g1_
Race Dog
Hey,
the real reason I joined this forum is because I'm planning a 3 week road trip around South Africa later this year and I'm on the look out for information. Info on where to go and I'm planning on videoing the trip, so looking on info on that to (maybe I'll start a planning thread).
Anyway this is a trip I did a couple of years ago and thought I would post up a report of the trip. It's not in South Africa, nor is it really adventure riding (hope that's not a problem).
I am South African but also spent a few years in England, so in 2008 I was on holiday in the UK visiting old friends from when I lived there. I have a British passport and was keen to get over to Europe for some of my holiday, but unfortunately all of my English friends are disorganised and didn't have passports.
So the idea came to me to rent a bike and do a short (solo) road trip. So for my whole trip I carried around a bike helmet as part of my hand language, which got a few strange looks at airports.
So I'll pick up from the end of my second week in the UK:
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 1 ]
-------------------------------------------------
I had spent the previous week in Newquay camping with my friends. We'd come to the end of our stay and my friends where planning on driving back to Cambridge later that day, however my journey started at 06:00. I managed to get a lift to the small airport in Newquay to catch a flight to London (turned out cheaper than a bus).
Arriving in London:
From the airport I had to get to the bike rental place to fetch my bike for the trip. That was somewhere in the South East of London. After a train ride, bus ride and short walk I managed to find the place. This is where I started getting a little nervous. The things is, the last time I rode a bike before this (for more than 10min) I ended up in hospital, but that's another story. Also riding on the wrong side of the road, solo, with no-one able to follow me into France if I ended up in trouble (passports) I was a little unsure. But decided that the opportunity was worth the risk, and besides where would adventure be without risk.
So I handed over my bank card and my credit card to cover the deposit and left with a shiny 1 year old Hornet.
So, my nerves not helped by the London traffic I made my way for the M25 and on to Dover. By now I was beginning to enjoy being on 2 wheels again. Although in the UK you spend half of your time looking out for speed camera's and the other half looking at your speedo.
I underestimated the time it would take to get to the bike rental place and do the paper work, so I missed the ferry I booked for (also hard to see your watch when you have gloves on). I remember getting to the booth and telling them I was there for the 15:00 ferry. They looked at me a little funny, and I looked at my watch to see 16:30.
Anyways I jumped on the next ferry without any penalty
The ferry was a good opportunity to get my boots off and stretch my legs. Also buy a high vis vest and some other things you are legally supposed to have on you if you are travelling in France.
Arriving in Calais my plan was to not stray to far at first and get accustom to riding on the wrong side of the road. When I was satisfied that I had mastered the infamous "look left not right" at intersections I headed for for the highway. The plan was to try to get to Paris by the end of the day, but because I only got on the ferry at 17:00 and there was a 1 hour time difference it was now 19:00. The highway was quite uneventful apart from getting flummoxed by their toll booths. You collect a ticket as you enter and pay when you leave the highway. On the highway I was cruising at about 80mph (130kph) and getting overtaken by everything. Also getting blown around in the wind. I decided that this would be more fun on the back roads, so took the next exit (Queue more confusing toll booth interactions).
This is where the "can't speak the language that well" problem really started to come into play. I pulled up at a petrol pump, as one does, and then a confused look crept across my face. The petrol station had 4 pumps and then 2 vending machines, but nowhere to actually pay for your petrol. I eventually figured out that you had to insert your credit card before using the pump and that was how you paid. By the time I had figured this out about 10 other bikers had pulled up, all on 1 litre superbikes. They saw I was struggling and attempted to help me (queue language barrier problems). For some reason (I forgot why) one of the french bikers (obviously the leader of this biker gang) put the petrol costs on his card and I paid him cash (perhaps my card wouldn't work). Anyways, after a couple of burnouts and a few wheelies they disappear into the distance.
I head off only to find a normal petrol station about 100m down the road...
Onwards to the back roads! Joined the D901 which was to take my from Beauvais to Paris.
The country side in northern France is similar to the UK. 60mph backroads broken up by small villages. Except in France each of these small villages where deserted, not a person in sight. It dawned on me that I wasn't going to make it to Paris that day so I was on the look out for a place to stay.
Eventually found the only open hotel for the past 2 hours riding:
After consulting the map I concluded I was in a place called Poix-de-Pacardi. I had a shower and explored the village on foot before heading to bed. It gets dark pretty late in Europe during summer, so the above pictures where probably at about 23:00.
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 2 ]
-------------------------------------------------
In the morning I had my complimentary continental breakfast and explored a local market place that had sprung out of nowhere in this sleepy village.
Notice how everyone had already purchased their baguette for the day.
