I won’t tour with friends again ! Part2/2 touring France and Spain

I won’t tour with friends again ! Part2/2 touring France and Spain . The most disappointing part of this tour was not the fact that I had to leave and travel 1050 miles solo from Spain to the Uk,it was the abuse I got afterwards. Abused on Facebook by the people I went on tour with and worse, one of their mrs started to write abuse on Facebook and a quite a few different YouTube videos. It would have been more but I blocked her. I was accused of sneaking out in the morning. Even though I told them I was getting up at 6am and leaving. I have been called embarrassing because I made it public what they did. I have been called all sorts and all I am guilty of is wanting to be home at the time we had arranged to be home. I would never have gone on this tour if I had known this was there plan and I will definitely never tour with them again. I’m done with group tours. #solotouring #solotour #tour #motorcycletours #motorcycletouring #biketour #billynomates #nofriends #motorcycle #motorbike #motorbikeriding #yamaha #niken #france #spain #francetour #motorcycleinfrance #tollroad #tollroads #avoidtollroads #worstmotorcycletour #worsttour #bikelife #biker #bikelover #bikeride #adventurebike #adventure #adventuremotorcycle #leshuttle #directferries #dovertocalais #automobile
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Well, it’s all gone to That’s got to be the best way to put it. I think on the border of Spain, we are miles from home. I think it it probably about 1,000 miles from home. And um while we’re getting something to eat last night, the boys that I’m touring with dropped the bombshell that they don’t fancy riding home in 2 days. They want it to last longer. Um, and they want it to take longer and I can’t afford that because I’ve got commitments. I’ve got work commitments. I’ve got child care commitments. So, that’s just not an option for me. I’ve got to be back in 2 days. So, I’ve kind of got no option really. I said, I’m going to have to leave. I’m going to have to go on my own then. And then a couple of them said, “Well, no, I’m not going to let you go on your own. We’ll come with you. We’ll, you know, we’ll we’ll do it. We’ll power through.” Okay, Verdos. I said, you know, really, if it’s not what you want, don’t don’t bother. I’ll be fine. All that stuff. But they were pretty insistent. They want me to come. So, we had something to eat. I went to the cash machine to get some more money out. And as I come back, we rode back to the place where we’re staying, this place. Now, as I got back in and I’m sitting down, I’m thinking, right, I’m going to have to have an early night. We’re going to have to set off early. All I could hear was all of them planning a trip where they were leaving here and going across France, the opposite direction, going into Germany and going then into Belgium and coming round. And I’m thinking that’s not taking shorter days, that’s doing a longer journey and getting more countries and all that stuff. So basically long and short of it is I’m going up France. All of them as a group are going across France. I am going to uh get going really. I’ve got a long day ahead of me. I’ve got to make my way back to the ferry. So yeah, I will be doing a lot of moaning and has it put me off touring with groups again. I’ve not made my mind up on that. We’re going to see how today goes. But uh at the minute, yeah, I am a little bit pissed off really. Yeah. Um but yeah, it’s turned into a solo tour. Let’s go. There’s their bikes who are now dead to me. They’re dead to me than Sophie sprocket. And after she fed me off at the ABR, that’s very dead to me. Anyway, that’s another story. Um, no, do you know what? I am I am a bit pissed off and thinking about it, I think. In fact, no. I know if this would have been the only option um when this tour was brought up when we were arranging it, um I wouldn’t have come. I would have just rather stayed at home or planned a different tour for myself. I don’t mind riding on my own. I do mo probably most of my riding on my own, but I’d come on this to uh tour with mates and yeah, I’m not. It’s uh yeah, it it’s a bit disappointing. You can probably tell in my voice I’m a bit I wouldn’t even say annoyed with it at this point. I’m just a bit upset over it all cuz you come on a a lad’s trip, don’t you? To go away with the lads and then especially when you get in. No, we’re not going to let you ride on your own. It’s No, no, no one gets left behind and then you’re here. So, what we’ll do is we’ll cut across France and we’ll go to this place and then we’ll cut into Germany and go there. Then we’ll go down from the into Belgium. And then it’s like the whole reason for not wanting to do long days has turned into them planning long days just in a different direction. So yeah, it’s it’s just a a massive cake for me. But you know, it is what it is. I know that they aren’t ready to come home yet and they