West Country

[Foxy]

Ok, not a long or particularly exotic trip, but seeing as we only realised a little while back that both of our passports had expired we made do with skitting around the West Country on my Tigger. It was a bit of a learning experience for both of us, for while we have both camped and toured lots we hadn't before done both on a bike. We spent the 14th packing, with no real plan of what to do or where to go - as is usual - just an idea to head west and a vague promise to drop in on some friends in north Devon. The first surprise was that we managed to get everything small enough to carry on the bike. Being used to camping with a car to carry everything not alot of our gear was particularly small. We managed to be brutal, but not too harsh on ourselves and everything fitted into two Touratech Zega panniers (35 & 41l), a Givi top box (41l) and a Baglux tankbag (about 25l). Our tent, an Outwell Black Hills 3 man tunnel tent got bungeed on top of one of the panniers.







The first night was spent at a campsite we have used a number of times before - the Old Oaks Touring Park just outside of Glastonbury. It has the beauty of being an adults only park, so delightfully free of screaming children. The fields are nicely landscaped and not too big or crowded which helps with the friendly, small site feel. The facilities are also excellent, being modern and well maintained. As well as toilets there are shower facilities - both in the toilet blocks and seperate family shower rooms - a hang over from before the site went adults only. These are great as they mean you get a chance to shower with your partner - which as well as having endless dirty possibilties means it's easier to share the toothpaste or shampoo. The site is located a short distance from the town centre (about a mile and a half) so it makes for a nice walk into Glastonbury to have a drink and chance your luck with getting bottled by a Somerset yokel. On our night there we settled for a couple of bottles of beer from a local supermarket. I really do like this site and can't help but recommend it.



The next morning was a leisurely lie in and breakfast, followed by packing up and heading off. I was determined to find out how much of a difference to my fuel consumption being so heavily loaded would make. Doing my sums at a petrol station on the outskirts of Glastonbury showed that it was roughly the same as around London solo - about 45-50 mpg. As it isn't unknown for me to run out anyway I'd made the effort to fit a two litre fuel can to the back of one of the panniers as an insurance policy. Thankfully it wasn't needed during the course of our trip. A quick conversation over our Autocom and we decided to visit the friends in Devon - a couple of miles outside of Combe Martin.



It was in one of their fields that we set up camp. Here we had somewhere safe to offload our luggage and use as a base to explore the surrounding area on two wheels. As ever we were grateful for the pannier bags that fit inside the Zega panniers - it makes unloading a much easier prospect as all you have to do is open the pannier and pull the bag out. I also found myself squirming the Tiger all over the place - and wishing I'd brought a pump rather than just CO2 cartridges so I could have let my tyres down a bit and enjoyed myself some more.







It was worth it for the cracking views from our tent though.







Over the next few days we had the pleasure of drifting around some of the absolutely gorgeous roads on and around Exmoor. I'm sure I could see an Exmoor scramble happen on some of the roads we found



Yes, this is a sheer drop the other side of this wall, which wasn't even as high as my knee. On a road strewn with damp gravel, which would have been barely wide enough for two bikes to pass on. Just my kind of ride







It was nevertheless worth it for views like this:







Mrs Foxy wasn't left out of the riding experience either - thankfully one of our friend's daughters is already a budding petrolhead at the age of nine. This meant we finally got to find a bike she can reach the floor on  :D







Needless to say I also indulged myself, and the only time I launched myself off it no one was looking. I have to say that I was impressed by how natural their daughter was on a bike. She's got an excellent sense of balance and immense enthusiasm. Ever willing to demonstrate her ability she even offered me a ride as pillion. I'm a nervous pillion at the best of times but after some gentle chastisement I was persuaded to get on the back. Even with my weight on the back of her little 90 she was still smooth and competent - I felt safer riding with her than I have done with some adult riders. After a delightful five days though we decided to carry on our way west. During our time there we had decided that we wanted a little extra capacity on the bike to make packing easier and had bought an Ortlieb dry bag to put our sleeping bags in so that they could be strapped to the top of the second pannier - the tent being strapped to the top of the other. Hey presto, it became a doddle to pack everything away. Mrs Foxy found it a little harder to clamber into her seat, but in return got a second armrest transforming her perch into an armchair. Envious, moi? Oh yes.



We left late so didn't want to go too far and decided to head for another campsite that we'd used before. The Harford Bridge campsite is located just outside Peter Tavy on the edge of Dartmoor. While there are still kids to put up with the pitches are nicely sized and the location is gorgeous - we were yet again lucky and got a pitch right next to the river.







Knowing that a passable pub was a short walk up the road we decided to relax for a bit and then head out for dinner and a few sherbets. Mrs Foxy amazed me by for the first time since I met her devouring a book in a matter of days.







After a borderline meal and some not particularly fresh ale at a pub that has gone too far for the food market without actually trying we headed back to the campsite. It absolutely widdled it down during the night, the only bad bit of weather we had all week. It was still raining and overcast when we woke up so a lie in beckoned. By ten it was brightening up and so we decided to do our best to dry the tent out and head out, back on the road.



With no real plan we decided just to head in the general direction of Launceston and then on towards Tintagel and Boscastle. After a brief lesson in Tintagel that Ginsters aren't the only shite Cornish makers of pasties we restocked with tobacco and headed down the road to Boscastle. We weren't too fussed about walking out to Tintagel Head as we've done it often enough before and both of us were keen to see how Boscastle had regenerated after last year's flood.



