Morocco Motorcycle Trip Report - Day 1
Saturday, 27 September 2014
Our ferry was leaving from Portsmouth at 08:15 and we had to be there at least 45 minutes before. We both had to leave home quite early to get to the ferry on time. The 27th was my wedding anniversary so I spent some time with the good lady on the evening of the 26th which meant I got to sleep very late, Saturday morning really. Neither Locky nor myself could sleep much the night before, I kept waking up and checking the time to make sure I haven't overslept, we each slept around 3-4 hours in total. We'd arranged to meet at Chieveley Services where the M4 crosses the A34. Locky had trouble, part of his route on the M5 was closed so he had to take a detour, but we still ended up being ahead of schedule. I had no trouble, my route was all clear with no traffic at all as it was very early.
I took a blurry mobile phone picture of us at the services (be prepared for a few more blurry pics):
We arrived at the port in good time after the satnav took us on an unconventional route that turned out to be quite nice. The weather was good and the day was brightening up with the shipping forecast looking decent. We would soon be on the Etretat of Brittany Ferries heading for Santander, Spain, but it didn't yet feel like we're at the start of an adventure.
Here we are in the queue at the ferry, waiting to get past customs:
Leaving port:
Dave the Rat making himself comfortable in our cabin for the ferry journey:
Locky bought us some coffee and we settled in for the journey with a breakfast that's a bit of a tradition in my family, buttermilk rusks and biltong, not even bacon beats that!
Not long after and we had some trouble with Dave getting seasick:
Having a pint before bed, me staring out the window at the horizon, it works well, makes the movement of the boat feel less:
We went to bed early, 9pm, and we slept well. The motion of the ocean is like being rocked to sleep, but the thunderous noise of Locky's snoring requires some good earplugs. It was nice knowing that we'd be arriving in Spain when we wake up.