There are periods like that, where you just only want to go away. This is what happened to me at this period of the year. The routine is a thing I hate, and it’s been about 8 months that nothing happened in my bike life, since our come back from Italy.
Rain is falling everyday here in Paris, and I’m boring at work. I’ve got about 10 holidays to take before loosing them. Perfect ! I’m motivating some friends in order to organize a little road trip, just breathing away !
I always wanted to go to Barcelona. But I’m not sure if this area is good to ride motorcycles. So first, I wanted to go in the Pyrenees and maybe going in Barcelona in the second part of the holidays, just to chill a bit at the beach. So I started to work on a roadbook this first trip.
The D-day is coming, but the weather was really bad in the pyrenees. I always check it before starting the trip, just to see if it’s going to be good or not. And the 15 next days are going to be pretty bad right there. So I worked on a new road book only around barcelona. After some streets view, I saw 3 or 4 cool and beautiful places, perfect to ride them with motorcycles.
With 90 days of rain during the year, I really hope to have a decent weather during my trip in Spain. But you know what ? It can’t be worst than here in Paris.
I just have to look for a place to sleep. I’ve never tried AIRBNB, so I think I’m going to try it. I’m watching about houses to rent near barcelona. There is one of them that I really loved. The landscape arount it is absolutly beautiful and the price is perfect. I’m a bit afraid to be desappointed because sometimes on internet, people are good to describe something, but when you come on it, it’s an another storie ! But you know what ? We’re going to try it !
I put all my stuff in the BMW and on the Alexis’s truck and let sleep a bit, because tomorrow we have about 1000 kilometers to do !
Day 1: On the road
It’s 4:00 AM and everybody is almost ready. It’s time to take the road ! I have to take Clement at his home, so I put gas on my car and let’s go ! Clément was with me on my car during the road. Etienne and Alexis were in the truck behind us. Nothing special until our arrival to the Pyrénnées.
The Spanish border is coming, and someone suggest passing by Andorre. It’s a little city on our road where everything is zero-rated. So sometimes, you can do good purchases. So we are going to pass right there, but we have to do this really quickly because we don’t want to arrive too late at night in Castellbell-i-el-villar (our house).
Of course, every time we want to respect the clock, it’s always the opposite and things we didn’t plained are happening. I think we are build for it: doing shit everytime we doesn’t want it ! So, 5 hours after beeing stopped by cars and customs, we’re still on the road in direction of castellbell-i-el-vilar.
A little break on the road, to appreciate this perfect spanish ground and these beautiful curves (still talking about the ground guys !).
The end of the road quite, the BMW is still in front with a good speed, and Alexis’s truck A.K.A the bitch truck is 10 kilometers behind us ! Yeah Alexis, I ear you “Shut up ! Talk better about my truck, you’re happy by taking it on holidays ! So shut the fuck up !”And you’re absolutely right !
We arrive near ourAIRBNB at the end of the day. Everything was going well since we started in Paris, but if you know me, there is always something wrong ! The GPS tell me to take this road, so I’m going on it with the car and the 2 bikes beetween it. The ground is very dirty and the road had 6 or 7 % of vertical. The problem is at the end of this road, there is absolutely nothing. So I have to climb it again with the reverse gear, and the 2 bikes behind me ! I’m playing with the clutch but the road is so vertical that a lot of smoke is going out of the car ! But don’t worry guys ! Black Market is just driving ! Okay ! I give up and we go back to the central place in the city. I’m going to call the man who’s welcomes us.
The man takes us to his house. It wasn’t a bad idea to call him because, by seeing the right road, we didn’t have any chance to find it ! New surprise ! To access to his house, we need to take a new dirty road. It looks like a step of « Dakar ‘s race » ! I was laughing about Alexis’s truck, but at this time, this road wasn’t a problem to him ! But for my BMW, it’s an another story ! Just thinking about the fact we’re going to take this one everyday in our trip with the motorcycles, and i just finished to repair and paint the daytona …
Castelbell y el Vilar: Our first Air BNB
I have to admit that the house and the landscape around it lieteraly blown my mind. The description on Air bnb was awesome, but i was scared about not having it in real life, but wow … this place is better than the description ! This is what i needed to cut with the parisian life !
The man have a lot of animals too ! Chickens (with free eggs), dogs, cats … I really love animals ! I didn’t expect much better than this …
The day is ending, and we’re going to the restaurant. After this, we’re going to sleep, because tomorrow we star tour trip here in catalunya !
Jour 2: The Montseny
The day rises in the mountain of Montserrat, we leave the bed quietly. I get out in order to watch the weather of the day: Overcast and this is not super hot. The weather is not perfect to ride, but better than in Paris these recent days, we will not complain! Just the time to take care of my new friend, and we go to shopping, eat a good meal, and then go riding in direction of Monteseny, one of the first spots I had seen a few days ago , Not very far from our house. Because of the weather, I think this is the better compromise for a first day of motorcycle.
We prepare ourselves. Clément is making a full preparation on his 990, because we never know, if we came to meet Marc Marquez in the corner … he must have something to race ! The loop of the day will make us ride about 200 kilometers, maybe a little more. We take the road, and even before reaching the ground, we will attack the whole dirty land part. Remember, I told you about a path looking like the Dakar. That’s what I was talking about.
Etienne didn’t want to experiment it, he preferred to be shit all week, puting the 848 in the truck, doing 800 meters and get off the bike of the truck; Then do the opposite in the evening, and this during all the trip! In short …We finally reach all the road!
