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I will stick with this year but this is about it, all the other photos i got are out with other bikes or in some stinking hole LOL Taken on 12-01-20 so only just in

I'll go for this one........

Well, this is from this morning, i volunteer for my local Main Street Program to make out town a better place, so when i rode for this pic, i rode for a purpose, a public service.

Seeing as I have been riding my friends bike all month, it is suiting to submit a photo of Snowy displaying her rural Canadian style. ?

I'm not going with the train pic as there's no "adventure" in it - just a bike sitting next to a train. How about this one? Middle of nowhere on a dirt road - has some adventure in it.

Yes. That was '16, this is '17. Breakfast at Crossgates. Sorting out Betty Swollocks Aberystwyth MAG volunteer doing missionary work. Pete Helmslay Beer tent Heading home

These are all that I have Fred. Waiting for Fred. Arrived. Time to pitch up. Fred must have booked this for the following year. The village, trying to find food. Nigel's bike. Fellow reprobates. Waiting for the strippers. Heading back for the tent, maybe. Emergency McShit stop. Refuelling. .....and face filling. Come to think of it this could have been the year before.

This is the only photo this year!!! The rest of the bike was there somewhere.

OK, it's now 22:00 and I'm about to type this after drinking a bottle of pretty average to shitty white wine, I hope you degenerates appreciate this. I don't want to be a day behind or else I fear I may never pick it back up So, yesterday evening yours truly had a memorable meal with an amazing view to the Douro River at sunset. I made friends with the people that own the small villa/hotel, I think the wife runs it and the husband cooks. He's quite good, and their own wine is something to be appreciated indeed. I'll come back for two reasons, second is to pick up a few of those bottles wether they want to sell them or not, and the other is to find a home for the Argan tree I have growing in a big pot at home. Me and Maria picked a few seeds off of the ground in Morocco, and I started to grow one one of them before she died. I love the thing to bits and would like to have it planted somewhere where it can grow with proper ground to put roots on and plenty of sunshine and heat. Yesterday I found the place, and the lady to water it while it needs the care. I'd get a kick of visiting my own Argan tree in the douro region, and talk to it while drinking some pristine wine. To me, that's cool as fuck. So, ate well, drank too much, woke up at sunrise to go back to sleep and show up for breakfast at 8:30, the place is gorgeous and this is it in the morning light (long after sunrise, so sue me!) I had a nice light lunch, homemade yogurt along with fresh fruits, some oj, and plenty of great coffee. People there were pretty worried I would eat bread of bacon and eggs, but this here is a man making an effort! Rode off to one the Douro's most scenic viewpoints, just enough time to warm the bike up before getting there. Here in the north we get a lot of scenery but usually not big vistas, this is not the case. I stopped the bike with nobody else there but myself and it is a sight to behold. I'll just post a few pictures for you to get an idea of it, this side is Portugal, other side (uglier ) is Spain: Riding over I notice these huge birds, eagles and vultures, they're so impressive because so high up you can see them from what seems like very close up I have just started the day, but am sitting down by my bike happy to spend an hour or two just marveling at the view, might as well take it all in in peace and quiet before I go. Just take a second or two and see if you get the sense of space I got, pictures are taken with my phone, not a proper camera so you get what you pay for: As soon as I'm settling down on a wooden bench wishing I had another nice cup of coffee, a bunch of lycra clad twats roll in. with a Kangoo following, Kangoo twat decides to provide Lycra twats with beverages, and there goes my piece and quiet. Guys shouting at each other left and right, 30 seconds later they're asking for beer, and flying a drone. Eagles and Vultures scatter as soon as the drone starts flying, so now I got twats screaming and drone in the air, and I'm starting to wish I was @Tym and packing heat. Here, noisy lycra clad twats to my left: Riding off, I'm on nice tarmac, but decide to abort and ride what seems like a more scenic route on google maps, except it's not tarmac. No problem, because as far as dirt roads go, I've never been in one with a better view in Portugal: I'm bumbling along smoothly in third or fourth gear, when all of a sudden a huge shadow goes over me, I stop and notice a bunch of birds on top and beside me. Now, please bear with me a little bit, cellphone pictures of flying birds aren't that impressive here, but they were quite big: The land whale waiting patiently: Alone on top of a mountain looking at views and birds, I'm having a happy moment Birds get closer and closer Suddenly, a lot more of them start to circle on top, and I wonder if they might think me and the GS are in trouble. It is a shaft driven BMW after all, with a decidedly unproficient rider ... I counted 30 birds at one time, being a little cold from the morning air I take my time to put on a light sweater and finally ride on, those 15 or 20 minutes all alone on top of a mountain with a few birds for company felt like a special experience. Riding on dirt, though, was a little harder work and as soon as I got on tarmac I was ready to stop to take the mid layer off I picked a place with some road porn for you, this is what you can expect to get if you book one of @Sofia 's future northern rides, view to the left: With this road ahead: Now don't get any ideas, this is my kind of road, but it's broken tarmac full of character, patches