V2XS

In the early days when I was at University bikes were an essential form of transport. They were also tremendous fun as you can probably tell from the previous post where my objective seemed to be to get the biggest and fastest bike as soon as possible.
https://v2xs.com/bikes-the-early-years/
On leaving University in Durham and starting work at Ricardo on the South Coast I had to switch to using a car for my everyday transport and, like most poeple, that necessity continues to this day. But most cars are not much fun and there was always a desire to have a bike as well…

Rickman Kawasaki Z1000

The last bike I owned was the Honda CBX, which was fast and sophisticated but rather heavy and cumbersome. I had always been happy with the power and reliability of Japanese bikes but the handling and braking often left something to be desired. Having been at work for a while I started to search for an interesting “toy” bike that would be fast and have good handling. And what could be better than buying a road-legal race bike ?

I managed to find a Rickman Kawasaki and bought it from a guy only a few miles from where I was living in Worthing – he had upgraded to a Bimota Suzuki. The Kawasaki was an ex. TT Racer and actually competed in the 1979 Formula 1 TT on the Isle of Man. The previous owner had bought it as a race bike and fitted lights and number plate and managed to get it road registered. It had a highly tuned engine (the original Kawasaki engine was already pretty close to the CBX on power) and a Rickman frame with proper brakes. The Rickman Brothers are specialist frame manufacturers in the UK and have a trade mark of nickel plating their frames. They are much lighter and stiffer than the originals – ideal for racing.

Impressions of the bike ? Exactly like a race bike on the road, with all the pros and cons that go with that. On a fast open stretch of road it was extremely fast, controllable and exhilirating. Anywhere else it was a bit of a pain. Commuting to work through the traffic was tiresome as the riding position puts a lot of weight on the arms unless going fast enough for the wind pressure to offer some relief. the engine was quite peaky – lots of power at the top end but not so much low down torque. As a toy for a weekend blast it was hard to beat, but as daily transport it was not so good.

It’s interesting that in looking for a new bike I always seemed to be in pursuit of something better, bigger, faster and now, having got the fastest bike available I’m a bit disappointed with it. Did I learn a lesson from this ? Of course not as this is about big boys toys and common sense and reason go out of the window. So where do you go from here ?

Well I put on my rose tinted spectacles and remembered the “good old days” of my first bike the Yamaha RD250 and what fun that was. It probably had about 30 bhp and might manage 100 mph on a good day, compared to the Kawasaki with over 100 bhp and 150 mph potential. There’s no doubt which one would win a race, but which was more fun ?

Yamaha RD400

This was a 1978 bike and the bigger brother of the RD250 I used to have.

This was a bike much more suited to local commuting and having fun at sensible speeds and I embarked on a series of modifications..
I fitted lower handlebars and rearset footrests, added a steering damper and I can see from the photo that I had to make some little alloy brackets to support the headlight with the new bars fitted. However, the biggest modification was to the exhaust system which was a project in itself…

On joining Ricardo I met up with my mate Doug CARTWRIGHT who was in to kart racing. We used to go all over the country to compete in the 125 championship – my role was to help with the spannering and share some of the long drives in Doug’s old Opel Rekord diesel estate. The 125 Rotax was a very high performance 2 stroke engine and as we worked for an engine R&D company we spent some time developing the engine on a dynamometer. I wondered about doing some tuning of my own on the RD400…
Two strokes respond very well to exhaust tuning as the standard exhaust is quite restrictive so I started by doing some dynamometer runs on the standard bike to get a baseline and then designed some expansion chambers which I believed would give me more power. I am not a designer, but having drawn a 2D representation of the pipes I gave them to my friend John KIDD (Pongo) who was working with the CAD system. He converted the 2D layouts into 3D CAD, then “cut” the pipes into sections and “unrolled” each section to give a flat paper drawing of each of the pieces I would need to make the pipes. It was then just a matter of cuttung out these shapes in steel sheet, rolling the cone shapes and welding it all together – which did take me a little while. These were all assembled onto the bike (as shown in the photos) and retested on the dyno..

