V2XS

As regular readers will know September is the month of our annual pilgrimage to the Spanish Pyrenees to take part in the VINCE navigation event. But there were a few big changes this year. Firstly, we had decided not to compete and to enter “tourist class” which meant we avoided the days of preparation during August in the lead up to the event and did not have to print out and laminate pages of maps. Secondly we decided to make more of the journey down to Spain – normally we meet up at my place, pile the bikes and gear into the vans and drive down to the event hotel in one day. This year we decided to ride down on bikes over the course of a week and take it in turns to drive the van which acted as a support vehicle. This became known as Dougie’s Turrs (use a Scottish accent for the correct pronunciation). This took a lot of planning and the number of participants varied from 3 and 9 as people dithered and fell off motorbikes ! We ended up with seven on the team (The Seven Desperados), with most people on off road/dual sport bikes and Peter and Phil on huge BMW GS1250 “two wheeled cars”.

The Turr started with a rendez-vous at my place near Cahors and we had people arriving by van, train, plane and bike – but all got here safely. We were all using an app called Life360 (which is excellent) and it was interesting to follow everyone’s progress as they converged towards south west France. I had hoped to do a barbeque but the weather had turned cold and damp after weeks of baking hot sunshine, so I made a traditional Cassoulet instead and it was excellent (even if I do say so myself!).

VIELHA

For the first leg the bikes went across country to Vielha in Spain for our first overnight stop. I was driving the van and went down the motorway. We had arranged a meet up for lunch south of St. Gaudens – the van was on time but the bikes were about half an hour late. No big deal but it showed the difficulty of estimating cross country travel times.

I had booked all the accommodation for the trip (for the five dirt bikers), with Peter and Phil sorting out their own arrangements. I had tried to book three twin rooms and wrote to each hotel to emphasise the importance of this – we are all good mates but draw the line at sharing a bed. I wasn’t surprised when we got to the first hotel and they tried to give us double rooms, but after stonewalling for a while I eventually got them to “upgrade” us to twin rooms and they didn’t charge any extra.

We had a congratulatory “Day 1 Completed” beer by the van in the car park and then walked into Vileha to find some dinner – a nice Tapas bar in the town recommended by the hotel, it was very good.

LLAVORSI

Here I had booked an apartment for two nights – cheaper than the luxury spa hotel (where Peter and Phil stayed) and with the benefit of secure underground parking. Unfortunately we couldn’t get access to the parking as the previous tenants had apparently wandered off with the remote – so the bikes ended up parked in the street outside.

I drew the short straw and had to sleep on the couch – actually I volunteered as I can sleep anywhere, unlike some of the “Princesses” on the team. It was a cold and damp ride over to Llavorsi and the weather forecast was pretty dire – in fact there were some very severe rainstorms in Spain at the time with serious flooding. Fortunately we managed to escape most of it.

The journey from Vielha was quite short and we met up in the car park outside the campsite to plan an afternoon ride. The dirt bikes did part of the “Smugglers Route” up towards Andorra with the GS boys doing a bit of road touring.

The next day should have been a ride around the area but we split up into those who were prepared to brave the elements and Dougie and myself who had the day off – we spent a whole morning working out how to get our helmet headsets to talk to each other. It took hours but we got there eventually.

ISABENA

The next leg was to a place we had stayed before for two nights, giving a free day for local riding/exploring. We all went together to a notable landmark – the Castillo de Fantova for a picnic lunch and bumped into the man himself Austin VINCE who was out running a “Mini Mondo” tour with other bikers.

MAGALLON

I drove this leg and was able to find the place we were staying and get everyone checked in. I also managed to sort out where we could get a beer and something to eat in the evening – not easy as there was a village fete taking place that day. Parking the big van was also a challenge in the narrow village streets. We were only here one night but had a chance to explore the village and some of us were able to stay up late to watch the village queen being crowned.

QUINTANAR DE LA SIERRA

This was the final leg and the “dirt bikers” had the opportunity to do a long off road stretch using a trail that Austin had given us – and it was great. Sam was on van duty and together with the GS boys got to the hotel well before us, but then failed to sort out anywhere for us to eat or get a beer that evening !

