Brenhden's TET

[Brenhden]

IMG_20190420_203526_402.jpg (53.13 KiB) Viewed 4442 times

Insta camp

Total Distance 312km TET distance 1132km


Next morning I packed and by lunch I was home and spent the afternoon cleaning and servicing the bike.

IMG_20190421_150026.jpg (134.75 KiB) Viewed 4442 times

Service and drying

Trip distance 972km

What I learned:
I need new boots and a new sleeping bag as I was still cold at night and my boots are falling apart.
My new lidded mug is brilliant!
Don’t show off.
Every biker you meet on the TET is happy to stop and talk.

[Godspeed]

Just brilliant!!!

[P4ulie]

Great RR Brenhden, I had a beer in Beer last summer for my birthday. Being August & after about 4 hours on the road in 30 degree heat, the sea still being chilly was perfect

[boboneleg]

Well done Brenhden, another great adventure

[The Sarge]

Really enjoyable read Brenhden, and great photo's make the experience come alive.

Excellent Buddy

[MotoCP]

Thanks for sharing your latests TET instalment with us Brenhden.

I have fond memories of Beer. My family and I once rented a holiday cottage there.

We got chatting to a fisherman down at the harbour as he sat there mending his nets. A proper old sea dog, with a Captain Birdseye beard.

I asked him “Have you lived in Beer all your life?”
He puffed on his pipe and replied “Not yet”

[WIBO]

Just read this over a cuppa........Great stuff!!!


Thanks

[Brenhden]

24/06/2019
After a weekend of camping in Cirencester with the family I had a night at home pretending not to be exhausted.

01 List.jpg (71.13 KiB) Viewed 4225 times

02 Packed.jpg (146.71 KiB) Viewed 4225 times

I had a relaxed start, packed the bike and set off at 10:30. A Gregs and two stops later and I pulled up in South Cornwall and spent a lazy hour making camp, I wandered around the empty camp a bit thinking about the nicest place to pitch and noticed that there was much more breeze in one part than the other so dragged a picnic table over to the nice bit. My new Coleman Kentmere 3+ tent went up easy enough but was disappointingly missing a guy rope.

03 Camp.jpg (143.56 KiB) Viewed 4225 times

Camp made just so I suited back up and rode to the nearest Aldi for supplies and spent the evening enjoying good wine, the worst wursts I ever tasted and lots of chocolate digestives.

Distance 330km

Money spent £56.

[Brenhden]

25/06/19

Considering my new black out tent and ear plugs I slept terribly, it was such a muggy night and my new sleeping bag is four season and doesn’t zip all the way down to foot level. At 05:30 it rained but my new tent didn’t seem to care unlike my venerable 1991 Northface it replaced. By 06:00 shower and laundry were done and after porridge and much tea I was on the road by 07:00. Today’s start point was 95 miles away in Beer and after quite an exhausting road slog I arrived at 09:20 to find that my random facebook riding partner for the day, Des, wasn’t coming. There had been a lot of rain in Devon and as I sat in a hotel drinking tea it occurred to me that my plan for this week wasn’t to start in Beer but a days ride further South. Idiot.

Exhausted but determined I set off at 10:00 and found the rain hadn’t effected the trails much.

04 Cats Heads.jpg (182.55 KiB) Viewed 4223 times

They started easy but were soon really steep my bike was slipping and struggling on the loose muddy surface, my new K60s seem worse than the stock tyres. All the trails were hedge and tree lined and by 11:44 I stopped for my packed lunch and to let the steam out of the clothes.

05 Overgrown.jpg (150.94 KiB) Viewed 4223 times

Back on it and I was stuck for ages behind an enormous black/purple horse ridden by a child. I missed a call about a potential job so spent the next hour riding on auto pilot second guessing what the news was.

06 Ford.jpg (116.74 KiB) Viewed 4223 times

[Brenhden]

07 Randon trail.jpg (141.7 KiB) Viewed 4223 times

The road to Teignmouth was lush and very hot. I crossed a lovely bridge and stopped for cola and a paddle to cool down. Back on it and the trail out of town is brilliant, steep.

08 Teignmouth.jpg (104.38 KiB) Viewed 4223 times

It was like those cool loose cat heads rock trails you get in the Pyrenees. Again my new tyres didn't cope well.
I pulled up at Totnes about 15:00 and finally heard I didn’t get the job, what a relief! I had a sausage roll and more cola and I was ready for the rest of the day. There were some great fun trails near Hothole Wood but I missed some bits either by mistake or because I needed a road stretch to cool down.

I found some trails made of slippery rock that my tyres just couldn’t cope with, real big down steps had me off twice (I was pretty tired by them). The first lot needing me to humiliatingly walk the bike down a long way using the clutch as a rear brake. I’d had to fix all the left side controls first.

09 Laydown.jpg (150.06 KiB) Viewed 4223 times