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Home Travel StoriesSpain And The Faro Rally 2005 - By Ren Withnell

Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Preparation

My son has got a mum, AM...and AM has got a fella, G. G asked AM to marry him, and oddly enough she said yes. Of course this requires a stag do. And the venue is to be the 2005 Faro rally. I've never heard of Faro, let alone the fact there seems to be some kind of large motorcycle rally there. Still, there's many months left until It's time to go.

My preparation starts with finding out where Faro is. G informs me it's in Portugal, the Algarve coast in the south. A search on the internet soon reveals to me the location of the venue. Blimey, it's a long long long way away. I feel the tension build in myself as I contemplate a big trip. I have never ridden a bike abroad before. I have only ever been to Southern France as a child and my last trip abroad was when I was 20, to Northern France by coach. I only ever held the old 1 year passport back then, I've never had a full passport. I'm so green grass looks dull.

G and the rest of the lads on the stag do are going to fly to Faro. The rally is only walking distance from Faro airport, the tickets work out quite cheap with the modern low-cost airlines and little time will be lost at work. I do quite seriously contemplate doing the same myself, but it goes against the grain of what a bike rally means to me, and my desire to sample foreign travel all steer me to go an the bike. I know it's going to cost significantly more time and money, but I do want to ride there.

I had a friend whom I put through his bike test almost 8 years ago, called Ron. He'd always wanted to do the Paris - Dakar and travel around the world on his bike. Unfortunately he died of a heart attack in November 2003 never having fulfilled his dreams, but he'd planted a seed in me, the desire to travel. This could be my first adventure, a simple dry run and a taste of travel to foreign climbs. I read internet sites like Horizons Unlimited and dream of riding across vast expanses of desert, climbing rocky trails across the Russian Steppes and crossing borders on my world-weary motorbike. Anyone who has seen "The Long Way Round" will get the picture. Merely pipe dreams, but dreams will never be fulfilled unless you work toward them.

I was working when I started to plan the trip properly. I wanted to ride down through France then Spain into Portugal, and back the same way. Like most folks I only get 4 weeks holiday each year and 2 were already booked, leaving 2 weeks to complete a 3 to 4 thousand mile round trip. I did not want this holiday to be simply ride, ride, ride. I wanted to stop and see things along the way, sample different lifestyles and see remarkable things, to smell foreign flowers. The solution was to book a ferry to take the major sting out of the trip.

A ferry is available that runs from Plymouth to Santander, a port on the northern coast of Spain. This would leave me with a 650 mile trek across Spain and a short hop into Portugal. This seemed acceptable, with 4 days to cover the mileage in Spain and 4 days for the same return trip. The ferry was booked online with Brittany Ferries. Of course being very mean with my money I tried to book a reclining seat for both outbound and return sailings. It seems the reclining seats must have all been booked up as I could only get a cabin on the outbound trip. I was thoroughly pained to pay the price of £415 for my sailing, but it has to be done so it was.

Preparation started in earnest now. I purchased a new tunnel tent (Vango Gamma 350) as my old dome is somewhat mouldy and smelly and I've been after a bigger tent for some while now. In the shop the new tent looked reasonably sized. I tried to erect it at home and only then did I realise how big it really was! Large enough not to fit into the living room. I checked all the tent pegs, poles and other bits were in good order and tried to repack it. There was no way on god's earth this thing was going back into the tiny bag it came out of. Eventually I give up and left it loosely rolled in its straps.

Next was the passport. I've never held a full UK passport. 3 times I've been abroad, twice as a kid on my parents passport, and once with a bit of flimsy paper that used to be the old 1 year passport. I got the forms from the Post Office. They looked very daunting and scary. It took me several days to pluck up the courage and energy to look at them and start to fill them in. I need not have worried, it was not so bad, I even managed to find my birth certificate. I was also concerned about who I know who could sign my passport photos. It needed to be someone of importance, and I don't know anyone of importance. My doctor has never seen me, I have an uncle who is a policeman but he's related to me, so the list drew thin. It turned out after much asking around that one of the Friday night lads who works for my local town hall collecting taxes seems to be sufficiently important enough to sign my passport photos. This was duly done and 2 weeks later I had a full UK passport. I was most proud of my first passport.

I had to choose which bike to take. I have an SLR 650, a sort of on-off road thing, and a 600 Revere, a dispatchers favourite. The Revere is quicker at the top end, considered more reliable, has tubeless tyres which can take more punishment, more space to carry things, NO CHAIN!! (shaft drive), more tax and MOT on it and looks in better condition. But the SLR is more fun. The SLR would run out of tax at the end of the month and could not be taxed before I went. It really needed a new back tyre in the next 2 to 3 thousand miles. Up until 3 days before I set off I still had both bikes ready and considered for the trip. I finally settled on the Revere as it seemed the more "sensible" thing to do.

Then there was what to take. Reading the bike-travellers websites I soon learnt that polyester T-shirts and underwear seem to be de-rigueur due to ease of washing, fast drying properties, breathability and long lifespan. I already had 2 black long-sleeve t-shirts of this type, perfect in every way except the colour. Black is not the best colour for hot countries. I went to my local market and stores in search of white long-sleeved polyester tops. No-one seemed to have any, they were obviously not in fashion. The gf sourced a bright yellow adidas top off the internet and she purchased that for me. I also found a suitable grey thermal top made from similar materials. I had several pairs or rather unattractive long john thermal bottoms. A brief experiment on a rare hot day here in the UK revealed that these made wearing the cordura waterproof jeans I have much more comfortable in the heat than my usual shorts as undergarments. The lining of bike jackets and trousers is made from a shiny rayon type material that sticks to your body parts in a most irritating way when you sweat. With the polyester tops and thermal bottoms this irritation is removed. Thermals are good at keeping heat in, and similarly good at keeping heat out.