First stop on the roadside, it’s about fifty kilometers that we drive and I just noticed that Etienne has no ID on the 848 … Buuut, he has it in his bag ! Here we are reassured! Here we go again !
The road to Monteseny is excellent. It should be noted that almost all the Spanish roads have the characteristic of having a very light gray ground. This reminds me a bit of Miami side at the United States. The curves are awesome and hyperlinear, no traps on the horizon and we’re all riding with a pretty good speed.
We start again, and we pass by a small town not far from the “Costa de Monteny”. We find a garage with nice guys who will fix Etienne’s ID on the 848. It will perhaps avoid us a surprise, arrested by the Guardia, which is not reputed to be cool guys.
Besides little advice to you, if you go on a trip to Spain and you are arrested by the Guadia, never pay in cash. You can be sure that it will end up in their pockets! Pay only by card.
Once we repaired the 848, we took the direction to Santa Fe, in order to go up to the other side of the Monteseny. Next part is going to be amazing !
First at the end of the 3rd curve, there is a team worker cuting trees . Just the time to avoid 2 or 3 of them, and we go back again ! I’m taking so much pleasure in riding this road, that I absolutely didn’t notice that nobody was following me! I stopped about twenty kilometers away on a small parking along the forest, waiting for the team. I remove my helmet and shut down the motorcycle. No more sound .. The birds are singing and I’m smiling stupidly.
I’m hearing the 848, the street and the 990. They are coming like bombs ! No doubt, they are them! Them, we take the opportunity to take a short break.
We go back again on this crazy road ! The forest is so beautiful, and the view too… but it’s impossible to stop because of this awesome road. This is the kind of road where you want to ride all time. I ear the Ducati just behind me, Etienne is stick on my wheels. Perfect, because i puted a gopro recording on my back, we’re going to have some nice rushes.
New break a few kilometers after. We stopped on a place with a nice point of view, and i’m going to film it with the drone. Clouds in the sky are very dark and loud, and we can see a little sunset right there. The weather is extremly « heavy », if you know what i’m saying. We don’t know if it’s going to rain or not. There is no wind. I really love this atmosphere. Everything is quiet. Sounds like the time stopped. A sea of clou dis appearing in the sky … and it is going to be darker than before. This is amazing.
It’s time to take the road. We’re a bit tired, because of the previous ride on this road. A herd of sheep is crossing the road. Just after, we stop on a gas station, so we stopped on it and Etienne bought some food. We’re all hungry so we shared it together.
We take the road again in direction of our home. The night in falling down and we decided to go back to home slowly, and preparing a Barbecue.
I said slowly, but we took an another amazing twisty road with a big straight line ! Left, right, left, right and maxium speed on this straight line with the daytona, the street, the 848 and the 990 !
Last stop before going home ! Smiles and hapiness are on our faces because of this new awesome road !
What a perfect day ! It’s been a long time since the last awesome ride with bikes, i really needed it ! All these problem linked to the terrorism is France, problems at work … I have totally forgotten all of them in one day ! It’s amazing to see how doing what you really like to do, and travelling can bring so much positivity.
Now, let’s make and eat a Barbecue. We laught a lot around it and we slept like babies !
Jour 3: The lake of Saint LLorenç
This morning, we slept a lot because we were tired.
We woke up slowly.
Clement went to take eggs in the chicken coop. We ate a bit but we didn’t notice that we hadn’t bought anything to eat yet. So took the road in direction of a supermarket. Buy watching the clock, we must be quick if we want to have time to ride a bit.
Since we arrived we are too slow on everything, and i guess this trip is going to be at the same speed as in Italy in April 2015 : Every days were starting at the middle of the afternoon…
We’re waiting about Etienne, he is on the bathroom, putting some gel on his head. He is ok, so let’s go !
When we came back we started a Barbecue. During the mill, i’m watching on google map where we could go to ride. There i a lot of clouds , and all the weather web sites are announcing a lot of rain during the end of the day.
I was focus on a big lake spot in the north, maybe about 100 kilometers. If the rain is falling, the distance to come back to home is going to be ok. We decide to try it, so everybody is preparing the bikes and let’s go !
We are on the road, in direction of Saint Lorenç. We started by taking a curvy national. Perfect to warm up. We also met a couple on their respective bikes. We did about fifty kilometers together at good speed (over 160 km/h.) I remember that the girl in front of us was driving a CBR600RR. Our different itineraries have made that we had to separate ourself. A small sign to say goodbye and we continue towards the mountain.
The weather is blackening more and more, we haven’t even reached the first interesting area that I already feel that the sky is going to dalling down on our heads … Some tastes are beginning to fall. A group of 5 or 6 guys in trails (1200 RT, Ktm adventure ..) are pushing it fast, while we already traveling at 140 km / h on a small mountain road. These guys are crazy ! With clement, we tried to follow them. I passed Clement and I am now just behind them at 160/170 km / h. These guys are really good. I notice that they take extremely wide trajectories, and don’t hesitate to bypass the center line and then return to the good side. This kind of riding is perfect to keep a good speed under a bad weather. So with Clément we adopt the same technique. We don’t take any risk to do this since we have visibility over hundreds of meters in front of us, so no worries for a possible vehicle coming in front, we have time to correct our line in case of.
