What a great weekend it was too! It was a really sunny and lovely weekend weatherwise but I got wet, cold and muddy despite that. Probably that was because I rode my bike up and down Welsh mountains and along lanes that had been chosen by folk like me – in search of some wonderful off-road riding.

I signed up on the Adventure Rider forum for a so-called Equinox Rally Novice weekend and the results are to be seen here I have nothing but praise for the organisers who had gone to endless trouble to sort out routes that were suitable for a largely unknown and mixed bunch of riders coming from all over. The weather for the previous several weeks had been anything but encouraging and I was very doubtful that the event would actually take place. As I was in Italy with LOML until a couple of days before, I had only one day to read the forecasts and weather history and then to decide it was probably worth the effort and then to pack all the camping gear for the weekend. As this was to be on the 800 sans trailer, it was a new experience for me. Needless to say, I packed too much as usual. I used half the clothes I took and still felt somehow overdressed but wanting something different.

The riding was exceptionally good. A great mix of mud, rocks and broken bones – thankfully not mine but requiring two helicopter medevacs in any case. These were performed by the Welsh Air Ambulance service and what a terrific job they did. So much so that we are all now contributing to this charity organisation.

I am pleased with this picture that Timpo took of me. He really caught the water as it sloshed into my helmet!

See the rally pix for more of this sort..

One thing caught me by surprise – we were doing a route called Strata Florida and went past a load of wreaths that had been laid for the young girl who had died in a recent flood when the 4×4 she was in had been swept away by the river at a crossing. We crossed at the same point on bikes and there was no danger of being swept away (I think) but it is crystal clear that conditions can and do change very quickly.

We crossed the river many times and went through so many very deep puddles that I feel quite at home in the water now although I`d hesitate to tackle it by myself having found out just how easy it is to fall down and get a leg trapped under the bike. The trouble is the rocks under the water are unseen, slippery and odd sizes – there`s just no way of picking a way through them unless you can see them from well above – as we did on a couple of occasions when there was a bridge alongside a ford.

I was delighted to find such a nice group of folk who like off-roading. They were very kindly disposed to all the newbies and helped me countless times in picking the bike up and in encouraging me up various routes that I would nt have had the courage to tackle on my own.

I was pleased with the performance of the F800GS, it performed very well and only sustained one broken mirror as a souvenir of three days of abuse. It seems to love dancing over rocks (or at any rate, I do) whilst the mud slogs are not such fun. To be honest, I have never felt so tired as when paddling the darn thing trough some of the two feet deep ruts that we had to contend with. Still it went through several where the bigger 1200`s got stuck on their cylinder heads and had to be picked up and pushed through such sections.

One tip I learnt from Robbie C was to use second gear and spin the rear wheel fast, so that it flung off the mud clogging the treads. This helped a lot in gaining traction in the really boggy bits.