want to carry on having extra days and I’d have had more respect for them if they’d have just said that. I actually would have. There’s going to be lots of winging and moaning from me on this ride back. I’ll try and keep it to a minimum but I like I say I am just I’m a bit disappointed in you know the situation because now I mean I would estimate that even with like not stopping well in fact my sat nav’s telling me even without stopping um and just doing the speed limit to the max constantly it’s going to take 8 hours. And anybody who’s ridden a motorbike knows you can’t ride a bike for 8 hours even well you just can’t not without stopping. You need I’ll probably need at least I don’t know maybe three maybe four fuel stops in that as well because the Nikon will only do about 150 milesish off a full tank of fuel. So, I’m going to need to do quite a few fuel stops. I’m going to need to have a couple of coffee breaks. I’m going to need to have a couple of leg stretches. So, 8 hours is not going to be the actual amount of time it takes me to get home. It’s just not. Yeah. Quite funny actually. Um, when I think about like this ride back now, you see the lads quite often moan about leading a group. Um, and they do they they moan quite a bit about leading a group and they say, well, they don’t really know these roads and they’re not really comfortable on these roads and they’ve they’ve not done much riding on these roads. And I’m thinking, I’ve got to do it all on my own. I haven’t got anyone to talk to. I haven’t got anyone to kind of have a laugh and banter with on the way back. I’m doing it completely solo now. And a lot of it is going to be well, most of it is going to be boring. This has been the worst tour I’ve done. Now, I’ll give you some context to it because, you know, I have not had a good time. So, it’s a bit like backward me saying that because the riding itself has it has been basically all this if I’m honest. There has been a lot of windy motorway riding, not seeing anything at all. And that that is kind of being how these journeys have been going. So, you’re not really seeing fronts, you’re just seeing the motorways of France. So visually the rides have been a bit They have. And apologies for twering. I just think that they have. France is a beautiful country. I know because I’ve ridden through it many a time and I’ve enjoyed riding through it many a time. But when you’re when you just stick into these cold roads, it’s boring. Where this tour has been fun and where this tour has been nice and I’ve had a nice time and I’ve had a good laugh and everything else has been like the evenings after we’ve done our riding for the day. We have um we’ve had some drinks, you know. We’ve we’ve had a laugh. We’ve gone out for meals. We’ve we’ve done what lads do. I actually really enjoyed spending time with the lads like that. Not so much the riding on this trip to be honest because a lot of the time there just a lot of bickering, winging, and moaning. There was I’ll explain that after I’ve done this toll tolls. Yes, there has been a lot of winging and moaning because of the long riding days. Everyone’s getting tired. Everyone’s getting annoyed. Everyone’s just bickering with each other. Everyone’s just moaning about, you know, everything. And it could be everything. It could be you’re not going fast enough. It could be you’re going too fast. It could be why you in that lane. It could be my satnav saying go this way. Why are we going that way? It could be just people biting at people because they’ve lost someone because of traffic. It could be because well just a you know everyone just getting ratty is what I’m getting at. Everyone’s just moaning at everyone else and it just that makes the riding experience even worse for me because I’ve always enjoyed this part of touring. I’ve always enjoyed riding through the little towns and villages and stopping for a coffee and a cake in some random French place and just enjoying and living in that moment. And with this, it’s kind of being the opposite to that. It’s the only real stops that you make is on the services. What I’m getting at is you’re kind of just very limited to your whole experience of riding through France. And like like now while I’m boring you all with my experience, if you look at these roads that I’m on, this is kind of my day. This is all I’m going to be doing today is I’m going to be riding these roads like this. all day. This isn’t an adventure. This isn’t an experience. This is motorway riding. Spending a fortune on fuel to just ride some more motorway miles. Oh, I don’t even think these are switched on. Are these switched on? I don’t think they are. Well, that’s dog Well, I didn’t think about that when I set off this morning. The service is not being open. It’s that Tutter dog Bastarding toll. toll after toll after toll. And this is the worst thing about tolls. I don’t mind being on a toll road. Well, I do. I hate tall roads, but I hate them less when