of gravel or dirt mid corner, big drops, and on sundays and summer months you also get the 5 people inside a Peugeot 307 station driving on the complete wrong side of the road. Road is a good one, though At Barca D'Alba , home of some amazing wines, and as the river stops being the border between Portugal and Spain and turn into Portugal, I say goodbye to Portugal's (and arguably one of the worlds) great wine regions, cross it, and continue to head south. But not before stopping to clean an oil drip coming off the oil filling cap. Barca D'Alba: Still the Douro in the distance: Road remains pretty great if you like twisties. Little further down the line, with the landscape getting smoother and the temperature increasing, I notice an add in front of a house and remember @Earache pondering a house in a certain biking paradise. Here you get a gentleman's home, there are surely plenty up for grabs in the area, I hereby wave my finder's fee: Road starts to get straight at times, and landscape changes dramatically Management noticed a few of you liked old stuff and culture. I am not usually one to stop for old stuff and buildings, but here you go, culture and old stuff. A medieval bridge (quite exciting, for medieval times) in a little square all restored in honor of a master sergeant who died in battle in 1642. I did this as a tease, because with all due respect to the master sargeant, things are about to improve regarding old things. But first, look how this small road is closed, it crosses into Spain in a couple of kms: Now, arriving in Almeida's fortress. It's not a castle, but I like fortresses more: You'd be proper fucked if you were stuck between these walls with a locked gate. After parking the bike inside, I go for a short stroll on top of the walls, and a smells starts to make me hungry. Behind one of those tree down there you see a beige awning, three old dudes grilling chicken down there. One of the old chicken grilling dudes' ride, a Sachs V5, 50cc two stroke: Top of the walls: Main road into town: And guard's shelter covering the entrance from above: From top of the main entrance building in the previous pictures: Looking into the square, this group of tourists is trying to take a timed picture of themselves. Poor guy is running back and forward. Eventually I make it down there and shoot their picture for them, after 15 minutes of trying I get an aplause Here's something historical for you Fortress entrance: Read up, culture: Made my way away from Almeida, Few kms further on, another castle. This area is full of them, being a border area with Spain near Salamanca, a very important city in Spain back then, home of their biggest University of old. Castelo Bom (translated to Good Castle) is a tiny fortification, a village squeezed within walls I rode in and found a spot to park, space is not abundant: And away again: I stop to give this guy a nose cuddle, I think it's apreciated because of the temporary fly relief Little ways further, I stop for lunch. Wind is blowing a warm breeze, I have a nice wee and proceed to eat my sandwich, kindly prepared by the nice lady in the hotel, a little ham, a little cheese, little lettuce and a little butter in dark cereal bread. Lovely lunch and location, two cars passed the whole time I was stopped On the picture above you can really see the difference between this morning's landscape and where I am going. Stopped for an expresso after lunch. No normal portuguese person can go by without an expresso after lunch. Getting tired of typing, just look at the nice pictures of the great forrest roads after I had my expresso Nature slowly taking back this previously tarmac road, turned out to be a dead end. Now in a pretty great forrest area, in a nature reserve and always taking the smallest roads possible. That's why it's taking so long to cross this small country Going a little further south, I pass Fundão, this is more or less the center of Portugal if you look at it from north to south, it's a pretty flat area stuck between hills, and fucking hot. Right now I'm in need of a swim after crossing that damm in previous pictures. Saw a couple of small cottages right on the water but early birds had gotten the worm, serves me right for not making plans. I divert from the road to climb a little village with a small castle on top in search of a view. Long story short, there was a little fender bender, a very steep very narrow cobblestone street, a hot Pedro on top of a blowing GS, and I didn't feel like waiting around, so there you go, you get this instead, another house for sale, this time smaller and more modest but with a proper view. Don't move here though, you'll melt: By this time, I'm melting, I pass a fuel station with the fuel light already on but decide to ignore it since the town where I'm sleeping has a couple of hotels so should have a fuel station as well. Make it to the hotel and the nice swimming pool beside it, and jump right in two or three hours later, I regret my choice of location, this is truly a one horse town, everything's closed or abandoned, I am looking to find a small typical joint to eat in, but no luck, the only thing I find is a great oak tree, typical of the area, and an abandoned guesthouse overrun by swallows Make my way back to the hotel, and have a mediocre meal washed down with some average (at best) wine, missing my friends from the previous night and their wine. Tomorrow is another day, probably a warmer day as well. Bike as done about 550km on this fuel tank, need to deal with fuel first thing in the morning. See ya...

There'll be a shock if @Buckster submits a pic! ?

...so I have a chance now? ?

Hey....no favorites, give the rest of a chance to fail..... ?

And here's mine!

Only titled like this as I rode through the small town of Montezuma today on my way to soem dirt roads that I wanted to ride a bit. Started the ride off down by the Lake before heading up higher...

