Spanish trip 2023

[xeris]

Epic trip. Enjoying the write up.
Yes it does looks very much the same as Arizona

[AMCQ46]

Day 7 Marty’s to Miami beach via mountains 160 miles

One of the things i enjoy when travelling with Tony is that we are both on different parts of the spectrum.
I am quiet and like order and plans (i had a day by day itinerary mapped out with route options planned for each day), Tony likes talking and comes up with random spur of the moment ideas like “lets go to Andorra to buy boots” or “lets go and swim in the Med”, to disrupt my plans.
Having that random element adds to my fun, so last night I rejigged my planned route to get us to the beach at Miami (yes really) for about 1pm so we could spend the heat of the afternoon swimming….. why not!

Route to the beach

As ever with McQueen tours, it’s not straight to the beach, we have to play on windy roads first, so off we go from Martys with a 9am start as yesterday.
It’s 4th & 5th gear for the 1st part, then when we get up onto the spine of the mountain we hit low cloud / fog for a few miles. Its just droplets of water hanging in the air, so to get any visibility you are wiping your visor all the time, but the bends are so frequent and tight you cant take your hands off the bars to wipe your visor ….. catch 22!
We were out the other side of it in less than 5 mins and back into full blue sky & sun as we work our way down the side of the mountain into the valley.

We both spotted the little roadworks sign at the side of the road and were ready to stop when we came to the traffic lights or obstruction, but wasnt for that. The road works must have been the day before, what we now had was patches of loose fine chippings that had been pored over wet tar repairs. It was the same colour as the normal road, so hard too spot till you were having a 2 wheeled slide…. Eek, not ideal when you are trail braking into a blind downhill bend.
Then we turned left onto the TV-7004… oh wow I liked that road. Not so much elevation changes here, but lots of 4th & 5th gear constant radius bends one after the other like skiing . There was a good road surface and lots of visibility….. so back to knee down on an adventure bike antics ;)

Onto some main roads for a bit, then we took a right up towards some more mountains. But first stop for coffee.
Tony is in buying coffee and sees a picture of what we both agree looks like a 4“ bacon baguette, I think it even said bacon under the picture. So he orders 2 for him and 1 for me (I had had cereal before we left). The bloke turns up with 2 plates each with 2 baguettes on, they are bigger than we were expecting and why do we have 4? Then he turns up with a 3rd plate of 2!!! Oops we now have 6!!!!!
Oh and it isn’t fried bacon as hoped, is cold iberico ham, so after a lot of chewing we have polished off 4 of them and ask for the remaining 2 in tinfoil as a takeaway.

Full of ham based products we get back on the bikes and continue up the hill into guess what?….. yup good guess, a tight & twisty B road up into the mountains :0
At some parts we have a white line in the middle and in other parts it’s only just bigger than single track. One side Armco with a big drop the other side a mountain with a concrete gutter to catch the runoff (rocks and / or water).
Over the intercom i hear some noises of panic…. I thought I heard “I’m off”, but then I heard “nope I’m ok”! I stop and wait and Tony rocks up and everything looks in order. Over then intercom he tells me that he had a bit of a front slide causing him to run wide towards the mountain then he dropped into the gutter, but it turns out it is pretty grippy and thankfully no rocks in that section…. So he rode up the gutter then popped back out onto the road.

That didn’t seem to slow him down much and we worked our way down a hairpin staircase to get to the bottom and sanity.

Hairpin staircase down the mountain

After that excitement it was normal roads all the way to the seaside where first order of the day was for Tony to go and buy some swim shorts. Then we parked up by the beach and to the amusement of passersby proceeded to get out of helmets, leathers and boots and into shorts & flip-flops and jump in the sea.

Bikers on the beach

After a pleasant couple of hrs of beach chilling and swimming, it was time to get back on the bike. My cunning plan was to wash all the sand and salt off with the beach showers before getting my bike gear on…. Not that cunning when it turns out all the showers we can see are out of order!
So a quick rinse with the remains of my drinking water and then back into bike gear…. For the rest of the ride home there was defiantly sand where it wasn’t wanted, so to distract from a bit of chafing, i found some serious fast sweepers to take us back the last 60 miles to Flix.