After consulting the map I jumped back on the bike:
After following the signs for Paris for an hour Paris was no longer mentioned on the sign posts. I found this a bit odd, so pulled up to try to get directions to Paris. After chatting to a local (who could speak English, which always makes things easier), I realised the reason why Paris was no longer on the road signs was because I was in Paris.
So after trying to navigate an intersections with about 10 roads all colliding into one chaotic mess, I decided to explore Paris on foot.
After a solid day of sight seeing, crowds and more crowds I collapsed in bed.
I always enjoy big cities. All the different people, the metro (subway), the chaos. I only got back to the hotel at about 23:00 and then realised that I didn't have a key to get in and hoped that the owner of the hotel hadn't gone to sleep.
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 3 ]
-------------------------------------------------
The previous day had been very little riding so I was keen to make tracks again. At this point I didn't have too much of a plan. I think the just of it was "head east until I got border of riding". So, back on the road again. It's surprising how quickly it goes from busy city to quiet suburbia. Only after a couple of hours I found my self in field after field of sunflowers.
Did quite a lot of mileage this day. So I'm just going to queue the slideshow below:
Some tanks at the side of the road was a good enough excuse for a stretch of the legs. I think there was an army base near by.
As I approached the Belgium border there were less wine farms and more foresty areas. Also the roads got a little more interested with some more corners (people often say the north of France is flat and boring). I was joined by 2 other bikes and we enjoyed the roads. I was still a little bit nervous about pushing it to hard due to my accident I mentioned at the beginning. I was leading the group of 3 bikes and feeling the presure to make progress, which resulted in me going for an overtake I shouldn't have. After that I realised that I needed to take a break from the road and headed for a nearby village for some petrol. After the petrol pump refused to take my card (again) I noticed a castle up on the hill. Seeing as I didn't have any destination in mind and this trip was a bit of an exploration trip I decided to go have a look.
I followed the road up the hill, and to my surprise the road lead to a draw bridge that lead into the castle.
So I entered the castle and parked up next to all the other cars/bikes in the courtyard :-S
Found reception and asked them if I could leave my boots / helmet with them and have a look around.
You can tell I had spent a long day in the saddle:
Also had a look around there museum and consulted my map. After resting up I couldn't bring myself to get back on the road again. I was just on the border of Belgium and thought that was a good place to call it a day. So I headed into the nearby town and found a hotel (not to be confused with town hall).
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 4 ]
-------------------------------------------------
Due to timing, I only had 4 days for my trip. It would have been great if I had a week and I could have gone to the south of France or into Italy, but alas day 4 meant heading back to the UK.
After visiting la patissier for breakfast, I once again hit the open road.
5 minutes from my hotel (in Montmedy) I was in belgium.
Followed by more roads like the previous day.
I stop over in Mons for lunch:
And also being in Belgium I had to get some belgium chocolates. I was needing a couple of gifts for people back in South Africa and my hosts in the UK.
Plus I had to admire Nic's car
From here on out time was against me. I had to be in Cambridge that evening, and my flight back to South Africa was the following day. Jumped on the highways to once again be greeted by winds and heavy traffic. Arrived in calais on the late side (I think it was about 20:00) with no petrol in the tank but decided to jump on the ferry and sort out petrol in the UK.
After getting off the ferry I found a petrol station and filled up. Went to the counter to pay...and...my card wouldn't work. So I gave them my credit card...nope. I tried to offer them Euro's...nope. The guy at the counter wasn't really sure what to do. The petrol was in my tank and I had no way to pay for it. After consulting the manager I had to sign an IOU and give them my fingerprints. They wanted me to return the next day with the money, so I had to try and explain to them that I was leaving the country the next day. Anyways I was allowed to leave, after I told them I would find a way to pay them the next day. Now I had another problem. I had a full tank which was, by my earlier experience, X number of miles and cambridge was X + a little more numbers of miles from Dover. So between Dover and Cambridge I was trying my best to ride economically.
Luckily I made it to my friends house (again pretty late) and with pretty much no petrol in my tank and no money
Seems like a good end to a mini adventure.
I phoned my bank the next morning and found out they had stopped my cards because of unusual activity on my account. You would think they would have done this when I first started spending money in the UK (3 weeks previous). Anyways, they gave me access to my money again. My friend sent a cheque in the post to the petrol station and we all lived happily ever after...
... apart from me missing my flight the next day
-------------------------------------------
Hope that's not to long. I've been meaning to properly write that up for a while, mainly for my own sake. I'll probably re-read it now and notice all the spelling mistakes and so forth. But they will have to wait for another time, as I'm tired of typing
the real reason I joined this forum is because I'm planning a 3 week road trip around South Africa later this year and I'm on the look out for information. Info on where to go and I'm planning on videoing the trip, so looking on info on that to (maybe I'll start a planning thread).
