Revisita España 2014

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! Rejoining into four lanes of crawling traffic it stopped a few times and we made the M3.

Traffic was heavy basically all the way to the turn off from the A31 for Poole. Many times stationary. Most cars were in the middle of their lanes to give space for bikes to filter, some moved aside, and some of them a little dramatically it has to be said. and of course there were those that narrowed the gap once they saw the headlights. Why?

We stopped for a comfort break at Winchester Service; again pretty packed. In the end we had a BK Chicken Royal for lunch. Once again rejoining almost solid traffic!

We had a mad session before Poole when the road cleared and it we got up to 70mph! Yes, that fast!!

We had decided that we'd buy some snacks and drinks to take onboard, and there is an Asda not far from the harbour. It was 1420 as we turned in.

Some chicken fajitas, drinks and some chocolate fingers and we were off again in about 10 minutes following the TomTom as road signs are a little iffy.

Once at the port we joined the single line to the check-in. All in it took about twenty minutes to get to the desk and we boarded about 1520. Bikes went on first and we were at information getting the cabin key very soon after.

The cabin this time is a four berth with two bunk beds but as there are only two of us only the two lower bunks are made up.

A window and bathroom make the crossing into a mini cruise.

Home at Sea

It's not very big but it has all we need.

As sailing approached we went up on deck. There are only two small sun decks and sadly they attract the smokers who can't kill everyone inside the ship.

We were on deck as we headed out of the harbour, threading our way along the channels with Brownsea Island to the right and Sandbanks, where the rich people live, to the left, or port as we should call it.