much empty. I am loving it here :-)

Took an off road excursion (deliberately).. All went OK. If the Strom can cope in my incompetent hands its doing OK..

Great roads, great weather, but I screwed up by letting the satnav take me too far into Seville before I realized motorways would have been better. An hour or so wasted there, and almost as long wasted on garmin 'fictitious' hotels meant a late hotel find somewhere in.... umm .. Spain. It will tell me where I am on the receipt in their morning :-)

Had to buy a USB charging look lease today to charge the drift camera. Chinese supermarket where the seemed to sell everything, and talk any language, excerpt English.. Getting used to this now though :-)

Would write more but knackered, as and the 3 s are not helping me

Really want to camp tomorrow for a couple of nights. There's a rawness in my draws, needs a rest ;-)

Pete

You're doing well with the Nexus 7.
Damned if I could be bothered to type so much on such a keying system!!

__________________
Dave

Was doing well

Can someone tell me why it won't load up

I get a message says 'token expired, use back button and reload window' I do that and lose everything I spent ages tapping in. Going to bed grumpy lol

Enjoyed reading your posts. Some pics would be nice.

Yeah, come on Pete, more pics.... Oh hang on, not more... Any?

Kid brother heckling , shouldnt be allowed .......

Leaving the hotel, the owner's son had told me I MIGHT get lucky with the rain, but it would be wet up in the hills. The father of the swiss biker had told me that visibility would be so bad, hinting I should not be up there... Ominous warnings....
I skirted west a little but then hit the hills. It actually wasn't so bad. So I killed any motor a way options as well as pay routes, and ended up on a twisty, well surfaced road that twisted and turned about the motorway. Especially enjoyable as the motorway ground to a half as I shot along 'at some speed'
Just after the motorway jam, the road I was on headed for the sky, literally. The road was climbing, and this was a main road. Hairpins, sharp bends and then the rollercoaster! The weather had been quite good, and the mist descended, just as the road reached out into the sky on concrete legs, and went into a long tightening curve. I don't mind admit saying out loud that ' I don't like this much'.
Other curves, had half a turn in the sky, but a whole turn was something else. I seemed to get a break on the other side of the 'hill and the weather was lovely. I came to a junction and stopped to choose my route.
I could carry on, or I could hang a left and go over Furkapass. I ask... Who could resist that name. I couldn't. I should have......


The first half was great, I got to about half way I up before the signs of things going seriously pear shaped first showed.

Some kind of classic car thing was on, all on coming to me. I started noticing raindrops on the cars. And the change was as good as immediate. Rounded one bend, and hit a fog bank. Could see nothing. Thoughts flashed through my mind of how you turn around a Vstrom on not much more than a goat track. But almost as quickly came the rain. Before I could safely stop, my jeans were soaked, glass's were steaming up if the visor was closed, and covered in droplets with the visor open.
I wondered when it had last rained here. I find going down hill harder in the mountains than going up for some reason, and now with the rain lashing down and running in rivers across the roads, the wind had picked up and it was now I had to start to descend. I would lover to say I was flicking it from left to right,overtaking everything in sight, but I was pathetically just wanting to survive it. It was as low, tortuous descent,and I was not enjoying it one little bit. The closest thing to joy was the occasional maniacal laugh of a surely doomed man. A lot of cars had pulled over, but somehow, I'm thinking they would not have let me in to shelter with them.
The vstrom is fitted with the Anakee2 tyres, and I have to say, apart from the odd bit of wet over banding, they performed brilliantly. Far better than me.

Eventually, I came across a hotel called the Grand Glacier du Rhone or similar. Very old, and very posh. I squelched my way through until I found a somewhat haughty woman, who luckily handed me on to some other chap who was far more helpful.
It was as expensive as it looked, but in the discussion the guy mentioned the rain would be worse the day after, and that it might even snow. I decided to carry on, especially as he said the road to Brig was much better. He just meant lower. Rain still washed across the bends, wind was still a bit gusting but the mist was gone. I should say, after the initial fog bank on top, the mist did come and go.
Slowly the mountain roads changed to long Swiss valleys complete with picture postcard views. The rain stopped and I got sunshine. Heading west it was right in my face now, and the BMW helmets internal sun visor was flipped down. Unfortunately, the earlier rain etc, had made the visor impossible to see through so it was used as a sun strip instead.
Good progress was made on these roads, and I found myself filling up with fuel at a place called Visp. Also it was past time to look for a hotel. I started to find closed hotels and full hotels.Some kind of festival in town judging by the PA systems blaring. Round and round I went, with some local road changes confusing the hell out the zumo (and me to be fair).
I had seen the campsite earlier but discounted it. But sure enough, I rolled in there with half an hour before dark. Talked to the guy in charge, who was helpful but obviously needing to go home. He waved in a direction when I asked for a restaurant. This was found later in spite of his directions, and those of the woman on the ticket booth of the footie club next to the campground.

