Enduro!

I know it's taken me a week but finally I have got around to blogging last weekends antics in the Lake District.....an enduro weekend with Eloisa and Fletch courtesy of the XRV.org a forum on which Fletch currently spends much of his life and that is dedicated to those who are the utterly demented proud owners of an XRV (Africa Twin).


A rough translation of this would be along the lines that 60-70 mad men (and three women) got together in the Lakes for some very muddy and mad off-roading, a little tarmac fun and probably way too much interest in late night revelry....though this had to be somewhat controlled given that we all had to be legal and on the ball for the daytime riding!

We had a ball.

Fletch rode up on the Thursday morning, I, given that my wonderful employer only allows me 2 weeks leave a year and I didn't dare take another sickie was left with the options of driving up after work on Friday(ugh in my small car) or taking the train. I opted for the latter and was soon to regret it. I remembered almost immediately why I haven't used a train for literally decades! This delightful mode of transport allowed me less room that an economy flight, was hot, noisy and having only travelled 30 minutes of a 3.5 hour journey we met with unexplained 'delays', resulting in a 40 minute loss and my missing my connection! FFS!

Eventually I made it though and was duly picked up at Oxenholme station by Fletch, who had taken my gear up with him to save me lugging it all on the train. This presented a small problem, there was nowhere to get changed, so it being dusk and quiet there was only one thing for it, get into it all on the side of the road....getting undressed and into leathers in a hurry is no mean feat but I managed it with some degree of decorum.


The camp site was in Dent, a lovely little village in Sedburgh, we made it through the lanes by 11.00 pm where I was met with a field full of tents and bikes and a proper dinner!


One of our number it turned out was an excellent camping chef and had knocked up a really good meal on one ring late at night for the three of us. This was to continue, we had our own personal biking chef for the weekend! :o)

Fletch and the gang had done most of the offroad stuff on the Friday, I was sorry to have missed it but as it's not a game that is easily (if at all) played carrying a pillion the timing was good and as Fletch managed to turn Eloisa rubber side up on a couple of occasions (fair comment off road incidentally and at least not anything like as painful as on road!) at least it meant I didn't have to clean my leathers!



Saturday we split into smaller groups (see, thoughtful bikers not creating a mass hazard on small roads) and went on various ride-outs. Ours was destined for Wastwater and Hardknott Pass. Having just ridden umpteen passes in the Alps we were a little complacent about this but we were to get our comeuppance.... Hardknott was damn hard!


Ok, the risk to life and limb was not the same, there weren't 300 meter drops to fall over if we came off but the terrain and road surface added to the extreme incline on bends made it a real test! One of course that Fletch was equal too, though there were moments when we though we might lose it and end up in an ungainly heap.....as some did! ;o)


*Note to car drivers, please don't misjudge the bends and bounce your vehicle off the sides to within a foot of my thigh!

The Lakes have long held very difficult memories for me and to be honest I wasn't completely enthralled at having to be there again but I have to say that whilst it will never really be a place that 'does it' for me, it is a very beautiful area and the fun and madness we had kept the memories at bay.....mostly :o)

Amazing weekend, amazing group of people and amazing riding.

The images are not all mine and those that are came only from my phone so apologies for the quality, I was too busy trying to stay on and run the video camera to take many pictures!