The road narrows and the rain is falling stronger. We are arriving now on twisty passes roads and the curves are getting closer. We continue to play with the same group, but after 5 or 6 curves I decide to give up because the ground becomes too slippery and psychologically it brakes me enormously.
We continue to ride it, a little more quiet. The rain seems to calm down a bit.
A few kilometers away, on leaving the corner, you come face to face with an enormous straight line. In front of us, the mountain! The weather accentuates this dark side and this is a bit scary. It is really beautiful ! We don’t hesitate to stop. I pull out the drone and shoot this amazing landscape.
It’s so beautiful … We don’t really realize the immensity of the thing in front of these pictures ?
Rain is coming again … So we must continue climbing the mountain as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately for us the rain intensifies, and we are slightly lost. I had not specified the precise address in the gps, and considering the weather I did not want to stop again. I turned and signaled to my friends to turn left. The idea is to take the height in order to see where we are exactly.
Once at the top, i can see the lake where i want to reach. So we take 2 minutes to try to see the road that we need to take to get there.
It is a pity that the rain falls on us, because the view is truly beautiful. A little drone shot here could be amazing … But i can’t take the risk because of the rain ! We continue !
We take a downhill road. Because of the bad weather, we organize a small bike race without motor. It is something that we often do when the road is too wet or when it’s raining. The game is simple: one cut the engines and the first one who arrive at the end of the road win. I guess Clement won this game.
We finally arrive at the lake, and the rain stops . Clément suggest to try to access to the water directly with the motorbikes, passing by a a dirt way.. I’m not very ok, but as everyone agrees, I also go . It brings us to a kind of islet, and next, our minds were totally blown …
We decided to stay here, so we get all the stuff out. Alexis and Etienne were chillin on the ground. Clément is watching landscape and me, I’m flying with the drone everywhere in this beautiful area. The forest around us is essentially made up of pines.
A fisherman where here too, a little lower. And a few minutes after, he captured a big fish. I will surely look a bit fragile, but the blow that the fisherman has worn on the fish’s head hurts me. I love animals and it’s always hard to see them suffering …
After a long time spent on this spot, we decided to take the road again. The temperature starts to fall down and we are hungry. It must be 7 :00 pm and we have almost 2 hours of roads before going back to home. We go back by the opposite way, in order to catch up the road, and to take the bridge to bypass the mountain.
Once the bridge crossed, a big surprise awaits us. Imagine: 100 kilometers of road with a perfect ground. Not a straight line … Undreds of beautiful curves! Let’s ride this !
Clément opens the road, Etienne and I are just behind with Alexis. What a pleasure !! We are riding this like if we were on a track!
Forty kilometers away we stop because the night really begins to fall and my GPS is configured in “small roads” mode. As we don’t want to go back to home too late, we decide to finish this pass and to catch the highway.
Small problem, because I took a wrong road and we end up taking a section where it is absolutly the dark night. To explain, even our headlights do not illuminate more than that. It becomes too dangerous. I remember even taking a curve to the left, while it was going to the right… We decide to stop everything and look at the map again.
Once the engines are shut down, an absolute silence reigns in the valley.
We finally catch up the highway. We started to really get hungry and cold, bombed the highway ! I was going to say nothing dangerous in itself, which is true off put speed, those who ride on motorcycle understand me, those who don’t ride can’t, which I fully understand. But this isn’t done unconsciously.
As we leave the motorway, Alexis Clement and I leave. We don’t see Etienne … We figured he had to ride more quietly … Thing we put aside by knowing Etienne, he never refuses a good ride on the highway …
By seeing that Etienne is not here, we tried to call him but his phone seems to be off … The pressure rises a little more. I have to admit it. We just hope that nothing wrong has happened to him. We decide to get closer to the house, in case he took a different exit and would already be down.
Well, he is not here. At the same time, we heard a bi-cylinder crossing all the way down the mountain, we quickly realized that this stupid boy had missed the exit and was just bombing the highway alone! Suddenly the pressure goes down, the time he understands that he is on the wrong road and he is going to take the good one after. We have time to prepare the barbecue in the evening!
Etienne finally arrived half an hour after us. We were laughing a lot and we said to ourselves once more … It’s Etienne… Nothing strange !
We finish our evening around a barbecue to laugh until no hours then, we fall asleep.
Jour 4: Rainy days in Barcelona
It’s a sad day guys … It’s raining like never! No doubt, today the bikes will stay here. I was a bit angry but at the by thinking about these 2 last days, I thought that today it was not a problem if we were not going to ride. We decided to go to Barcelona. So we all go into the BM, and we’re off! Direction to Barcelona. Etienne our tries a few shots in the car, nothing very good but we laught a lot !
We arrived in Barcelona by a big industrial zone, I admit that, in my dreams, I imagined my arrival in Barcelona a little more sexy than this: like big sunshine, short and sunglasses … But today, this is more : Jean and big coat if you know what I mean.
So we park near the sagrada familia and then we visited this place from the outside only. If we want to enter on it, we have about 2 :30 to wait … We then go on the museum of the football team of Barcelona ! Even if I prefer The Real Madrid football team !
After this short visit, we went to a restaurant to eat something, right next to the sagrada familia.
Once we have finished our meal, we took the car, and drove to the old Barcelona as well as the port and the Barcelonneta beach.
I find a place for it quite easily to park. We went to the beach and started to walk a bit along the sand and enjoy the sea air.
