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A 'what the hell im in' trip. The scooter lot are going to Kelso rally so im going too, on my bike of course. Camping at the showground and already booked on to the local parkrun there We leave this Thurs morning and im almost packed. Andy hopefully will come up after work on saturday night. Drive back on sunday. Praying to the sun gods as we speak. Im going to try and go pro stuff this time. Im excited to try the new tent & the shredded memory foam pillow @Slowlycatchymonkey recommended looks plush. Ive also got a thick foam yoga matt for under my matress. Hopefully be a bit warmer. Think i need a bigger bike Still food to pack and other bits and pieces

I find temperature a personal thing, last night the wife froze and i had a lovely warm sleep all we had was one winter sleeping bag opened out like a quilt and a blanket which was on her not me

Road block............

I remember camping in the lakes with Mandi and the kids. Kids slept through the night but me and Mandi were stuck together on an air bed trying to steal heat off each other. We camped far to close to the water for the time of year,

Even better with a little tweaking

Apparently it's you at 5.15 pm

Oh bugger.

You miserable bastards.

Hopefully every one will be waving little plastic flags and having silly little street parties and getting pissed .... which will mean not much traffic about on the roads ... could be bike action .

tyms got my vote vote... purely for the complete... cant be arsed and lack of effort he's put in to his entry

The feckers didn’t want to move at all, I had to nudge my way through

Surely you must have the bike in your possession to enter this …. Just satin

Bottom line is this! We've got a good forum going here without any of the negatives that you find in some other places. I'm talking about cliquiness, Admin/Mod power trips, rules being applied in different ways to different people, no paid subscriptions, no ads, and no female members are getting harassed via PM's or on the board. It ain't perfect, but it's a damn sight better than most out there. We've had our critics because of the laddish banter......but hang on, take a look at the Ride Reports section. Show me a UK based forum that measures up to that......you won't be able to. So yeh.....we talk! Yeh....we're laddish in our behaviour. But we also ride......which is a fuck sight more than you can say for most of the blowhards on forums out there. Certain aspects of the forum activity may appeal more to you than other aspects. And the reverse could be true for somebody else. We're all different.....so get involved in the areas you like, and ignore the ones that you don't like. Same applies to members as well. From time to time there can be misunderstandings of course. But there's nothing that can't be resolved if you just make me aware of it. To summarise, there's a lot of work has gone into this place......and it still goes on. Money's been spent on it......and it'll continue to be spent. That's a commitment I'm prepared to make, and I'm quite happy to do it! All you have to do is bring your personality, experience, and enthusiasm to the forum......and help us improve it. After all, it's as much your forum as mine......we're all in it together you know.

That was mine Friday.

Then Todd orders Brussel sprouts and a sausage for his dinner. Who the fuck does that? Things smelled like burnt ass ....

So Saturday we had to cover about 600 miles from Athens, Ohio through Pennsylvania and into New York. We were greeted by wet and cloudy roads in Ohio as we covered the back roads north to Zanesville, Ohio. Lots of Amish buggies on the roads and lots of the associated horse shit as well, which in the rain can be very slick as you well know.

Oh in that case im a bit sorry.....

I did a pub quiz followed by a birthday drink on Thurdsay night after work. We always come second in this particular quiz because the usual winning team always ace it in the 'music intro' round. Strangely the team leader always seems to play with his computery type watch during that round, we are sure there is a connection there, but not being as clever as them we can't work it out. Then on Friday morning I did a zoom meeting with my boss who told me I have to give more work to my underlings even if they fuck it up. Christmas came early. Friday afternoon me and my mate were waiting to hear if a concrete mixer had turned up at a third mate's house as we would be laying a concrete base for a small shed. Luckily it was late so we went out to Birthday drink number 2 at the same pub, this one was for Ted, 75 this year. Ted is currently umming and arring about changing his bike yet again. These old codgers are never happy with the bike they have I have found!!!!! Saturday morning a little worse for wear the concrete mixer has turned up so it was 4 hours of shovelling, mixing, plopping and tamping down the concrete base. I don't ache as much today as I thought I would, must be because we dug the bloody thing out last week and there are no back muscles left to upset. Halfway though mixing and laying I got a phone call from Ted. Trying to get my concrete covered gloves off and the phone out of my pocket I missed the call, so had to ring him back. Turned out he was outside the back garden on one of his son's motorbikes to show us. I opened the garage door and there he was on a Suzuki 1000 V Strom which he is thinking of buying when his son's PCP ends soon. He had one about 10 years ago and got rid of it because he was having trouble pushing it about as he got older.

