Spain and Scotland - Bilbao to Galashiels

Tuesday 21 - Saturday 25 May, Spain and Scotland - Bilbao to Galashiels

Badger came to see me in the hospital at 8.00am on Tuesday morning. He had brought some more of my stuff round and was going to ride my Honda out to the ferry terminal, get a lift back to Bilbao from a couple of Bikers from Galashiels who were staying at his hotel and going back on the same ferry as him. He was then going to ride out to the terminal on his Triumph and attempt to get both bikes back to Portsmouth. I was feeling a lot better and could have probably have got up but the Spanish doctors were insisting on me staying in bed and as I didn't want to create any problems with the insurance I had no choice to but to comply - it was very frustrating. Badger was still very shaken with the whole affair and it was all I could do to reassure him that he was taking by far the most sensible course of action.

Badger's visit was pretty brief as he had a lot to do by 10.00am - so off he went. I had arranged for a letter for him from the hospital to help him get my bike onto the ferry - he also took some snaps of me in my hospital bed as additional proof. He rode my Honda to the ferry terminal - explained the situation to the ferry staff and they agreed he could take both bikes. He then had to get a taxi back to his hotel, which took over 40 minutes and had to rush to get own bike to the terminal, which he managed to do. He kept in touch via my mobile and had a pretty stressful morning. When the ferry sailed at 10.30am he and both bikes were on board.

When he docked in Portsmouth on Wednesday morning they let him get both bikes off, he rode home to Bath on his bike, caught a train back to Portsmouth and rode my bike back to Bath as well - what a hero? He still felt guilty about leaving me and I still kept trying to reassure him that he doing the right thing. While Badger was wending his way home I was busy trying to arrange my own repatriation.

Both Bikes back in Portsmouth

My main worry was that I was covered for medical emergencies, I had purchased the outward ferry tickets on my Visa card and checked with them beforehand that they would provide emergency cover, but this would not be guaranteed and no repatriation could be arranged until they had checked with the hospital in Bilbao and my own doctor in Galashiels. The Spanish side was sorted out that day, but it took until Thursday and quite a few UK calls to sort out my own doctor's report. However as the crutches and brace didn't arrive until Thursday this didn't actually slow things down. I had to pay over 500 euros for the crutches and brace although the insurance people said that this would be refunded. At least I was now allowed out of bed - thank god!.

By the end of play on Thursday the insurance people confirmed that my claim was OK and they were finally able to start arranging my repatriation. To be honest I could have taken a taxi to the airport and got on a scheduled flight back to Edinburgh, but they wouldn't allow that - I had to be accompanied by a nurse on a flight that accepted patients. In the event they arranged to bring me home by air ambulance on Saturday morning - I couldn't wait. The Spanish hospital was fine, but I was bored stupid and to put the cherry on the cake I broke my Kindle luckily I had a couple of books on my mobile otherwise I would have gone truly mad. There was no wi-fi in the hospital and whilst I had my laptop with me - I couldn't do any real work without internet connectivity. It was great to phone home and tell Claire that I would be back on Saturday. My time in hospital was pretty tough on her and she couldn't even come and see me, plus her own shifts as a nurse in Edinburgh meant that there weren't even many times when we could talk on the phone.

Saturday finally came round and at about 10.30 an ambulance man turned up for me. This turned out to be Alfonso, who not only spoke really good English but was a fellow biker. After 5 days of near silence on my own it was great to have someone to talk to - particularly as he had been to North Africa before on his BMW and was keen to hear about the trip to Morocco. Alfonso and his crew took me to Bilbao airport and waited with me until the Air Ambulance turned up having first picked up another patient in Cadiz. I just want to say a huge thank you to Alfonso and his mates - they were great.

Alsfonso and his Mate

The air ambulance turned out to be an 8-seater twin-engined turbo prop - basically a small executive jet. There was a pilot - Ollie, co-pilot - Adrian, doctor - John and nurse - Liz as crew plus another patient George and his wife Patricia. Liz introduced the doctor to me as "Dr John", but didn't get it when I asked where his piano was? The company CEGA who handle patient transfers on behalf of insurers run this Air Ambulance as a sort of sweep-up service - picking up those patients that can't be handled by scheduled airlines. After my time in hospital it felt great to be going home by private plane.

The Air Ambulance at Bilboa Airport

The flight plan was to fly to Biggin Hill, where George, Patricia and Dr John would be taken by ambulance to George's local hospital, they would refuel the plane and take me on to Edinburgh where an ambulance would get me home to Galashiels. When we landed at Biggin Hill it was full of German executive jets that had flown VIPs over for the Champions League Final at Wembley. We saw a few Mercedes Limos turn up to whisk people off to Wembley - how the other half live!

