Well, not all – there are enough of
them to make you a Campari and
soda - but you know what I mean.
Avoid southern Spain and Portugal
unless you really like parboiled
and pissed Poms, and the Cote de
Wossname in France unless you enjoy
being sneered at and ignored by the
staff in bars and restaurants.
Italy’s back country, like the
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summer but stay away from the tourist
centres including the Dolomites, the
Cinque Terre, Venice and any other
large city. Except Turin, I suppose, but
little is lost if you skip that anyway.
UNITED STATES
OF TRUMPANIA
It does get hot in the middle of the
continent, but if you stay near the
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VKRXOGEHPRUHWKDQÀQH &DOLIRUQLD·V
cold offshore current keeps the coastal
temperatures quite pleasant, and
the East Coast revels in sea breezes
everywhere except in New York. The
Weather Gods are punishing New
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Americans also like August as a
holiday month, but they spread their
breaks out a bit more than the French.
They tend not to leave the borders of
their own country, unlike Europeans,
which rather crowds the holiday spots
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destinations which are not generally
regarded as holiday destinations.
High in the mountains is wonderful
in summer. The tree line is quite
high in the Rockies and the various
Sierras, so you don’t end up riding
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quite so much. Book ahead, though, if
you want to stay in any of the major
national parks, even if you’re camping.
There are lots of Americans, and parksTRAVEL
are sometimes shut to stop them
from becoming overcrowded and
making it too easy for the bears to
catch their breakfast.
Americans are quite sanguine about
their climate. A pump jockey in Redding
CA, in the Central Valley, once asked me
what brought me to town. It was hot
and I was sweated through, so I just said,
“I’m on my way to somewhere else.” He
nodded and replied, “Yeah, thought so.”
Western America is best in Autumn
when it’s less crowded but the passes
have not yet been snowed in. All over the
States, this is also the time for colourful
foliage viewing.SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Tough one. Your guide should probably
be the monsoon – stay away when
LW·VEORZLQJ+HDY\UDLQVDQGÁRRGLQJaccompany it, although it doesn’t rain
every day. But you need to accept the
prevailing weather patterns. Throughout
Southeast Asia, the monsoon season
generally refers to the southwest
monsoon, the time of the year when the
prevailing winds blow up from the warm,
wet equatorial seas, bringing in rains and
storms. This starts in May or June, reaches
its height between August and October
and then tapers off by November.Not your problem
Most of the motorcycle-based
travelling I’ve done over the years has
been by myself, with Mrs Bear or with
one or more friends. In recent years,
however, I’ve been doing more of it on
organised tours. Why is this so? Well,
back in the day I didn’t have the
responsibilities I’ve since picked up. No
kinds, no house and often no job – or
one I could just quit. I had time.
That’s no longer true, and I suspect that
the majority of you don’t have a lot of
time to spare either. We all want to
spend our holiday time having a holiday,
not sitting at a border for a week
waiting for permission to cross. The
answer is an organised tour where you
can expect the formalities and much of
the minutiae of travel to be taken care
of for you. What you have to do is sit
on the veranda of your pre-booked
hotel with a glass of local wine,
watching the sunset.
It’s hard to beat.The dry, yellow summer grass
of the Californian hills does
nothing to spoil the riding.