I was pleased to find the bike “revved out” further and produced more power – pretty much what I had designed the pipes to do. However, there was a loss of low speed torque and driveability… So it turned out that the original pipes were a pretty good compromise and for nipping in and out of commuter traffic the low down response is actually more useful than more top end power. It seems we have had this lesson before…

Taking the first step on the ladder of being grown up and more sensible was marked by moving from rental accommodation and buying a flat with my girlfriend. Having no garage and probably no money left over were also contributing factors to spending a few years without a bike. And then, within a few weeks of us splitting up, I was on the hunt for a new bike… Having clearly learnt no lessons from all my bike ownership experience I set out to find something stupidly fast and fun…

Suzuki GSXR750

We are now in the late 80s and motorcycles have come on a lot in the last 10 years. A new category of race-replica bikes have emerged – maybe the Phil Read Replica was the first ? But these bikes are not just cosmetic make-overs, the engine, suspension, brakes and tyres have all moved on dramatically from the late 70s.

As a comparison the Honda CBX which was the fastest thing out there in 1981, was a 1000cc six cylinder producing 100 bhp and weighing 274 kg. The 1986 GSXR750 produced 106 bhp and weighed 205 kg.

The GSXR was extremely fast, capable and exciting. It was more useable than the Rickman Kawasaki, being a road bike rather than a pure racer – but still suffered from the same character traits. Looking back it is obvious now but at the time I seemed to value the sheer excitement more than the overall riding experience. The Suzuki was perfect for the race track or fast roads but in West Sussex, amongst the traffic there was very little opportunity to use even half of its potential.

Modifications ? None – it didn’t need any. It only came with a side stand so I did get one of the apprentices to make me up a paddock stand – but that’s about it. This would have been a perfect bike for “track days” but such things didn’t really exist back then. Great fun in small doses…

We now enter another bike desert as we move further up the ladder of growing up – getting married, buying a house, starting a family…
But the desire to have a toy is still there, it’s just a matter of time… Fast forward to 2000 – have I learnt any lessons yet about the type of bike I should look for ? Bikes have continued to develop and are getting faster and more powerful – but also generally lighter and with top quality suspension, brakes and tyres. I have started to realise (it took a long time), maybe influenced by my increased responsibilities that going for a race-replica superbike is not the right choice. I made that mistake a few times and certainly enjoyed the buzz when you could unleash some of the potential. I have had many opportunities since then to go down the “faster is better” route but have managed to resist temptation (so far at least).

So the search began for a bike that would be fun and enjoyable at low speed (<80 mph), rather than one that can reach that speed in second gear. And this lead to a Supermoto…

KTM 640 LC4

The supermoto concept is fairly simple – you take a dirt bike with its high up riding position and long travel suspension, bolt on some smaller road wheels with sticky rubber and a massive brake disc on the front – and away you go ! The supermoto idea really took off in France where they have a race series specifically for this class of bike that involves riding on a race circuit but with some off road sections thrown in. KTM are leaders in the off road world and were one of the first to embrace the concept and offer an off-the-shelf supermoto.

What appealed to me was the idea that you could go fast and have fun without getting up to silly speeds. These bikes are light – 150 kg but still produce 55 bhp. Compare this to the Honda 550 I had in Durham – 190 kg and 50 bhp.

So this was probably the “best” bike I’ve had so far in it’s fitness for purpose – having fun. But sadly it was very short lived….

When I bought the bike I didn’t do an HPI check and it turned out to be subject to a finance agreement, so after only a week in my hands it went back to the previous owner…

Another bike-less interlude while we make the move to France and create a new life over there. This meant cutting back to the essentials – 1 car. I had been bitten by the Supermoto bug and was keen on the idea of getting something similar. However, the budget was rather constrained…

Suzuki DR750S

Also known as the DR BIG, this was a 750cc single. Once again this was a sort-of race replica, but in the case the race was the Paris-Dakar off road adventure rally and the modifications were mainly cosmetic but did include the enormous long range tank. In terms of numbers we are talking 175 kg and 50 bhp.

Although not a supermoto it does have the upright riding position and long travel suspension – just lacking the sticky tyres and stonking front brake. Although it has off-road pretensions this is really a road bike which could manage the odd gravel road or farm track. It has no bash plate and it way too heavy for manhandling off road. I tried it once off road but it felt much too heavy and cumbersome. On road it was pretty good and suited my purpose well, being quite happy chugging along without encouraging you to go fast. When trying to push along a bit faster on the road you soon came up against the limitations of the weak front brake (which was small and had a lot of weight to stop) and the high centre of gravity which meant swinging the bike through S bends required considerable effort. The original exhaust rusted through but I managed to find a reasonable second hand replacement.

