Adventure Bike Rider Forum

A wall

A gate in a wall.

Looks like a good time was had by all, despite the rain!

I on the other hand spent Sunday stuck in a portacabin at Bedfordshire Police HQ as part of exercise control for a live emergency planning exercise. We "crashed" a minibus onto the railway in Bedford and had loads of volunteers suitably doused in artifical claret and the emergency services in full flow. Oh well they only run these every three years so i should be up for it next year!

Our bit of campsite from a different angle...

I went for an early morning stroll. I did the perimeter of the island, otherwise we might as well have been camped on any headland...

Can anyone tell me what this is and what causes it?

This was the food police, it patrolled the island and reported back to the queen if it caught anyone cooking or damaging grass with a bbq ( which causes damage that takes 10 years for the grass to recover from! )

Packed up, ready to go. (Got done for riding to the toilet block, oops, sorry)

Sat nav, "please proceed to the indicated route...."

What a fantastic weekend. Really enjoyed every minute of it.

Met with Ashley, Coasty and Stevied at mine in Runcorn…..and then waited for Felco to turn up. 30 mins later I was getting concerned until a phone call indicated that he was 5 mins away but broke down with a problem. Problem sorted we continued on our way……only for another breakdown on the M6. 2 miles from the service station a quick tow was in order. So with Ashley towing Felco, me behind with hazards on. All good until Ashley decided to rejoin the main carriageway at 25-30mph. It really was an arse clinching ride to the service station.

Another fix then we decided to jump onto the back roads and keep going at a slower pace. But a few miles later another breakdown. After this a few more miles once again a big plume of smoke. It was now time to admit defeat and we had to leave Felco behind. The rest of us jumped back on the M6 and hit some silly speeds trying to make time up. It had been 4 hours to do 38 miles so far!

Went to the campsite at Hothwaite near Consiton and met the other campers. Tents pitched we all piled into Tea007 van for a spirited drive to the pub. Far too many beers (for me) and too little sleep meant a bad start to Saturday. But when Chris and Scooby arrived 8 of us set off for a trail ride.

I really wasn’t feeling too good and was grateful when Tea had his first off and got a puncture (sorry Tea, but I really was grateful for the 30 min break). The rest of the trails were fantastic. Sorry to RobertG who bypassed the first trail as it was advised it would be too much for his starship enterprise. I told him we would be 25 mins. 1 hour 25 mins later we got to the meet point and Rob had rightly gone his own way to Snab Point (blame Tea for all his offs and puncture). It was a case of ride 50 meters, pick Tea up, ride 50 meters, pick Tea up………that’s how I remember it!

Coasty was on an unsuitable GS1200 road bike with a Tourance on the back. No idea how you got it round all the trails with minimal effort.

Rusland Pool was fun. Never done this trail before and the ford crossing was interesting. Think Ashley got a bit wet and Tea went swimming (getting an image of Tea007 yet?). Hopefully some good footage will surface soon as my camera was away. Chris went through at a breakneck speed. No idea how you dodged the big rocks……maybe the speed caused you to float over the top?

By this point the rain had started and we were all soaked. The final trail was the coastal byway at Askam. Cracking trail. Think most of the 8 on the ride came off at some point or another (if you didn’t you were not trying hard enough). I got bogged down in deep sand and was about to blame the Teneres lack of power….until Scooby went past like a Dakar pro on his Ten. Ashley and Tea seemed to ignore all known speed limits and Ive no idea how those 2 are still alive!

A quick stop in Barrow where we met MikeyBoys crew and then onto Snab point for the crossing. Met the rest of the group here including my wife who was crossing in my landcruiser with our (now) ABR dog “Digga”.

Think RobertG made it 5 meters into the crossing before burying the enterprise. Rest of the crossing went without a hitch for all. Mikeyboys dad on his Triumph 955 again, big respect.

The island was fantastic once again. The rain stopped and the sun came out. Clothes were dried, tents pitched and beers started to flow. No better place to be IMO.
Thanks to all that made the effort despite the crap weather forecasts. Im just glad the rain only passed through for 2-3 hours, and not linger all weekend like forecasted.

Nice to catch up with all and good to see a couple of new faces.

Photos are better than words……and will come later when I get home…….

Hoping Syksey will post the pics of the owl, I never saw it but the photos looked impressive.

Nice to meet you Harper, I think you made the right decision in coming. Good photos so far. And it was an impressive roll when you binned it on the way back from the island.

A good ride back with Tenere Mart finished the weekend.

Till next year……