Embracing the Pre-Adventure by Martin Smith
Martin Smith, author of Are We Doing the Stelvio Today? shares a short travel story about embracing the pre-adventure:
Pre-adventure is having to make changes on the fly before departure. Is this classed as part of the adventure? If you accept, as I do, that the planning is part of the journey then the answer is yes.
I had been planning for the next trip to the Picos, Asturias, Galicia and Portugal. With the route selected it was time to kick back and enjoy a nice cuppa while admiring my work. That was, until, the email dropped into my inbox like a casually tossed grenade. The email from Brittany Ferries, in relation to my inbound ferry, got right down to business “I’m writing to you today to confirm your sailing on Connemara has been cancelled.” … BOOM!
I had spent so long considering the viral effects of COVID that I had not considered to be blindsided by the economic fallout. I suppose naively I had thought that the routes were viable and, like myself, other bikers had fallen over themselves to book when Europe opened. In my mind, the ferries were booked to capacity. This was a pre-adventure obstacle.
On opening the email, I threw my head back in my chair. I stared at the ceiling, my eyes darting side-to-side as if looking for an answer that would emerge from the white emulsion. I held this posture for a couple of minutes while I considered my options. Initially, ‘right, it’s all off!’ became ‘ok, let’s work with this’. I returned to my upright position and my eyes returned to the screen.
I took a further look at the email. It went on to explain that they would look to offer me an alternative sailing and I would be informed in due course. This was no good for me. The sequential nature of the trip meant there was no hotel I would be at that I could book out of a day early. We would be a day’s ride out of place. Despite being told to sit put I called them.
The line was initially engaged and then I ended up in a queue giving me the impression that there were quite a few seeking clarifications. Eventually, I was connected to a customer adviser and after the initial pleasantries she brought up the details of my booking. I explained that the email said to wait but I wanted to know if I could influence the selection at this stage. I explained my preference to a later sailing rather than one a day earlier. The line went momentarily quiet.
When she came back, she had found another grenade and tossed this into the conversation. “It looks like your outbound ferry has also been cancelled”. Were we edging back to calling the whole thing off again?
Our discussion returned to the inbound journey. There was a later sailing. Sure, it would extend our trip by a day but If I couldn’t find an enjoyable ride in Northern Spain to occupy the time then I shouldn’t be route planning in the first place.
As it turned out it was a better sailing altogether. The timings meant that we would spend most of our time onboard in the afternoon and evening. This would allow us a night’s sleep and to be off the boat the next day with time to ride home.
We moved onto the outbound sailing. I was given two options from my original Tuesday ferry. The first was to Santander on Sunday, but that was too early. My other option was a boat on Wednesday. Ok, I lose a day, but I’ve gained a day on the other end of the trip.
This revised outbound sailing was now to Bilbao. It’s not far from Santander but far enough for me to realise that I had to accommodate a few additional miles. The main change was on sailing times. As with the inbound revision, much of the crossing would be on the previous day meaning we would be disembarking at Bilbao just after midday. We had previously been arriving late in Santander and losing the light, meaning a mad dash to a local destination. Could this now really work to our advantage? This was the pre-adventure I had alluded to. Adapting travel plans with an element of fluidity and thinking on your feet.
The cancellation of Santillana del Mar left us with the challenge of retaining the original route and getting to Gijón. This had now been promoted to our first night’s accommodation. The mileage was within our upper limits, but our departure would be restricted to a start time dictated by ferry disembarkation. We would have lost a good five hours. It looks to be a challenging day. I could look to simplify the route, but this would be at the expense of a lap of the Potes triangle.
Our previous last night of Spanish accommodation had us in sighting distance of Santander and our ferry home. We were still in a good place for a short ride to Bilbao, so the challenge was to find a good day’s ride and a place to stay that offers a similarly easy ride to catch the Bilbao departure.
You only had to open the map for the solution to present itself, or should I say, slap you in the face! Not far from Camasobres was the town of Potes. The opportunity had presented itself to ride one of the jewels of the area again, with a stay in town.
So yes, the adventure is not constrained to the duration of the actual riding. The unexpected events that are thrown in your path that cause you to deviate from the plan and make you think on your feet can happen at any time. This is the pre-adventure.
Somewhere between the overland motorcycle adventurers crossing the wild continents and the motorcycling day-trippers lie a group of adventure bike riders. Are We Doing the Stelvio Today? is a story of one such eclectic group of travellers from across the UK and America heading across the French, Swiss and Italian Alps towards the iconic Stelvio Pass.
Part story and part guidebook, this is a tale to inspire those who have yet to embark on a motorcycle tour of the Alps and shows that you don’t need to cross untamed lands to have an adventure.
