Devall Travels

After the late night we didn't get up too early. We had hardly unpacked and so we ended up back in the restaurant for another breakfast on the same bill as the half we'd had when we arrived. From there the weather had looked up a bit and we headed off with TomTom leading us along the coast through Bournemouth before we were free of the built up area. Along this section it seemed the main income stream would be from the speed cameras dotted all over the place and the intellectually subnormal speed limits to make sure that the income is high. The ride home was far less eventful than the ride down the week before.  The motorways not too busy, no more than a normal working day. We were home in good time and parked up at home in the early afternoon. Once again Döra had been the perfect bike. Comfortable two-up. Powerful enough and economical enough when needed. With the larger Kappa topcase and the OEM panniers there was enough luggage space for this length of tri...

We were up early for the ride to Poole to get the LD Ferry to Santander.  Packing was done the night before. The Touratech bag to go in the larger pannier, waterproofs and spare gloves in the smaller and the rest in the Givi bag in the new box.  The TT bag fitted pretty well into the body of the pannier leaving the lid free for another smaller bag, that is home to the sponge bag and the chargers bag!  Packed and ready. We were away at about 0935 for the 160 mile ride to Poole. I hadn't filled the tank after last weekend's ride to Colchester, so the first stop was Tesco at Ashford to fill up. Pay at the pump wasn't working again. Grrrrr. Once away, the M20 and M26 were free flowing until the M25 but even the eastern end wasn't too bad. Then it all clagged up before Cobham Services. We pulled off for ten minutes to give Claire's hip a rest. TomTom saying we had 108 miles to go. It had taken an hour from Tesco.  Then it all went downhill! R...

We left home  just after 9.30am to fill up with petrol at Ashford Tescos.  That done we joined the motorway en route to Poole.  We had a short stop at Cobham as my hip was playing up. It was too early for more painkillers but a short walk around seemed to help and we rejoined the slow moving  traffic.  I think from there to Poole we were filtering through the the traffic.  It was amazing how many cars there were on the road.  We stopped again at Winchester services on the M3 for another hip stop and bite to eat.  From there on it was touch and go if we would actually get to the ferry on time due to the slow moving g traffic. By this this time we had caught up with at least 4 other bikes filtering through the traffic but I could tell Paul was getting frustrated as they were not in much of a hurry.  We finally arrived in Poole about 14.15 in time to nip into Asda to grab a few snacks and drink for the journey. Arriving at the port it all seeme...