Taking off at Bilboa

Adrian and Ollie

Adrian, Liz , Me and Ollie at Biggin Hill

Once we had refueled the four of us got back on board and headed up to Edinburgh. The weather had been awful the whole time I was in Bilbao - in fact they had had one of the wettest springs for years, but by the time we got to the UK the weather had cleared up and it got better as we headed North. I had an amazing view of Morecambe Bay and then we turned East as we headed for Edinburgh and I had a panoramic view of the whole of the Borders including Galashiels. We got a fantastic view of Edinburgh as we landed at about 5pm. I felt a bit sorry for the crew as all the hotels in Edinburgh were full for the Marathon and they still had to get a taxi to Glasgow, which was the closest place they could get in at!

Landing at Edinburgh

Within 5 minutes of landing the ambulance taking me home turned up and off we went on the final leg of my journey. I knew I was back in the Borders as within a few minutes we had established that the ambulance driver was friendly with a colleague of Claire's and the other crew member - Jo was best friends with an old colleague of mine in Peebles - but that's what the Borders are like! After nearly a month abroad it felt weird but nice to be driving on the left again.

In less than an hour I was back home in Galashiels and Bella - our mad lurcher was running down to meet me. Claire was home as were my daughters Kate and Jess who'd come for the weekend from London and Edinburgh respectively. It was wonderful to be back in the bosom of my family.

Back Home

Jess, Claire and Denzil

Kate, Claire, Denzil and Bella

Afterwards

It only took a week or so to get back on my feet properly again. Within a week of getting back home I'd managed to see my orthopedic consultant, who confirmed that there were no complications arising from the dislocation. It took a few massages to sort out my shoulder and back, but they are fine now. My left elbow is a lot better but still a bit dodgy.

Badger looked after the Honda for a couple of weeks then he drove it up to Preston en route to a family do in Blackburn. Claire and I met up with him and his family at a service station and I drove the bike back to Galashiels. I had to buy a new indicator lens and I also arranged for a service with Willy Stewart before having it MOT'ed at the end of June. It sailed through the MOT although they recommended that I change the front pads and wheel bearings which I arranged for Willy to do. The insurance company refunded me for the crutches and brace and took care of all the other medical bills. It probably cost £10-15K just to fly me back.

It has taken me until September to complete this blog - but it's finally done. Thanks to the first decent summer for years in Scotland I've been out and about quite a bit on the bike discovering bits of the Borders and Northumberland that I've never been to before. In June GV - an old cycling mate from Essex - came up to the North-East on his 1960's Norton Commando, I met up with him in Durham, we rode up to Galashiels and spent a day riding round the Borders. Claire and I are off to Bath to meet up with Badger and Kate this weekend, unfortunately Eddie is away in France so it might be a while before we meet up again. Badger and I are already planning another trip. He still wants to get to that hotel on the edge of the Sahara. However as I might not be able to get medical insurance it might be the Scottish Highlands instead. He seems to have the bug and is even considering getting a BMW 1200 GS. I'm more than happy to stay with the Pan European though I did fit some bar risers that Eddie sent up for me.

I want to say thanks to: -

• Ian Hunter for selling me the Honda and being a nice guy.
• Eddie Stewart for all his assitance and spanner work.
• Ian at Anderson & Wilson for sorting out my hydraulics.
• Chris Billam at TyreFactors.com Ltd for letting me go away for a month.
• Badger (Chris Palmer) for inviting me in the first place and being such a hero in getting the Honda back to me.
• Eddie Lambah-Stoate for putting up with my blethering for two weeks and teaching me some of the basics of riding a motorcycle.
• Alan & Jackie, Duncan & Linzi in Sunderland / Jim, Annette & Brigit in Huddersfield / The Palmer Family in Bath / Sid & Lottie in Montpelier / Jane & Mark, Jame & Johnny in Ayamonte / Hugo and Bianca in Lisbon for all their hospitality.
• All the medical staff, ambulance teams and CEGA flight crew for taking care of me and getting me home again.
• My wife Claire, my daughters Jess and Kate, Philip Munro (Jess's boyfriend) for encouraging me to go and for putting up with me when I got home.

Denzil (Mike Dennison)
04 September 2013
Galashiels
Scotland

Galashiels - from my front door

Spain - Burgos to Bilbao

Day 24 - Monday 20 May, Spain - Burgos to Bilbao

We were up and ready for breakfast by 8.00am on Monday morning. The skies were still overcast, but it wasn't raining, unfortunately it was also quite cool so it looked like another day in waterproofs. After breakfast we settled our bill and loaded up the bikes. I had been worried about where we had parked, but we got under way without problem. Badger - as ever - was navigating and had plotted a route to keep us off major roads wherever possible. As usual I was quite happy to leave it all to him and his multiple maps and took little notice of the actual route.