If you count a breakdown as the vehicle won’t go unless you get some tools out, we had our first and only significant breakdown on this leg. We left early with the van but Peter and Phil had a more leisurely start, especially when Phil’s bike wouldn’t start due to a flat battery. The “power pack” that Peter was carrying that guarantees to start a 3 litre diesel didn’t work so they put out an SOS call to the support van. Fortunately Sam hadn’t got very far and was able to get back with jump leads to get the bike fired up. It seems Phil might have left his auxiliary lights on overnight – a bit embarrasing but not a serious problem. Dougie is still trying to work out how much to charge Phil for the breakdown service…

Quintanar was the base for the VINCE and was the end point of the first part of the tour. Sam, Peter and Phil were not doing the VINCE so stayed a couple of nights and then set off back to blighty. Martin did participate in the VINCE but then set off for Santander and the ferry home. This left Doug, Dave and myself with a further week to spend in Spain before heading back to my place.

For this year’s event Austin had introduced a “noise limit” to try to eliminate the noisy bikes that turn up every year and cause a nuisance to the locals. He hadn’t thought through how he was actually going to check the noise levels so it was fortunate for him that Dougie (ably assisted by Dave) stepped up and offered to provide a noise testing service. Despite the warnings from Austin in every communication he sent out about the event – out of over 100 bikes there were 15 that “failed” – those fitted with noisy aftermarket exhaust pipes. And what’s more the owners were proud of the fact they made more noise than anyone else. They were allowed to participate in the event but won’t be invited back next year…

It was a very pleasant change to do the VINCE on a non competitive basis and we had a great three days just enjoying the trails, stopping to admire the views and having tea breaks and picnics. The weather was very good too. Dougie had a couple of offs (put downs) but no harm done. Dave and his VINCE partner Sid didn’t fare so well. You may recall that last year Dave broke his collar bone, this year it was Sid’s turn and he collected some broken ribs – at least it happened on the last day so they did get some riding in.

We went to the prize giving dinner which was very entertaining as usual. We then spent another couple of days resting and riding around the area before setting off again.

TARAZONA

We were keen to do the long off road trail back to Magallon that we had used on the way here. The accommodation in Magallaon was fully booked but we got a place in Tarazona not too far away. Dougie and I did the long trail ride, which was just as good as the previous time.

Dave was in the van and arrived way before us, but also failed to sort out much of a plan for beer and skittles in the evening. On the plus side he did get some shopping which included some very welcome salad so we at least had something to eat – plus the usual beer and red wine of course. Once more I ended up on the couch, which was very comfortable.

OLIANA

The next leg was a road ride to Oliana, with me driving the van again. I had booked a shed at Camping Oliana and was able to get checked in and sorted out before the other two arrived. I even had cold beers and a Catalan fish and bean stew ready for them. Once again I was on the couch…

We did some great trail riding on mostly familiar trails and made our regular pilgrimage up to the church on the hill above Oliana.

On the second day we visited the motorcycle museum just outside Oliana, which was fascinating – we’ve been there many times before but this was the first time it’s been open. We also took the van up to Andorra to seek out some tax free bargains in the motorbike shops – dreadful place for trying to park a big van and prices not much different to what you can find on line.

CAHORS

The journey back to my place from Oliana was about a five hour drive in the van using the motorways. Dougie and Dave took the back roads and went right through Andorra and over the pass at the top (5 degrees). This was all on road but still an epic ride and they eventually got back in the early evening after 8 hours in the saddle – welcomed of course by cold beers and nice food !

We took a run into Prayssac on Friday for the market and Dougie bought some eggs and Cepes for me to make him a Cepe Omelette to set him up for his long journey home…

VIDEOS

David O’Brien (Dangerous Dave) was supposed to be joining us on this trip, but a motorcycle accident in Montenegro left him with a broken foot and he was in bed recovering while we were out enjoying ourselves. We kept him posted on our progress and he was kind enough to create a song called “The Desperados” about our trip and also create some backing music which I was able to use in my videos.

I flew in to Paris after my UK trip and met up with Alexander, who had come up by train from Limoges. It wasn’t far from the airport to the place we were staying but neither of us fancied the walk with our travel bags, so we looked at other options. It seemed there was no easy way to get there (bus, tram, metro) other than a taxi. Alexander had the Uber App on his phone but his battery was flat, so we spent a while searching CDG airport for a power point. They have smart looking seats at the airport which provide a handy USB port, but none of them seemed to be connected. When we eventually did find a power socket there was already someone else using it to charge their phone… A short wait ensued until we could eventually get charged up and book a ride.

