Fuengirola, European H.O.G. Rally 2007

I've been to a lot, and I've missed out on a lot but 2007 see's me and my trusty tail gunner, Jono, heading out for a European Rally.  Having been a H.O.G. active member for 14 years Jono and I had got out of the habit of making the annual pilgrimage to the Euro HOG Rally and this year we are determined to set the trend back into action.  Fuengirola is a nice run from South Shields with many route options begging to be explored, the only given as I start this report in March '07 is that we intend to make use of the Euro Tunnel for our sea crossing from this sceptred isle of ours.  Two reasons, firstly my penchant for Mal de Mere and secondly by using the tunnel we are never far from a road and our new CVO Glide, and after all its what HOG is all about Riding and Having Fun.

June 17th, Sunday and Fathers Day, well I completed the Boundary 500 on my Buell and on Sunday morning got up at 6am, spent an hour on breakfast, newsagent and personal ablutions then started to pack the Glide, using our trusted packing list that had been honed after many tours and by 8am we were packed, set and ready to roll as we were burning daylight!

Jono at the ferry in Dover with the White cliffs as a backdrop

At last Food and all is well in the World

The first daygot us as far as Rouen and the last two hours were in torrential rain, that even penetrated the FXFG jacket and pants and we were cold wet when our blue tooth cell phobe rang with a chirpy Greg who was now well into Spain.  The cell phone even worked in a long tunnel and Greg soon had us cheered up and back in the grove so I took the next exit and things turned from good to better; at the exit ramp end was an Ibis, Nirvana. There were loads of bikes and some very tasty cars in the car park all on the way back from the World famous 24 hour LeMans race, but we were going against the tide of tasty cars.  Nirvana was nearly spoilt by the news that the restaurant was closing and we were starving but as you can see from the above photo we overcame and were soon tucking into two steaks!   Mexican, Californian, French waiter took a shine to Jono's t.shirt but Jono and I were too busy with our delicious food to care about his shinanigans!

We woke to a lighter rain than the previous day and set course for Columbiers du Plessis (harder to say than find) to see my old school chum Peter Busby and his wife Lillian who had decided to take early retirement from British Airways for the good life in France, and a fantastic start they had made in the three months they had been there.  The property has loads of outbuildings and oodles of character, and they have the rest of their lives to fettle the place to their spin on home.  Jono and I had a brilliant welcome from our two good friends and were soon seated at the significant kitchen table with good Yorkshire Tea and the finest French Fayre.  The swimming pool looked very inviting to Jono but once more we were burning daylight.  On leaving this little piece of Heaven the gauges on the Glide were not working, no speedo, no tacho, no odometer, no neutral light - you get the picture, just a blank canvas of zero information; what to do?  I had a quick look at the Instrument Fuse that looked OK and decided as we had been burning so much daylight to head on using the Zumo as our only information input.  It proved to work just fine but if I were to win the Chapter Iron Butt award I could not afford to do a 3/4000 mile Euro tour without the odometer working, now could I!

Buzz's back garden

And to think I nearly came without tools, don't think this will ever happen however light I want the bike to be as always something happens to need fettling

So at the first Aire de whatever we stopped and had a proper look.  Out with the electrical tester, more for show than knowledge of what to do with it, off with the seat for more dramatic effect, a bit of a pull around with the various wires and hey presto all the instruments burst back into life!  Marvellous what a bit of fettling can do.

We arrived close to La Rochelle and got a good billet in a Campanile and time for a massive belly laugh, well you need a belly laugh at least on a daily basis for good health and this one was at the expense of Jono's Nike shoe.  He'd secured his shower gel in said shoe only for it to burst in transit and fill his shoe with shower gel.  We'd cleaned, rinsed and dried it in Rouen and on its first outing to tonight's meal it erupted in foam once more!

Poor lad, so one more rinse and we shall see what the foaming characteristics of Nike plus Lynx shower gel is when incorporated with one sweaty foot!

Today's focus was to revisit the Harley Dealer in Bordeaux, so we set off on the small roads and enjoyed the bright morning.  It is surprising how the Sun can lift your riding spirits.  Arriving at HD Bordeaux at just after midday was a mistake as everything closes for two hours when a Frenchman takes lunch.  We did see two other CVO Glides with the same paint as me though!  So ever onwards South to Spain.

Taking the Peage roads may at times be boring but you do cover the kilometres.  Skirting the East side of Andorra we went through a 5km tunnel which was like riding in a fridge after the heat of the day; we both wanted to stay in there.  At the South end of the tunnel we re-created the photo of my Daughter Natalie, our FXRT when we were on the way to the Euro HOG rally in Casteleon back in about 1997; this time it was my son Jono, my CVO Glide and on the way to the HOG Euro Rally in Fuengirola in 2007.

Arriving at the Parador Cardona, Castell de Cardona, is an awe inspiring view, it sits high on a mound overlooking the region, had a splendid local meal too, perfecto.  We had one of the newer rooms in the extension built in 1517, there had been a building here since 200AD. so you see why I say our room was in the newer part.  I took a shot of the Parador that I will use as my MTF photo of the month.

Late start and we were soon down from the hills and on the Autovia del Mediterraneo and making good progress.  We started to see our brother HOG members, a group of three Safety Officers of the Marseille Chapter then two larger Italian groups, Gerona and West Coast Chapter, all very friendly and impressed with Jono and my journey of 2,400km so far, but of course we will not be the furthest ridden to Fuengirola as someone will always have travelled further; but no matter Jono and I had been having a cool time.