The rain calms down so we parked and walk along the beach. We said no motorcycle today, but Etienne wanted to rent electric scooters … So we decided to take 4. We are supposed to pay a deposit of 200 euros but my card doesn’t pass so Clement who sticks to it. Let’s go, I slalom between people and I see in the distance Clément who droped big sidewalks with his scooter! Obviously, it explosed a wheel … So back to the shop and they changed it. We set off again in Barcelona. We organize small races between people on the harbor and along the beach, we laugh a lot !
Then, we decide to go through a park in the city or there, everything was gone : drop, grind on stairs, enduro in the grass, and laught ! The batteries begin to by ampty suddenly we try to move towards the store. Clément went in front of me and tries a new gap … Unfortunately he brokes the rear wheel again ! We have several kilometers to arrive to the shop … So we are organizing it because time is short! I try to put his scooter on mine and bring it back as close as possible! Big problems and impossible to take the correct trajectories, but we laugh so much about it.
Once we arrived in front of the shop, Clément brought it back. It’s okay the guys were cool and we just paid for a new tube because it was the second one we broke up, but nothing more!
We decide to finish our day with a small coffee in front of the beach, before taking the car again and coming back to home.
Quiet day today, but sometimes, it’s also good too !
Jour 5: The meteorological disaster…
There are days like that … Or I would have preferred not woking me up and move into the next day…
I get out of bed and I look out the window … Rain … Alexis asks me kindly “I ask you a question but please do not give me the answer that I don’t want to hear” you know … “So the weather says what? “Well, listen Alexis … That says it’s a shitty weather …” So we went back to sleep! And when we woke up, it was even worse!
I look at the weather websites and I realize that a huge cloud is crossing almost all of Europe at this moment and it’s raining absolutely everywhere … Loosing one day, okay, but 2 days … it begins seriously to break me up.
We didn’t anything on this day, to make it simple, we did nothing at all. We spoke about everything and nothing, all day. It was pretty nice. We were talking about college days and news of people of our generation. We tried to enjoy the view and play a little with the too.
Later in the afternoon we decided to go shopping in a big supermarket to make a good stock of food until the end of the trip.
In the evening, new small barbecue with meat and set peppers + bread. What to make good sandwiches!
After, we went back to sleep and we hope that tomorrow will be a better day! It’s hard to accept to ruin a day like that because of the weather, but hey, sometimes you can’t fight against bad weather. By thinking on it, I sad by not having more taken advantage of this simple day to do nothing. I regret to been focus on what we couldn’t do, rather than On the present moment: Landscape, animals, friends. We always learn from all situations, even the simplest things.
Jour 6: Cambrils Dels Pirineus and the Lake of Corçà
After these 2 bad days, A big breakfast is essential!
Next, we prepare sandwiches and we ‘re going to take the road for a big day with more than 500 kilometers of roads! I tell it to the team. I see that they are not super hot about this long trip, but clearly, they have no choice! Today we ‘re going to get it big !
I’m the first down on the road, I wait for everyone. I am so hurry and excited about riding that I ride a few kilometers solo on the B-122 and I put some knee down.
It’s time to go ! Sandwich ok, motorcycles ok, gasoline ok … we take the big road and we go towards the center of Spain. Whenever we start riding more in the center of spain, we always borrow the same national road. It is made of large curves, so it’s pretty good to warm each time.
We had to stop at some point because Etienne lost the screws of fairings on his 848. He fixed all this with a grass twig … Yes … I know. Anyway, you have to know one thing, every time this dude does something strange, you have to justify it by « This is just Etienne”.
Few kilometers later, I see the road that we were to follow. I spotted a crazy section on the map that I wanted to try. It extended the day by several kilometers, but I think it was really necessary. In any case on the map, the road looked completely crazy.
And at the end, we were not disappointed with it! After a small collapse of the pass, where we had to be careful, because some parts of the road was covered by dirt, bikes were sliding a little sometimes. The rest of the road is going well, we even have the chance to be followed by an eagle for few turns.
We get to the top. An awesome panorama is actually in front of us. We took the opportunity to stop a bit and eat our sandwiches in front of this amazing view.
I catch the opportunity to take out the drone and capture some beautiful images of the Cambrils before returning riding the road.
Now we have take the road again. The tires are cold so we are starting it slowly but the ground is so clean and perfect, we quickly accelerate it and riding all these corners like we should be ! I put a small gopro on the back of the Daytona, so I was able to capture some really nice pictures!
During the road, we go through several small bridges directly dug in the rock, the rains of these last hours have been stuck at the top of the rock, so the water doesn’t stop falling down here, but really beautiful, at least, when the tastes don’t fall on our neck!
We arrive at the end of the pass, and a big straight line of several kilometers stands in front of us! Clément and I are in front, so we take the opportunity to push it hard !
The straight line is so long, that we had time to stop completely on the edge of the road to wait for the others just by shutting down the power of the bike. We even ended up cutting the bikes and staying on the side of the road. The place is so beautiful. Alexis and Etienne finally join us. We take the opportunity to take some pictures and chill a bit.
Unfortunately, the rain is starting again, the sky is darker. So we start quickly and we pushed into the next village. We ended under roof house. This photo made me laugh a few weeks later because I was saying to myself “Too bad that Alexis is not in the picture” but once I saw it on a big screen I saw that he just here in the corner with his big head !
