Had a week in Cantabria N. Spain and got back Monday morning. Went with 1 x 30 litre Kreiga dry bag strapped to the standard Triumph rack and a 20 x litre Kreiga bag attached to the larger one. Lastly we had an old expandable Hein Gericke tank bag, all we needed for the week was easily carried by this arrangement which was rock solid and more than adequate. The mirror extenders fitted prior to leaving were indispensable and gave a full view to the rear. Weather was perfect some cloudy very warm days ideal for trips into the mountains and hot sunny days for beach, swimming and ludicrously cheap wine at night. The vented jacket and trousers I bought for the trip were ideal as well. Brittany Ferries were a mixed bag I thought, never returning to release the retaining straps and not arriving to attach the strap on the return journey despite us hanging around for ten sweaty uncomfortable minutes to see the bike secured. I wanted to see this done in case any damage was caused to save potential disputes later on. As it happened all was well and I did leave the Kreiga bags attached to the bike for each passage without any problem. All in all a brilliant week and so easy to do, I had several concerns on the ride down to Portsmouth all of which turned out to be no problems at all! Curly
Nice one Curly, too hot in Spain for me at this time of year.I will wait till November, just right for me then.
Hey Curly if you have any photos I would love to see them, always fancied a trip on a bike. Even as I kid I wanted to do the south of France and work my way across to Spain down to Gibraltar and up again however now as a grown up work and family get in the way, well more work than family but maybe when I retire eh. So please if you have the time post up a few pictures so I can enjoy your experience.
Andy, I took a few photos with an ancient digital camera which won't amount to much I expect. I am totally out of touch with all computer related issues, I mean totally, what I'm doing now is the extreme limit of my capabilities! My son who looks after all these things for me is currently away walking the Appalachian Trail but has almost finished it so will be home in a few weeks, if you can be bothered to wait until he gets around to fixing it for me, I will get them up then, warts and all. When we were waiting on the bikes to disembark the ferry at Santander I was chatting to a bloke on the bike next to me, he was flabbergasted to discover that I was using an OS type map in my old tank bag and not a GPS contraption, that's how I operate, it's worked for the last 57 years but seems to be wearing a bit thin now, unfortunately. Sorry to disappoint, it's the best that I can do. Curly
Gosh fella, it's good to hear that map reading skills are not lost and still in use today, I would be honoured and happy to wait until you post them up, always very interested in people's adventures.
Sounds like your son has inherited your adventurous spirit Curly. Great stuff! I still like using maps and a compass, keeps the old grey matter ticking over, never lose their signal, (unless you're next to a magnet factory with the compass) and generally stops you going over cliff edges unlike Sat-nav.
Hi Curly no matter what electronic fandango I have with me when travelling, I always have a map. I might have a plan to go to X, then as I'm riding along I see an interesting road or track off the beaten path (but still show on a good map) and that's where I'm headed. For me riding my bike is always an adventure so I don't care if I get a bit lost - sometimes you meet the nicest people when you're 'off plan'.
I couldn't agree more Big Lad. My journeys can become a bit McGregor Boorman esque if you know what I mean, but always a pleasure, more so as the wife never complains about being out on the bike! Curly
Morning Mick, He invited me to accompany him since he is alone, I thought long and hard about that one but reluctantly had to acknowledge that my knees are simply no longer upto this type of abuse and opted out. He totally understood and is on course to finish in 5 months rather than the 6 he had anticipated. Had I gone along we would still have been limping Northwards through Tennessee with no prospect of finishing at all. Curly
We took the Brittany ferry from Pompey to Santander, followed by a short coastal ride to Noja, dead easy. I wore my Ventilated Dainese jacket and ventilated trousers, open face helmet and lightweight gloves. If it had rained I would have been in trouble but it was hot and dry continuously, even to Pompey and back, so we got lucky! Curly
I knew that would crop up! Just not able to do that stuff with my Olympus Trip 35, but I will talk to someone who can help out soon Curly
Some pictures at last. Picture 1 - mountain road CA 265 Puerto del Ason Picture 2 - bike in observation point on mountain Picture 3 - view from mountain road Picture 4 - local beach Noja Picture 5 - our accommodation in Noja, from the street showing off road covered bike parking
Booked up again this year, can't wait, closer to the Picos this time. Now got Kriega side panniers as well for more carrying capacity.
Hi Curly, did you know that you can buy a scanner to translate your 35mm film negatives into digital files. This would allow you to post Olympus pics onto the forum.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy your next trip just as much. I love the Picos first went in the late 1990’s before it became popular and been about 6 or 7 times since and without a gps thingy, just Michelin maps. Not been for there for 4 years which I must rectify one day. Enjoy your trip
Thanks for that info Biglad, can you just confirm whether would that be an imperial or one of those new fangled metric ones?
