UK Ireland motorbike trip [Aug 21-28 2022] - part 1

Since the days of my motorbike trip in India, I yearned for doing the same in Europe & finally my dreams came true, although it was short-lived. Read on to more.

If you are here first time & dont know about my pan India (actually just half - south to north) solo motorbike trip, you can read it here . The entire collection of 44 day roadtrip is here

Some background first. I left my facebook job in Jan 2022 & decided to do a Europe roadtrip before picking the next job. I bought an old car for the same which broke down in Paris first & eventually in Belgium, but nonetheless I had decent bit of fun as I ended up flying to Balkans, hiring a car there, got harassed by Serbian customs folks at border crossing, dented the car’s bumper, got it repaired in a place in Croatia as I dint have insurance, sneakingly parked my repaired car in Bordeaux university campus over the weekend for free as I had to fly to Porto & back, camped in France, exited Swiss border ASAP when I discovered Geneva was freaking expensive & fell in love in Luxembourg city which I believe is the most underrated city in western Europe. Not to mention, wife made weekend trips & we had good time together in Paris, Porto & Amsterdam. Created a separate category for the travelogue which I never got to complete but hopefully it would happen someday.

Once I got back from the trip, I joined Codility & got laid off in July & I figured that the rest time is an opportunity to do more travel. After about a month of pondering what to do, wife & I decided that we will go back to India as wife’s project was suppose to get over by Sep 2022 (we still had valid visa till Feb 2023). I figured time is short & I need to live all my dreams. Motorbiking in Europe was one & I dint want to sacrifice on it. So I decided to buy one.

I fell in love with Honda Pan European & I showed a video of ST1300 variant to my wife & she said something like wow, we can go to India on this. I was like - this is the opportunity to lure my wife into a trans-continental roadtrip only to realize that next day, she has changed her opinion. But the spark was ignited & I wasn’t going to give up on it easily :). Being a fairly miser person, I decided to go for whatever cheap I could get. Reading up on Pans have convinced me that they are bullet-proof, meant for 100s of thousands of miles of touring so they wont break down easily & being pretty old, are available under 2000 GBP (INR 2L) mark in UK used motorbike market.

I got someone selling a ST1300 variant in London & I went to check the motorbike. I then realized as to why Honda never launched Pan Europeans (colloquially referred as Pans) in India. Indians are tad too ‘puny’ to handle a 300+ kg motorbike. I cudnt control it while standing on the side & I cudnt put it on the centre stand, even in my dream. I came back thinking I need to buy something else & thats when I focussed on Honda Deauville. They are smaller cousin of Pan with the same V engine & shaft driven (no chain & sprocket) but with 650cc engine & weight just above 200kgs.

I finally bought a 21k miles Deauville from Ami Harley, an elderly gentleman staying in North London who had bought the Deauville to tour with his wife but after couple of years of yearning, could not do so & rather decide to sell. He had listed it for 1700 but I told him that I was finalizing on one for 1300 which is located slightly far from London & he agreed to give it away for that price. Much to my surprise, he threw in the bike cover, helmets (both of his & his wife) & extra locks for free. I was like, this saved me a lot of time & money buying these accessories. All I had to buy then, was riding gear.

Thats the Deauville. 2003 model with linked disc brakes but without ABS. The lack of ABS ended up make me sell the motorbike in a month. Read on to know more :).

That is Ami Harli, from whom I bought the Deauville. We had a long chat during the day I bought the motorbike from him. He talked about his adventures during younger days as to how he crashed his bike with his wife as pillion on a hedge late in the night, how he spent his time in India working with Mahindras (he is a certified flying instructor) & how his wife cajoled him to sell his motorbike. He was actually glad that the motorbike is getting into hands which can potentially add much more miles to a hardly ridden (21k miles since 2003) motorbike but with potential of accumulating 200k+ miles.

It was Aug 15 when I got the motorbike to my place. It took me a bit of convincing myself, making up my mind & buying riding gear to be ready for a quick ride. Wife & I had planned a trip to Spain & Rome in Aug end so I was losing time. I finally started on Aug 21. The plan was to ride north, get onto Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland is part of UK & you do not need Irish visa to get in), ride south to Dublin, try my luck getting onto Ferry to West UK / Wales, if stopped for lack of proper permit, ride back north & then follow similar route back to London.