It’s always raining, so I watch on my phone if an improvement is planned or not. If it’s not, we will perhaps going back to home, knowing that we are already more than 100 kilometers from our home…
According to the application the rain should calm down in 20 minutes. And we notice that it does not rain where we are supposed to go. We didn’t ride the last 2 days so we decide to continue the journey. We wiped 15 to 20 minutes of rain.
The wind was blowing a bit, which allowed to dry us quickly on the motorcycle while we were on the road.
Etienne tells me that he has no more gas, and the next station is at 50 kilometers from our position, so we slow down in order to avoid overconsumption. We leave the main axis on which we were to go through a small road that will take us into the forest, along a lake. This will allow us to stop driving too fast and save a little gas.
We arrived very quickly at the end of this road, and we had to go back to the main track. I am not sure that Etienne manages to calm down himself on this road, in order to save the little gas that remains into the 848.
We cross a kind of enormous wall of rock, it is really impressive and beautiful!
We are now at 6 kilometers from the next station, we are close to our goal! But unfortunately, Etienne is no longer behind us … No more gas into the 848. So I make a sign to Alexis to return with Etienne, and Clement and me are going to bring a little gasoline in order to start the 848 again and bring it to the gas station. We take the opportunity make a race on the road to the gas station with Clément. The curves are wide and long, so we can go hard on it!
We arrived quickly at the gas station.
After we finished at the gas station, we took a bottle of fanta because we wanted to put a little gasoline on it.
We left on the opposite way to restart the 848!
Etienne takes care of putting back the gasoline that we have in his motorcycle. Evidently, Etienne put the half on the ground …! When we finished, we reach to the lake of Corçà! Here are some pictures of the last meters before arriving to the lake.
We finally stopped a little, and this time, without rain. I take the drone again to capture some nice shots of what’s around us!
The night begins to fall, We are in the mountain it’s falling faster than in the plains. We decided to go back home. We have almost 300 kilometers to do yet, but we are in shape so we decide to return right there by taking the national. It is a good compromise because roads like this are good, curvy and fast. You don’t waste too much time and have fun. It ‘s better than going back to the mountain again, because of the rain.
We rode for a while through the valleys. Unfortunately for us the rain is back again! So we decide to cut it and take the highway, even if we pay a bit. Bikes light up, we need gas again, so we go out to the next town and refuel at a gastation.
The rain is falling stronger, but we’re still on a good rhythm. We try to arrive at home as quickly as possible. I remember that we couldn’t see more than 5 meters in front of us.
Alexis notices that Etienne is not more behind us, so he quickly makes us to know that. The problem is that the rain is too intense, and we can’t turn back … So, as we are close to our usual exit, we will try to wait there.
Unfortunately, the scenario the same as the last time. Etienne still does not appear. We laugh a bit less, because the rain literally increases the chances of falling down. The visibility is almost like zero, so we just hope that it was not hit by anything …
It is always the dark side of the motorcycle, but we are forced to think about it, because unfortunately, it is also part of the riding bikes. We wait again, and suddenly the phone rings! Etienne informs us that this asshole stopped at a gas station because he was tired of the rain and wanted to wait for it to calm down …. Etienne… ! Once again ! We call it an « Etiennerie » in our words!
So we go home! And we’ll prepare a good BBQ! The advantage that Etienne has is that once he arrives, everything will be ready to eat!
This is how we spent the evening again in front of a good meal at home to remember all these good times of the day!
What a good thing, riding like this all the day! Friends, Motorcycles, the adventure … I think I will never be tire of it!
Jour 7 : Sunshine, big ride, a slide and grills !
Wake up again in Spain, on the heights of Castellbell y el vilar! I open my little eyes, Alexis snores again! I get up and go towards the window … And there … BAD WEATHER !!!! This is not what was expected! Damn … I’m done with it. It makes me crazy that I take holidays in Barcelona and that I am forced to always dealing with the weather and make sure to pass between the rain ..
I stay outside in order to calm down myself, while hoping for a weather improvement … and, as I noticed that the sky cleared up. I even see a blue hole! The sun is coming! Look at the difference in just half an hour, and I promise you I will not lying!
“Hey guys !! Wake up !! The sunshine is here ! Everybody get your ass out of the bed! Big breakfast outside, all together under the sun! We even leave the drone, to film a bit around the house from the sky! We decide to enjoy the sun this morning and go riding in the afternoon. Big atmosphere here ! Everyone is smiling, even animals! 12 :00 o’clock approach, so, small Barbecue! Again and again! While I manage the cooking, I make fly the drone above the house history to have a complete view of where we live during our trip. The brother of the person who rent us is curious about the drone and comes to join me. By talking with him, learned that he works for the Spanish Television and he also films. So we start to talk about drones, licenses, prices … A nice guy!
After eating, several choices are available to us. I had the idea of going to Barcelona by small roads and maybe end up on the beach. But guys are not motivated. Clement proposes rather a walk in the corner, go to the Monastery in front of us for example, then ride in the corner. I admit that I wasn’t very ok for this program, because I wanted to leave far from here. But I let myself be tempted.
First step, reach the Monastery by the small roads. We fall on a section of furious fool! The weather is excellent, the ground too! The whole team is hot and we’re riding it hard! Alexis surprises me even to pass me and to roll in front of me! I jump directly on the opportunity to follow him a maximum and film all that! Suddenly, at the end of the curve, the entire Montserrat is literally blowing us up in the face! It is really beautiful !
