Advanced Training Blog 1

Portugal Day 9 – Plymouth to Home

We arrived in Plymouth on time even though we had set off an hour late from Santander, what a difference this crossing was compared to the first one. This was dead calm, like a mill pond in comparison but the crossing going over was enough to put anyone off using the ferry for good. How […]

Portugal Day 8 – Guarda to Santander

The weather forecast had been great for today, clear skies and a warm and sunny ride north, we had a great route planned to take us further north into Portugal and then across to Leon in Spain followed by a run up to the Spanish north coast for a final push into Santander for the […]

Portugal Day 7- Alvor to Guarda

We were up early and had a bike running time of 08.00am, we left a pretty chilly morning and cloudless sky in the Algarve. We wound our way back on some of the fastest sweeping roads we have ever seen as we made our way toward the Alentejo region. We took an early sign post […]

Portugal Day 6 – Alvor to Monchique via Cape St Vincent, Aljezur & Silves

I woke up at 06.30am, I could not see much outside as it was still dark. That wasn’t a good sign as I expected it to be blue skies and right but being dark only meant clouds! It did look a little bit damp out there when I got up to have a look. Today […]

Portugal Day 5 – Rest Day

A lie in and then up for a leisurely breakfast, followed by bike cleaning and a good check over the bikes to ensure no problems have developed and gone unnoticed. Chains checked and lubed up and ready for the next few days. Andy had to check out his Krapasaki. An odd engine noise was to […]

Portugal Day 4 – Alvor via The Monchique & West coast to Alvor

Wow, an early rise to brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies, what a day we are going to have. We had breakfast, all met up bright and breezy and headed north towards the mountains. The road towards the Monchique is a fantastic route into the mountains, big long twisty roads, just waiting for acceleration as […]

Portugal Day 3 – Guarda to Alvor

We woke up to a fantastic view over the mountains, one view we had definitely missed the evening before as we arrived in pitch darkness, we were well above the clouds in the valleys below us.  It was a beautiful morning and we were heading southbound to the Algarve and to the sun. We went […]

Portugal Day 2 – The ferry and then Santander to Guarda

The following morning we got up and made our way to the garage to make sure everyone had full tanks of fuel. We had filled up the day before so we were okay, we also had a wander around Portsmouth and made our way to the ferry port. The ferry was boarding on time so […]

Portugal Day 1 – Redditch to Portsmouth

The tour to Portugal was organised as a small group trip to discover some of the pitfalls of touring with a group to Portugal. We had been discussing touring with some ex-students for a number of years as they liked the idea of joining us when they heard about our experiences and travel stories while […]