I had been told to report to the non English speaking guy at the campsite at 9 am prompt to cough up the dosh for a surprisingly refreshing night's sleep. Might have been all the walking along dark paths, underpasses etc to get to town for some food and drink. Only seemed to be one one serving food as all as drink, luckily it was a good one.

Anyway, the clouds still hung to the hills, but it was obvious I would have to risk it, or hit the motorways. The modified roads meant it took a while to be pointed in the right direction. But eventually I started to climb in zigzag fashion, the hill I was on remaining flour and rain free while I could look across the valley, and see the flat bottom of the cloud there. I had plenty of more curves before finding myself riding along the southern shore of Lake Lucerne, passing back into France without hardly even noticing.

Before long the road twisted and turned again. The any got much heavier, then it rained. Cold and persistent, I had to stop to put the liner in and the leggings on. Hotels in that are are either seasonal, or bust. That applied to both the ones found by zumo, and those advertised on boards. Point to French hoteliers... If you go bust, take the damn boards down!

The end result of this was a serious consideration to putting tent up in some field, where I would no doubt be trampled by cattle, the was s many of them. I was tired,and my headlight was going the wrong way (not an issue much, as there was few traffic on these minor roads.

Eventually though I was on a major road, well more major than the minor ones. And after asking in a bar, for a hotel,and then getting though that I didn't think that her place was a hotel, she directed me,with some impatience,it has to be said, to a hotel just up the road. I got the impression that she thought it was obvious where the hotels were. I almost missed the hotel,as it was set back from the road.
Parking outside it looked like it might be expensive, but I was past caring. It had a room. It had a garage for the bike which would be well hidden behind a fairly ancient looking trifold wooden door. The young lady from reception opened 2 doors to tease me, but when I asked about the third one, it was a'non monsiuer'. Also,the road I was coming from, was a bad angle, and the concrete ramp was made to use the part of the door that wouldn't open. Had I been less tired I might have been more sensible. But I've read 'adventure bike' books, and RTW, and everyone has these moments where they have come to the conclusion they have to 'gun it and go for it'
Poor sap that I am, this went through my addled brain and I 'gunned it' and'went for it'. The vstrom powered over the ramp and crashed into the garage. Unfortunately, more or less ripping the door that wouldn't open right off its hinges, having caught the edges of the middle part with the top corner of my right hand pannier lid. Now, I'm not one to advertise for other people, but these cases are made my ARD cases, and I can safely say, they are no better or worse than any other panniers for carrying 'stuff', but should you feel the need to crash through old (probably antique French garage doors, these are the kiddies :-)



Picture the scene, French receptionist standing in the garage, probably wondering why I'm so hesitant to try with only 2 does open, then the door and her world, to an extent, come crashing in.

The look on her face, and the shriek she made was noticeable even as I struggled not to fall over. With the bike safely on its stand, we wear the door. It was buttered, but had been busted before, as the immovable door seemed to be screwed to the door frame. Well, to be more precise, it was, She informed me she must call the owner. I could only imagine the torrent of abuse I was about to get from some Frenchman, who would scoff at my lack of skill, before sleeping me with a huge repair bill...

As it turns out the boss man was a woman, and was more concerned about the bike than the door. She came out, we closed the door with some brute force (me) and 4or5 bungees. Apparently hotel inspectors had told her a month previously that the door not opening want good, and she said it needed replacing anyway. Had I known that, I could have charged for demolition :-)

The hotel had a bath AND a lift... Bliss!
The restaurant was exceptional. Really nice end to a trying day :-)

And i just put to the back of my mind that I had to get the bike out again in the morning...

COMMENT :
Please note HMS USURPER has been sonar-located off TABARKA , Tunisia. Full dossier available from missonjp@hotmail.com