Arriving at an intersection a few kilometers away, we all have a smile on our lips! What a road! Amazing moment! And under the sunshine as a bonus!
We come upstairs. And surprise, to access to the Montserrat, we need to pay. We keep going but more slowly because the police is here. We decide to park. We then go towards the cable cars, because to reach the top of the mount, we must take it. We would like to know how much time we have to visit it. So we sent Etienne to ask it, but he don’t know how to say it in Spanish. So told him to say “Cuantos anios tiens” Which means “How old are you” because it was a girl in front of us.
Etienne comes back and tells us that the lady at the reception was angry and she didn’t answered !
We burst out laughing! Etienne does not understand immediately why but Clément and totally in a crazy laugh! We dry our tears and we all go inside and we have about 30 minutes climb and return included to visit all this … So we do not waste time, here we go!
As soon as I reached the top, I went as far as I can. I had seen on internet what the top view looked like, and I preferred to focus on a good shot with the drone, rather than simply enjoy the view. Sometimes it is necessary to make choices liek this, it is always a bit the dark side of making videos. We don’t always take the time to appreciate things as they are Because we absolutely want to capture nice shots. Well, It is already time to go down! It was fast!
Going back to the monastery, we went to a restaurant to grab an ice cream and stall outside to eat it. Etienne, did not even have time to put a fang in, that those (ice cream) balls felt down in his helmet! New crazy laugh !! So he takes another one!
Once the ice is over, we take the bikes back down to the mountain.
The monastery is over but we really want to ride more !
Going back to the monastery, we went to a restaurant to grab an ice cream and stall outside to eat it. Etienne, did not even have time to put a fang in, that those (ice cream) balls felt down in his helmet! New crazy laugh !! So he takes another one!
Once the ice is over, we take the bikes back down to the mountain.
The monastery is over but we really want to ride more !
So, a little google maps, and we decide to go at the gas station. We spotted a loop of fifty kilometers to ride, so we’re off! We felt a truly magnificent section on motorcycle, the whole group is compact and we’re pushing it hard! Damn is so good …
We arrive in a small town. Police officers saw us, and when passing in front of them, one of them released his talki walki. So I don’t know if it was for us, but in any case he was watching Etienne’s bike while talking with his talki. So we go out of town quickly.
Then, we turned into a new area with only curves! The grip is really on top! So I passed before everyone and rode it hard with Etienne just behind me with the 848 evo! We had great rhythm and I pushed myself more and more. Knee down to the left and to the right, then to the left, then to the right! But i arrived in a big right, and i fucked up.
You have to know that I drive with my backpack where all of my video equipment is on it: Gh4, 60D, gopro, Drone, Batteries, lenses … and that it all weighs a lot! The weight and the tiredness made that i felt in this curve, I did not manage to straighten correctly on the motorcycle at the end of the curve, which made that I felt … I think the bag unbalanced me, i couldn’t going back at the good position at the right time.
I get up quickly and ran after my bike which was always sliding on the road. It stops in the opposite direction to my position. I t’s still running. I raise it quickly because I am afraid that a car arrives in front of me. It could create an another accident. Alexis and Clement arrive on the scene. Etienne makes sure I’m fine, and the first thing I ask him is if he filmed everything! I wanted to keep it in memories!
I put the bike on the side and starts to check damages: a straight flank, the GB Racing protections, half handlebar right, and brake pedal. Fortunately I installed the protections GB racing on the bike otherwise the sentence would not have been the same!
I’m fine, I have a little pain in the right elbow and shoulder due to the shock but nothing disturbing it should quickly pass.
I restart the bike and everything seems to go well. We back again on the road! The next beautiful curve comes, so I swang the bike in order to regain quickly confidence and to not having fear or doubt settle in my mind about this accident !
This road is perhaps one of the best in my life. The conditions are exceptional! The ground is perfect, and the landscape around us is incredibly beautiful. Everything is red : dirt and trees are very colored. It reminds me of some pictures of the desert in Utah during a sunset, in the United States. There are also many roads that leave on both sides of the road. I think this with dirt bikes must be really amazing.
We arrived on a new intersection. Suddenly the ground was soaked, the trees too and the temperature dropped suddenly! It seems that there was a micro climate here … Too bad because I really wanted to continue riding, but weather, once again catches up.
We take a little bit of higway to go back to the next town and we arrived on the B-122. The B-122 ……
So in the beginning everything was soaked, (yes since between the beginning and the end of the highway we had a sort of microclimate, at least we didn’t have it directly on us but everything was soaked!) So slow down for and I stayed far behind everybody. With my fall, I didn’t want to take any additional risks because of the state of the road.
But suddenly … The road becomes dry again! I dropped 2 gears and I rushed to catch the others who must already be spreading ! I come behind Alexis and Etienne, I passed them and I arrived just behind Clément.
What’s you’re going to read next are only words, trying to explain a feeling and a situation, but let me tell you that this was probably one of the most magical moments on a motorcycle that I could live.
The landscape here is literally taking fire! What a sunset ! It is so powerful that when you take it in full face it is impossible to see something, even with a smoked visor. We didn’t slow down though!
25 kilometers of absolutely crazy roads… Big curves, small, tight, wide … You’ve got everything right here!