Anyway this is a trip I did a couple of years ago and thought I would post up a report of the trip. It's not in South Africa, nor is it really adventure riding (hope that's not a problem).
I am South African but also spent a few years in England, so in 2008 I was on holiday in the UK visiting old friends from when I lived there. I have a British passport and was keen to get over to Europe for some of my holiday, but unfortunately all of my English friends are disorganised and didn't have passports.
So the idea came to me to rent a bike and do a short (solo) road trip. So for my whole trip I carried around a bike helmet as part of my hand language, which got a few strange looks at airports.
So I'll pick up from the end of my second week in the UK:
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 1 ]
-------------------------------------------------
I had spent the previous week in Newquay camping with my friends. We'd come to the end of our stay and my friends where planning on driving back to Cambridge later that day, however my journey started at 06:00. I managed to get a lift to the small airport in Newquay to catch a flight to London (turned out cheaper than a bus).
Arriving in London:
From the airport I had to get to the bike rental place to fetch my bike for the trip. That was somewhere in the South East of London. After a train ride, bus ride and short walk I managed to find the place. This is where I started getting a little nervous. The things is, the last time I rode a bike before this (for more than 10min) I ended up in hospital, but that's another story. Also riding on the wrong side of the road, solo, with no-one able to follow me into France if I ended up in trouble (passports) I was a little unsure. But decided that the opportunity was worth the risk, and besides where would adventure be without risk.
So I handed over my bank card and my credit card to cover the deposit and left with a shiny 1 year old Hornet.
So, my nerves not helped by the London traffic I made my way for the M25 and on to Dover. By now I was beginning to enjoy being on 2 wheels again. Although in the UK you spend half of your time looking out for speed camera's and the other half looking at your speedo.
I underestimated the time it would take to get to the bike rental place and do the paper work, so I missed the ferry I booked for (also hard to see your watch when you have gloves on). I remember getting to the booth and telling them I was there for the 15:00 ferry. They looked at me a little funny, and I looked at my watch to see 16:30.
Anyways I jumped on the next ferry without any penalty
The ferry was a good opportunity to get my boots off and stretch my legs. Also buy a high vis vest and some other things you are legally supposed to have on you if you are travelling in France.
Arriving in Calais my plan was to not stray to far at first and get accustom to riding on the wrong side of the road. When I was satisfied that I had mastered the infamous "look left not right" at intersections I headed for for the highway. The plan was to try to get to Paris by the end of the day, but because I only got on the ferry at 17:00 and there was a 1 hour time difference it was now 19:00. The highway was quite uneventful apart from getting flummoxed by their toll booths. You collect a ticket as you enter and pay when you leave the highway. On the highway I was cruising at about 80mph (130kph) and getting overtaken by everything. Also getting blown around in the wind. I decided that this would be more fun on the back roads, so took the next exit (Queue more confusing toll booth interactions).
This is where the "can't speak the language that well" problem really started to come into play. I pulled up at a petrol pump, as one does, and then a confused look crept across my face. The petrol station had 4 pumps and then 2 vending machines, but nowhere to actually pay for your petrol. I eventually figured out that you had to insert your credit card before using the pump and that was how you paid. By the time I had figured this out about 10 other bikers had pulled up, all on 1 litre superbikes. They saw I was struggling and attempted to help me (queue language barrier problems). For some reason (I forgot why) one of the french bikers (obviously the leader of this biker gang) put the petrol costs on his card and I paid him cash (perhaps my card wouldn't work). Anyways, after a couple of burnouts and a few wheelies they disappear into the distance.
I head off only to find a normal petrol station about 100m down the road...
Onwards to the back roads! Joined the D901 which was to take my from Beauvais to Paris.
The country side in northern France is similar to the UK. 60mph backroads broken up by small villages. Except in France each of these small villages where deserted, not a person in sight. It dawned on me that I wasn't going to make it to Paris that day so I was on the look out for a place to stay.
Eventually found the only open hotel for the past 2 hours riding:
After consulting the map I concluded I was in a place called Poix-de-Pacardi. I had a shower and explored the village on foot before heading to bed. It gets dark pretty late in Europe during summer, so the above pictures where probably at about 23:00.
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 2 ]
-------------------------------------------------
In the morning I had my complimentary continental breakfast and explored a local market place that had sprung out of nowhere in this sleepy village.
Notice how everyone had already purchased their baguette for the day.