We used the Bluetooth cell phone to while away the miles to our fellow Long Distance riders, Bev, Jon and Greg; we had a text conversation the previous evening with Mick.  Joe and Julie were way ahead of us now, stopping overnight in Malaga.  We changed our Parador Puerto Lumbreras booking for Parador de Nerja, much closer to our goal in Fuengirola where we will be Friday am for the start of the festivities.

Had an early start from Hotel Solymar and breakfasted on the road, about 400 miles later and we were in our second Parador of the trip, Nerja, it is yet another good one.  Not had a bad Parador yet but was warned off from Lumbreras by a fellow biker due to noisy environment but cannot comment as we cancelled our reservation on the strength of that input and rescheduled to Nerja and it was a good move.  All day on the Autovia del Mediterraneo.  If you wanted to see what happens when people drive too fast too close then this is the place to observe, we saw three rear end shunts in three hundred miles so if you want to witness the same then this is the road, about an average of a crash every hundred miles; no joking they ask for it, I was leaving breaking distance for two as always any following vehicle appeared to be pulled by an invisible magnet on my rear fender, if looks could kill then there would be a few dead Spaniards littering our wake!

To the Rally, the purpose of our ride, cell calls and locations sorted the clans were gathering.  £50 for a rally ticket is so typical of the Motor Company, why is Faak free?  How can Chapters do 1,000 people rallies and make money at half the £50 HOG charge?  Is it me or are HOG taking the piss out of their captive audience;  8,000 Harleys doing an average of 1,000 miles gives a lot of service dollars to someone.  Perhaps I'm getting cynical in my old age but £42 annual membership of HOG, about £12 for Chapter membership then £50 for a Rally pack costing no more than £5 and copy band turns that we'd probably not book for the Heart 'n' Soul and we made over £10,000 last year.  So should a European Rally be a profit making event?  Should it break even?  Should we expect more from our club?  Best not to ask, just pay for what you want to be involved in, after all who are the guys who pay £23,000 for CVO Glides then about another £2,000 to make 'em go the way you'd think a 2 litre motor should!

I had a great time, for me the 7,000 km round trip and the renewing acquaintances, making new ones and generally having a ball, we had a fantastic chapter turn out and some of them even made it for the Chapter Rally Photo:

 I wanted to do a reconnoitre for my European Top to Bottom so Jono and I rode the full length of the Autovia del Mediterraneo to Tarifa, billed as the Bottom of Europe, also the wind centre of Europe, and I ain't talking farts!  There were more wind turbines here than we'd ever seen and the beaches were full of kite powered fun and the sea like Central Station for wind surfers.  We could not get the last 100 metres or so as this was a Military area, very disappointing for next year when you can stand on the very top of Europe at Nordkap but have to put up with the iron gates of a Military base at the bottom!  But the Zumo said we were at the bottom and that will do for me and hopefully Mike Kneebone of the Iron Butt Association.

Zafra was the Parador of choice and unfortunately it was not in my Zumo but being a small place we were soon in the pool relaxing away the heat of the day.

Zafra just kept getting better and better, right outside the Parador a stage was set up and chairs for about two hundred people whom were treat to a free show and in the Grand Plaza there was a medieval market in full swing, birds of prey flying around the plaza, animals of all kinds, donkey rides and every assortment of stall imaginable in a 14th Centaury market, which was the year when our Parador was built.  Not sure why but the WiFi was not operational, is that not a dichotomy in that our building has stood on this spot for six hundred years and still they cannot get a good internet connection in the room!

Ciudad Rodrigo is a very funny name for a town for a Geordie lad but about 180 miles North of Zafra and today we were riding with our long time buddy Nige 'A Pass Too Far' Collis and Jan.  Nige had got his nick name by his love of Mountain Passes.  This love would mean he would take obscure routes to destinations just to traverse a Pass, even been known to go up a pass to the top just to turn around and come back down!  But today there were no passes for Nige just fantastic quiet country roads where our bikes could do what they were built for Cruise!

L to R: Jono, Me, Nige and Jan on a wonderful ride (photo by Nige on timer)

Cuidad Rodrigo Parador

Once I turn North the call of home cannot be ignored, but we had one more night on our Cincos Notches Tariff and the most Northerly Parador is Hondarribia, very close to San Sebastian.  Just before our turning for Hondarribia there is HD Cheyenne in Anoeta where Graham and I had called in last year just before his Road King Expired!  It is where I got the extra safe blind spot mirrors; and they remembered me!

In the 14th centaury the Parador at Hondarribia had been a fortress and it stands on an inlet with France just over the water.  Jen and I stayed here last year so I knew the lie of the land therefore Jono and I were soon feed and watered and in the arms of Morpeheus.

Now the run through France our first stop was HD Bordeaux where I got the new FXRG jacket to replace my leaky one.  I went for the new version with orange piping and I'm still not sure if this was a good choice only time and a wet ride will tell.  Motoring north with home beaconing we made excellent progress.  One thing about Jono he can take the miles and with a HD dealer stop we manage 671 today.  Last room in the Calais Hilton was secured, in fact last suite, Jono had his own room attached to mine; I threatened him that he had to pay but in the morning I relented and completed a full house by paying for all our trips accommodation.

Channel ferries have joined all the others in that I had to pay the same again because we were a day early; any way they can recoup monies due to the very competitive nature of Channel crossing, mind paying the extra was still cheaper than the Tunnel cost and it saved another overnight bill, and so to Blighty and a fast run North with only fuel stops and home for tea.

Excellent ride there, excellent bon hommie with our HOG friends and an excellent ride back; I still think HOG do not offer good value but did like the trip and event and of course will come again.

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