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And now Buck is trolling on there as well. He's so desperate for material he's even praising the Chinese built Beemers!

I went to north Devon to visit my son and his family plus to have a little ride round and look at a bit of scenery. The weather report lied as usual, those wankers at the Met Office should have their soft dangly bits put in a vice. Whilst passing over Exmoor in the pissing rain on the way there was a bright flash off to one side of me and an immediate noise like a bomb had gone off. I though the army were firing shells, but realised quickly it was a close by lighting strike. I shit myself! Visited Clovelly, the private village you pay to walk in (no driving allowed). The shop keepers I met were all really chatty, they had visited and then got jobs and moved in, one had been there 20 years, but still had a broad Birmingham accent. All goods are moved about by sledge and most houses had theirs stored outside the front door, chained up to stop tourists taking them home I reckon. Later went to The Valley of the Rocks and left it at the other end via a £2 toll road. Road as a description was a bit strong, it was about 5 feet wide with a heap of mud along the middle all along its twisting steepness. Trying to keep my left leg away from rocks and tree branches meant my front wheel hit the mud in the centre sometimes and caused a few hairy moments. Couldn't even stop and take pictures it was so narrow with drop offs into the surrounding woods. I stayed in a B&B that used to be the old vicarage in Barnstaple. The two hobby horses pictured were hanging on the coat rack.

Do you get confused when you start reading something and automatically shit yourself Yen?

Not deliberately......I just posted that the Beemer had gone, and why! If I didn't people would start asking about it so I thought I'd better pre-empt that. "The Beemer is now history as it was returned to the dealer yesterday. For the last time! After owning it for 7 weeks (4 of which were spent in the dealers getting repaired under warranty) I sent it back and got a full refund. What were the problems? Front crankshaft oil seal leaking, ABS module (which went twice), then the Servo. Fantastic to ride, but I don't need that grief in my life". So I didn't rant about it......AFAIC I got a bad one but I got my money back! I don't think that's typical of GS's by any means. But there was an immediate pile on by Beemer haters, then guys from the Strom group who are friends of mine (who told me I'd be sorry if I sold the Strom), and a few others who just wanted to stir the pot. Like @Specs who's a Beemer owner but he just started slagging them off cos he's fucking bored! Then in came the Beemer Boys to defend the brand and now they're all bent out of shape. Seems to be you're either a Beemer FanBoy or a Beemer Hater......with me stuck in the middle!

I asked about snow and ice and one of the people I spoke to said that as it is sheltered from behind and the sides and faces the sea it is very rare to get snow or ice even when surrounding areas do. It pissed down both before and whilst I was there so I walked very carefully on the cobbles, break a hip at my age and it's curtains. The water goes into the joints between the pebbles and so the tops dry quickly.

It wasn't too bad, the rain helped keep numbers down. To answer Pete's question, everyone that lived there I spoke to loved it. They said if anyone moves the whole village pitches in and uses the sledges when required. The super rich landowner walks through asking if anything needs fixing and sorts it straight away, rents are not too bad and if they work there as well pay is good. If residents get too old to walk the hill they get moved to the bottom of the village so that they can use the single access road in a vehicle if required.

Never had any complaints from Mr Slowly.

you remove your seat on your pushbike and ride them all day

Hello! Hope everyone is well! Sharing the latest post from my travels. I find it difficult to find the time to prepare these posts while I am living on the road, but I am always happy when I am done. As an old lady, I need all the help I can get when it comes to remembering all the adventures. https://www.grasshopperspath.ca/post/parking-lots-trains-windy-paddles

Got a decent hotel overlooking the Loire , what a mighty river she is. Had a a nice meal and then walked around admiring the sights

Spotted this old council house near Confolens It’s Sunday so everything in France is shut, for lunch I resorted to my emergency packet of Love Hearts

Steady road ride up through France to Saumur today. Phil rode with me as far as Brantome where we stopped for a coffee and then I set off on my own .

Like a menu in a restaurant for example

Yes, you can't buy a house there and there are no holiday homes, just a hotel and the odd B&B.

This place was on one of Henry Coles Motorbike progs. The man who owns the place says he has to make sure people who want to move there really understand the downsides and that mainly people are very happy there. He seemed vaguely embarrassed he owns all of it. Those cobbles look savage though, imagine them icey in the winter no thanks.

Taken on my work phone, don't have a phone of my own.

We visited Clovelly (years ago) during the summer, it was mental, like Wembly turning out after a FA cup, got down to the harbour and we found the rest of the FA cup crowd..... We was not there for long.

As a general rule, in Portugal and Spain a Motel is usually like that, a closed in-room garage away from prying eyes, and not really meant as an overnight stay by most guests. Some are nice though, and as a biker you'll do worse to find secure parking for the bike late at night. I'll just let it out that in Spain a Club isn't somewhere nice to stop for a sandwich By what he did with her, clearly he's not

Ah I'm back from the festival, wrote that a couple of days after, just takes a while to upload it all on here and forgot to amend it! Its rare to read a motorbike travel book where the traveller doesn't at some point unwittingly end up staying in a dodgy love motel, or at least they always claim its unwitting! Apart from one guy (Mark Holmes RTW on a Triumph Rocket) who said he deliberately ordered a prostitute and then ended up just talking to her about his woes.

It was with mine!

Risky as us blokes don't multitask.

How weird, my current toilet read is set in Saumur(I can't just sit there without stuff for my brain to occupy itself). Is it the same Saumur as in the large armoured vehicle museum?

What tym might have said

SNAP

Six hacked into Grass's account.

It was about 12 degrees with high winds, so it felt colder. But after riding a motorcycle in almost freezing temps it is manageable, but not as fun on the face without a helmet…

Flowers in the morning sun.

Got to love the sunflowers Saumur is wine country, this would keep you going for a while

That's to keep all the lazy chavs out i'd live there

So they all pay rent?

More graveyards? This is seriously disturbed shit Yen!

If you read his book (not the best read in the world) it sounded like he just had a funny five minutes and when the young woman was brought to his room the reality of pimps and her having to sell her body to pay for her kids food was a bit much.

Thats chineses assembled beemers to you sir.

No he doesnt but his wife had just died, he lost his business and wasn't in a great headspace when he decided to bugger off around the world.

This is more better, memory foam seats on swivles, the paddles are powerd by 6hpowers of evinrudes two strokes...winds only a problem if you have hair.

Stubby looking plane no wonder the Navy picked it. The Airforce like things to look more badass.

Dib dib dob