The next day we had a free day to explore Paris – I last visited years ago with Lucy and was interested to see what had changed. We again had a transport dilemma but decided the best option was to get an Uber out to the airport and then get the Metro into the centre. We then spent the day wandering about – lots of preparations going on for the Olympics, and generally the city seemed quite a bit cleaner and tidier than I remembered.

I had intended to pay a return visit to the Musee d’Orsay to see their fabulous exhibitions of impressionist art, but unfortunately I left it too late and it was fully booked. However, we did stumble across the Banksy Gallery, which was deserted and very interesting.

Not far from the gallery we stopped for lunch at a cafe and I was amused to see that one of the street signs had some Banksy-esque grafitti on it…

Back to the hotel and out for more beer. Nice to get a Pelforth Brune – not sure what I would be able to find in Canada ?

Early start the next day and an Uber back to the airport for our slightly delayed flight. The 10 hour flight was fine, despite being in economy with seats I could barely fit into. This was with Air France and they had a very good in-flight entertainment system – a screen directly in front of you with a huge choice of films. I didn’t watch any of those but was interested in the real time flight data and the cameras looking out at the view from the plane. The downward facing camera was great to watch going over Greenland and the forward facing one was good fun on take off and landing.

Georgina picked us up from the airport and took us back to her place in south east Vancouver, a suburb called Langley.

Here is a map to get some bearings on where we were (Vancouver – yellow star) and where George had arranged for us to visit (Kelowna, Whistler and Tofino – green stars).

I didn’t find Vancouver especially interesting – it seemed very modern and busy, like any major city, and I’ve turned into a bit of a country bumpkin used to a slower pace of life. Fortunately, apart from a few much needed rest days, we didn’t spend much time in Vancouver as George had planned to visit three of her favourite destinations that are easily accessible from the city (a few hours drive away). This turned out to be a very good plan and it was great to experience a range of different places and activities in a short space of time – we were there almost two weeks in total.

Kelowna

Kelowna is out to the East of Vancouver, is dominated by its proximity to the absolutely huge Okanagan Lake and has a much more relaxed feeling to it. We arrived in the early afternoon and checked in to our AirBnB which was very comfortable. It was then off to the lake to pick up a speedboat that George had hired for us for a few hours. She had wanted to book jet skis, but the boat rental company had been hit by the wild fires that swept though here last year and was only offering a limited choice of boats. In addition to the boat George had also booked a “tube”, which is a big floaty thing that you can ride on and be towed along by the boat. We had ridden one of these once in Egypt so knew they were great fun, but we decided that the water was a bit too chilly ! Alexander had bought some cheap fishing gear and was keen to see if he could catch something.

The boat handover was very straightforward once we had completed the liability waiver forms – basically you’re on your own, we’re not responsible for anything. I volunteered to be the main driver and was asked if I’d handled a speedboat before. “No” I said, but it didn’t seem to matter – I was then given a 30 second introduction to a myriad of controls and instructions on what to do to avoid being poisoned by exhaust fumes or allowing a build up of explosive gases in the “bilge”, whatever that is ? So with absolutely no idea at all we pottered out of the harbour. One thing became immediately apparent, at low speed the steering has virtually no effect on the direction the boat is going. I had to keep a watch on the depth gauge to avoid grounding as it was very shallow (the one thing I did remember from the safety briefing).

Once I had pottered out past the marker buoys, at which point you are allowed to pick up speed, George asked to “have a go”. I was more than happy to hand over as I wasn’t feeling comfortable with something that felt out of control. I went and sat in one of the seats up front. And then all hell broke loose – George opened the taps and set off flying down the lake. I got bounced out of my seat and ended up sprawled on the floor of the boat with the children laughing their heads off. Having previously rented a jet-ski, George clearly had a taste for speed and, once you got used to it, it was great fun.

Once I had got more used to the controls I also had some fun piloting the thing. As well as the throttle it also has a trim control that alters the angle of attack to the waves. By playing with the two you can get the boat up on the plane and then it really flies. We didn’t spend all of our time charging about as Alexander wanted to fish so we spent quite a while just trolling along the shallower water near the banks, admiring the enormous, multi-million dollar properties lining the waterfont.