I decided not to carry my ‘top box’ (the large box at the back), rather have my rucksack tied to the back seat with bungee chords. I did take my camping gear (single person tent, sleeping bag & mat) hoping to camp on the way. Also, if the bike breaks down, I can just sleep on the roadside if required while waiting for the rescue. I did take breakdown cover which is valid in Europe too. The cover was a big saviour during my last roadtrip to Europe when my car broke down multiple times. It was with AA then but this time, it was with RAC. RAC is bad & I will tell about that later.

My first pit stop. It was one of the ‘services’ next to motorway. I dont even remember what I had put on destination. I think I was a bit paranoid about my motorbike lasting rather the destination.

I think I had decided to stay at York but I did not want to ride too fast. Somewhere in the evening, I looked for places to stay while taking break & found Squires Biker Cafe. The reviews suggested that they have a campsite & it has picture of a Pan European. I thought to myself - this is the indication from the Universe that it wants me to go here. I called them & they said they have someone at reception till 9 PM. Their single person camping was 10 GBP & it was cheap by all means. I was sold on the cheap price & was soon riding towards the place.

Squires Biker Cafe. Saw some bikers coming out from the place

It has a large parking & there were quite a few bikes parked on it. Someone later told me that they had a biker gathering & the scenes from movies like Fast & Furious flashed in my mind. People with slick custom bikes, thinly clad women going around & all. But apparently, it wasnt like that. A lot of old folks, with a few young ones smoking, drinking beer & having casual chat.

The cafe/restaurant inside was nice & big. I paid for stay at the counter & I was asked to ride with my motorbike to the backside & pitch my tent. There was separate area for caravans & bikers. It had become dark by then but I did not have much issue. It was my first time using my single person tent & that is when it occurred to me that I can not site inside it. It was super inconvenient but I did not have much choice.

The next morning I met an elderly guy who was making his own coffee & I was a bit envious. I was not carrying any portable stove. I also figured that the bathrooms needed a token to be put into a machine which then dispensed water for like 4 min (the counter shows on the machine). It is done so that people dont sneak in for a casual bath (apparently people roaming around in caravan do that & there is an app to figure out free places to park overnight & find such locations, it is called park4night. Someone in Belfast told me about it). I was able to borrow a token from a group of elderly folks camped next to me as the reception opened only at 9 AM.

I decided to have breakfast at the cafe before heading out. After like 10 kms, while riding on A highway (these are 2nd level motorways, the M ones being the primary & the fastest), I figured my motorbike is losing power & then I pulled it on the shoulder where it stopped. I figured that the dreaded thing has happened, my motorbike had broken down.

My Deauville parked on the shoulder.

I waited for 3 hours for the RAC breakdown folks to come but they never came. After trying to start it every half an hour, it somehow started & rode fine. I was reading in forums that how a faulty fuel pump does not supply petrol when your bike hit reserve & it seemed like that was the case. I dont know how the fuel pump started to work or some petrol just seeped in, but I was able to ride it to nearest petrol pump, got it filled & it kept on riding well. I ensured that I should either not let it go to reserve or turn on the reserve before carburettor goes dry. That helped me have a breakdown free ride till the end.

It was late afternoon & I wanted to desperately leave the motorways & get onto the scenic routes. I had put Cairnyran, a port town from where I could get ferry to Belfast, to see where the route goes from. I figured there were campsites at the north of Lake District & I decided to go to one of these places.

Took the detour from the motorway going to Darlington & headed towards Penrith & Caldbeck camping at the edge of Lake District National Park.

I think what got my attention was that Caldbeck camping was one of the top rated places & the price showed like 7.5 GBP. I had reason to believe that you would not find any camping spot at that price anywhere in UK. & the place is top rated. So why not. I remember, I did this search somewhere around Penrith. My best hack to find campsite is to open google or pitchup.com & look for campsites nearby. I think I found this on pitchup.com

I was pretty hungry after the breakdown & when I took the detour, I came across some real nice sceneries. I spotted double hump camel & I immediately took the turn to see them better. It was a farm & there was a large supermarket & cafe in it. Well, I knew what to do :)

This road has a lot of farms with supermarkets but I guess only this one had double hump camels at their place. Double hump camels are typically found at very few places including India China border & Mongolia (I guess). In 2015, I did a Laddakh bike ride with wife & friends and we crossed Khardung La to reach Hunder & the place suppose to have these. But apparently, that year, they were not there.