When I bought it the head bearings were extremely notchy and had to be stripped out and replaced. But other than normal servicing I didn’t have any problems with it. For a budget bike it worked very well – maybe not quite as much fun as I would have liked…

After a few more years in France c. 2010 with finances on a bit more of an even keel (i.e. we were earning more than we were spending) I started looking for an upgrade and the Supermoto itch was still there…

KTM Duke 2 640

Following the success of the KTM Supermoto (which I owned briefly) KTM developed a more road orientated version called the Duke. This was very similar to the LC4 model but with road suspension and no pretensions of going off road.

I had this bike for 7 years and spent more time polishing it than riding it – you can read my fond farewell to the bike here :
https://v2xs.com/ktm-duke-farewell/

Modifications – these involved derestricting the bike by removing emission controls, opening up the airbox, changing the jetting and de-baffling the exhaust. The exhaust work took the longest as it is made from stainless steel and quite tough – lots of cutting and grinding with a dremel. The end result looked exactly the same as stock, but sounded awesome!

Although this was my “dream bike” it was not without its faults.. Quite a lot of vibration from the single cylinder (no balancer) and in quite a high state of tune so it liked to be revved rather than chugging along. Interesting to compare it with the DR BIG which was slower and heavier but quite happy chugging along, it was OK going a bit faster but you quickly reached a limit where the bike would say “Well we can go faster, but do you really want to do that?”. In the same situation the KTM would be saying “Let’s see how fast we can go!”

And this became a bit of an issue… To ride the bike and have fun, you have to go fast which increases the risk and as the years tick by you realise more and more that you are not Captain Scarlet (indestructible). Another factor is that there are some nice A and B roads around here but they are also used by the French – a nation with the toughest driving test in the world that somehow manages to produce the worst drivers. And the government introduced a blanket 50 mph speed limit…

Although I no longer own any of these bikes I feel very priviledged to have been able to experience them. I am not one for accumulating stuff – preferring instead to have a few things that get used rather than a collection of museum exhibits.

You’ll have to wait until the next post to find out why I sold the KTM, or read the Farewell post above… Suffice to say that up to the present The Duke was my last road bike…

I’ve always had a bike (sometimes more than one). I started with push bikes and got used to them as everyday transport as I had to cycle the 3 miles to school each day in all weathers. But what I wanted was a motorbike…

In 1978 I left school after A levels, borrowed £300 from my Dad and bought my first bike – a 1974 Yamaha RD250. Looking back it is quite atonishing to realise that you could apply for a provisional license, stick on some L plates and hit the road on a 100 mph bike. No training, no tests, no qualifications necessary. You were limited to 250cc but all the main manufacturers offered bikes to suit the demand. I bought the RD off a school friend (Peter Cook), who was upgrading to a Honda 400/4. We did a few rides together but he had no fear and was much faster than me. We crept in to the by-then disused Longridge motor racing circuit and did a few laps – I can see from the photos that my personal protective equipment extended to a helmet and leather gloves accompanied by jeans, denim jacket and trainers!

Jumping on a bike like this with no experience was of course a recipe for disaster and I did fall off a few times – but no serious injuries. I fell off one night and couldn’t get the bike to start and ended up calling out the parents who duly arrived – probably just glad to see I was OK. We eventually got the bike going and discovered that during the off one of the carburettor slides had got jammed wide open. My worst crash was in the car park at our halls of residence in Leyland where there was a workshop for students to use. Having done some tweaks to the timing I went to try the bike around the car park – and fell off skidding across the tarmac in only a T-shirt – Ouch !

The bike was very senstive to ignition timing which had to be set up using a dial gauge down the plug hole to find TDC. This needed adjusting on an almost weekly basis to keep it running crisply – I eventually installed a transistorised Boyer Bransden ignition which was a huge improvement.

I was sponsored through University by Leyland Vehicles, which meant a “gap year” working for them before going to University – and then back working for them in the summer holidays. As Leyland was not far from my parents the RD250 was an ideal form of transport on these short journeys. However, I was due to start University in Durham in September and would need to be able to get there and back which required a bigger bike. So having passed my (very simple) bike test and with another loan from Dad I bought a Honda 550 F1 – a four cylinder four stroke.

