The Ghost Hotel - 8th August

We had decided last night to spend the morning here as we don't have quite so far to travel today. Alex and I went to the well stocked camp shop for breakfast provisions and fresh bread for lunch. After breakfast we all donned our sun cream and swimsuits and walked to the beach. We had a lovely relaxing morning, the sea was warm and the sun hot.

Camp Ford was soon packed up and ready to roll again. The motorway didn't seem as bad today, maybe because it is the weekend, and we made good progress. There is a distinct lack of nice places to stop on Italian motorways. Either you can just pull off into a lay by on the hard shoulder to eat your lunch or visit a service station. Despite the heat, they have no shady areas. We ended up huddled under a small tree to eat our ham and cheese rolls, followed by an ice-cream and back on the road.

We arrived at Brindisi around tea time and checked the faithful crap nav for campsites – the nearest one was 30km away and back the way we had come. Chris rang them anyway but they had no space. We went to the port to see if we could sail on the earlier ferry but they are nowhere near as organised as us and after some pushy queuing I was told in no uncertain terms to “come tomorrow”.

A hotel it was then. Back to the trusty crap nav which helpfully took us all round the houses. Hotel number one didn't exist and hotel number two was derelict. We had already inquired at a hotel right near the port but Hotel Neptune had only doubles available at 145 Euro's each. We decided the only option was to head back there and see if we could negotiate a better price. It was a fairly new looking large hotel with only a couple of cars so we were counting on them being desperate. Chris went in and spoke to the young guy who pretended to call someone and then said they would put an extra bed in and we could have a double room for 185 Euros with Alex sharing our bed. Not likely! We said yes to the room and smuggled up a blow-up bed and sleeping bag. On inquiring at reception we were told that the restaurant was shut and we could have drinks in the bar but the didn't have any wine at the moment; just beer and fruit juice.

Off we went again to get some food. We had spotted some patio tables outside the hotel so we went and bought some pizza, wine and fizzy drinks and sat outside to fill our boots. We decided it would only be polite to visit the bar before bed. It turned out that the guy at reception was also the bag boy, the barman and provider of breakfast. We asked for Greek beer and after making a show of looking in the fridges, he could only offer us Heineken. At least we had all been able to have a lovely hot shower and had a nice bed to look forward to.

All the comings and goings at Hotel Neptune were enacted by Damiano, the tutti man, and the four Fords. No other guests, no other staff. On the upper floors sensors switched lights on as we passed and off as we went. Damiano did the same in the deserted ground floor bar and games area. It was bizarre. Was it a ghost hotel, would we be awoken by strange goings on in the night? Spooky!

The Italian Job - 7th Aug

We were up early and packed up ready to go by 8.15. The price of camping in Switzerland is shocking - £30 for one night! We had to visit the Co-op en-route to buy breakfast and lunch for the days journey. Again we had lovely views only marred by the huge amounts of tunnels we had to travel through. Those that know me well will know my hatred of tunnels of any sort. The swiss are like moles – they stick in a tunnel wherever they can! The worst by far was the Gottard tunnel at 17 km.

I was having palpitations by the time we reached the Italian motorways. They drive like absolute loonies! This coupled with the fact that I look, and feel, like a scarecrow due to all the window opening and shutting when the aircon gives up.

After a very long drive ( 9+ hours) we asked the crap nav to direct us to the nearest campsite. Twice it sent us to the middle of nowhere before we finally arrived at Sun Beach camp. When we asked for a tent site, they had a bit of a conflab and finally asked a guy on a bike to lead us to our pitch. The track between cabins, campers and caravans got narrower and narrower. We nearly took out a ladies washing as we neared our site. The site was obviously for people that spent a lot of time there during the summer. Most of the caravans had awnings on their awnings, full size fridges outside and a multitude of bikes and scooters. Each pit was covered by a large piece of green net strung from poles to keep the sun off the caravans/campers. It wasn't a bad size pitch and we soon had the place looking like home. Sadly, our electrics let us down again so no cold beer for us!

As it was late we decided to have dinner followed by a fairly early night. The campsite had a snack bar type fast food bar and a fish restaurant. We chose the restaurant and were not disappointed. Chris and I shared a seafood spaghetti which was one of the best pasta dishes I have ever tasted. It had clams, muscles, prawns and baby squid in a tomato sauce – yum!

