Faro 2002 (Part 1)

Faro Rally, 13th to 26th July 2002
Run to the Sun (Wine, Women and Thong)
Jottings from the diary of Rebel (from Centre 16)

(Pictures from Bob Perkins of Centre 15)
(More pictures from Rob Keenan of Centre 16)
(Even more pictures from Ashley 'Budgie' Philbricks of Centre 8)
(And even more pictures from Tomo of Centre 20)

Some of those present
Magic, Posti, Taf, Rob, Roo, Craig, Leon, Jen, Eddie, Budgie, Jerry, Ray, Angus, Big Bob, Little John, Big Steve, Mike, Jim, Gordon, Derek, Rose & Ade, Paul and others who's names and faces are all tangled up. Met Max and Tony at Salamanca, Tomo, Steve, Linda, Bill and Judy at Faro. Plus some people called "Loo Roll" and "Rebel" to protect the guilty.

Day 1 Saturday 13/7/02

Arrived at the dockside at 6pm, bikes everywhere, It was the same ferry that the Back Street Heroes were getting, there was about 170 bike being loaded. Found Magic got the tickets and boarded the boat at 7.15pm. Stowed my gear in the cabin and went to the bar. There was a stag night group (all wearing dresses) and a couple of hen night parties. The cabaret was tolerable once the bingo had finished, after a couple of pints of John Smiths and some wine it was a lot better especially when the dancing girls came on. Stayed to the end of the disco finally went to bed at about 2pm. Last text message to son as we passed the Isle of White, ' Hi Adam I'm pissed.'

Day 2 Sunday 14/7/02

Woke up at 11.30 felt great, it was a bright sunny day, the Bay of Biscay was like a millpond. Had a few beers in the side bar whilst listening to an excellent teenage Jazz band that were going on tour with their school (I think) and had scrounged a gig on the boat. When they had finished their session Taf suggested going to the sun deck bar at the back of the boat 'cos they serve Sangria there. We found, after buying 3 jugs of Sangria that the jug was mostly full of ice and the sangria was watered down, we could only get 4 small glasses of Sangria from each jug, and it cost £4.95 per jug. Taf went down to the duty free and bought 5 bottles of sangria at £1.75 each, each time the bar staff went past we scrounged ice for our sangria jugs. Some time during the afternoon we ran out of Sangria so I went to the duty free and bought 4 more bottles.
Taf was getting a sun burnt head, he had left his hat in the cabin and could not be bothered to go and fetch it so he put a plastic bag on his head to keep the sun off. After about half an hour he was looking very hot and had sweat dripping down his face.

Quote of the day, Taf. "I'll just have one more last one." This in the late afternoon whilst finishing the last half a jug of sangria virtually single-handed.

Posti was admiring some of the girls sunbathing on the deck someone asked him to score them out of 10 or something, Posti said on a scale of 0 to 2 he would give them all one (anytime).

Had Dinner and went to the cabaret in the evening, sobered up a bit and had an early night, well 01.00 am.
During the disco after the cabaret, one of the bride's from one of the hen night parties that were on board was given a tee shirt with a series of tasks that she had to perform. One of the tasks was to snog a bald man, she chose Big Steve, who is very bald, he seemed to quite enjoy it. Later on the same girl turned up and asked Steve to dance with her, another task on her tee shirt was to dance with an attractive man. Steve picked her up and carried her to the dance floor, much to the delight of the rest of the hen night party. Several other girls from the party joined in with the dance, including one of the bride's maids who was extremely well endowed in the chest area. Steve came back with his eyes rolling, he reckoned he had never seen a pair of breasts trying to go in so many different directions at the same time.

Day 3 Monday 15/7/02

A rrived in Bilbao at 08.00, disembarked, waited until all the Back Street Heroes groups had gone before leaving the port. We rode as a group out of the port and over the mountains heading south to Salamanca, it was cloudy and cold. At the first fuel stop, about 80 miles, I put my sweatshirt on and had words with Magic about the temperature and the possibility that he had sold his soul to the wrong devil, he assured me it would get warmer. The group had split into about 3 separate groups due to the road conditions and different peoples riding abilities and wishes.
As we rode down the southern side of the mountains on to the plateau the clouds disappeared and the temperature soared. The scenery turned from mountains to spaghetti western country, the road stopped winding and became dead straight as far as you could see.

At the second fuel, and lunch stop somewhere near Valladolid, I took my sweatshirt off and never put it on again, Magic asked me if I was enjoying myself 'cos I was grinning from ear to ear. We had been riding at 70 to 75 mph and getting hot, It was great, all I had wanted to do was ride my bike in the sunshine, the possibility of actually being hot at these speeds hadn't really occurred to me. It was a great bonus and made a big difference to the distance I could ride and how relaxed I was.

The next 'hop' about 70 miles got us to the campsite at Salamanca, we arrived at about 3pm. Taf and myself are sharing my tent to save a few Euro's on the camping fees. My tent has two entrances so there were a few jokes about tradesmen's entrance and back passages. Taf's Welsh, so I have been warned to watch out, the general consensus of opinion is I am not woolly enough for him, so I should be safe, anyway I have a padlock that I can use on my sleeping bag, and I can also Locktight the Zip shut.
Had a shower and went to the bar on the camp site, Tony and Max were already there, we joined them for a few beers and tortillas, Paella and other Spanish munchies.

Jerry spent about 2 hours fixing the Triumph, the ignition switch had fallen apart and the exhausts had come adrift, the bike was using massive amounts of oil 'cos it has a broken oil ring on one of the pistons.

In the evening we had a whip round, put 10 Euros in the pot and started on the Sangria, Taf was in charge of the money and ordering stuff at the bar, he did a fantastic job, even when really pissed. The bar staff made 'special' sangria (extra strong); they didn't expect us to get through more than 3 jugs. They also supplied all sorts of tapas for us to nibble. They had put bananas in the jugs of Sangria, I had a fruit rush at about 9 ish and spent about 2 hours eating all the fruit out of the jugs and fighting Jen for the Bananas, I must have eaten about 2 pints of Sangria soaked Fruit. All together we drank 20 jugs of Sangria between about 25 of us.

I spent part of the early evening trying to get my mobile phone enabled on the 'Movistar' finally achieved it and sent a text message to son 'Hi Adam, I'm pissed again'.

Halfway through the evening 3 coach loads of Spanish college student arrived and started putting up tents opposite the bar. So, here is the scene, 25 Sangria soaked British Motorcyclists sitting outside a bar, 150 Spanish teenage virgin's bent over banging in tent pegs, I'll say no more about it. Posti went to bed early and missed it all but had had a good attempt at chatting up some young Spanish backpackers earlier in the evening.

About 1am we had run out of Sangria there was only Taf, Big Steve and myself and some Germans in the bar, the bar staff had had such a good evening they were not allowing us to pay for any drinks. Using my phrase book and some reading glasses belonging to a German woman in the bar, I ordered, in Spanish, a small beer, one ambulance and a large aspirin.
Went to bed at about 1.30am, text message to son 'We have drunk so much sangria they are giving us free beer' actually it read 'we have drunk drunk so much sangria they are giving us free beer beer.