Much to everyone’s surprise we managed to catch three trout, which we put back as we had no means of dealing with them on the boat.

The next day Georgina had organised a “Wine Tour” – a very popular thing out here and they have a lot of “wineries” in close proximity. I wasn’t drinking but Alexander and Georgina made a very good effort, I think we visited six different places and tried 5 or 6 wines in each of them.

It was very interesting talking to the vignerons and comparing their approach to what we experience in France. What we are used to here is having a specific wine tied to a particular region and the vigneron has to work to precise rules regarding the grape varieties etc in order to received the AOC Cahors label, for example. So the differences between Cahors producers will largely be down to their “terroir” and the post processing that they do with the wine, such as ageing in oak barrels. The big difference in Kelowna was that there are no rules so every winery is free to make whatever wine they wish and they do a lot of experimenting. This made it interesting because of the variety available and explains why the tasting makes sense – you can try a few and see what you like. I think the hosts quite enjoyed having visitors who could talk a little bit about wine and ask lots of questions and we usually ended up getting an extra taste or two.

We did buy a few bottles of wine, but not many as it was extremely expensive compared to what we are used to here. Mind you, that seemed to be the case with most things we were buying in Canada – apparently they get paid more than we do ?

Fort Langley

Back in Vancouver for a rest day, Alexander and I walked to Fort Langley – originally a trading post on the river, but now a pleasant suburb of Vancouver. It was Canada Day so there were a lot of people about. Alexander brought his fishing rod and had a go in the river, but it was very murky and he didn’t catch anything.

I was a bit concerned at the outset that the portion sizes in Canada would be enormous and unhealthy. This was based on my very limited experience in America on a business trip. Stopping at a chain restaurant for a burger and chips (already more than enough for me), I was asked “Y’all want that biggie size ?”. So when we went into a restaurant in Canada I always asked about the portion sizes in advance – much to Georgina’s embarassment. In actual fact, although the unhealthy, belt-packing options were available, everywhere offered a big choice of very reasonable sized healthy choices too.

Whistler

Our next destination was Whistler, which is a popular ski resort to the North of Vancouver. Getting there involves a delightful drive along the “sea to sky” highway. In fact we were staying in Whistler but our destination was a bit further North as we wanted to walk a mountain trail up to a glacial lake. This does require some planning as you have to book in advance as they restrict the number of people on the trail at any one time to control the environmental impact. In addition we had to be equipped with bear sprays and air horns in case we encountered something big and furry.

We actually saw two glacial lakes on the walk and they have a distinctive blue colour, which is apparently casued by tiny particles of rock that are eroded by the action of the glacier.

In the left centre of the above picture you can just make out the edge of the glacier, which is absolutely huge, but hidden from view over the top of the mountain.

This was early July and it was amazing to see a glacier and so much snow. We stayed the night in Whistler and headed back in the morning, but stopped off at an out-of-the-way cafe for brunch. It was excellent…

Tofino

After another rest day in Vancouver, we were off again, this time heading West to a surfing town called Tofino. This is on Vancouver Island which meant catching a ferry.

Georgina had booked a surf lesson for us with the Pacific Surf School, which was the first time for any of us. I was really looking forward to it as I have done a fair bit of windsurfing but never tried a surf board on its own. We had to get kitted up with wetsuits as the water was quite chilly and have a briefing about safety and technique. This was followed by some instruction on the beach and then some warm up exercises before we were allowed out into the surf. There was a photographer on hand to capture the action…

After what seemed like about 20 minutes we were called back to the beach. I thought we were just going to have a break, but it turned out we had been surfing for an hour – so much fun !

In need of some sustenance we headed into Tofino to get some lunch and stopped at “Big Daddy’s Fish Fry” which served up a very nice looking fish and chips for the children – I had a salad…

In the evening we found quite a posh restaurant which, like many of the bars and restaurants here, didn’t have wifi. Once again I found a healthy option…

On our last night in Tofino we bought some food to self cater at our AirBnB and Alexander cooked some excellent steaks on the barbecue.

Back in Vancouver there was one more rest day then it was time to head back home. Cody and George decided it would be a good idea to head out for breakfast as they particularly wanted Alexander to try the Canadian special of pancakes with maple syrup and crispy bacon. I think the place was called Denny’s and seemed to be a classic “diner style” cafe with a massive menu choice. Cody went for the full monty, closely folowed by Alexander with all his pancakes – I had an omelette and fruit, which was great.