It didn't take long to clear Burgos and we were soon on a decent single-carriageway road a bit like a minor A road in the UK I suppose. There seemed to be quite a lot of road development going on in and around Burgos and for the first hour or so the going was pretty easy - overtaking the many commercial vehicles kept us on our toes. As we got headed north we started to see mountain ranges in the distance - presumably part of the Picos de Europa range that covers this part of the Basque region. After about an hour's riding Badger turned off the main road and headed us onto a minor road and into the hills.

This made for much more interesting riding, with lots of tight bends and narrow roads through tiny villages in tight valleys. As we headed north we started climbing up as we got properly into the mountains. By about 11 o'clock we reached the summit of the range we were on and began our descent. The road was windy but quite fast and after about half a mile we rounded a long left hand bend and a huge panorama swept into view. The road below us turned into several kilometers of hair pin bend as it descended to the plain below, which was visible for miles in front of us until it reached yet another mountain range in the far distance. Badger pulled in on the first hairpin to get some shots from this amazing viewpoint.

A Panoramic View

I was taking a few snaps and Badger was videoing the scene, there was not a car on the road, our only companion was an eagle or buzzard soaring effortlessly overhead. Badger decided that this would be a great spot to film us on the bikes, so we took turns riding up and down whilst the other recorded them on video - video of me, video of Badger . Whilst we were playing this game a very fit cyclist climbed up past us - he must have been super-fit as it was some climb. Once we had finished clowning about we rode down to the town below and pulled in for the serious business of elevenses.

A Super-Fit Cyclist

After a couple of cafe con leches and a cake each we headed off for the last leg into Bilbao or "Bilbo" as it is known in Basque - honest!. This was about an hour's interesting ride away. Bilbao is not actually on the sea, it's on a river and about 14 kilometers inland. It is also surrounded by steep mountains, which must have made it very easy to defend in medieval times, but a nightmare for road builders. As we approached the sun started to come out and by the time we had made our way to the centre of town it was starting to get warm.

As usual we headed for the station and I stayed with the bikes whilst Badger went to locate the tourist office. This turned out to be situated in the opera house, which is a rather beautiful building on the other side of the river directly opposite the station - so off we went. We found a spot to park behind the opera house in a triangular area behind the tram lines. We parked the bikes and I stayed with them whilst Badger went round the front into the tourist office.

Bilbao Opera House

I took a few snaps and decided to take my waterproofs off as I was starting to get a bit hot and bothered. I couldn't find anywhere to sit down to do this so I put my foot on the Pan's footrest while I bent down to undo the velcro fastenings. This proved to be a very bad move indeed, I felt a twinge in my backside so adjusted my position and tried again and started screaming! I had dislocated my right hip - again - ouch!

Disaster Strikes

For those of you fortunate never to have had this experience, the best way I can describe it is as a world of pain! It really does hurt. I managed to get all my weight onto my left leg and started shouting for help. There were plenty of people about and a few of them realised I was in trouble and came over to assist. It must have looked very odd to them, one minute I was fine - the next I was screaming for no apparent reason. I managed to get someone to phone for an ambulance on my mobile and get an English-speaker on the line. I explained to her that I had dislocated my hip and needed to go to hospital for an operation to put it back in, one of the people assisting me explained my location to the controller. It must have been about 1 or 1.30pm by then.

When Badger came back - he thought I was mucking about until he saw the pain on my face. It seemed to take an age for the ambulance to arrive, but after about 10 minutes or so it finally turned up. Badger of course shot a video. The next few hours were a nightmare. I was given no pain relief whatsoever, the trip to the hospital was hellish and it was about 4 hours before I was finally given some analgesic. They x-rayed my hip and operated at about 7pm that evening, I was given a general anaesthetic and by about 8pm was lying in a bed in a single room feeling a lot better. The hip was sore, but compared to the pain when dislocated this was nothing.

Hospitalised

As I was in hospital poor old Badger had to sort everything else out. He found a hotel directly opposite where I had had my accident. They had underground storage for the bikes. Once he'd got the bikes safely stowed he got some gear together for me - clothes, shaving gear etc and most importantly kindle and USB charger for my phone. He came to visit me after the operation and was in a terrible state. By then the doctors had explained that I would have to stay off my feet for a few days, then I would need crutches and a special brace to protect my hip before they would allow me home. Badger was sure whether he should stay with me or take the ferry and possibly both bikes home on the ferry the next day. He was feeling guilty because he'd asked me to come on the trip in the first place and felt that somehow it was his responsibility. I tried to convince him that it wasn't his responsibility and also that the best thing he could do would be to get the ferry back on Tuesday, taking my bike if possible.

