YOU WOULDN'T FREAKING WELL BELIEVE IT, WOULD YOU?

 Greetings Readers, Well haven't the last four years been a hoot? There was a thing called Covid that wreaked just a little havoc on the planet. You must have heard of it, it was in all the papers! Donald Trump said it was a hoax. Then the climate went nuts. most parts of the world were, and still are, either underwater or on fire. Hundreds of years of rainfall and temperature records have been smashed as the world reels from one climatic disaster to the next. Donald Trump says its a hoax. Russia invaded Ukraine, mainly just because Putin thought he could get away with it, and is now getting his arse kicked. (Go Ukraine!!). Donald Trump says that's not a hoax, but it is fake news, and he will sort it out within 24 hours when he gets re-elected. Might be tricky to get that done from a cell in the joint, Dickhead!  Besides, all this hoo-hah is just a witchhunt. Well, you know the thing about witchhunts is that sometimes they actually find one, then they get burned at the stake! 

So pretty soon the choice facing American voters will be a befuddled geriatric shuffling around the streets in his pyjamas, or an amoral, lying, criminal egomaniac. Unless of course Trump gets jailed and replaced by some minion. Some choice! Report Card: Can and must do better.

That pretty much brings us up to speed, but enough of this gay banter. As you may infer from my opening gambit, I've spent most of the last four years being a couch potato, flat out watching a lot of TV news while I have been confined to quarters. Also had my other knee joint replaced, so there was rehab for that. In fact I've been so inert I even wore out my armchairs, and had to go buy some new ones. I even turned 70 a while back. Can't remember exactly when. I've also been to too many funerals. But now that I'm allowed out again, I reckoned I have one more decent riding adventure left in me, not withstanding the fact that I have porked up a bit during the enforced layoff, and had to diet my way back into my riding pants. Lucky I've now got two load bearing titanium knee joints! And so it has come to pass. The Blog has been reinvigorated, and here we go again! Strap yourselves in.

We have signed up to visit a few new countries, and revisit some old ones. We will be riding with the almost defunct but now fortunately reconstituted Compass Expeditions. Covid almost put them out of business overnight. They refunded customer's deposits, and were on the point of selling off all their asetts, when, encouraged by a deluge of support from previous clients, (including 3 time client me), they were able to restructure a bit and get moving again. I reckon I owe them another trip, just because that kind of commitment deserves support. And I don't reckon I'd be alone on that score. Apparently their forward bookings are going gangbusters.

So on 18 Sept, Cas and I leave for a trip starting in Lisbon, and doing a big figure-8 loop down through the south of Portugal and Spain, then down into Morocco, and eventually back to Lisbon. We have added a visit to France before the ride, and a stopover in Egypt on the way home. Bucket List items are being ticked off here.

We are in the process of packing right now, just as a massive 6.8 earthquake has hit Morocco 2 days ago. In particular, Marrakech, which is on our agenda, has been badly affected. We don't know any more yet, other than there has been a lot of deaths and devastation. The disaster relief effort hasn't even cranked up yet. What I've seen on TV looks horrible, and I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in the middle of something like that. What affect this will have on our journey is an unknown, but at the very least Marrakech might be off the itinerary. I can only hope there are no more tremors to come, and that wherever we bed down, that the building doesn't collapse on us during the night. I haven't got any room for camping equipment this time, so I hope we haven't just bought tickets on the Titanic. And I hope all the hash hasn't been buried. Oops, did I say that?

It's medicinal, OK!