The beginning
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008The first two days have flashed by and we are now in Toulouse. While here we’re going to take two days out to spend time with friends before hitting Andorra for a few days of boarding.
The beginning has been fun but not without its own dramas. Thus far Jeremy, while filtering, was T-Boned by a modped rider in London (what a great start). Thankfully both riders and bikes survived intact and without insult or injury.
I ran out of fuel not once but twice. My carb is leaking again and my bike’s fuel indicator is broken meaning I don’t receive any indication that I’m running low or empty. Embarrassingly I called the AA as I didn’t think it was a fuel problem. The AA guy just flipped my reserve switch! I looked and felt so silly. The only indication I get is my bike completely loses its power while I’m riding. This is not a great feeling when you’re on the speed lane of a motorway or on Paris’ peripherique, there is no breakdown lane. On both occasions Jeremy was on front which resulted in us losing each other and a lot of long and drawn out faffing around in order to find each other again.
We’ve now come 1100 kilometers down. That’s half of the European leg! Yipeee! We’ve decided we’ll take the east coast of Spain down to Gibralter as opposed to going around the north and west coasts of Spain and then on through Portugal.
Along the way we’ve met quite a few really cool people. A total stranger pulled up on the motorway to see if I needed any help. He was also a biker. The guy, Joe, waited around chatting with me until I was totally sorted out. We also had an old French man and his wife who helped me pick up my bike after it had fallen. Again not once but twice. I don’t believe in ones. The current fallen bike score is Keith 4 Jeremy 2.