Strangely I don’t have many memories of this bike – it was a reliable workhorse for the Durham trips, but rather unremarkable. As usual with my bikes I did make some modifications, fitting a Dunstall exhaust, lower handlebars and rearset footrests. In common with all Japanese bikes of the era the front disc brake didn’t work in the wet but at least it had a reliable rear drum brake. The previous owner had fitted a luggage rack and panniers (useful for load carrying) and also upgraded the normal spoked wheels to alloys – a pretty unusual thing to do in those days, but they did look cool. One of the wheel bearings worked loose but I managed to refit it using Loctite bearing fit. I also swapped the Boyer Bransden ignition over to this bike but it was much less sensitive to adjustment and had plenty of performance anyway. Why the 550 ? Well I was looking for a 400/4 but this came up for sale in the local paper – no Internet or Auto Trader in those days…

Having been a little bit underwhelmed by the 550 I looked for a bike to upgrade to and the obvious choice was to go for the 750 version of the same bike, which promised 120 mph performance. I rang round the local dealers and struck lucky with one who had just got a special version of the 750 in part exchange – this was a 750 F2 Phil Read Replica… This started a trend that continues to this day of buying transport that is a little bit “different”.
Phil Read raced for the Honda Britain team and won the Isle of Man TT on a modified 750 in the late seventies. To celebrate the event and help to shift some more bikes, Honda commissioned Colin Seeley to modify the standard 750 to make a road going “race replica”. It came with a five-gallon alloy works replica hand made petrol tank with a custom made filler cap. Rear sets, ace bars, single race saddle, full fairing, twin Cibie headlights, a hand made works exhaust (which is music to the ears) and little one-off parts to complete the package. Only 150 were made and there are alleged to be only 35 remaining.

This was a great bike (for the time) – had a good riding position, great looks and super roadholding thanks to the Dunlop Red Arrow tyres. I didn’t feel any need to make modifications to the bike, apart from changing the exhaust to a Piper 4 into 1 when the old one rusted through. The fairing was great for when doing the long trips up to Durham and the bigger tank helped the fuel range. It was almost a single seater but there was just about room to squeeze my girlfriend on the back – for short journeys anyway. The suspension was set up for a single rider but even so it was possible to scrape the pegs through corners – mainly thanks to the grip from the tyres. Two-up getting round any corner at speed usually resulted in sparks flying.

I managed to avoid any accidents of my own making, despite the enthusiastic cornering, but I did have one significant off. Riding through the centre of Durham when a car pulled out in front of me – I grabbed the brakes, locked the front wheel, came off and slid into the car sideways. I had slowed enough so the impact was minor and I was unhurt, but the off had damaged the bikes ignition which is on the end of the crankshaft so it wouldn’t run. I was rather cross and made the poor lady driving the car write out and sign a confession on the spot! There was some other minor damage but the insurance paid out and I managed to fix it myself. The forks were bent but I took them into the engineering lab in Durham and managed to get them straight again.

Being a sponsored student and having a job during the holidays meant that I was relatively well off (for a student) so I was looking for an upgrade from the Honda. I had my eyes on Italian bikes which had a reputation for better brakes and handling than the Japanese equivalents – the Ducati 900SS and Laverda Jota were top of my list. But the reality of pre-Internet bike searching is limited to scanning the local paper or ringing bike dealers. I came across an ad for a Honda CBX1000 – this was not on my list but was the fastest bike you could buy in 1982…

An in-line six cylinder engine with double overhead cams and four valves per cylinder – 24 valves, 6 carburettors and 105 bhp. This particular bike also had the benefit of a Marshall 6 into 1 exhaust which sounded amazing. It also came with a hefty set of crash bars to protect the very wide engine.

Looking back it seems quite astonishing that a 22 year- old student could be running around on a bike like this, but I was ! But for all the “fastest bike” and six cylinder hype it wasn’t a great bike. The performance, sound and smoothness were perfect. The weight, handling and fuel consumption were less so. In a foolish attempt to reduce the weight I removed “non essential” parts like the centre stand and crash bars. But on the way into lectures one morning, going round one of my favourite roundabouts I reached the limit of the tyres grip and the bike slid sideways – no thanks to me they regained grip and didn’t throw me off – thank you Pirelli Phantoms. On parking the bike I noticed that some of the lower engine bolts had gained a new chamfer – it had been leant over so far the engine had touched the ground ! I was a bit more careful after that…

After graduating from Durham in the summer of 1982 I needed to find alternative transport to get me down to Shoreham-by-Sea to start work at Ricardo. So I sold the CBX and bought a car – my first car, but I’ll save that story for another post…

I studied Engineering Science at Durham University from 1979-82 and was a member of St. Cuthbert’s Society. Durham operates a collegiate system but unlike the other colleges with large halls of residence to accomodate the students Cuths has only a small number of residential students and the rest “live out”. I spent my first year in residence in the South Bailey – at the end of the peninsular formed by the river Wear. But for my second and third years I lived out at the Shafto Arms in Langley Moor. This was a pub that had been converted into student accommodation in a small mining village a few miles outside Durham.

