So, the last early morning fast ferry of the summer schedule left yesterday morning then? Not to worry, bound to be another one in a couple of hours? Not until 23:00? Right, then.
This time Ted Simon was proved right. A friendly security guard (yes there is ONE) made me a cup of coffee to warm me up and we had a great conversation about living full-time on a wooden boat. When the office opened the staff got me booked onto a late evening ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo so I could have an early start the next day from farther into France. Most importantly, this time I didn’t break my glasses.
I got round to Portsmouth intending to have a wander round the historic dockyard. I’ve competed in the Great South Run a few times but I was always a bit busy when I was running past HMS Victory. I parked the bike up near the entrance to the dockyard but I was told my bag would probably not be there when I got back and that there were no facilities for storage. I was about to give up when a guy parked his bike near mine in that confident way that is the mark of the local. I had a chat and explained my problem to him. It turned out that he was from the Ark Royal and he reckoned that the proper thing for a fellow biker to do was to look after my bike for me – so he sat out on the footpath with a pint while I had a look at the Victory. How brilliant are bikers?
The ferry did just what it said on the tin but I did meet two interesting bikers. One very feisty lady with fairly advanced MS was determinedly still riding pillion on a big BMW tourer which looked pretty cool with tw
o crutches across the top box – go girl! The other biker had brought a Harley from his house in France to sell it and reduce his bike collection.
Question: what is the perfect number of bikes?
Answer: N+1, where N is the number you currently own.
He was obviously familiar with this theorem as on his way to Heathrow to fly home after selling the Harley he ‘accidentally’ bought a 750 Kawasaki and sidecar. Long suffering wife syndrome perhaps?
Tomorrow France – only four days behind schedule. At least the language problem shouldn’t be as bad as Wales.
This time Ted Simon was proved right. A friendly security guard (yes there is ONE) made me a cup of coffee to warm me up and we had a great conversation about living full-time on a wooden boat. When the office opened the staff got me booked onto a late evening ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo so I could have an early start the next day from farther into France. Most importantly, this time I didn’t break my glasses.
I got round to Portsmouth intending to have a wander round the historic dockyard. I’ve competed in the Great South Run a few times but I was always a bit busy when I was running past HMS Victory. I parked the bike up near the entrance to the dockyard but I was told my bag would probably not be there when I got back and that there were no facilities for storage. I was about to give up when a guy parked his bike near mine in that confident way that is the mark of the local. I had a chat and explained my problem to him. It turned out that he was from the Ark Royal and he reckoned that the proper thing for a fellow biker to do was to look after my bike for me – so he sat out on the footpath with a pint while I had a look at the Victory. How brilliant are bikers?
The ferry did just what it said on the tin but I did meet two interesting bikers. One very feisty lady with fairly advanced MS was determinedly still riding pillion on a big BMW tourer which looked pretty cool with tw
o crutches across the top box – go girl! The other biker had brought a Harley from his house in France to sell it and reduce his bike collection.Question: what is the perfect number of bikes?
Answer: N+1, where N is the number you currently own.
He was obviously familiar with this theorem as on his way to Heathrow to fly home after selling the Harley he ‘accidentally’ bought a 750 Kawasaki and sidecar. Long suffering wife syndrome perhaps?
Tomorrow France – only four days behind schedule. At least the language problem shouldn’t be as bad as Wales.
5 comments:
750 Kawasaki Wife is an amateur.
R (Founder Member of the LSW Group)
Good on ya Drew - what's that now about your feminine side?? Does Ruth know?
See you soon, take care.
Paul 'Eaglerider'
Hi
Hope you got to O bolides in time for lunch. I made it home after a few showers and took the long suffering wife and 13month old son for a quick tour of Apremont in the sidecar. Spoke to the original owner, a lovely old bloke in his 80's who sold it in 2000 aged 81 because he could no longer get insurance at which point it had only done 5k miles in 13 years. If you pass through the vendee on your way home please look us up. Lang
Just catching up on you adventure after Ruth gave me your blog.
Not planning on going home via Wales I take it.
Good luck
Ivar & Sheila
Hi Drew, How are you going? Nothing recent on the blog so hope my sabotage work on your rack is not causing you any problems! Good luck on the road mate. Any thoughts on Tunisia? Maybe best to get to Morocco first!
Cheers Cliff
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