Lovely Lucerne - 6th Aug

The F1 advertised an 'all inclusive breakfast' for 3.70 Euro's. The reality was some grumpy old French guy who cut up some bread and filled up the coffee pot, who stood over my shoulder making me feel like we were eating too much. We soon finished up and headed off on our long drive.

We have discovered that there is a problem with the cars air conditioning. We had it re-gassed before we left but it is struggling with the temperature and only works for 5 minutes. We then have to switch it off, open the windows for 10 minutes, switch it on, close the windows etcetera, etcetera. What a fag!

Day one took us through France (which we love – nice empty motorways and lots of places to picnic) through to Lucerne-Horw in Switzerland. We were a bit miffed, to say the least, that we had to pay 40 swiss francs for the pleasure of driving on their (not brilliant) motorways but it has to be said that the scenery was fabulous. We arrived at our campsite on the edge of the lake and pitched tent as quickly as we could.

It had been a long day driving and we had free tickets for the swimming pool in the lake. Chris and the children thoroughly enjoyed their swim.

I was ready for dinner so we set off to find something to eat. Horw is not a large place so the choice was limited. We ended up in a very nice Italian restaurant for a lovely end to a very tiring day.

Into the sun! - 5th August

The holidays started after a small flurry of emails sorting out a few loose ends. Neo was taken to Charlesbury Kennels via picking up a fistful of Euro's from the Post Office. All loaded, we left just after 2pm for the drive to Dover.

We arrived in France just as the sun was setting and headed for the F1 after driving through what looked like Ellesmere Port.

I had read about F1 on someone else's blog. It had been described as basic but clean accommodation. They weren't wrong about the basic, but 'clean' was going a bit too far! The toilet, located at the end of the corridor, was like a built-in portaloo and the place stank of fags from the argumentative French guys outside. Never mind, it was only the start of our holiday adventure.

Old Station, New Radnor

The latter May Bank Holiday was the first outing of our new waterproof tent! The venue The Old Station campsite, New Radnor in Powys.

Nice and roomy inside!

Joining us were the Rowlands. They had got a new tent too, it must be twice as big as ours as it took twice as long to put up!

And the Welsenaer's chip van was none too shabby too.

And the awning had its first outing.

I had some great walks up in the hills with Neo.

And tried out my new replacement for the camera I lost in Germany last year.

And Vanessa tried her new compact out too.

Im a firestarter, twisted firestarter.
Youre the firestarter, twisted firestarter.


All under control, dinners on.

After a succesful meal the chef's could relax a bit.


And everyone relaxed around the camp barbeque for the evening having made Welsh Cake Twists.

A trip to Ludlow Castle.

Alex tries his hand at archery.

Warren Wood waterfall.
Sunday saw a road trip through one of the most beautiful places in Wales, the Elan Valley and the Claerwen (and other) reservoirs.

I had planned to drive round to Strata Florida, but it was taking too long and the weather was closing in so we stopped off at some estate in the wood for a stroll.

All in, a brilliant weekend.

Germany in May

In May I had a short break with Dave, Luc, Al and Gaz. We got the Thursday afternoon chunnel, except Al and Gaz who travelled the night before, for an autobahn blast to Trier in the Saarland area of Germany. Two fantastic days riding followed, and much merriment was had. A real giggle, as the following videos demonstrate. Great times, great friends.

France 2008

I had a fantastic week in France in September with the Ninja's. Organised by GixerJ, my companions for the week included Kris, Superkev, Daz, Sax and Big Al.

(Partial) group shots.

(Sax, me, Superkev, Kris, Daz, GixerJ)

Big Al secured his bum bag on his rear seat (badly). The result...

The bar...

The scenic shot...

I won't bore you with detail. We had a long slog down there; Le Havre to Les Cabannes circa 600 miles in a day. Then every day until the last we got up, had croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast, rode circa 200+ miles a day (Spain if the day started overcast, France if not) back to the restuarant for pizza/past/steak and then thr bar for St Omer, the 'magic beer'. Then we rode home via Ibis Rouen and a steak supper.

The video sums it up...



You had to be there. Great fun/guys/roads/weather etc.