The flight back was long, but uneventful – probably a bit easier as we knew what to expect and Alexander had all the films lined up that he wanted to watch. We had a few hours to kill in Paris before catching a train down to Limoges.

Back in Limoges we managed to keep going until 8pm, by which time we had been up for 28 hours. The jet lag didn’t seem to be too much of a problem on the way there, but coming back it took several days to adapt. It was nice to see Hebe again after so much time away and we managed an early morning walk…

Huge thank you to Georgina for organising a fantastic trip.

Having been rather disappointed with the poor weather on my last UK visit, I decided to schedule my 2024 trip for June, but it wasn’t a big improvement. Like most of the rest of Europe the summer seemed very late in arriving this year. In another change to routine I decided to do the trip largely using public transport, which actually worked out pretty well. Having dropped Hebe Dog off with Alexander and Laurena in Limoges I flew from Limoges to Manchester with RyanAir to spend a few days with Felicity.

On my last evening in Manchester I found myself on my own as Felicity had to go to work (a night shift as a Senior Midwife), so I set out to find a traditional English pub for a pint – one of the two things I miss about living in France. A quick Google suggested a couple of interesting options…

Back to TGI Friday’s for dinner (right next to the Premier Inn I was staying in) I wanted to have another beer but, as seems very common these days, there are a lot of lager and cider options but no proper beer. I had to settle for a Guinness instead.

With my meal I asked if I could have a glass of red wine, but was informed they had run out of wine glasses. “That’s OK I’m not fussy” I said, and they proceeded to serve me with what seemed like half a pint of red wine…

Next stop on my tour was visiting Chris and Corinne near Newcastle. I caught a bus from the hotel into the centre of Manchester and then a train to Newcastle. It was a chilly morning and I couldn’t help noticing a lot of scantily clad young ladies arriving into Manchester. It was “Party in the Park” apparently ?

One of the first items on the agenda chez Chris was a tour of the latest improvements. You may recall they had recently had a loft extension, creating a huge amount of additional space and I had spent time helping with insulation and plaster-boarding on previous visits. Access to the new upstairs space had been with a ladder, but this wasn’t going to be a long term solution. Chris had looked at buying a kit of parts to assemble a staircase, but wasn’t happy with the quality or appearance. So he decided to make the stairs himself. This first required creating a 3D design on his computer, then buying pieces of raw oak timber to be cut and machined into the right shapes and pieces to make the stair jigsaw fit together. He used a CNC milling machine to cut out the pieces and the joints so they would all fit together with no visible external fixing. He then had to assemble it all and get it into place. The result is absolutely stunning and the quality is superb. He is rightly very proud of the new stairs…

As usual there was a long list of jobs to get on with around the farm, including :

• Getting a new bale for the little horses
• Making and painting re-inforcing pieces for the barn roof (to withstand the extra load of new solar panels)
• Fix the animal trailer ready for sale
• Clean up the horse box ready for sale
• Muck out the barn and transport the muck to the muck pile
• Fix the starting problem with the JCB
• Make some new barn doors
• Add weather protection to the barn walls
• Try to find time for a beer in the sunshine…

Sara came to collect me from Newcastle, so while we were all together we took the opportunity to go out for lunch at the Riverview Cafe, where they do a huge selection of enormous cakes…

Sara lives in Preston and is now retired and has recently purchased a static caravan near Keswick in the Lake District. She divides her time between Grandma duties and trying to walk as many of the Wainwrights as she can. So for my visit there was a lot of walking to do, although I did help out with a bit of baby sitting too.

Next stop was Sussex to see Lucy and family and to visit Nanna. I had booked a train from Preston to London but I received a notification an hour before to say it had been cancelled. Fortunately I was able to switch to one an hour later, so no harm done. On the train they did announce that we might be able to claim compensation for the delay so I filled out an on-line form and thought no more about it – I hadn’t been inconvenienced that much really. Much to my surprise a week or so later I received a full refund for the train ticket, so the journey was free !

From Lucy, I caught the train to Gatwick to get an EasyJet flight to Paris, where I was meeting up with Alexander before heading off to Canada to visit Georgina, but that’s for another post…