I wanted to be able to cook my own food along the way. I like a lot of tinned food as it's simple and relatively healthy. Things like soup, ravioli and beans make a quick meal that's cheap to buy and quick to prepare. I don't like gas bottle stoves though. If you run out of gas you need another bottle, not the best thing if you are half way through making a meal. Petrol is readily available from the bike and a petrol powered stove seemed to be the best solution. I was pleasantly surprised to find these items are indeed available on the internet so I purchased a Coleman "dual fuel" stove. This item will run on unleaded straight from my tank. I searched in my shed and found a suitable length of pipe to siphon off a half pint of fuel and attempted to boil a pan of water in my back yard. Man this thing worked a treat! A good strong healthy flame quickly brought the water to a full boil. A very satisfactory purchase.

 

During my ever more frantic research on the net I learnt that drivers in spain are required to carry a warning triangle in case of breakdown. There was some doubt if this applied to motorcycles, but I could not find a definitve "no". I'd also read a report that motorcyclists are required to carry a flourescent vest to wear in the event of breakdown. Not knowing if any of this was true I started to flap a little. Then Aldi dropped a flyer through my door and amongst the various gadgets and items was listed a small bag containing both a warning triangle and flourescent jacket. Perfect. I purchased the little bag for £6.99, no quibbles there especially as Halfords wanted £10 for a triangle alone.

 

I did have my E111 form which entitles me to medical care in Europe for which the UK's NHS service will pay the country I visit for any care I need. But this is basic. It does not cover being re-patriated to a UK hospital or getting special treatment in a private hospital. Nor does it cover events like cancellations or thefts. My father, ever the cautious and king of planning, persuaded me to take out travel insurance. I called Norwich Union. On talking to the customer advisor I made absolutely certain she fully understood I was riding my 600cc motorcycle abroad, it was the purpose of my trip. She checked this was ok with her underwiter and reported to me as long as it was my own bike I was riding then I would be covered. Many insurance companies will not cover motorcycling as it is considered a dangerous sport.

A few days later I recieved my paperwork and checked it over. I noticed motorcycling is not covered on bikes over 125cc. I called Norwich Union to make sure this was an oversite or that some record of me riding a 600cc bike had been noted. It was not, and this advisor told me there is no way I could ever be covered to ride a 600cc bike abroad. I remained calm as best I could while I took down the details of who to complain to. I then took advantage of thier 14 day full refund.

Kwik Fit insurance on the other hand has thier policy wording on their website and this states "What is not covered...Your motorcycling, as either the driver or the passenger of a motorcycle which is more than 125cc, unless the driver holds a current licence which allows them to ride a motorcycle of more than 125cc". I hold a licence that allows me to ride a motorcycle of any size, so I was sure I was covered. I called the customer line and the adviser told me I was correct in my thinking. I duly paid less for the insurance than I did with Norwich Union and received my paperwork faster. I doubled checked with several friends that what I had read meant the same to them as it did to me. I will never trust Norwich Union again.

Halfords did supply the spare bulb kit and a can of tyre-weld. The oil in the engine was changed as well as the gear oil in the bevel drive. All lights and bearings were checked and the bike was given a once over. One concern was my rear indicators. I'd read that the spanish indicate for everything, and my rear indicators were some cheap aftermarket rubbish fitted by a previous owner. The light emitting from them was more white than orange, and with 1 day to go before I travelled one of the bulbs gave up. The indicators require a special bulb with orange glass and at such short notice I could not find an orange bulb. A white one was fitted, giving a totally white light. I fixed this in true bodge style. I found an orange plastic bag and cut it up, super-glued it inside the lens and hey presto, a sort of orange light was re-achieved. Not perfect, but better than before.

One thing that had changed during my preparation was I'd given my notice at work. I wanted more time to do the things around the house that needed doing, to work on this website and to perhaps travel some more. I'd asked if I could go part time but the answer was a resounding no. I worked my notice and finished on the day before my departure. This meant that if I so wanted I could take more time on my trip, and I considered riding back up through France. I decided to see how I felt on the journey, but I felt a lot easier knowing I did not need to rush back home for work reasons.

Timing in life is everything. Over the last 6 months my gf's back had been getting progressively worse, starting with a minor niggle and on the night before my departure she was in agony, not sleeping properly and barely able to walk. The doctors had done the usual fobbing off, prescribing pain killers and rest. Rest for a single mother with 2 kids and a house to run is not an option, it was not working. I knew I would be worried about her whilst away. She assured me she'd be fine and I should concentrate on having fun, there was nothing I could do anyhow. If only I could switch off my feelings that easily. Also 3 years ago the gf's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 6 months to live. Proving the doctors wrong she was still going strong but seemed to be going through a bad patch. Again I knew I would be concerned for the gf if her mother were to worsen. But that is life, it is not a perfect world.

Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Preparation
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 1
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 2
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 3
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 4
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 5
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 6
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 7 The Portuguese coastline is not quite what Ren was expecting. Then there's the case of the disappearing helmet.
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 8
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 9 Ren has to brave the plastic portaloos of HELL at the Faro Rally. It's also time to leave the noise and chaos and get back on the road Northbound
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 10
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 11 It's another long and hot ride across the Spanish scenery. Still, every sweaty mile is a mile closer to home.
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 12
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 13
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Day 14
Spain And The Faro Rally 2005 - Aftermath

Reader's Comments

Tony Clark said :-
First chapter ok I am aware of some of the feelings usefull information
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC

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