My fellow “Cuths Engineers” who also lived at Shafto were :
Tim DREW
Simon HAYE
John KIDD (Pongo)
Steve BARRETT
The main picture above was taken on Palace Green after our graduation ceremony in 1982.

Living out meant that we needed our own transport and being engineers we managed to run and maintain a motley collection of sometimes working vehicles.

My memory is a little hazy but I think Simon had a Honda 400/4 that he rode up from Reading each term but after a cam chain problem and dropping oil all over the Cuths courtyard he upgraded to a Yamaha XS750 with a very loud Marving pipe. I can remember Tim having a Ford Escort van and Pongo had a very new yellow Mini. Steve had a Honda 550/4 (I had an identical one) and then an Escort van (identical to Tim’s) and finally a VW Scirocco. I started with the Honda 550/4, then a Honda 750 Phil Read Replica and finally a Honda CBX 1000.

Lots of stories I could tell if I could remember them but at least I have managed to unearth some old photographs as memoroy joggers…

See these previous posts if you need more background on what this is all about:
https://v2xs.com/morocco-or-bust/
https://v2xs.com/morocco-or-bust-2/

The Plan

To leave Hauts Du Brel at the end of January, head down through Spain to Portugal to spend a few days with Tim and Helen and then on to Morocco. We had to be back by 24 Feb, which gave us over 3 weeks to play with but nothing booked apart from the first leg to Alvor in the Algarve.

The Team

Alexander and I (with a lot of help from Google, Booking.com and AirBnB when we could get an Internet connection…)
Georgina was flying down to Faro to meet up for the Portugal stay and then she was flying off to Australia. Susan was hoping to join but was struck down with Flu after the Egypt trip.

The Vehicle

Suffice to say that we did the trip in my Land Rover and lived to tell the tale… Although we felt this was sure to be a more reliable option than the Renault 4 we originally had in mind there was the small issue that the Land Rover had done 300,000 miles was making a few funny noises and had recently had a misfire problem.. Oh yes, and the timing belt was overdue for a change.

The Gear

I took masses of tools and didn’t need them (apart from some duct tape).
We took loads of books to read and never looked at them.
We took fishing gear and didn’t fish.
We took tennis stuff and… you get the picture..
I bought a dash cam to protect against errant donkey carts and the general melee that is driving in Morocco, but this turned out to be of dubious legality so was not used much – they confiscate drones and are paranoid about security.

The Route

Although little of this was planned in advance, this was the route we took, highlighting the main places we stayed.

This is the running order and is followed in the rest of this post.

San Sebastien
Plasencia
Alvor – visiting Tim and Helen
Seville
Ferry crossing
Tangier
Asillah
Larache
Lixus Roman City
Rabat
Meknes
Volubilis Roman City
Chefchouen
Tetouan
Ferry Crossing
Algeciras
Granada
Valencia
Barcelona
Circuit Catalunya – F1 winter testing
Home

San Sebastien

I had booked a place in the old part of San Sebastien with parking, which was a bit surprising as there is not much parking available around there. The road outside the accommodation was being dug up so we couldn’t even get near it in the car so went on foot. The owner then explained that there was parking – but it was in an (expensive) underground car park nearby – and that would be extra ! I asked if there was any free parking and he pointed out a street on the map about 20 minutes walk away, which I recognised as we parked in the same place when I was here with Susan in October. So we set off and parked the car in this quiet street and walked back in to the town.

Visited a few pintxos bars and then headed back for the night. In the morning we had a 20 minute walk to get the car so we stopped for breakfast in a local cafe – first taste of toast with olive oil and tomatoes.

Then we went to get the car – only to find IT WASN’T THERE !

First reaction was – “We’ve got the wrong street” and “Maybe we parked a bit further along”, but then Alexander recognised the van parked a few cars back and spotted some broken car window glass in the gutter…
Panic starting to get a grip “Someone has stolen the car!”. And then it sinks in – we’re in a foreign country where we can’t speak the language, all we have is our overnight bags as everything else was in the car. Minor point but we have some accomodation booked for tonight that is a 6 hour drive away and were hoping for an early start and it’s a non refundable booking.
Thought of calling the Police but :
a. Don’t know the number and
b. Can’t speak the language
Decide to phone the owner of the accommodation (who told us to park here) to see if he can help and agree to head back to his place..