A splash & dash at the supermarket for provisions for the night …. Both food & drink with a cheap box of rose wine for Tony as we might not have enough cans left for both of us.

We probably wouldn’t see our hosts tomorrow as they would be out to work, so we said our goodbyes tonight, thanks again to Sharon & Andy.

Then we sent out this photo to the forum to guess the number of beer cans, and I can now confirm that in that photo there was 44 cans …. By the end of the night it went up to 50, but we need to keep the competition specific to the time that photo was taken.

44 cans

Nobody won the holiday !

[AMCQ46]

I have had a chance to look at the GoPro footage and here are some screen captures so you can get an idea of what you were missing.

This was on the french side of the mountains after the low cloud cleared.

French fun

This was on the way up the super narrow road from day 6 between Bot & Prat

Bot to Prat

This was in the last 40 miles on day 6 working our way back to Martys

Get her lent over

As with all the photos in the report, if you click on them you will get the big full definition image to better enjoy the detail

[tony.mon]

Yes, it was a bit of a moment! Instead of gutters and curbs as we have in the UK they have a white line either side, and a sort of triangular cross section gulley on the mountain side of the road where rain runoff is taken off the road. Because it's mainly on the mountain side of the road, there are often rocks of varying sizes in the gulley. Luckily for me there weren't any on the 30 metre section I rode along. Once I realised that the concrete surface was grippy I sort of bounced off the berm on the far side and wobbled along the bottom for a bit, then it occurred to me I could just ride back onto the road, so I did. Call it a scenic detour....

Anyway, you have to forget these things and ride on as before, there's not much point slowing down because you tend to stiffen up and more mistakes occur- that's what I told myself, anyway.
I did trust the tyres (Bridgestone RS11 front and S22 rear) a bit less for the rest of that day, though- there's no point pushing your luck.

Alastair got his pale Scottish skin out, risking sunburn and sunstroke, but it was only a couple of hours so he got away with it.



I still can believe how cheap cheap wine is abroad. This block of cheap rose (ole, Jose) was about a pound.....
The paracetamol cost more!

But because it's cheap plonk you don't feel guilty adulterating the first glass with an ice cube, so there's your silver lining.

[agentpineapple]

great write up gents.
so sorry i couldn't be there to enjoy your company and show you even more great roads.
so glad you enjoyed staying at the farm.
i bet your tyres took a beating

[AMCQ46]

Day 8 Marty to Pamplona 210 miles

Rather than slog out 1 big long day back from Martys direct to the ferry, I fancied breaking the trip up with a cultural visit to Pamplona.
I had originally considered a route that would include another mountain pass near the top of the route, but I couldn’t tell from my maps how wide the road was going to be. If it turned out it was one of the single track jobs that we had done in the last 2 days, I decided that hitting that near the end of the day, in 30 deg heat, with fully loaded bikes, was perhaps not a risk worth taking. I could find fast sweepers and canyons to get us near to Pamplona, so that’s what I did.

Packing up ready to go

Route

As ever I was staying off the big main roads where I could, but some of the ones I found, although wide, had the worst surface we had seen in the whole trip. Even with our electronic suspension set to comfort, it was still like an off road section with all the bumps.

Eventually the roads got smoother and also curvier, and after a coffee stop Tony’s rose wine head fog was starting to clear, so back to going wild up some great canyon roads.

Coffee stop

A quick inspection of the state of my front tyre and the red brake dust off my Brembo pads shows what abuse the KTM has been taking on this trip.

Front tyre abuse

Brake dust

Scenery was pretty cool too.

Cool rocks

Low water lakes

Tonys bike fits in my top box

I had initially looked at a hotel with secure parking in the old town area of Pamplona, but as we were passing through at the weekend the prices were more than double what it would have cost mid week, so instead I got a hotel in the northern suburbs that would be convenient for leaving early next morning. The taxi to the old town was £10 each way, and that was way cheaper than staying there!

