A straight trip in the pouring rain for about 6 to 7 hours to attend some meeting in the afternoon and on Friday. The very positive thing about the meetings was that I was already something like 3/5 down of the way to Valencia :-). It was just a thrilling feeling to be able to go down fully packed in the rain. The rain never bothered me to be honest, only the wind was a bit of a hassle.
On Saturday I took myself from Montlucon to Barcelona and maybe some of you recognize the picture below; as you can see I indulged myself into the tapas culture of Barcelona. In between I added some more accessories to my GS: a genuine tankbag so that I at least did not have to step of at every toll station.
On Sunday I took the trip from Barcelona to Aras de los Olmos, about 90km west from Valencia. After some speed on the highway I considered to ask the GPS the shortest route to the destination along the small routes. It was a magnificent experience. Going up to the mountains along curly roads, but of course the shortest road is not always the surfaced roads. There was a crash course off road riding for the last 15 km with a little tumble as a consequence .. my god that bike is heavy , thank god a farmer was close by to help me getting the bike out of the ditch :-)
Sunday evening I got to meet the other participants. All were German speaking but one: Ben Chu Schott from Canada. I was immediately promoted to the translator of duty. The others were from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The fact of translating was nice since I improved my German rapidly and I always had to repeat everything twice which made it stick even better . The instructor Michael could not be more fit for the job: German and a police driving instructor :-), Thomas the second instructor and Gert "megafix" mechanic were way more Latin in their thinking and acting.
The course started on Monday with some training in the enduro park to learn to get used to the turning and standing on the bike , for warm-up we were even riding the bike in amazone way .. It is amazing how fast you learn to control the bike with their tips and tricks, even doing a circle with the bike was no longer a problem. In the afternoon the first "steady"off road was a fact.
Wonderfull scenery was our part. It is amazing how wonderful it feels to combine the steady pace and the scenery ... your mind is really getting empty and you can only admire the view and the things you learn on the bike .. no more deadlines .. no more office .. no more troubles , just the tremendous feeling of freedom and adventure. And the desire to go out and about ...Tuesday was the slimming down of our group. Before noon we learned to ride without ABS, but Toon took this a bit to serious. On a steady piece of the track I tested the limits of rear wheel breaking without abs with of course a slide as a consequence. Leo who was following me a bit too close could not avoid me nor the bike and fell down. Consequence: a broken ankle. So we were down to 5 inour group. In the afternoon another slide of an insecure Michael made him loose control in a curve and hurted his shoulder. He still finished the day but thought that day 3 was too demanding.
Day 3 was magnificent. The terrain they selected for us was getting technically more and more demanding and I just loved it. Going steep hills and rocky paths down was just so satisfying once you achieved. Our group with the couple Lucia and Herbet, Ben and myself with our instructor Thomas was a very jolly gang stressing the aspect of having fun and taking the time to admire the scenery.
At the end of the training I can say it was wonderful and I have some trips to make: to Canada. By the way Ben and his wife Mel were at the beginning point of their world trip. They are traveling till next March 2007 around the world. Their tour will take them from Ottawa to Spain to Turkey to Greece to Egypt to Dubai to India to Hong Kong to Thailand to Singapore to Australia to New Zealand and back to Ottawa, returning on March 10, 2007. I already hooked him up with Brenda in New Zealand.
In the meantime we write Thursday 30th of November. Agnes is getting on a plane to Valencia in full motorcycle gear to join me for the trip back home. But that part of the trip deserves a separate section which I will be writing tomorrow.
Happy travels and that your dreams may take you there.
Toon
No comments:
Post a Comment