The supermarket next on the farmland. Quite a few vehicles were parked which isnt visible in the picture. It seemed like the regular grocery shopping destination for the folks nearby. I always believed living in big cities is overrated & living on farm (or near one) is such a great lifestyle choice.

I think I had some soup with bread to eat there. I also took a coffee just before it closed at 5 PM & continued towards Penrith.

The route stayed scenic beyond Penrith & I did not realize I am on the edge of Lake District National Park. I passed by a pub & immediately turned around thinking I can have something to eat there. The pub name was Old Crown in town called Hesket Newmarket. The name had ‘newmarket’ which had special significance for me as my hometown Bhopal in India had a prominent place close to my home called ‘new market’. I parked my bike & went inside only to figure out that they dont serve food that day. Since I had stopped, I decided to have a beer anyway. I sat outside & had conversation with an old gentleman who told that his family is also camping at a nearby campsite. I got excited to check that place out but I was a tad too tired. So I just decided to head over to Caldbeck Camping which was a few miles away.

The town had a very nice charm to it. It reminded me of Malwynong, the cleanest village of India in North East. I got a very strong urge to stop there & by now, I think I have developed a good sense to listen to my intuition specially when I travel.

I reached Caldbeck Camping & drove right in. It had a very nice location with a stream flowing on one side & a small hill with sheep on the other. I could not find reception so I called the number on google map & the owner picked up. She lived on the house next to the farm & she promptly came over & I paid for a day’s stay. She also suggested to go to the pub in the town to eat something as they had a pact with the pub that they will feed the visitors staying at Caldbeck Camping :).

The glamping (glamorous camping) tent. I believe this is something setup by Caldbeck folks themselves but I might be wrong.

The code for toilet (T) & shower (S) by the owner. They were nicely & neatly maintained. I think this is the only way campsites can deter freeloader caravan owners to use their toilets for free. Most camping sites are not manned.

Next day morning, when I got ready, I saw a Brit family cooking & having breakfast. I also remember seeing a lady who seemed like mother of the house, got up early, went on for a run in the morning & then came back & started to prepare food for the family. I had nothing but respect for her.

The stream next to campsite. I went for a morning walk & passed by the stream. It was nice. I think I meditated a bit sitting next to it. The path beyond took me up a hill & I could see the places nearby. TBH - India has better places, treks & hills compared to the UK. Himalayas are just unbeatable. While Lake District, Peak District etc could be nice when it comes to natural beauty, I personally found better places in India.

I wanted to have my morning coffee & decided to ride to a cafe next door that opened at 9:30 AM as per Google Maps. I did go there but it was closed. So I decide to ride back to Old Crown pub & try my luck there. The place was closed & while I was leaving the place, the owner Simon came out from the other door & started to have a conversation. I told him about my bike trip to Ireland & wanting to have a coffee & Simon offered to make it for free. He said something like - no biker ever left without help from Old Crown . Later we talked about Old Crown history, as to how it is a community owned pub, how bikers used to meet at the place, there is an Everest climber who lives next door & how a lot of people in the town including Simon are motorbike riders. Looking at my motorbike parked outside, another person came in (forgot his name) with his 2 adorable dogs & we had some more conversation. I remember we making a joke on our wives as to how hard it is to get permission from them to go on long motorbike rides :).

Thanks Simon for the free coffee. I hope this mention pays off my karmic debt :).

This photo brought smile on my face. I always longed for that 60-70s life with long hair, carefree attitude. Maybe, I was one of the these bikers in my previous life :).

The collection of pics in Old Crown. The pic next to the T-shirt is of the Everest climber next door.