you’re on them for like, I don’t know, 50 miles, 100 miles. I hate them less then because at least then you’ve got some distance done. These ones in the southern part of France and into Spain, but they are dog because you literally do about Well, how long? I think I’ve just done about five mile maybe on the last one or less than that. And it’s just cost me £3. £3 to do 5 miles. And the one before that was about 1 mile or 1 and a half mile. And that one was 180. for Oh, and I can already see on the sat now it’s 8 miles to my next toll. How exciting. I’m on my second fuel fill up. I’ve done a couple of hundred miles and I’ve just had to stop. I needed a bit of energy. So, Red Bull and I’ve stopped for breakfast as well. I’ve been riding now for about four 4 hours, 4 and 1/2 hours, something like that. Still loads to go. Oh, it is a nightmare though. Trying to ride for hundreds and hundreds of miles on your own with no entertainment is killing me. So, I’m going to I think I’m going to put the radio on my cardo. So, I’m going to listen to some music. I don’t normally ride listening to music, but I think I need something to just occupy my mind. Otherwise, I’m just getting more and more annoyed, frustrated, having to do a,000 miles on my own. Yeah, never again. Breakfast. And breakfast is of course cuz I’m still in France. It’s a panel chocolate. And I know it’s not the healthiest breakfast in the world, but it’s all I’ve got. Yeah, the diet’s not been great on this holiday. Only about 800 miles to go. It’s going to be a long day. Always, always a dilemma. And the current one is I’ve just booked and paid for the ferry and instantly it’s cancelled it. So it’s basically said that um there was an issue with the internet or an issue with the connection and that uh payment will be returned to me in two to three working days direct fairies. Thank you very much. Um and I was already struggling for funds cuz this was supposed to be on a shoestring. So now I haven’t got enough in the bank to actually pay for another ferry. So, I’ve had to book the Euro tunnel, which is about £80 cheaper, and it’s added 100 miles to my journey. Brilliant. E. So, yeah, I’ve got an even longer journey to do now. Just makes me more pissed off with the whole situation. Get to enjoy more toll roads, don’t I? tell you I heard someone say France is the biggest country of f all and I kind of agree if you use toll roads if you don’t use toll roads brilliant but if you do awful awful boring place it’s petrol station stop number three I’m about 450 miles in and it’s in the mid afternoon it is 28° it is bloody roasting And yeah, I’ve stopped. Me backside’s killing me. I’ve still got, according to the satnav, about 320 miles to go. This is a long ass day. It’s Yeah, it’s awful. But at least it’s not raining. The weather’s lovely, and when I’m riding, it’s nice and cool. So, every cloud and all that. I am just a hot, sweaty mess, though. Just feels like I’ve got so far to go and it’s all boring motorway and I’m already about 40 down in tolls. I hate to. And this is what a few hours on the toll roads looks like. absolutely bashed with flies, bugs, everything. So, I’m going in the services to give it a wash. Another coffee stop. I’m losing track now. Um, that’s got to be fuel stop number four or number five or something. I don’t know. What I do know is I’m bloody sore. really really sore. The bike’s doing well though. I’m not I’m just in pain and I’m at least another 2 hours of getting where I need to be. So, chocolate cappuccino in hand. And yeah, I just need to uh get this down me and then carry on. But I’m just I’m not rushing. I’m gonna give myself a good half an hour off the bike. I’ve got plenty of time. This has been the longest day of my life. Thankfully, that’s the last fuel stop in France because I am now about 10 miles away from the shuttle. I just thought it made more sense to get the last fuel stop here in France. Can’t even speak. Um, it’s been a hell of a day. So, the time is now quart 9 in the evening. I started my ride at 6:30. So, uh, yeah, from 6:30 in the morning to4 9 in the evening, I probably will get there, oh, maybe 15 minutes. So, it’ll probably be about half 9 actually. That that makes maths easy. So, yeah, from 6:30 in the morning to 9:30 in the evening. That is Oh god. Is that really 15 hours? 