The Humps Tour

At the start of September 2006 I flew back to the UK to join the gang for a motorcycle tour from the UK to the Algarve in Portugal and back again.

John Mason, Fred Minto, Ian Roy and myself left Hockley Heath in Warwickshire at 6am and headed down the M42 and M5 to Bristol where at 7.30am we met John's brother Ronnie and from there we headed down the M5 to Plymouth.

John was riding his Harley Davidson Heritage Soft Tail, Fred was on his limited edition 100 year annerversary Harley Davidson Fat Boy, limited that is to every bike produced by Harley during their centinary year. Ian rode his very nice Harley Davidson Road King Custom, Ronnie rode a hired Harley Davidson Heritage Soft Tail, bit of a story here so best not asked, but at this moment in time Ronnie owns two Harely's and has a hired one as well. I used one of Ronnie's other bike a Harley Davidson Ultra Glide. This was an old machine that had been inported from New York about 8 years ago.

My historic but reliable Ultra Glide

We all made it in time for the ferry at 12.30pm, I say made it, we just made it as the army guys managed to get lost 2 miles from the docks. Once on board it was time to check out the bar facilities, which we have to report were just right.

The next morning we were cruising into Santander our Spanish port of entry. Once off the ship we headed for Burgos, a trip that took over some wonderful mountains.

Coffee stop just before Burgos, can you spot D Wanka

From Burgos we ploughed along the N62 to Salamanca, our overnight destination. The trip was hot and so a cool beer in a local bar was just what the doctor ordered when we arrived at our hotel. We spent the evening at a nice streed restaurant in the old square area of the city.

That much needed cool beer

A night in Salamanca

The next morning after messing around in the underground car park, we fixed the video camera to the front of my bike and set off out of Salamanca again along the N62 to the border between Spain and Portugal. Once in Portugal we headed towards the coast along the N17, then turned south along the N1 to the capital Lisbon. Again cool beers were the order of the day once we had arrived at our hotel.

In Lisbon the big question was who was going to try and smuggle a chicken into their hotel room without the night porter seeing.

Following a night of drinking, eating sea food and taking in the charms of the locality, I never knew how attractive Lisbon was, we headed south again, to Villamoura on the Algarve Coast.

John models the Harley Davidson Day & Night Sunglasses

The Four Seasons in Villamoura was to be our base for the next three nights, time to hang about around the pool watch MTV and drink yet more beer.

Then it was time to make the return trip, first back to Lisbon, then retracing our steps back to Salamanca and then 100 klms further to the city of Valladolid. We did not arrive here until very late, so after a few beers and a meal we were ready for bed. The next day we travelled to Palencia and then north along the N611 to Santander, where we caught the overnight ferry back to Plymouth and the next day rode back to Hockley Heath.