If you ever do motorbike ride in UK & happen to pass by this area, drop by & ask for Simon & meet him. I have always been a solo motorbike rider all my life & never got associated with a riding group. But if someone ask me what riding group I am part of, I would probably see it would be Old Crown riding group. Not sure if they have one, but the vibe in those 60 min conversation was very much of ‘I belong there’ kinds. I usually do not get those vibes from most places I go to or people I meet with.

That was probably the best start of my day in the entire roadtrip. I was riding slowly & steadily towards Cairnryan (I always found it difficult to say the name & mostly ended up telling people the town from where I will get the ferry to Belfast). I booked the ferry like an hour before I was about to reach Cairnryan. I think somewhere in back of my head, I was like, if my bike breaks down, I wudnt want to lose the money. So I will book it last minute.

Cairnryan is a nice port town. It wasnt hard finding the ferry location & unlike Dover port, the entry wasn’t huge & very little of chance of you losing way once you enter from the ticket check area. There were few other bikers who had parked their bike in the waiting area. I also met a biker from North Ireland who suggested that I should ride the North Ireland coast. I had only planned to reach Belfast & then ride south but now I had a new itinerary.

We bikers getting read to load our bikes. We got to load before the car folks.

The ferry guys instruct you to park at a certain spot & then tie your motorbike with a strap so that it does not fall down if the ferry ends up rocking a lot.

A small private theatre in the ferry. For 45 GBP, it was a pretty decent ride. Stena (the ferry provider) seemed better than Irish Ferries whom I had booked for my transit from Dover to Calais & back.

I had booked a night stay with Botanical Backpackers hostel in Belfast & I got an email from Erika, owner of the hostel saying that they are closing in 15 min. It was 9 PM & my ferry reaches Belfast by 9:30 & then it will take me some time to ride my motorbike to the location. Thankfully Erika was still up by the time I reached. This hostel was actually a home converted to a hostel & Erika takes care of it all by herself.

I decided to go on for sight seeing of Belfast the next day. Booked a walking tour. While going out for the tour, I figured that I had left the key in the motorbike itself but I had locked the wheel & it has separate keys which were with me. Some folks in UK had told me that Belfast is a bit troubled place & locals there wont like UK registered vehicle so I was a bit paranoid about my bike being vandalised but well, it went the other way :). Later Erika told me later how the area the hostel is located in, is a neutral zone & devoid of tension.

my bike parked outside the hostel with key left in the pannier lock overnight

I had watched Belfast movie & really wanted to see the city first hand. I had read about the tension between Protestants (people who came from UK mainland & settled in Northern Ireland .. also called Loyalists) & Catholics (natives of Ireland .. I later figured that they are from Celtic tribe) . The movie depicted the struggle & I wanted to hear it from someone that has stayed in Belfast during the time. Our tour guide was a Catholic & made his stance pretty clear at the start of the tour but I admire the fact that he kept the facts straight & did not distort them to align them with his sentiments.

The start point of the tour. I think this was the townhall or something.

The most bombed hotel in the world. Dont really remember which side bombed it. I guess it was the Loyalist side.

Titanic was built in Belfast shipyard which I got to know during the trip.

Some weird law from Loyalists folks barred pubs to be located in direct street view. So they had to build them deep inside the streets.

Liked the decoration of this pub.

The tallest building of Ireland is in Belfast. It was something 30+ storys. That is it :).

Belfast region was divided between Protestant majority & Catholic majority. The wall in the city separated the two regions. There were murals put on both sides. Catholics felt that they were discriminated against & they put murals of countries that face discrimination like Palestine. The Protestant side murals praised British. This one got my attention. I think Indian army had a big role to play during the world war but they were never credited for the same. I saw some mention, although small, on this mural.

The wall that encompassed the Protestant inhabitants.

Another view of hte wall.

The Belfast Cathedral

Found this wall art while walking down the main market of Belfast. It had some strange soothing feeling which I could not describe the source of. So decided to click the picture.

This post has become pretty long so I would write about the rest of my roadtrip in the next post. I started on the roadtrip of North Ireland coast till Giant Causaway, discovering locations where Game of Thrones was shot, eventually riding to Dublin the same day, Dubling sight seeing, taking ferry to Wales, stopping by at a campsite that I always wanted to visit but could never get booking as it was always full & then making a 300+ mile ride to reach London. Stay tuned.