15 hours worth of riding. That is ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, bear in mind I I’ve stopped for lunch. I stopped for about maybe 25 minutes or something. Nothing more than that. And I’ve stopped now I think I think it’s six times for fuel and twice twice of those stops or twice I’ see I can’t even talk. 15 hours on a bike is too long. Two of those stops that I did for fuel were flashing empty lights and I was really pushing my luck including that last one. It was flashing empty for 13 miles. So yeah, I was panicking a little bit. I wasn’t quite sure um if I was going to make it, but So €150 on fuel and €80 on toll. So €230 today has cost me. The train is cost uh I think the cheapest I got it was €9. No, tell a lie. It wasn’t. It was €80. And I can’t stop yawning cuz I’m literally broken now. I’ve had enough. The whole thing is just an utter waste of money. Right, that’s the check in. I have what I need. What’s the next bit? I can’t remember now. This place is a bloody maze. Dong your booger. I have arrived. Oh, picnic area. Need to find somewhere now to have a little relax. I think I’ll go inside and have a look. I have now landed at the Euro Tunnel and yeah, I’m I’m knackered. I need to get some sleep. But before I do, I have got myself some Burger King chips. I’ve got my bike stuff there at the side of me. I’ve tried to find a comfortable chair to actually relax on. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some sleep cuz I need a few hours before I do the English leg. I hope so. Otherwise, uh I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t ride another 5 hours in the UK. I’ve now got no money left. I’m tired. I’m sore. And I’ve still got 5 hours to ride home on me own. So, yeah, it’s a solo journey. Never again. And so the endless cues of border control. Anyway, um I’m a bit more awake now. Right, that’s border control done. I’ve done the English side. I’ve done the French side. Passports been stamped and checked and all that stuff. Yeah. Now it’s just make my way to the train. So yeah, just a quick recap and apologies if this video seems a bit kind of downbeat, but it is one of those. I think I went on this tour kind of forced myself to go because I was going with mates and I have been like really really really down recently. I couldn’t really afford to go on this trip, but I told friends I was going. I was feeling bad for not going. They were kind of I won’t say putting pressure on me, but they they were kind of making me feel bad for saying I I couldn’t go and they were offering, you know, to help me out and stuff. And I didn’t want any handouts. I wanted to, you know, go by my own means or not go at all. And um Oh, what’s this vehicle checking nonsense? Morning. Yep. All right. Lane number two, please. On the left. Number two. Thank you. Thank you. Oh yeah. So, um Oh, but I’ve completely lost where I was going. Yeah. So, um, it was just a little bit like I thought I I do feel like I’ I forced myself to go and it was always going to be on a tight budget and yeah, this trip has been much more expensive than I thought it was going to be. Um, certainly because I didn’t really factor in the toll roads. I thought I was going to be filling up fuel quite a lot and I have been. I mean, just the last day alone, I filled up five times. And yeah, I’ve got a little bit of fuel, but no doubt I’m going to have to fill up once, maybe twice to do the England leg as well. So, I mean, I I really am like, well, I’m I haven’t got a lot of money left. I don’t get paid for a couple of days. So, yeah, I haven’t got long to wait. But it has kind of left me with nothing. So when I had all of the issues early doors when I booked the ferry yesterday and I paid for the ferry yesterday with direct feries and I got me booking reference number by email and then a few minutes later I got a cancellation email from direct ferry saying that there had been an issue and either they couldn’t connect to the service provider that in PNO feries or somebody else booked the ticket at the same time or there was an online issue or they basically come up with loads of different issues but ultimately it just said that I was going to be refunded. Fair enough. Going to be refunded. I’ll book again. But before I did, I checked my bank and the money had gone out but it hadn’t come back in. and it it said refunds can happen um within two days. So I lost it was about 160 something pound I think it was. So that disappeared straight away and I’m thinking yeah I’m going to get it back. But I didn’t have a lot of spare money to do that. So what I decided to do was like a bit of a hope and a prayer really. It was I jumped back on the bike because I only booked a ferry midjourney. So I jumped back on the bike. I still had about 6 hours riding to do. So I rode for another hour and a half maybe till the next fuel stop. Got to the next fuel stop and check my bank again and the money still hadn’t gone in. So, because the money hadn’t gone in still, um, yeah, I couldn’t afford to do it again. Being attacked by a wasp. Yeah, couldn’t afford to do it again. So, what I did was um I looked for an alternative and the only alternative I actually had Oh god, this bloody wasp. I hate wasps. Yeah, the only alternative I actually had was to do something cheaper. So, I thought if I did the train, I could book it a little bit later, I could go into the like the terminal bit and actually have a sleep for a couple of hours so I was refreshed to ride. And that was me thinking really. So, I booked it with plenty of time. I actually booked it for 20 7 in the morning which