First, Slovenia didn’t happen but the Dolomites did. It was always the plan to start in the Italian hills, then to re-locate to Slovenia but the time available to the group I was with just didn’t permit the double location so we stayed in Italy. This was no real hardship, the Italian trails were really good and the scenery is simply magnificent. I had a great time in super company and thanks to Giorgio Betteto, our local ADVrider colleague and guide, we enjoyed some fantastic riding and food along the way.

After three days of quite hard trail riding, my damned finger was swollen and giving me gyp so I bailed out to ride gently to the ferry at Calais, intending to meet my pals there after they had spent the last two days riding the trails around Pieve di Cadore (our base in Italy). I took a couple of days, riding via Venice, Torino, Annecy, Gerardmer, Compiegne where I met up with another of my group (Clive who had also left early). We had a great evening doing a bit of a pub crawl before finishing in an Irish bar across the street from our hotel. Despite being an Irish bar, it turned out they were having a Salsa night and it was fun for us two old fogies, watching the young and good looking girls strutting their stuff.