On the Road Again!

It's only a week since we got back from the Autumn trip to Spain and of course, France.   It seems we have been very lucky.  The torrential rain and flooding that was forecast for the Valencia hit this week and there has been devastation.   The area around Valencia has extremes of flooding and sadly, loss of life. The pattern seems to be moving north east and today there are videos and photos from Castellon to Vinaros with flooding and deep water rushing down the roads. This is the area we have just returned from. To use a oft abused phrase "Thoughts and Prayers" to everyone living in the area.

So there I was watching the TV. In my house.  We have a Ring doorbell.  My phone tells me that my delivery is going to be delivered from 4.15pm.  It's 4.11pm. No Ring on the doorbell .  But it does notice someone has walked in front of it.  Amazon guy.  Dumps parcel down the side of the house.  Takes photo. Email from Amazon arrives to say it's delivered.  Clicking "No so great" actually seems to do f*ck all. Just takes me to the order page!

Bath Council backs down. Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) Council has withdrawn plans to introduce emission-based charges for motorcycle parking. B&NES Council said yesterday that amended emission-based parking charges will be introduced in January 2025. However, following a strong campaign, the Council has decided to back down on the motorcycle charges. A brief statement said: “Introducing emission-based charges for motorbikes has been withdrawn due to feedback received through the public consultation and technical challenges in providing them a lower parking charge. MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said: “We are delighted that motorcycle parking will remain free of charge in Bath and surrounding towns. But we need to be mindful that the statement from the Council suggests we have won on a technicality rather than winning in principle. We must remain vigilant for a renewed attempt to introduce charges for motorcycles further down ...

Leeds and Bradford MAG will fight Leeds City Council’s underhanded motorcycle parking policy changes.  The Council announced plans to charge for car parking whilst neglecting to mention that plans cover motorcycles too.  Leeds and Bradford MAG (L&B MAG) is gearing up to resist a covert policy change on motorcycle parking charges by Leeds City Council.  Plans announced by the City Council will introduce car parking charges at three parks in the city.  Despite there being no reference to motorcycles in the consultation documentation, L&B MAG sought reassurances that motorcycles would not be affected. In a shocking response the council said: “We can confirm that at present the proposals within the parking order do include motorcycles under the definition of a motor vehicle as being expected to pay for parking.” Thanks to extreme diligence L&B MAG has uncovered this decision which contravenes current policy to allow motorcycles free parking throughout the cit...

MAG has sought and received confirmation that the Government’s new Motor Insurance Taskforce includes motorcycle insurance in its remit. Announcements were made last week of the first meeting of a new Government Motor Insurance Taskforce.  The pledge to deal with spiralling car insurance costs was included in Labour’s election manifesto. MAG expressed concern that all the rhetoric mentioned car insurance exclusively, as did last week’s announcements.  The Department for Transport (DfT) press release stated: “New taskforce is a major step forward in getting a fair deal for UK drivers by rooting out factors that increase costs for car insurance industry.” MAG has since obtained confirmation from Department officials that motorcycle insurance is within the remit of the new taskforce. MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said: “Whilst it is disappointing that we need to go through the process of ensuring the interests of motorcyclists are being cove...

The last day of this year's holiday.  The CCP aire at Cayeux sur Mer was really quiet overnight. Even the usual moped with loud expansion chamber was missing from the evening sounds.  Man it was cold. Much colder than Lyons the night before. Then again according to the dash board temp gauge around 14°C in the day barely matched the Alcossebre overnight temps! So this morning we were up. Used the drains of both grey and clean water tanks. And the cassette. After that the red 🔴 light stayed on, even with the minimum water in it so swirl the blue Thetford "tea bag" in. Bit of fiddling and gave up for the time being. It went out on its own! We had a similar problem earlier in the week with the grey water showing the red light after emptying. That also fixed itself! Max took us to the A16. It's the only toll section I don't mind paying for. I can't stand the 80kph run from Abbeville to Boulogne. It's boring!! Max also gave us an ETA of 12.47pm. Officially we w...

Only a short run today from Lyons la Forêt to the coast.  With Max set to no tolls we seemed to be off on a magical mystery tour. I had imagined we would head north and bump into the A28. We didn't see it. We had to have crossed over it... The journey took us to Eu and Le Tréport. I did think of stopping there but we wanted to get to Cayeux for lunch and a walk along to the beach huts. Checking the app showed the CCP aire to have 5 of 18 free. I had booked before we set off from home as we saw that consecutive days showed it full. We arrived about 1.30pm. The site had plenty of free spaces. We backed in and didn't need levellers this time. From the Google reviews the site has been there since 2022. I have seen it "pending" on the CCP app for a while. This is a popular area for us.  When day trips were cheap we came to St Valery a few times on the bike, and we have been locally to a campsite in the Moho. Way back we even had a Suzuki Owners Club weekend away in St Val...