Northern Spanish Adventures
Santander - gateway to Spain, most head miles south or across the Pyrenees to France. We stayed within 50 miles of the coast and sampled some of the best unspoilt roads and scenery in Europe...
Sailing out of Plymouth to Santander on Brittany Ferries fine, cruise liner style, The Pont Aven, brings you and your bike into the heart of great riding country in 21 hours. Within easy access of the port are magnificent beaches, towering mountain ranges and unspoilt, traditional Spanish villages. This was a holiday on motorcycles rather that a flat out tour. A couple of decent hotels, no fixed agenda, no targets or motorway slogs, lovely. In two weeks we saw two groups of British bikers and half a dozen cars. No one spoke english, even the hotel staff struggled. We turned off the sat-nav and relied on the good old fashioned map, picking the most innocuous white lines which revealed incredible, mountain straddling, strips of tarmac
Whether you’re into tight hairpins with no barriers or long, fast, endless sweeps, it’s all here. If two cars are seen together, a traffic alert goes out on the local radio.
The big draw in the region is the Picos National Park. A stunning area of vast, snow capped mountains and tight, meandering routes alongside the numerous rivers, it’s well worth a trip. It is, however, the biggest natural attraction and is far busier than the overlooked parts.
The Spanish government back a range of beautiful hotels, Paradores, which are generally old castles, monasteries and palaces refitted to an excellent standard.
For not much more than a Travellodge in the UK, you can experience five star luxury after a day’s blatt.
WE DID IT1
Have you ever fancied a european adventure but for various reasons (kids, time, bills to pay etc.) have continually put it off? Same here...until I stumbled across the Barry Sheene Memorial Challenge while idly roaming the internet. The opportunity to visit various race tracks with routes, accommodation and back up all in place, was too good to pass up. Plus, of course, we would be raising money for a great cause.
OK, so you pay a deposit, then work out how on earth to raise the money to fund the trip. I have done the sponsored walk bit for a few quid in aid of local scouts and schools but this was a bit more daunting.
The first move was to talk one of my work pals, Gus, into taking part as well. This doubled the target to raise but I worked on the old “two heads are better than one” ploy. Just asking friends and family to part with cash seems a bit presumptuous, so we needed to run a few events where people had a good time and enjoyed themselves as well.
Gradually the ball started rolling, a couple of pub quiz nights, a fishing competition, a karaoke night, persuading the local Indian restaurant to lay on a buffet one evening with a raffle and an auction. Mates were happy to come along for a night out and spend a few quid. We managed to blag a pitch at the BMF show at the Hop Farm (thanks guys!) and hold a very successful raffle with many stallholders happy to contribute.
Once you start, it’s surprising how new ideas come to you. Clic Sargent are also very helpful, providing a resource pack and a contact to help develop fundraising. We also had help from a couple of local dealers (thanks John Harris Motorcycles).
To our great surprise, we ended up with fifty percent more than our initial target - hard work but well worth it.
The real challenge was complete, now it was time to enjoy the trip. With bulging rucksacks and tankbags, we excitedly set off for Brands, not sure what to expect.
It’s not every bike tour that starts with a couple of laps of this world famous track, albeit behind a pace car. Charley Boorman was in attendance, with heavily bandaged hands as a result of his Dakar adventure. He also showed up at the launch party in London as well, a very friendly fellow! Then it was off to Portsmouth and an overnight ferry to Le Havre with the chance of a beer or two to meet your companions for the next week or so.
Maps were handed out with suggested routes and overnight destinations. Mileage was very sensible, ranging from 100 - 300 stints, certainly a comfortable day’s ride. The routes were extremely well planned, avoiding long, dull motorway stints and taking in a huge variety of scenery and places of interest.
We headed south through France via the beautiful Loire Valley, stopping at Clermont Ferrand race circuit. None of you pace car ‘elf and safety stuff over here. “off you go chaps, enjoy yourselves” or something similar in francais. This was more like it, and so it continued, the Prenois circuit near Dijon, across to Germany to Hockenheim, Nurburgring (riding optional) and into Belgium for my definite favourite, the awesome Spa circuit.
Finally crossing into Holland, we stayed at Zwolle, south of Assen giving us the chance to see the MotoGP (Nicky Hayden’s single victory) and an evening of recollections and spoof prizes. The event is superbly organised with medical and mechanical back up plus all meals and accommodation pre-booked. All you need to do is to turn up and ride, all the hard work is done in the fundraising. It’s a great introduction to touring and is difficult to beat as a biking experience.