Quite a lot of nothing going on…..

Apart from riding in this awful weather not too much is going on… Mr Mugabe has now had its service and two new front brake discs (now 55,000 miles on the clock) – that’s 45,000 in the two and a half years that I have had him. It won’t be too long before we clock up 100,000 !!! This month I have had to put on two new tyres as the previous ones were squared off – but about 12,000 on one set is good. The BMW would only give me 7,000 at best on Bridgestone’s.

Spent a few hours last weekend putting in a new pukka fuse box – to manage the multiple items (heated grips, Autocom, aux sockets and Garmin etc).

Went to see Austin Vince and a presentation on Mondo Enduro - at Wimbourne - an excellent night - and I managed to win myself a very smart Belstaff Jacket in the raffle...

I passed a few hours last night looking over the route for next year and re-routing to avoid large cities like Milan and keep off the Auto Strada’s. Once that is sorted then I will look at each leg of the trip to see if there are places of interest nearby. I did find a brilliant looking set of roads in Southern France.. near Cognin-Les-Gorges and Malleval. That should be a interesting ride – sort of a warm up for the Stelvio Pass in Italy….. ah well onwards and upwards… Dreaming of Living the Dream…..

… That was a weekend – that was…

Started out late on Friday due to a technical hitch with Rui and his nose – but that’s another story.

We eventually left Winchester at 1240 and headed for Andover / Marlborough / Swindon / Circencester for a coffee break at Greasy Joe’s Café

The onwards and upwards to Stroud / Gloucester / Hereford and then a well deserved coffee stop at the Honey Café.    I was due to meet Graham there – as he had travelled up from Tenby (Graham was one of the guy’s I rode with in South Africa on Enduro Africa 2008).  It was so good of him to hang on for us and no sooner had we arrived; when the “fast” team arrive – they had set off from Ower at 1300 and had taken the quicker route  – must check there Garmin tracks !!

Then on to the camp site in Rhayader and pitched the tents in the dark..   All sorted and stowed away and off to the Eagles Inn for a “Planning Meeting” and debrief from the days events.  Enough is enough and it was head torches on and 10 mellow souls making their way in the dark -  back to the site.



Some view

 Following some heavy overnight rain we made an early start with a full cooked breakfast and lashings of hot coffee.   We divided into two groups – Brisk and Steady (150 miles) for a  trundle through the valleys and Full On group on some of the best reads on Mid Wales and I think they took in some roads in North and South too (300 miles)

I can only write about the Brisk and Steady ride – on which the scenery was stunning and the very small country lanes were very demanding in their own way – narrow, wet, slippery, muddy and covered in leaves – but apart from that…….  One section was extremely testing with very steep descent and slippery tarmac – this prompted Rui to comment that his arse had been “sending Morse code” for the last 20 minutes !!

Cream teas at Devil’s Bridge and then vegetable soup at a log cabin with a rather warm wood burning stove somewhere North East of Abergwesyn were very welcome.

On one lovely stretch on forest road we saw and shoot – lots of dogs on the right and the “guns” assembling on the left – all tweed and gaiters…  another 100 yards along the road we saw at least 20 pheasants sneaking across the road and hiding in the bushes; with that ‘You ain’t seen me – right’  look on their faces…

All arrived back at the Camp Site in time for a repeat of the previous evening with a slight variation on the menu.  Mark Haydock had now joined us for the evening having ridden up on his brand new BMW 1200RT.   I wonder if he had wished he had stuck with the GS after some of the lanes.

A later start back on the Sunday – again a fast group seeing how many miles they could cover before crossing the bridge – and a less progressive group seeing more of the countryside and even some more slippy lanes !! Whoops sorry..   Stopped for coffee the White Monk Café at Tintern Abby and then across the bridge and across country before yet another tea stop at Laycock Abby.   And then home…

Mid Wales in the autumn is stunning…  and I would highly recommend getting out and seeing it.

Thanks to all those that attended – good company – good biking – good food – good coffee – what more could you ask for ----- Stop that……..

Same again next year… probably…