To tell you, some turns are even raised! It almost feels like a Nascar track on some sections! We rode it like if we were on the track! We passed always the center line to see what happens in the distance, and to pass more safely. We’re all focused on what’s going on ahead! Etienne passes me at some point, which pushes me to look for the fault to iron it! But I take the opportunity to film him a bit. It allows me to capture great shots because we are stuck to each other! We all have the knife between our teeth!
CThis road leads us to our home! Thanks god that we don’t live here all year because it would be a death road for us!
We stop in front of the home gate but Alexis continues. We thought we’d see him soon, but it turns out that Alexis really did not realize we comes home. So he went halfway farther and did the 25 kilometers of roads in the other direction !
Once back at the start of the highway, he calls us and tells us “where are you guys ?! We burst out laughing! Alexis was revolted because he to do the 25 kilometers in the other direction!
What a team … Everybody is crazy and stupid as fuck right here, but this is why we spend so much time in laughing !
I put my bike in the garden, still fully equipped and I begin to be because of my slide. I just came to paint my bike and i have to do everything again. I was in my thoughts that I did not even still see that right therein front of me, earth is offering me a unique chance to capture perhaps one of my best sunset!
I hurry to get out the camera, I take my 11-16mm and I capture that beauty.
I am speechless … I totally forget that my bike fucked up.I am happy to be able to attend a time like this. The person who welcomed us has a land that will not stop surprising me! What a lucky guy ! I hope one day i will be able to live in a similar place. I would be the happiest man in the world.
The evening continues around a new Barbecue.
Anyway, we had a great day despite my fell. Luckily I had the tracksuit. Otherwise it would not have been the same story! Don’t forget to protect yourself when you ride motorcycle, I assure you that you will thank your equipment in case of a fall, especially your tracksuite during a road trip like that. I don’t leave it any more. I have done road trips full in Jeans basketball, since I had the safety of the tracksuit on road, I don’t let it go anymore!
JOUR 8 : New bike problem, Cops arrestation and tapas in Barcelona !
Waking up in Catalunya, and one of the last for us.
After our wonderful day of yesterday, we decided to wake up quietly (like every day in fact!). Breakfast, and then I bring the motorcycle in front of the patio to take a look at possible things that I could have twisted or broken yesterday when I felt.
After a full check-up, nothing more than the day before. So, I take the opportunity to wash the bike a bit. Alexis and Etienne did the same.
We finished this morning by staying in the sun. No one is really hungry this afternoon. So, we decided to going on the side of Barcelona, but by motorcycle this time. We will try to reach the city by the small roads, and to get there by the small mountains that surrounds it. No tracksuit today, because we plan to eat in the evening and go for a walk in town. We absolutely don’t want to ride hard. We take the road towards Barcelona!
AAfter about 20 kilometers, the rain begins again to fall on us. And since we don’t have much gas, we stop at the next station, to fill up and wait for the rain to calm down.
It’s not a big rain so I think we shouldn’t have to wait for long time.
I also take something to eat, so I’m hungry! I also take a Red Bull because i’m tired, and although I am not a big fan of this drink, it is the only one that is able to give me a good boost.
I leave the gas station and Alexis and Clement are washing the motorcycles at the washing station right next to each other. Despite what we did in the morning, it is not a bad idea because it was really minimal.
We are about to leave. Clement, Alexis and I headed towards the exit of the station. At this moment of taking the road we still do not see Etienne behind us. So we wait. he still does not happen … W went back to the gas station. Etienne explains that his bike does not start anymore.
We shut down everything we try to understand what happens.
He explains that it is a problem linked to the carbon part that surrounds the contactor. Apparently the carbon part will prevent the bike from starting if it was not perfectly set …. I don’t really believe it but hey, it’s his bike he knows better than me. I let him check it all, and I sat on a side of the station next to the bike. I even fell asleep because i was so tired.
I had to sleep on the floor for a half hour. When I wake up, the bike still does not work. So I take the relay with Etienne and we kept looking. Attempting to start it, nothing was working. By watching the time, and the problems in which we are, I begin to abandon our trip to Barcelona. With Alexis, we maybe going back to go home, to take the truck and to come here to take the motorcycle of Etienne.
We try again to switch on the bike, and then, surprise, it restarts!
We took all our stuff and left! Let’s go to Barcelona! We will finally get there!
The loop that we had planned is nothing extraordinary, but it has the right to make us pass through all the heights of the city of Barcelona, it was amazing !
We decided to go to the top of the city, in Tibidabo, with an altitud of 512 meters, we’re going to have a full amazing view of the city of Barcelona. In Tibidabo, there is an attraction park named Expiatori del Sagrat Cor. I take the drone in order to shoot the view, but i don’t think i have the right to do it in this area … But let’s go, we will see.
The view is amazing with a sunset ! So beautiful. Onthe first side, we have Barcelona with the last lights of the sun, and on the other side, a sky on fire because of the sun ! We’ve got an incredible game of sun lights right there !
After this, we took the road again in order to go to the center of Barcelona.
We stopped one last time , because i wanteds to take a picture of all the city, with the sunset.
I ear 2 motorcycles ‘s coming, and i see that’s they’re cops. They’re coming very quickly ! They passed in front of us, but they didn’t stopped. A few moment after, they went back and they stopped in front of us. They checked our bikes and they told us that we have about 230 euros to pay ( because of the ID etc …). Alexis what moving his head in order to tell « yes, ok » but he didn’t tell anything. I directly understand that he was playing this guy who don’t speak the right language ! Awesome technic , i did the same. Cops were bored about us because we didn’t tell nothing sot hey let us go.