You ride in the best looking place in the world outstanding.? Pete may as well close his pic of the month thread and just post one of yours every week

That's there year 'round. Chilly up over 13,000 feet. My house is around 10,000' and it's right at freezing most mornings. Well below it at 13-14K feet. And we just had snow last week.

Popped outta the woods and there's another lake. Conveniently located next to the paved road home...

Perfect day for it today - sunny and about 62F (17C)...

The "road" has officially become a goat path....

Doesn't look so bad in pics, but the "road" was getting pretty bad with lots of rocks and water....

Now here's a house I can afford! Previous owner seems to have moved on... Just south of Montezuma....

I was gonna put my summer house here, but I was, again, short a few million dollars.....

....

The paved road getting this far was prety decent - smooth as you like with lots of curves and elevation changes...

For some reason i like beaches with naked chicks on them

I got a bloody great bar of chocolate, Toblerone, liquorice and Lager. No diabetes for me,,,,,, yet.

More like a miracle

Now your taking the piss, 3. photo must be taken this month your having a laugh

Absolutely! My money's on @Earache's train pic!

My bike’s plenty large, almost couldn’t turn it around inside a fucking castle today!

That's coz your musical tastes are still stuck in 1976 and haven't moved an inch ?

I'm sure my family are trying to kill me off, for fathers day i get sweets and chocolate something they know i have a real weakness and craving for, they also know i'm a fucking diabetic the s. Anyway the last laughs on them i have no life insurance

Back onto the Plain for some blasing along gravel trails.......... The MOD have done a great job of marking the trails........... and there's always the chance that you'll come across something they've left behind.........

So today I wanted to get the little CRF out and go for a trail ride, there are some lanes to the north of Salisbury Plain that I haven't done for a long time so I decided to head that way. I certainly wasn't going to go anywhere to the south of the plain near Stonehenge as it would be heaving with hippies all trying to get there for the summer solstice . I got away by 08.00hrs and after filling the tank it was a 20 mile ride on tarmac to the first lane . Just a short byaway which was cut in half in the 90's when they built the A350 bypass around Chippenham..... and then onto the village of Laycock which is largely owned by the National Trust.... The local shop really needs to check the sell-by dates on some of their stock ? and then passed by Laycock Abbey which is well worth a visit if you're roundabouts.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacock_Abbey

Who remembers him from Maximum bikes ? Bloody brilliant ride reports. I just seem him in a thread on ADV rider...........

Dankeschon! We should have a bunch of you guys come over next summer for a week's ride in Colorado. I'll guide for the low, low price of 2 cold beers per night.

I'm gonna start using that excuse - thanks!

Steered the Big Blue Turd for home. Another nice morning of riding completed.

Come on Pete you must pay more attention in class

I just googled what he said for a laugh and this was top of the list https://www.ketocustomplan.com/articles/effective-way-to-lose-weight-for-good?cc=gbp&gclid=Cj0KCQjwirz3BRD_ARIsAImf7LOkTxJQkMMjszsAfH2qTjp-QElexX88ijcyd9A2uosD3Nnx4Y3lmtQaAlDwEALw_wcB

Ever watched popeye on tv, @Tym? he could lift a bike, he could!

OMG what have you done @XTreme you've created a video posting monster

So time to head for home mainly on tarmac but with a couple of old lanes on the way...... and finally Pete's favourite bit, where I show him whatthe days riding has done to my bike ...........

Then I gained some elevation again with great views all around............ and found some more poppy fields........................

Now I was into some fairly easy stuff, so a chance to bomb on a bit....... and some tree covered roads as well............ and back to the overgrown stuff............

I carried on and dropped down off the Plain via this track which took me down to Rushall........... Then I made my way back up onto the Plain via this byway. There are lots of these sort of tracks in this area and they look fine and dandy but at this time of the year they hold a surprise. The grass is long in summer but what you can't see are the hidden ruts underneath, you can be riding along fine and then the centre rut grabs your front wheel , you take a dab with your foot to steady yourself and dab into thin air as your foot has dissapeared down the left or right rut. Lots of dudes end up on their arse riding these trails for the first time and then some water just to keep it interesting ..............

Now were climbing up onto the Plain............. Salisbury Plain is huge (by UK standards) and has tracks going everwhere but you need to understand that it's overseen by the MOD and they control where you can and can't ride , for your own safety. It is an impact area where live munitions and tank training are carried out, and it's a great area to ride as long as you obey the warning signs, your life could be in danger if you stray off the byways and permissive routes....... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Plain This is the perimeter path, it is a gravel track which skirts the perimeter of the Plain. But you can also ride the muddy track to the right or the grassy track to the left............

So onto the next set of lanes which were very dissapointing as the local authority has decided to tarmac them........... and now I'm heading for a couple of lanes that will lead to the Plain........... But before I get there I ride down this lovely old holloway near Potterne.......