In 2001 I then took a trip to Wales to visit the friends I had made. I took a very pleasant sailing with , from Hook of Holland to Harwich on the HSS.                                 I went to Bill and Phyl first (Llanfoist near Abergavenny), from there to Hughley, I was generously invited to stay over for the night. I accepted wholeheartedly, but in the morning had one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. When I tried to start the engine, it wouldn't go. Having had a same experience a couple of weeks ago and where no real explaining was found, I jumped to the conclusion it was the same failure again. We then called for the AA, for assistance. That took three hours ! I then decide to walk back to my bike and have another closer look. Turning the key in the ignition I saw the little lights on the dashboard were on. It wasn't the battery, as I had suspected ! A better look told me, the bike was in gear and then it won't start !!! With a big red face I now had to tell the story. Call off the AA and be on my way, with a delay of about four hours !

Next I crossed Wales through Aberystwyth to Fishguard and from there a scenic route trough the Brecon Beacons back again to Llanfoist and after that back to Harwich. Wales is a very nice "place" to ride your bike. You've got the narrow lanes ( a bit more dangerous than within a car. The car has more body in case of...), the "curves" , the sightings etc. A bit of sun is nice as well, though. I must say that in all the years I've been to Wales, I always had nice weather. Okay, the occasional rainshower, but nothing very serious. And although the forecast could have been a lot better I had only two showers and not too heavy either.

Well, on the last day, on my way back to Harwich and the ferry, I rode through some debris of which I had hoped it was soft. But when I rode over it, it made a "clang" sound and I thought to myself : this isn't good. It wasn't! After a couple of miles the bike began to (swagger) and I had to stop. Flat tyre!            Luckily I just had joined the A 40 outside of Gloucester and there was a lay-by with a SOS phone. I made the call and asked for help. They said they'd send a police officer to check in. That took an hour. He then checked with the to make certain that my call had come through properly. It had and he left the place, not before telling me that if they hadn't shown up in about an hour, I should be on the phone again.                                                                        

So I waited another hour, went back on the phone and after being promised they'd call me back to tell me how long it would take, I started to wait again. After a couple of minutes the phone rang and I was being told that someone was to arrive in  about 5 to 10 minutes. He did!    

                                                                                                                                               This man then tried to see what was wrong with the tyre ( the police officer had already found and marked the puncture), to come to the conclusion that there  was an object still inside, So the best thing to do was to go to a garage and find a new tyre. He took me back to Gloucester where we found a garage first, that had the proper tyre, but not the time to put it on and a tyre centre on the other side of the road, that didn't have the tyre, but had the time. So the following isn't hard to guess.

After about three hours I returned on the road. But then I missed the ferry, obviously.

I then had to take the night ferry, which had no real storage for motorbikes, but they took me along anyway. I had to take a cabin, but that included a diner and breakfast as well, which wasn't a very bad deal. The next good thing was that it was very quite. Only 16 cars and some trucks. I enjoyed the sailing.