On our arrival we were both pleasantly surprised and mildly annoyed at how many more visitors there were to the village compared to our previous visits. Thanfully, dopey drivers aside, finding somewhere to park a bike was easy - I wouldn't have liked to try that feat in a car that day. Walking around it was painfully obvious that the village still bears many scars of last year's floods, but also that considerable effort had gone into rebuilding and regenerating some of what had been affected. Particularly telling were the lines painted on the walls here and there indicating how high the waters had risen.



No trip to Boscastle would be complete without a visit to the Witchcraft Museum. I particularly wanted to see how they had coped with the clean up. Thanks to alot of hard work and generous donations they have done a cracking job and while some rare exhibits have been damaged or destroyed there is still plenty to go "ooo" at.



After that it was time for tea and ciggies down by the harbour.







That night we stayed at the Headland Campsite in Tintagel. Not the nicest place we've stayed but not too disagreeable although the facilities were basic. It was all made up for by the modest but thoroughly welcome selection of pubs in the centre of Tintagel, where the beer was fresh and well tended and the music suitably cheesy.



The next morning was definitely a moment for a good breakfast and Mrs Foxy didn't disappoint. A muggy head meant we didn't get on the road until late but we had decided that we would head in the general direction of home to have a few days to potter before I had to get back to work. The New Forest beckoned so the Tiger was exercised in a chance to stretch it's legs on some fast roads.



Unfortunately our planning, or lack of it, let us down on our arrival in the New Forest. We wanted to stay as close to Lyndhurst as possible to eat at a cracking restaurant we know. Unfortunately the Tourist Information office was closed, and the map revealed only a couple of campsites in the immediate vicinity. A quick spin around them revealed them to be Forestry Commission campsites with no facilities. Having not packed for this sort of camping we decided to make a break for Salisbury to visit my parents and make use of Chutneys as I'd been missing my favourite Madras. Plus I knew there's be free beer on offer It's also great to lounge around in familiar surroundings in your pants.







We both hugely enjoyed our trip, and got a chance to learn some lessons for the future. Before we'd even left we'd both realised what a challenge it would be to load a bike with everything we'd need for up to two weeks, and for once also camping gear. We managed to get by with one pannier each for clothing, toiletries and other bits and pieces. Initially we squished the sleeping bags in there too, but decided to move these into an Ortieb dry bag and strap this to the top of the panniers to free up some more space for goodies. A top box sufficed for our cooking gear and our much appreciated Therm-a-rest sleeping mats with room left over for a hefty lock and food. We'd already had to cut down on our cooking gear as it was, although we still had plenty enough to get by. What we suffered on was little bits and pieces - condiments and useful bits like mustard, oil, curry powder and such like. Our stove could also have been improved on. Currently we have two Camping Gaz type blueys which are nice & cheap & easy to get canisters for. But they are bulky and not particularly stable with a pot full of water perched on top. On our shopping list is a decent multi fuel stove - MSR or similar that will fit in the middle of our alloy pots & pans and will also run on petrol. We could have also been a bit more organised with our packing so I am on the look out for some small stuff sacks to use to put clothing in - especially dirty laundry. The Zega bags were very useful though - fitting the panniers exactly and meaning they could be emptied easily.



Our electrical gizmoes were fantastic, but recharging became troublesome as we didn't have all the right adaptors. I am currently working on making a universal adaptor lead that will allow me to charge phones, iPods and rechargeable batteries from the 12v socket on the Tiger. This also allows me to run a 12v compressor that I picked up on our way - alot easier that using a pump and saves tucking into my puncture repair kit for CO2 cartridges. If I'd had this earlier in the trip I would have been happy to lower my tyre pressures and enjoyed myself off road some more. On the puncture front I only discovered on my return that I hadn't actually packed any tyre levers, so it would have been a call out from the RAC if I had suffered a puncture.



Other than that I had packed for every breakdown eventuality I have suffered from before - spare cable pack, siphon tubing, spare chain links, two litre can of spare petrol and a small selection of hand tools to back up the Tiger's own tool kit. Thankfully none of it was needed.



The Tiger itself performed flawlessly with everything from hacking around with two people and loads of luggage at three figure speeds to lugging us both about on obscenely steep and twisty Exmoor back roads where the tacho never got above 2000 and third gear seemed like a forgotten luxury. Even fully loaded the Tiger would still get to about 115mph before getting into a bit of a weave - not a bad feat considering it had been liberally loaded with large and very unaerodynamic aluminium boxes. Fuel consumption suffered but was still bearable - about 45-50mpg although this dropped to about 40 when exploring said roads around Exmoor, even though we were only carrying lightly loaded panniers.



About the only thing I'd change would be the fork springs - my bike is a 99 model, which had bouncy enough fork springs when new. After nearly 40,000 miles things haven't improved and I've already convinced Mrs Foxy that some WP fork springs and possibly cartridge emulators would be a worthwhile investment.



I wish we had also done a little more planning about where we were heading so that we could have picked out places we would want to stay in advance rather than hoping and praying. Thankfully we didn't suffer too badly from our hope & pray approach - the only time we were at a bit of a loss to find anywhere we were only about 20 miles from my parents and decided to head there instead. Some better maps would also have benefitted our exploration of some areas. As it was I just had a compact UK road atlas with us when I could have done with a selection of 1:50 thou Landranger maps as well.



Not a bad trip though, and we know now where we had problems and what to adjust for the next time.

[BigDave]

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BD