Day Summary

Day -	24
Miles Covered in Day	100 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	4000 approx.

Portugal and Spain - Celorica da Beira to Burgos

Day 23 - Sunday 19 May, Portugal and Spain - Celorica da Beira to Burgos

Sunday dawned sunny but cool and windy as Badger and I went down for Breakfast, after which I carried out a few emergency repairs on the Pan European with some red electrical tape; basically just taping over the indicator lense cracks and adding some tape to keep the mirror attached to the fairing. By about 9.30 we were on the road headed for Spain. Badger reckoned that we should aim to get to Salamanca by lunch time and then stay overnight at Valladolid - leaving a day's ride on Monday to get to Bilbao and then the ferry back to Portsmouth on Tuesday morning.

We basically just climbed out of the valley in which Celorica da Beira is situated and kept climbing - it was all very dramatic and very picturesque. The road swept dramatically round to the right just before it topped out and - for a few moments - we had an amazing panoramic view of Celorica. We seemed to have left the sunshine behind in Celorica as the skies clouded over but it still made for reasonably pleasant riding conditions. We must have been crossing quite a high region, the road rolled up and down and we crossed a dramatic gorge on what looked like a smaller version of the Millau bridge but there was no obvious major descent. It took about 45 minutes of fairly relaxed riding to reach the Spanish border.

Not long after we had crossed into Spain the road became a motorway - the Autovia de Castilla, which was the only practical route to Valladolid. I don't know if it was the weather or end of holiday blues, but Sunday's ride felt more than a little melancholic. By late morning we were both ready for a coffee break so we got off the motorway at Cuidad Rodrigo and went into the town in search of a cafe. This proved to be a good choice as Cuidad Rodrigo has a beautiful and historic centre with a castle, cathedral and city walls. We found a place to park just outside the cathedral and a cafe that was showing the Moto GP as we enjoyed our coffee and cakes. Badger and I were half inclined to hang around to watch all the races, but we still had quite a few miles still to do.

Cuidad de Rodrigo

After filling up we got back on the motorway and decided to head for Salamanca for lunch. The ride was uneventful, the traffic was pretty light and we took the opportunity to get some fast miles in. At about one o'clock we went into Salamanca and headed for the station to find a lunch-stop. We spent about 20 minutes or so looking for somewhere but nothing was forthcoming and Badger was distinctly underwhelmed by the station. In the end we decided just to get back onto the motorway and stop at the next services. These turned out to be quite a few miles down the road but we eventually found a reasonable truck-stop place and were able to catch the last few laps of the Moto GP whilst eating a very reasonably priced lunch.

Once the GP had finished we got back on to the motorway and pressed on. We got to Valladolid long before 4pm and decided to just keep going. I suggested that we try to get as far as Burgos so that we had a easy morning's ride to Bilbao on Monday, allowing me an afternoon to catch up with the blog and Badger was happy to go along with this. By about 4.30 the skies in the distance were getting very dark and threatening and we could see a heavy rain storm heading our way fast. We were riding without waterproofs and had just passed a service station a few miles back - we ended up in a race to find another service station before we got soaked. We eventually found a garage but not before it had started raining - luckily it was only light so we were only a little damp. We filled up the bikes and had a quick coffee before donning some warm gear and our waterproofs then setting off.

The rain storm turned out to be heavy but brief - the worst was over in about 30 minutes. The Pan European did an excellent job of keeping the worst of the weather off and I was very grateful for the heated grips although the left-hand side wasn't working properly they still did a good job - my cheapo Aldi boots worked too. The rest of the journey to Burgos was a bit of a drag - it was cold, damp and a bit miserable. I was very pleased to arrive at Burgos by about 6.30. We got a bit lost going into the town but were soon heading into the historic centre.

The place seemed to have pretty much closed for the evening and we couldn't find anything that looked decent but cheap in the centre so we drove around for about 10 minutes or so before finding a 2 star place that had some parking bays reasonably close. To be honest I was a bit disappointed by Burgos - I'd only been there once before and had had an excellent evening, but that had been in summer when the town had been en fete and very lively. Our room was fine however and we found a bar that did grub just down the street - it felt like very pub-like and quite cosy. We both felt a lot better once we got on the outside of some pasta and a couple of pints of local beer. We turned in pretty early, we were both tired after the day's ride and wanted to get up early to avoid any hassle over where we had parked the bikes.

Day Summary

Day -	23
Miles Covered in Day	260 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3900 approx.