After consulting the map I jumped back on the bike:
After following the signs for Paris for an hour Paris was no longer mentioned on the sign posts. I found this a bit odd, so pulled up to try to get directions to Paris. After chatting to a local (who could speak English, which always makes things easier), I realised the reason why Paris was no longer on the road signs was because I was in Paris.
So after trying to navigate an intersections with about 10 roads all colliding into one chaotic mess, I decided to explore Paris on foot.
After a solid day of sight seeing, crowds and more crowds I collapsed in bed.
I always enjoy big cities. All the different people, the metro (subway), the chaos. I only got back to the hotel at about 23:00 and then realised that I didn't have a key to get in and hoped that the owner of the hotel hadn't gone to sleep.
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 3 ]
-------------------------------------------------
The previous day had been very little riding so I was keen to make tracks again. At this point I didn't have too much of a plan. I think the just of it was "head east until I got border of riding". So, back on the road again. It's surprising how quickly it goes from busy city to quiet suburbia. Only after a couple of hours I found my self in field after field of sunflowers.
Did quite a lot of mileage this day. So I'm just going to queue the slideshow below:
Some tanks at the side of the road was a good enough excuse for a stretch of the legs. I think there was an army base near by.
As I approached the Belgium border there were less wine farms and more foresty areas. Also the roads got a little more interested with some more corners (people often say the north of France is flat and boring). I was joined by 2 other bikes and we enjoyed the roads. I was still a little bit nervous about pushing it to hard due to my accident I mentioned at the beginning. I was leading the group of 3 bikes and feeling the presure to make progress, which resulted in me going for an overtake I shouldn't have. After that I realised that I needed to take a break from the road and headed for a nearby village for some petrol. After the petrol pump refused to take my card (again) I noticed a castle up on the hill. Seeing as I didn't have any destination in mind and this trip was a bit of an exploration trip I decided to go have a look.
I followed the road up the hill, and to my surprise the road lead to a draw bridge that lead into the castle.
So I entered the castle and parked up next to all the other cars/bikes in the courtyard :-S
Found reception and asked them if I could leave my boots / helmet with them and have a look around.
You can tell I had spent a long day in the saddle:
Also had a look around there museum and consulted my map. After resting up I couldn't bring myself to get back on the road again. I was just on the border of Belgium and thought that was a good place to call it a day. So I headed into the nearby town and found a hotel (not to be confused with town hall).
-------------------------------------------------
[ Day 4 ]
-------------------------------------------------
Due to timing, I only had 4 days for my trip. It would have been great if I had a week and I could have gone to the south of France or into Italy, but alas day 4 meant heading back to the UK.
After visiting la patissier for breakfast, I once again hit the open road.
5 minutes from my hotel (in Montmedy) I was in belgium.
Followed by more roads like the previous day.
I stop over in Mons for lunch:
And also being in Belgium I had to get some belgium chocolates. I was needing a couple of gifts for people back in South Africa and my hosts in the UK.
Plus I had to admire Nic's car
From here on out time was against me. I had to be in Cambridge that evening, and my flight back to South Africa was the following day. Jumped on the highways to once again be greeted by winds and heavy traffic. Arrived in calais on the late side (I think it was about 20:00) with no petrol in the tank but decided to jump on the ferry and sort out petrol in the UK.
After getting off the ferry I found a petrol station and filled up. Went to the counter to pay...and...my card wouldn't work. So I gave them my credit card...nope. I tried to offer them Euro's...nope. The guy at the counter wasn't really sure what to do. The petrol was in my tank and I had no way to pay for it. After consulting the manager I had to sign an IOU and give them my fingerprints. They wanted me to return the next day with the money, so I had to try and explain to them that I was leaving the country the next day. Anyways I was allowed to leave, after I told them I would find a way to pay them the next day. Now I had another problem. I had a full tank which was, by my earlier experience, X number of miles and cambridge was X + a little more numbers of miles from Dover. So between Dover and Cambridge I was trying my best to ride economically.
Luckily I made it to my friends house (again pretty late) and with pretty much no petrol in my tank and no money
Seems like a good end to a mini adventure.
I phoned my bank the next morning and found out they had stopped my cards because of unusual activity on my account. You would think they would have done this when I first started spending money in the UK (3 weeks previous). Anyways, they gave me access to my money again. My friend sent a cheque in the post to the petrol station and we all lived happily ever after...
... apart from me missing my flight the next day
-------------------------------------------
Hope that's not to long. I've been meaning to properly write that up for a while, mainly for my own sake. I'll probably re-read it now and notice all the spelling mistakes and so forth. But they will have to wait for another time, as I'm tired of typing