After, i thought about them and i’m pretty sure they were called for the drone ! This is why they climbed quickly at the top, and then they come back. Problem resolved ! Let’s go to the City !
We park in the center of the city of Barcelona, the advantage of the motorcycle is to find somewhere to park very quickly and everywhere. Alexis tells us about an address of a restaurant that he knows and where they make very good tapas. Just a check on google maps to see where it is, we take the bikes and go there! Let’s eat !
The kind of good little evenings that makes you happy. We sat there on the terrace, in Barcelona. We take full advantage of the atmosphere of the city! A very nice moment.
JOUR 9 : On the road to the coast !
Some spotting on the map, and I’m pretty excited to join this area because roads look really cool to ride. We wear the tracksuit, I take my bag with all the videos stuff, and let’s go! We need to take a little bit of highway to reach the previously the zone.
We get out of the highway quickly and we take the national road. A small error because of me so we turned back a few kilometers before, to take the right road! This time it’s ok, we’re on the right road!
We go into the interesting part and we really enjoy the section!
We arrive quickly on the coast, I thought the mountain section would be longer than that. But it did not matter she was really good to ride (the section!).
There is a small square place along the road on the coast. So we stop here and park the bikes. A path allows us to pass the stone wall, in order to go on the rocks. Not easy to go down with tracksuit, boots and the helmet! Better not miss yourself if you know what I mean! A slide and there and you fall in the sea! Try to swim with all these stuffs .. Good luck! I’m on the edge of the cliff with Etienne and we’re still alive! We take advantage, we land a bit and I take the drone to capture some nice pictures!
It’s time to go up, and take the bikes. We would love to enjoy the good weather and get a good BBQ together at home. One decides to go along the coast to Barcelona, then to return by the small roads.
What we forgot to think that about the fact we are at the end of the day, that people all come out of work, and we are Friday, the week-end is starting! Result, we were able to taste the Barcelona shit on the roads!! Like in Paris! The best would have been to take the small roads, but hey, it’s too late … we finish! Time to arrive with us, it is already night! One more time ! A classic with us, we want to do something, and the opposite happens.
It doesn’t matter ! It will not prevent a good meal and go to bed laughing, again!
JOUR 10 : The last day in Catalunya !
Good weather is back ! In fact, we came here in the bad period. That’s what the locals have explained to us. We had the 10 days of bad weather, and now the good weather should be back until summer. Too bad for us, but overall we were able to ride everywhere i wanted and planned to do it! So for our last day, we will enjoy a bit of the home, the pool, and we’re maybe go for a last time to ride in the corner, because the area is really crazy!
Let’s turn up the music, sound and we make a big barbecue under this beautiful sunshine.
It’s also good to relax a bit, isn’t it?
The end of the day is coming, and ones again, we announce a arrival of rain! So we think it would be good to ride one last time the B-122, and why not, shoot some good videos on it!
We take the bikes and go on the road. We go on the section fairly quickly because we would like to arrive at a precise curve to film. More we are progressing, more sky is covering and I begin to tell myself that we will not have time to film …
We arrive in the corner. I install all the equipment to film, but the rain begins to fall. So I hurry even more to try at least one ride! Everything is ready and we go on the bikes. But unfortunately the rain intensifies and will not stop! I am so angry … I would have liked to bring back images of this road, but in fixed plan! And flying the drone in this zone … But the rain comes spoil everything! I’m literally disgusted!
Back to home, under the rain. The most frustrating thing is when we came back to home, the rain stops!
A lot of people run after big houses,big hotels … I’m all the reverse! Give me a little piece of land on top of a mountain, a panorama of madness and 2 or 3 motorbikes … And I would be the happiest man in the world. It may sound stupid to some people, but it makes so much sense to me.
As I grew up, I learned to appreciate simple things. Younger, I always tended to want the last gadget out, a dreaming about inordinate things thinking that happiness was on it. But in fact, I was totally lost … Real happiness, it is in simple things! Things you like to do, to share, and this is not about material things. To me,for example on good travel or nature and motorcycles are in a perfect osmosis, it’s something that make me happy.
Night falls in Castellbell. And we’re preparing all our stuff together, because tomorrow it will be time to leave this country. I am so happy to have been able to live and discover Catalonia in this way for 10 days. Even if the weather wasn’t at the top, I saw and lived things that will remain for ever.
Once the vehicles are loaded, bitterness and sadness grabs me. There are very few places where I feel so good that I was, but Castellbell is definitely one of them. The view, the friendliness of the people here, the climate, the roads … and the animals of the house will miss me, especially the dogs. So I still play a little with them, it’s my way of saying goodbye.
Everyone is ready and sitting in his corner. I think everyone starts to regret the departure … You know, this atmosphere that always reigns at the end of holidays … well we are on it. This sensation is the end of something magical.
Without really knowing why, I propose to everyone to leave tonight, i mean, right now. I thought I would be repacked with my idea but it is the opposite! Everyone is ok about that. It maybe our way of countering the sadness of departure, leaving directly without the day ending.
The time to say a big thank you to the person who welcomed us, a real BOSS, who will have made us taste the flavors of the corner, and will have been really nice with us.
We took the road, direction to Paris!
I needed this cut, I was demotivated in Paris, and well here I am ok now! A beautiful road trip, which is only the beginning of a beautiful series for this 2016 year.