A huge thank you to Steve for such a superb days ridding. Excellent leadership skills taking us into the most beautiful hidden parts of the few counties that we passed through. The very best of company and a i can honestly say a group that i will take great pleasure in ridding with again. Here's to the next trip being a two day event with a little over night stay.
For now here comes a few shots of all the action....
The motley crew...
What ride would be complete without the joy of accomplishing a few fallen trees. I'm sure we actually encountered at least four of them! One of which was so large, after having cut back some of the branches, we realised it would have to be a five man up and over hand ball event for each bike. No more than 20 meters around the next corner, low and behold, another one, we're trapped!
Having had two bright guys bringing along their super pruning saws, we cut through the base of the trunk and swung her out our way with no problems. Amazing what can be achieved with team work, a saw and a smile...
Enjoying such strenuous unpredictable trails meant that a good coffee and lunch were much in order and had been truly earnt by one and all. Thanks to Steve for his local knowledge, we were led to an airfield at the very top of a hillside. A beautiful place in itself where we were able to be so close to the action that you could actually put your foot onto the landing and take off strip. So there we kicked back taking in the aerial acrobatics as we tucked in and recharged for half an hour.
I think by this stage we were now back into Wiltshire. Don't quote me on this as with all the fun being had, i quite frankly could have been anywhere .....
Of course to end the day on a real high, if there hadn't been enough water already, we had to be crossing an alleged ford...lol, more like full blown river . The bikes got a great clean up for free and i'm very proud to say that every rider made it across without faltering for even a second despite the current trying it's up most to have us off. Almost a meter deep we'd really achieved a great test of ability. Trev even went back over and smashed it for a second run.
I was extremely pleased to have been able to just about get my camera out in time to score a shot of Steve's brother Martin come charging out the other side on his KTM, so please do pass this photo on for him Steve...
Well done to you all. The perfect way to spend a weekend. I'm still buzzing from it now and will most certainly be at the next event.
A huge thanks again to Steve for taking the time out to arrange everything and invite us all down. See you in the near future buddy, for now it's over and out.
Paul, your pictures are perfect(like your bike) I filmed both planes taking off and didn't get the plane in either video😁 I now think I need an eye test which is probably why I kept falling off!!!
Excellent report and lovely photos. Everything is so much better when the sun shines eh?
Pesky trees. We only had one to deal with on our run but plenty of evidence that others had fallen and cleared. Firewood is expensive now so its a bit of a race to log up fallen trees which is good for keeping the lanes clear
Any chance of a who's who on one of the photos? I am guessing you are the young 'un in the green kit but could be very wrong
Thank you both for your kind comments. It was a good day out, very pleasant company and perfect weather. Not sure how many lanes, not as many as Brian certainly, but definitely some long ones.
For the record, we were variously in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset(shire).
Now, who's who? In the top picture, from left to right. Martin (my brother and Dorset TRF, KTM525), Paul (Grassroots, Yam wrr), Trev (Dorset TRF, Honda xr400), Simon (Silverframe, Yam wrr).
The young chap in green in the second photo is me!
Happy to show you around my patch again. This time a bit further west, to get into "proper" Dorset.
Lol... I'm the guy that is more or less in the middle of the first photograph wearing the grey, black and flash of fluro green jersey. Always nice to be able to match a face to someone you know. Rarely do i manage to get into a shot as i tend to be holding the camera . Thanks for that opportunity Steve.
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