Hola, Heard that a lot last week, having fun on my first ride with these nice guys and girls I had never met before. Now this is the place to share our story, and there shure is a lot to tell. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait 'till tonight to get my part up, but go ahead. Btw, Marcin's fine. (cliffhanger)
Thanks for starting the thread Bert. Didn't take as many pics as I'd thought, have a few videos that I'll upload on to YouTube & post links to later this evening. Pumpy & myself left home just after 8pm on Thursday 22nd May, along with Marcin on his Africa Twin who'd ridden down from Milton Keynes earlier that afternoon. Ready to go: Following pics in this post are all courtesy of Pumpy (to avoid copyright infringements etc) We sailed on the 11pm ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre, docking at 8am French time & immediately set off to rendezvous with MSGS1200 & his better half Jane in Sees, near Alencon. MSGS was on his R12GS Adventure & Jane on her F800GS. After meeting up & a quick breakfast, we headed south via Le Mans, Tours & then spending the night in an Etap hotel in central Limoges. The weather had not been great that afternoon & we'd arrived in Limoges a little later than planned. After a quick shower & a meal in a local restaurant, we retired to our rooms for the night. From L to R, myself, Marcin, MSGS & Jane in Sees: Fountain in park in Limoges, near train station: Dinner shotly afterwards: Saturday AM saw a wet start to the day & once we'd donned waterproofs, we set off for Sort via Perigeaux, Bergerac, Agen, Auch & St. Beat before crossing the border & over the Pyrennees to Vielha, Llavorsi & finally rolling in to Sort about 9pm. The weather over the mountain passes had been wet, with a fair amount of thunder & lightning overhead. Not far to go: Along with the others, we'd booked ourselves in to a mobile home on the campsite in Sort, with Marcin sharing with Pumpy & myself. Once freshened up & changed, it was off to a local restaurant for some fodder. Dennis (990ADV?) & Kuhn (Benzin?) swapping from road to offroad tyres: Sunday saw a very wet start to the day but still a few of us decided to head off in the mountains (Euskalherria & Aurel on their 990's, Marcin on his AT, Bavarian on his HP2 & myself on my 950SE). Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me that day, hopefully some of the others tooks pics....... Regardless, we had a great day & soon warmed up when riding the tracks. We headed up the old smugglers trail to the top of Andorra via Llavorsi & Tor, only a small amount of old snow still on the ground. A quick Bocadillo (sandwich) & coffee in Andorra saw us head back via Civis. After a few km's, we were confronted a river that was too deep & powerful to cross. Three of us tried walking Aurel's bike across but it was no good, so we headed backed the way we'd come, tried another trail but once again we turned back by a fast flowing river, leaving us no option to but to return to Sort via the N260, one of the best stretches of tarmac on the planet IMO. TBC
Monday was spent with most of the rest of the group out in the hills: After lunch in Andorra, we decided to head back up to the top of the smugglers trail & ride back via Tor & Llavorsi. Overnight snow made things a little harder than expected, you can see the tarmac road in the background that leads to the start of the trail: It was here that we felt the cold, we were standing in the snow having a snowball fight when our boots started to freeze up due to being waterlogged from a water crossing earlier that day: Blackbert on his TA & Marcin on his AT heading down the slope: Pumpy & her GS a little close to the edge :huh : Route down to warmer temperatures & more solid ground: Once back on Tarmac, it was a fast ride home to Llavorsi & then on to Sort. Tuesday was spent with Bavarian, RafaelS, Folonastrom, Bummer, Roger, MSGS & Jane on an easier trail. MSGS was recovering from a broken leg & Jane was not that experienced off road. We lunched in Llavorsi, Jane headed back to Sort while the rest of tried another tral that I did last year. Unfortunately it was harder going due to the recent heavy rain. MSGS turned back whilst the rest of us continued on. We went as far as we could, Roger did a great job on his Ulysses but the street tyres made life difficult for him. We also knew that carrying on would only lead to a river crossing that we had no chnace of making. Back in Llavorsi, I spotted the other group in the same bar we'd lunched in, so we headed there & swapped tales. Some headed back whilst the remainder of the combined group headed up in to the hills again on a trail that Basil knew about. It was steep & rocky but worth it. Not got pics, perhaps others have? TBC
Wednesday saw most of us head off in the hills directly above the campsite where we encountered the first of a series of water crossings that defeated us in the end. The first was a 30ft section of fast flowing water with loose stones on the bottom. Most made it across okay but RiderBobs R12GS swallowed a bit of water. We pushed it to the bank, removed the plugs & turned it over, at least a good sized mug of water spewing out of each cylinder. Once the plugs were dried, they were refitted & the bike fired up again but not without a bit steam exiting the exhaust pipe. RiderBob ready for action again: Once across the next section of about 50ft, we carried on up the trial only to be confronted by a deeper, faster flowing river that we had no hope of crossing. It was at least a meter deep in the middle, no chnace of a BMW getting across. Basil (on his 640 Adventure) & myself decideing that turning back is the only option: Back the way we came, Benzin on his 950 approaching the high ground in the middle, not sure who's in the background halfway across the other section: It wasn't long before we encountered more water, shallower but with a tricky climb up the other side. Here's RiderBob struggling (as most of us did): Udo from Holland on his 990 Adventure: Two video clips of Benzine having a hard time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A2bzXxlWUU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqSN3LQRnyw Dennis having similar problems: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-gVvrHxB3A YouTube links now correctly titled etc. It's possible that I may have got some of my dates mixed up, no problem, you get the general idea of what went on.
I promised to don't look at this thread ... but couldn't resist and now I'm suffering ... My rally ended in Gap, bad news always reach you (only money questions fortunately) and I got to come back to Padua faster than I would ... 580 kms under heavy rain but the worst was the idea to lose the rally and the friends Advriders ... I'm sure that you have had lot of fun..
Giorgio, we were all looking forward to your arrival, been too long since we last saw you (2 years now). Hope fully we'll see you again next year, if not sooner. Hope your problems are now resolved.
It's what happens when it rains heavily for a few days. Considered having a go at white water rafting whilst there but watching a 30ft tree trunk with a diameter of 2ft shooting down the river at speed put me of, didn't fancy being torpedoed by something that big. :huh
wow - if this is the track from Eremita to St. Joan - never saw so much water in the last 16 years in this river. As we have been there the week before - we had more luck, but didn't get this track, because our local friends warned us. ("Mucho aqua"). Waiting for more pics to come. Hope we can join one of the next meetings. Andreas + Bettina
Sadly I didn't take a camera so I have no photos to post. However, the trails were fantastic and I only dropped the bike once (twice according to Possu) but having said that I dropped it less than him. (perhaps due to his recovering broken collarbone) As already pointed out I drowned the bike once which wasn't great but it was working again in no time. I am changing the oil as we speak and the oil filter as well. At Possu's suggestion I will also change the gearbox oil once I work out how to do that. The Dutch contingent seemed to have more cameras than the paparazzi so I am looking forward to their contribution. Oh btw, I want a KTM Adventure S!
Blimey, we rode those trails two years ago and never had anything like that :eek1 I am going to an area nearby in July, hope the weather is better :huh
I'm keeping my eye on this thread as it's a great start, good reports and good pictures. It looks like you had some great trails there but they look like they could've been a bit drier and a bit less snow. Thanks for the posts so far mark
Hi Bob, We initially hoped the weather would improve when we first got there but with hindsight, the weather made all the trails that bit harder & made for a better time overall.
