Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Today I was working for Plymouth College with some Year 9 students looking at Navigation on Dartmoor. It was very wet and windy and we survived outside of the minibus for half a day before running back to the bus for some food and warmth. With rain falling on and off all day, it was clear the Dart would be good to go. After we dropped the students back to school, Olly and I jumped on The Loop section which was much better than yesterday. We had planned this all along and my car had been pre positioned at 7am this morning making it pretty quick and easy to get a run in and be off again before 6pm

A bit of low water fun on the Teign and The Loop (Dart) today with good friend Olly. Seems the camera was not working very well

Today I have been out in the sun running a Rock Climbing Instructor refresher course for members of the Mountain Training Association. 5 candidates who were keen to share ideas and review their own practices meant we got a lot done and some great discussions had. We looked at Top and Bottom Roping, Abseils and lots of ways we can prevent problems occuring Thanks for a good day

Round Two! Another 30 odd students, 6 instructors, 4 minibuses, a trailer of bikes, a trailer of canoes/kayaks, lots of paperwork and driving of buses for me Working for Wet and High Adventures Ltd delivering Apprentice training for Bridgwater and Taunton College learners. I had a little more time this week so enjoyed a pasty on the beach at Porlock after dropping the groups off before heading back to manage some more kit and other teams returning from their activities.

This weekend I have been running a Level 3 Award in Education and Training on behalf of Wet and High Adventures Ltd .  All the candidates were Outdoor Instructors with either climbing or navigation as their subjects so we managed to spend a fair amount of time outside the classroom. We enjoyed lessons on orientating maps, using compasses, teaching belaying and many more. 4 students in total who did well and just need to submit their portfolios to be awarded the qualification. Well done all.

This week I have been working for Wet and High Adventures Ltd overseeing 7 instructors and 30 Bridgwater College Apprentices on various activities including Team Building, Paddling, Biking and a 2 day Expedition on Exmoor. This means I mainly drove minibuses and issue kit whilst all the other had fun in the sun! Same again next week

On 5th September I entered the Czech Republic and completed my aim to ride a motorcycle to all European Countries. ( I very nearly rode around it so the challenge was not complete as it has been my goal for the last 3 summers and I was worried I would not have a new plan) How the challenge came about?: In late 2016 I decided to ride a motorcycle to all EU countries, this being slightly (but not wholly) motivated by doing it whilst we were still a member of the EU.  This very quickly changed to riding the same bike (which meant I had to re-visit all countries I had already ridden through).  In March 2017 after some extensive research (ie I liked the look of it, it was the big brother of my current bike -Tiger 800. test ride was fun and it was not a BMW GS), I purchased a Triumph Explorer XCa from Total Triumph . I started making plans and then added all the other European Countries as I didn't want to miss them out just because they weren't in the EU. I am so ...

After a 2 hour blast from the hostel in Brussels to the Calais Ferry Port, I didn't even stop, I flashed my passport and rolled straight onto a ferry. 5 mins later after strapping the bike down I was in the club lounge drinking coffee and eating a sausage sandwich. Doing a quick google check I discovered the M20 was closed from Dover so I had to take a longer way round before getting onto the M3 and 303, and it was raining. Good old UK! I spotted a broken down bike and did a quick U turn and went back to see if I could help. He was a Swiss biker riding a BMW GS 1200 (this bit is important) that had run out of fuel. I went off and bought 5 litres of petrol and brought it back to him.  The bike started straight away and when he offered to pay me, I refused his money and made him say "Triumph bikes are needed to rescue broken down BMWs". Very silly I know but it made me laugh and he smiled so all was good. He took my picture and we went our separat...

6.45 on the road and yet again very cold at 6 degrees. After about 50km of Czech roads and another 100km of German countryside, I pulled over, stuck a few extra PSI in my tyes and hit the Autobahns heading for Brussels. After 6.5 hours and 3 fuel and toilet stops, I entered Brussels and rode through the centre and past the EU Commission building on my British bike, however being 4.30pm on a Friday afternoon, no one was there anyway. I met up with Andy (who I met on my last tour) at the hostel and after a quick shower, we headed out into town to get some food and chat about our different journeys. The 2 of us have had some amazing adventures and successfully navigated our way around Europe on two wheels. The Brussels underground system however was somewhat challenging but we managed to get back to the hostel with only one stop in the wrong direction.

A long day today. Leaving the campsite at 06:15 it was so cold, about 7 degrees in fact so  I had evey item of clothing with me on. At 7.27 am I entered Czech Reublic and it was somehow even colder at 6 degrees. I gave up and grabbed a coffee in the nearest petrol station and waited for the sun to warm up a bit. Entering The Czech Republic was the last country on my list (number 36 in fact) of Mainland European Countries and so it was a case of Europe Complete. I will justify my selection of countries in a later blog post. Once I got going again the route I chose seem to contain all the roadworks so it was a little stop start but in between the roads were very good with plenty of interest. Any way, 9 hours of riding in a westerly direction has me here , near the border at my last campsite. I have a hostel in Brussels booked for tomorrow as it will be a long ride to get there.

It was cold in Hungary this morning. Single figures when I got up and in the first hour of the ride it was actually unpleasant. I had both heated seat and grips on full. It started to warm slightly but never the heat of the day before. Once into Slovakia (new country so I earn a sticker). I found some amazing roads and headed for the Tatras (on the Polish border).  The temperature was now mid teens so actually very nice for riding. I spent a few hours on the road that runs along the flank of the Tatras and had a few coffees to admire the view before pushing on west which is the way I must always be heading now. My campsite here has a bolted climbing crag but I have no gear and no one to belay me so will put it on my list for a revisit some time. Yesterdays blog has now had the map and additional pictures added.

What a great day, yet again Romania delivers! A 6:45 start and I was heading up the 7C by 7:30. "I am so great, I have missed all the traffic" thought I as I came round the corner and had to stop for over 10 minutes whilst about a million sheep , a few donkeys, dogs, a couple of horses and 4 farmers wandered down the road. Once I carried on there was a trail of sheep poo for 5km so they must have started early to move them that far. Once past this however, the road was virtually my own. I saw about 4 cars on the way up. I was riding South to North so the classic picture was my descent. It was pretty cold up to at 11 degrees as the sun was only just starting to touch the road in places. Once down the other side it was coffee and croissant and a chat to a group of British bikers. Staying true to my plan, I headed North without using the A1 (woudl have saved 3 hours riding) but used the DN1 which was a pretty good road in itself with fast sweeping be...

Ah Romania, thank you for having some decent roads. A very early start 5:45 from Moldova saw me through the border and into Romania by 7am.  I have to say, I am not impressed with the border back into the EU. All the barriers were up so anyone could drive through un checked, the customs lady really couldn't give a monkeys and was so half hearted at looking in vehicles and she had no interest in checking my bike paperwork. And the Romanian street dogs started chasing me less then 100m from the border gate. Arrrrgh. Within an hour, things started to look up. I saw hills in the distance and the road started to wind its way through them. First the DN11, then the DN73 and finally the DN73C that delivered me to my campsite here at 5.30pm. A long day. It was hot today with temps in the mid thirties so I rode for a few hours then hid in a cafe to cool down. This was repeated 4 times and I arrived in a very sweaty dehydrated mess. got more of the same to look forward to t...