Piccys from my Potrugal trip

[philbut]

So the plan was to ride to Portugal through France and Spain in order to get to Boom Festival. Boom is a big gathering of psycadelic drug munching hippies by a lake in the mountains on the Spanish / Portugeese border. After 8 days of swimming / sunbathing / dancing like a loon, ride homke again.

Bike all loaded up with tent etc ready to go.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000685.jpg

650 miles on the first day and I managed to catch up with my friends oin the ir Transit who had already been driving for 3 days. St malo to vitorez in spain took me about 11 hours. What a lovely camp site they had waiting fopr me when i arrived cold and tiard...NOT! - what you can't see in the photo is the motorway AND airport next to the tents.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000703.jpg

Thats more like it - exploring a spanish national park the next day. Some awsome hairpins and some equally stupid wild life...
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000708.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000724.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000722.jpg

Next stop was Salamanca in Spain. I was well ahead of the van so spent the afternoon exploring the town. We got rooms in the main square for 20 Euro each!
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000735.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000731.jpg

Next day was on through the mountains to Boom. Some of the best roads I have ever ridden and not a car in sight. Truely stunning scenery and very entertaining corners to boot.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000748.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000755.jpg

Who says festivals have to be muddy...
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000766.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000811.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000784.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000781.jpg

And one very dusty bike
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000818.jpg

Way home was a bit more of a slog after the exceses of ther previous week, but we still had time to do a bit of sight seeing on the way back through France
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000822.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/philbut/Boom%202010/P1000824.jpg

2500 miles later I'm back and in need of a holiday to recover!

[Warthog]

Looks great Phill! And somehow the missus sneaked along hey! Lots of stupid big colourful sculptures to take drugs around haha. The Spanich park looks ace, as does that triple cathedral thing! We need to meet up soon to have a long chat about it! I can come and see you in Oxford sometime? I am mobile again!

[walkaboutandy]

Cool road trip! How long did it take you to get there? Did you just motorway it through france? I'd like to do a bit of Spain, the roads are amazing, windy with a supersmooth black top. Can't wait to hear the stories!

[philbut]

I did A roads on the way back - don't like paying to use a road so avoided the payage. On the way down I chose tiny little back roads on google maps and then uploaded a route to my satnav, hence why 650 miles took 11 hours on the first day. The worst bit was around Biaritz, as trying to get from there to St Sebastian was a complete bitch without using the payage. Rode through the coastal region past Roquefort and Bordeaux, taking in some vineyards. TBH, France was a bit dull in terms of riding, but was much cheaper to get the ferry to France than Spain. Spain was bloody brilliant, even the main roads have some awsome bends and as you say the tarmac is excellent. When you turn off the beaten track (thanks Garmin, I love my Zumo now) the surface gets a bit more patchy but the twists and turns are just so gooooood. I will try and up,load my route from the garmin and post it.

[walkaboutandy]

Sounds like a good choice, I wouldn't want to sit on a motorway for that long. Yeah defo upload your route, I'd be interested in seeing that.

[sam anon]

Looks good!

[-Ralph-]

On the way down I chose tiny little back roads on google maps and then uploaded a route to my satnav, hence why 650 miles took 11 hours on the first day

Good to know for when they want to charge £800 Euro for bike & rider to get to Santander! Can be as little as 200 if you book early enough.

Portugal is a fantastic place, but the dust is something else, especially when riding off road.

[-Ralph-]

Just checked the Santander ferry, it's £218 if you book now for next August. Last year when I looked around May that was up to 800 euros.

[philbut]

That is bloody cheap! Don't know what I'll be doing job wise next year though, or I'd be tempted to book it.