France July 2006

AKA Trail Riding Heaven!

By  Ian Roscow (TRiK Web Master)
17^th July 2006

You know how people often say "You know, we ought to do France..."? Well, when the opportunity stares you in the face you just have to say 'Yes, please!', don't you? So I joined seven other riders for the trail ride of a lifetime in the middle of France, near Limoge.

Day One - Getting there.

5:30 on a typical English summer morning saw a bunch of mad Kent lads waiting for a Shuttle train to take them over to France. Here is John (with Steve hiding behind), Chris and Carlton pretending to enjoy the brisk early morning.

Some of us took the opportunity to prepare the mind and body for the long drive ahead. Francis just took a nap.

SatNav is a wonderful thing and kept us entertained for many an hour. Ahead of us was over 400 miles of motorway. It should, according to the machine, take us just under 7 hours...

Francis, Chris, Cliff and I were in the Navaro, Dave, Steve, Carlton and John were in the Renault, insulting us at every opportunity!

The SatNav tried to warn us about the hold ups, but we chose to ignore them - wrong!

Still, Francis and Cliff put on brave faces!

Still, the co-pilot (satnav prodder) had time to read a magazine...

As did the driver!!!

Eventually Chris took over the driving and gave Francis a well deserved rest!

In no time at all we arrived at Dave's place just outside St Dizier. A fantastic old country house (ex-school apparently) in an idyllic, quiet french rural setting. Well, when I say no time at all, make that nearly 12 hours! Paris was a nightmare...

Unloading the lorry of bikes was dead easy as there was a custom-designed loading area! Cliff, Chris, Steve and Carlton help out.

Eight, clean, pristine, prepared trail bikes ready to go. Plenty of locked space to put them in, too.

Then it was time to settle down to a bottle of beer or ten and something to eat. Looked like we were in for a tough time!

John, me (Ian) and Francis settle down for a bit of planning. Cheers - here's to the next few days.