meant I had about 10 hours spare time. So I didn’t rush the journey. Yeah, I got here with 8 hours like wait really. Could have jumped on the train straight away but that would have meant me getting to England and I still wouldn’t have had a sleep. So I would have needed a sleep. There’s no way I could have traveled for 20 odd hours on my motorcycle. That would have just done my head in. And yeah, I wouldn’t have been capable of it. I kept the original time, stayed, I had a nice little sleep. Um, probably had about 5 hours to be fair after I’ve had some food and a drink and a walk around and whatnot. But I’ve had about 5 hours sleep. got up, had a coffee and then yeah, call for my train and then you just in cues you just go through French border patrol then you go through England border patrol [Music] a,000 solo miles. I’ll follow him. Yeah. So, um it’s it’s just been boring. Do you know what I mean? The the whole riding on this tour has been boring. It has. It’s been just motorways, toll roads, not really seen anything. I’ve not really enjoyed the riding side of it. And that for me is really, really because that’s what I do the tours for. I do the tours to enjoy the roads to see some sites to, you know, go the local cafes to to do all of those things that you don’t normally do in the UK to to see amazing things, the views, the the sites, everything. And I’ve not seen anything. Do you know what I mean? I haven’t seen anything. I’ve seen motorways and that’s all. I mean, if I think one day we actually went out and did some local rides. We did a town ride. Um, and that was the only day where I saw some local life really. Other than that, it’s just being motorway. Oh. Yeah. So, it has been just a little bit crap. I’m on the train and the train is always noisy. The train is always Oh, look at that hair. My god. Um, yeah. This is what 15 hours worth of riding and 5 hours sleep in a ferry terminal or train terminal bus here. So, uh, yeah, the journey is over. Well, I’m saying it’s over. The journey across Europe is over. We’re heading into the UK. We’re on the spraying. In fact, let me find a window. There’s my last view of France. Yeah, very picturesque, isn’t it? In fact, it’s probably more picturesque than the tall roads I’ve been on all day and all night. So, yeah, it’s uh it’s over. and and the whole experience has just made me think I’m not going to do a tour like that again. I just I can’t do it. Can’t do it. It costs a lot of money. It means yeah, financially I can’t afford to do it. And the fact that, you know, I’ve been left to just go home on me own. And I know people are going to call me. I’ll be called a I’ll be called, I’m sure, loads of different things because, you know, people do tour Europe on their own and they do and I’d be quite happy to do it on my own. But if I did it on my own, I would actually have a plan. I would go to places. I would go and stop off at places. I would talk I would actually see a bit of the area. What I wouldn’t do is go, I’m going to spend 15 hours on a toll road and just get out of there because I need to get home. And that’s the thing. That’s what I’m about. It’s not the fact that I’m doing it on my own cuz I’m I’m an adult. I’m not a baby. I just don’t like the fact that I’ve wasted a full day of of just boring nothing. Yeah, it was just a bit nap. Oh. Anyway, um, enough complaining. That’s going to be me for tours. I think it’s going to be bike reviews and nothing else. This is going to be the end of my tour. I’m still traveling, but it’s just boring motorway. I’m back in the UK. I’ve still got about 150 miles to go to get home. But I stand by what I said at the end of um the first part. And that is that if I knew at the start of this tour that I was going to end up riding all of that way home by myself and just doing tolls and yeah, basically suffering with pain and it costing a fortune to see nothing, then I 100% would not have gone. And given this has happened, I I kind of don’t want it to happen again. So, I’m not going to be doing any motorcycle tours with friends next year. I’m not cuz I Yeah, I I couldn’t trust them for this not to happen again. So, I’m just not going to do it. I might do a solo tour maybe, but at least then I can plan for it and do everything that I need. So, yeah. Sorry this one’s being a bit of a downer, but I have been a bit miserable. I’m in pain. I’m ratty. I’m tired. And I just want to share the experience with you so you can see how I’ve suffered. Um because I really have I’m in agony and I’ve still got probably about 2 and 1/2 hours to get home. So yeah, still a bit of stuff ahead of me, but it’s all motorway and you don’t want to see that. Thanks for watching. Hopefully I’ll be happier, more energy and yeah, just those things. If I’m happier with more energy, we’re off to a good start. But I will catch you guys on the next one, probably for a bike review. Let’s hope. See you later. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]