Won't argue that but it got me home and as I was booked on the ferry the next morn it was the perfect bodge.

This photo got me a warning from the farcebook police!

mine, amongst the Douro vines

Better get one in since i'm not here on the weekend

A few more pictures to entice you to visit us one of these days!!

Breakfast in Morais was had in a local cafe. Simple bread and butter and toast was a revelation to Sofia and showed what flavors simple things like good not fancy bread rolls can have compared to the shit you eat in big cities. Going into the café at 08:30 I take this picture of a Trás os Montes street scene, gentleman has just finished his coffee and heads to work on a Renault Express, old lady chats to a friend while inside her transit van, she has to reach up to look over the steering wheel, and casually behind that someone walks a burro, typical breed from Trás os Montes. Tasty bread: We ride off to meet up with the Rio Sabor, one of the affluents to the Douro. The plan is to ride along this river heading south, cross the Douro and continue south until the Alentejo, tiny Portugal culture shock between the harsh demanding North with its impressive viewpoint rock faces, and the wide open terrain of the inner South! But first, the Rio Sabor getting to Alfandega da Fé: Alfandega da Fé had a regional fair going on, it was going to be a party later on, we walked a little along the charming center garden and bought a couple of regional products, Almonds and a blood sausage to cook at home. Cherry season but sadly those don't handle motorcycle traveling well. The biker's club here has a really cool clubhouse. I'd have gone in for a coffee, but at 10:15 it was obviously closed. Quick stop for fuel and we meet a French couple on a cool sidecar. Very unfriendly gas station, with a café full of rowdy guys drinking in the morning didn't cause the best impression, but I'm confident they'll be better received in other places. Adeganha, near the point where the Rio Sabor joins the Rio Douro, great views, and look at the road heading down the hill: A little south of Torre de Moncorvo we stopped for lunch in the only roadside cafe / restaurant in the little village of Açoreira. We asked for a light portion, but being the proper North, the traditional "Posta". This is it, the restaurant owner was quite happy with himself for not over serving : We rolled out of the restaurant and back on the bikes, and back to some familiar roads, crossing the Douro one more time heading south, again near Barca de Alva coming from Ligares: Didn't take many pictures for a while, we covered a little ground and headed south pointing our bikes to Rosmaninhal. It's near the Tejo International Park, the place is gorgeous and it felt cool to join both of Portugal's most important rivers. Although it was proper hot, it looked like we were about to ride into dark rain clouds. We had been lucky to avoid them all day long but not anymore. A stop for putting rain overalls on, and Sofia (like always) is approached by animals I instantly regret my decision, after about 20 or 30 minutes we stop to fuel up the Triumph and I take off all the plastic rain stuff. 32º and rain gear had me roasting, I took my chances with the rain and managed to stay mostly dry since it only started to come down about 5km before we arrived at our location for the night, another recovered old home but this time near the deep South. Bikes looked like they had the measles after the dusty rain came down. First order of business, get my trunks and jump into the cool swimming pool. Reinvigorate with a nice soaking before a little walk. A little tour around Couto dos Correias, a village of about 6 or 8 inhabitants, 2 or 3 of them permanent: Dinner was a bit disappointing that day, and our host a little annoying to say the least. I was looking forward to the next day though, as this is where one of my favourite short bits of road starts.

As you know I had a couple of days to go see the daughter. Best start with an apology as there's not much in the way of content, you know I don't stop unless I have to as it was a boring blat down to the ferry and back. But once or the other side I dumped the bike and gear and off to the pub we go. Samantha says Hi. As you can see lovely weather although the wind was a bit keen. These are from the south west coast. We travelled along part of the route which will be the IOW TT. Riders won't have time to enjoy the views though. Samantha and Matt said hi. Stop off for dinner in the hot sun and than onto Gods hill, doesn't get much more picturesque than this. Stopped for petrol where you have to tell the "attendant" how much you put In as there's no screen to tell her in the shop, but they did have this old gem in there. Sorry, could hardly see the window reflection on the phone. We then stopped off at the "shop" where Matt got his Bandit. He'd told me of this place before with bikes and part over 2 floors of this unit and he now spilling out into the surrounding area. As always with me the basted decides to have a holiday, back June the 3rd. Gutted. We had a quick stop at Robin Hill, where Matt works and then back to their house. Don't think I've mentioned that they live on a street which it more akin to something Bob and Fred would have fun on. I've been up and down it many times but this time I picked the wrong line and had Samantha on the back. I'd switched off the engine and we were rolling down to her house when we went over a large rock, this was the result. Basted rock Engine oil contents The fix was a trip the the local Halfords, fresh oil, some 80 grit, carb cleaner to get rid of the oil and some metal putty. This was the result that got me home, well happy. Got to decide on a new sump or get it off and weld. Bloody thing stunk of oil all the way home which kept me checking. Don't think I'll leave it as a repair but def got me out of trouble. It'll now be something I carry in the top box along with the tyre seal.