On the long walk back to his place lots of thoughts going through my mind – in addition to the obvious one of what the f&#k do we do now. My car is a 13 year old 300,000 mile Land Rover – who the hell would want to steal it ?

Get back to the place and things start to fall into place – the owner has phoned the police and they have the car. We just need to get over there and fill in some paperwork to get it back…

It turns out that someone smashed the window, then someone else called the police and they turned up and decided to tow it away rather than leave it like that.
Were they trying to get in to steal stuff – we did foolishly leave some things on the back seat – and were disturbed before they could get in ? Fortunatey nothing was stolen, but it did take a while to fill in forms and make statements to the Police before we could get the car back – then a long drive to do – and we had to fix the window.

Plasencia

For the trip down we were planning on 5-6 hours driving per day and simple overnight stops, but today was my birthday – one to remember with the car incident – so I had booked a Parador, which was the best place we stayed in on the whole trip.

Alvor

The next leg took us further down through Spain, across into Portugal and on to Alvor, where Tim and Helen spend six months of the year and have recently bought an apartment. We were staying in an apartment on the beach for four days.

Seville

Dropped Georgina off at Faro airport and then went on for an overnight stop in Seville, giving us an easy drive to catch the ferry at Algeciras the next day – very unsure about how long the formalities would take for the car.

Algeciras Ferry

We were a little concerned about the crossing – we had no ticket and had read a lot of stories on line about long delays when trying to bring in a car and problems with ticket touts. In the event it all went smoothly as they seem to have streamlined the whole process and tightened security. The car was X-rayed before being allowed into Morocco – don’t know what they were looking for. 1.5 hour crossing.

Tangier

Assillah

After a few days in Tangier we went south to Rabat (capital of Morocco) but stopped off at a few places on the way. Assillah is a picturesque seaside town with a very arty flavour.

Lixus

Went to see the Roman site of Lixus and begin to understand more about the history of Morocco and Mediterranean trade. A huge site but with only low walls remaining. Here was the largest fish salting facility in the empire..

Larache

Lixus overlooks the modern town of Larache which is an active fishing port.

Rabat

Meknes

We had considered heading further south to Marrakech (which was the original plan) but we had been there before and there were other places to explore in the North of Morocco so we headed East to Meknes, which turned out to be a small version of Marrakech and the most “Moroccan” of the places we visited.

Volubilis

Our second Roman city – this one built on the grain and olive oil farmed in the area. Unlike Lixus, many of the mosaics were still in place and more of the structures were still standing.

Chefchouen

Really pretty “blue city”.

Tetouan

Stayed in a “proper” hotel in Tetouan as we needed a bit of comfort and to get some washing done..

Ferry

We had looked at driving to Ceuta which is a Spanish city on Moroccan soil, but had read stories about long delays at the border. In the end we decided to take the same crossing to get back to Spain.
The queue for X-raying the car (again) was very long so we had sniffer dogs and a search instead. Fortunately Alexander had resisted all the offers of “weed” that we had received during our stay – Chefchouen is a major producer apparently.

Granada

Stayed the night in Garnada and did have in mind to visit the Alhambra palace – but it was booked up weeks in advance even in February…

Barcelona

Catalunya Circuit

We spotted that F1 winter testing was taking place this week near Barcelona so had to call in to take a look…
The Mercedes look like they might be hard to beat.

Home

The objective was to be away from the Quercy during Jan/Feb to avoid the cold, miserable weather so it was nice to come home to warmth and blue skies and to see the almond in blossom.

And despite being “stolen” and making a few funny noises and having covered an extra 3,500 miles on this trip the Land Rover worked perfectly…

The end – until next time..

For those that missed it our first trip to Egypt is here : https://v2xs.com/egypt-nov-2019/

This was another visit to Hurghada on the Red Sea (arranged by Georgina) and this time we had Alexander and Susan joining us.

Non stop sunshine the whole week (it never rains) so plenty of time for reading and sun bathing. No kite surfing this time but we did a couple of trips – one in a submarine boat and a snorkelling trip to a secret coral reef.

Apologies for the large number of pictures of the reef, but I started with an infinite number and have done well to cut it down this much – the rich colours and amazing diversity have to be seen to be believed.