U.K. Outgoing - Scottravels

United Kingdom - Outgoing

Home to Plymouth (160 miles) – Considering we planned for a 6am start, 6.30 wasn’t too bad. Using the M4, M5, A38, it took us two and a half hours to reach Plymouth, including a breakfast stop at Taunton Deane Services. Coming into Plymouth, there’s nothing much to note, with the road running alongside the railway. Once you get to the centre, however, you get a concrete mass, full of post-war buildings obviously built to fill the holes left by the bombings in the last war. The ferry port is well sign-posted, with the terminal itself suddenly appearing after riding down what looks like a normal residential street, with terraced housing on either side. The heavy-laden V-Strom 1000 (3 panniers, tankbag and wife) felt really steady on motorway stretches and urban riding, although slow-speed manoeuvres took me a bit to master. Rear suspension was set to the maximum and hardest settings. Arriving at the port, we were greeted by the site of around 50+ bikes.

United Kingdom - Outgoing

Turns out most of these were on their way to a Classic Bike meeting in the north of Spain. There was also a tour arranged by Motorcycle Sport & Leisure (MSL), which we were mistakenly taken for being a part of (must be the middle of the road bike we were on).

Ferry to Santander – After an initial choppy hour or so, the sailing settled down into a smooth crossing. Apart from the bikers, there was the usual collection of cars, lorries, caravans and coaches. Completing the collection of travellers was the 3-day cruisers. Basically, various groups of friends/families using the ship as a floating bar from the UK, and after spending about 4 hours on-shore at Santander, getting back on the ship to repeat the drinking back to Plymouth. We found the pool bar on the top deck to be quite relaxing, with the water following the movement of the boat itself. The atmosphere was spoilt though with a young boy, around 8 years old, left to his own devices in the pool, and sitting around, while his parents and grandparents sat at the bar drinking heavily. Maybe this family should have been given beds in the on-board kennels, and the dogs allowed to roam free. The cabin was a basic one, with bunk beds, and it was a bit cramped. For some reason, we took the 3 panniers off the bike and up to the cabin, so that was a lot of storage space gone, but the cabin was only for sleeping in. We had the constant drone of the engines overnight but this seemed to give a calming effect so it was easy to sleep. A few Guinness helped as well.