For a change …. I’m a bit offended .

Happy Sunday

Next to a wooden guard rail?

Needy cunts, you are not going to vote for it anyway.

And here's the Teutonic Oil Belcher in happier times.......

Only image from this month so far. Innit to winit because i got skull on my roll charts destination feature.

Anyway, I made it back from Cambo safe and sound... just two days before Laos reopened its land border, which is what I'd been waiting for the whole time! Nevermind. I'm now planning the next foray back into Cambodia from Thailand and this time, I'm going to have a crew. My Thai friends were all jealous when they heard about all the fun I'd had without them, so now I've convinced one friend to drive with me - with our enduro bikes on his truck - all the way down to Kampot where there's a big enduro race on 10, 11, 12 June. It should be fun!!

The next day we wake up, put up with an annoying hostess yet a little more and have a pretty mediocre breakfast. The simple but tasty bread rolls from the north replaced with a pretentious person serving tasteless crap. I gave the bikes a wipe to get rid of the most apparent muddy rain drops from the previous afternoon's rain, and we set off, stopping in Rosmaninhal to sort out a navigational miscommunication, and again Sofia finds herself making another friend The tiny municipal road from Rosmaninhal through Tegueiro to Segura is only 25km but it's amazing, and I love it. It's quite narrow so that an average light truck doesn't leave much space for anything else, but it's nice tarmac, often broken in places, with patches of dirt and broken road thrown in. If there was to be a road for trail bikes or supermotos this would be it. I could spend an afternoon riding back and forward there The views couldn't be more different to the previous days' locations up in Trás os Montes and High Douro: Extreme heat and overloaded trucks will do this to tarmac. We got to Segura safe and sound, and went to take a look at the Rio Erges, that's Spain on the other side of the water We started by heading back on the same lovely road we came in before, and I tried to stop for a picture in similar style to the one I took the first time I was there, except the first time I was by myself and at 40º, today with Sofia it was about 18 or 20º and about to rain. I like these worn out by time road marks. Stopped at Nisa for a lunch snack, and Sofia was delighted and envious that the local vet has a parking place reserved for his clients' This Roman bridge has been abandoned from use, but clearly strong enough to handle any load, it's just that the modern two lane road built 50 meters to the side doesn't suit it anymore. It's a shame. The plan was to go home to Ericeira from there, but plans change and instead we made way to Estremoz and then Alter do Chão to sleep in a lovely little hotel built in an old monastery. I ´ve put pictures of all these places before, and sadly took none this time. Dinner in a tiny cafe in Alentejo made up for the previous night's disgrace with a wonderful typical treat, no pictures of that either as the phone was left in the room. Bikes slept soundly inside an old warehouse belonging to the monastery, and after a later than ideal breakfast we were off to go home to the coast. No motorways were meant to be taken, and we did just that. Rode through lovely Alentejo plains and oaks It was starting to warm up when we stopped in Avis for a coffee and a look around: Tiny roads turned to 5 or 6km of dirt road, I had been through there before but I never remember what the surface is like unless it's properly dreadful. Sofia didn't back off and the Speed Triple sailed through smoothly, stopping halfway to look at a stream As we approached Lisbon, we started seeing a lot of bikes, and a lot of foreign ones too. On a short stop we met with some Welsh bikers returning home from watching the Superbikes at the Estoril (Lisbon area). They were riding back to Santander via inner roads, and seemed to be enjoying it immensely, in their late 60s or mid 70s. Someone got really happy from talking to UK people After that, we rode home almost non stop, it was the end of a nice few days mostly filled with wonderful northern Portuguese scenery.