When we got to the hotel about 3pm, we put our bikes in the secure underground car park and other than our bikes there was only 1 other there….. Then a taxi to the old town for some culture (and beer).

The architecture of the old town is great and although famous for its bull run through the narrow cobbled streets of the old town, today there was some other parade, perhaps celebrating the Moorish history of the area.
The crowds were out watching the parade, and by dusk there were people everywhere, pubs are full and most people drinking outside in the the streets, its a fun and noisy contrast to the remote olive farm we were at yesterday!

Parade

Culture

Culture 2

By about 9.30 we get a taxi back to the hotel, and when we arrive there are motorbikes everywhere! Turns out there was a rally event (Navarider) with a 500km route for 1 day into the Pyrenees, and this is the end point.

Bike Rally

I chat to a few German and Spanish riders, but then it’s time for an early night as we have to be at the ferry before 1pm tomorrow.

[tony.mon]

It was good of Pamplona to lay on some entertainment for us.
It was a very odd parade; they sort of swayed from side to side for about half an hour before starting off and took over a hour to travel two or three hundred metres.

On the route in we found some strange landscapes, it looked like heaps of fine dust but I think it might have been limestone.




Pamplona has some great architecture:

[AMCQ46]

Day 9 Pamplona to Santander 160 miles

We use the toll roads to get to the ferry as fast as we can as the checkin closes at 1pm.

With our radar watch apps running we slow down at all the right places and make good time in between.
We have more than enough time to stop for a coffee, but it’s Sunday again and no cafes open!!!!!

Onto the boat and beer as it sets sail at 2pm.

Boat drink

Day 10 - killing time on the boat i manage to read another book (that’s 4 this year, I don’t normally do much book reading).

Down to the garage decks at about 5pm and the old classic bikes are all down here again.

Garage deck

Ducati

Cx500

XT 500

We get off the boat and through customs by about 6 and say our goodbyes, we are off on our own now heading for home as dusk tends to dark.

Nonstop and back home by 8.15pm, put bike in garage and back in the house for supper

Home

1642 miles and no rain.

Trip summary

It was a great 10 days, thanks for your company Tony. For me, the whole trip delivered on every level, the riding, the weather, the scenery, the culture the variety, the laughs… all of it.


BUT there is a downside, after those magnificent roads, the lack of traffic, the weather …. It makes riding motorbikes in the UK a bit disappointing.

Might have to do 3 weeks next year, who’s interested?

[Pete.L]

Great write up guys. Thanks for taking us along for the ride with you. Having made the trip to Martys before I could picture it all so well and it brought back some great memories.

BUT there is a downside, after those magnificent roads, the lack of traffic, the weather …. It makes riding motorbikes in the UK a bit disappointing.

Sounds like your cherry has been well and truly popped. You'll never get that back

Might have to do 3 weeks next year, who’s interested?

You ask Julie and I'll hide around the corner

Pete.l

[AMCQ46]

Might have to do 3 weeks next year, who’s interested?

You ask Julie and I'll hide around the corner

Pete.l

I think i have her phone number, be hiding around 7pm tonight

[sirch345]

An awesome trip by the sound of it Guys. A great read

Goodness knows how you coped with the heat in your biking gear, even though Al you gave up your leather jacket at one point for something more breathable.

Thanks Al and Tony for taking the time to post all of this, and for adding the photo's which include some fantastic roads and scenery.

A shame it wasn't possible for Marty to be there at his place, but these things happen sadly.

Marty, I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your Mum, my condolences to you and all of your family,

Chris.

[tony.mon]

It was fine while riding, and we got a free sauna every time we got to a junction.

[sirch345]

It was fine while riding, and we got a free sauna every time we got to a junction.

I can only imagine

Chris.

[fabiostar]

Lads what an epic looking trip, and god those roads

[agentpineapple]

gutted i couldn't be there guys.
your welcome back anytime.