Some of you that may have read a recent thread/response of mine may recall I mentioned that during a recent holiday to Kefalonia in Greece, I got offered the opportunity to ride the hotel owners 1980 XT 500. The hotel owners name was Billy, a proper decent fella, that made everyone that stayed at his hotel feel like a family friend (to tell the truth about 50% of the clientele were friends/repeat visitors!). If you ever fancy Greece, I can highly recommend Kefalonia, Beautiful! and you must go and stay at Billy's Hotel, 'Pelagos Bay' in Skala (offered by 1st Choice) and recommended to me by Wheely
Anyways, back to the reason for the post. Here's a few pics, and a vid by the missus, of me on the XT setting off and up in the mountains overlooking the resort of Skala. BTW, knowing what I do now about the terrain I wouldn't condone such activities in the attire I was wearing but it wasn't like I'd taken all my protective gear but it was too hot to have worn it anyway! And no, I didn't fall off but I did find a few muddy puddles (we'd had a 24hr thunder storm the day before) and had a dab in one of them that saw me ankle deep in the sludgy brown stuff. I was more worried about taking billy's bike back sh1t-eye! He was cool about it though.
Outside the Hotel. Billy's the one in the Yellow T-shirt
Overlooking the resort of Skala
Looking inland
Having watched the video above you may be wondering what prompted the indescent proposal from Billy for a swap with my missus. Well, wonder no longer, it was; what did he want to trade for a ride on his other pride and joy, his Harley FatBob. Respecting the missus I obviously declined
Ha ha. No, quite the opposite! He was well keen for me to take it to the limit and enjoy myself, which I did ! Gone for a couple hours I was. On my return he went out for a short blat up the mountain and snapped the chain!!! Lucky it wasn't me coz I had no phone with me! He had to freewheel back to the main road and call his Dad to bring his van and take it to the garage. Kefalonia being a small island, it wasn't a surprise when Billy said to me that there was nowhere on the island he could get a spare link!! He had to order one off ebay!
I very nearly bought a house just round the corner from Skala - in Kateleios a few years back. Been to 12 Greek Islands and this one is with out doubt is my favorite.
Bit of a shame he had that old Yamaha and not a lovely Suzuki
If Billy had a few more trail bikes in the garage he could setup expedition destination for the DTRFG, sign me up i say.
Funny you should say that. I've told Billy that me and Wheely seriously fancy returning with a view to hiring bikes and heading of into the hills! (the women can lounge by the pool all day!) Billy has said he'll do some research into whether trail bikes can be hired and get back to me with the details. Watch this space!