Devon TRF Group Forum

Great weekend away at 'The Dirty Weekend' on the enduro bikes. 

Thought we'd try something a bit different so booked this last year but it's come around quickly.  A weekend all about bikes, camping and good food.

We set off early afternoon Friday but it took and age to get to our destination at Hollycombe Farm in Hampshire , the A303 was chokka for most of the way,  not just the stretch oast Stonehenge. Anyways,  we eventually got there, got ourselves checked in, chose a spot and set up the tents and the event shelter. We sat down and opened a well deserved cider but it wasn't long before the smell of BBQ hit our noses so we wandered up to the barn where the food was being served.  We had a lovely cheese burger with home made relish and onion jam with roasted potatoes with a herb crumb and homemade coleslaw.  Dee-lish.

We stayed at the barn for a few drinks, nothing heavy, before getting our heads down. The forecast was heavy rain during the night but we went to bed in the hope the rain would come ...... but it did.

We woke at 7am to grey skies and rain, worst luck. Still, that wasn't going to dampen our enthusiasm to get on the bikes and get going.  We grabbed a bacon roll and a lovely fresh coffee which was part of the weekend package then off we went at 8am, first to leave.  

We chose the 'Intermediate long North' route for today (a choice of varying difficulty and length routes had been planned by the event organiser and emailed in advance of the weekend)

I couldn't really tell you where we went cos I wasn't familiar with the area but the attached picture of the route will give you some idea. The route was really good, nothing too challenging but great to be riding somewhere new ...... although I say that but some lanes were definitely familiar from a "3 counties"  trip we did many, many years ago with some friends. Fortunately the rain stopped by about 11am and the sun came out in force so it didn't take long to dry out. The rest of the day was lovely and we totalled 127 miles and got back at about 6pm so a good full day's riding.  Perfect. 

A few things to mention about today's ride, 1) the houses ..... WOW. So many ma-hoosive mansions. Unbelievable but amazing to have a nosey at whats about,  and 2) for me, passing McLaren Petersfield which is the home of Dean Lanzante. Probably means nothing to anyone else but with my passion for supercars and hypercars Dean is a GOD.  He converts GT cars to be road legal. He works on McLaren F1's and P1's. His workshops probably hold millions of pounds worth of THE rarest cars. Point in case, in the showroom window was a P1 GTR LM (well over £3M) and his own hypercar creation, the Lanzante 95-59  (https://youtu.be/_l8wDk6HGTY?si=ZhmKZMYD33POxdUR )

Back at base we heard the evening feasting (the main event!) was set to start at 7pm with canapes. We showered and freshened up then up to the barn where everyone had congregated. Music was playing and there was a real buzz. The evening was warm, the BBQ was on and the lamb was roasting,  this was going to be good.

We found a space at the long banqueting table sitting opposite a couple of guys from Kent who we'd met out on the trails. Conversation was good, the ale was flowing then the food arrived- slow roasted lamb with BBQ"d lamb chunk speaks and chops with roasted potatoes and roasted veg. Mmmmm. It was A...MAZ...ING.

We ate and talked and drank till we could eat no more ..... then they served up an amazing fruit pavlova which I couldn't finish the portion was that big!! 

We headed back to our tents for a nightcap drink then got our heads down again as it was going to be another early start tomorrow. 

We woke to more rain and throughout the day it was somewhat more persistent, heavy but bright showers several times throughout the day. 

Today's route was Intermediate long South which took us on some of the same lanes from the previous day but also offered a few more challenging lanes - greasy, chalk ridden ascents that saw the bikes squirming up the hills, and rocky,  gnarly descents the ascents. We actually stopped after ascending one very technical lane to help a pair pair of other guys from our group as one was on an Africa Twin and there was no way he was going to make it out without our help ..... which he, and his mate on. 690 we're very thankful for. He said had he have known it was going be that technical wouldn't have ridden down into the lane.  

Total milage was 95 today and we were back at camp around 4pm. We'd left our tents up and Fortunately they were dry for us to pack away.

The journey home was thankfully far quicker than Friday. 

Cheers to Damian Steer and Russell Bentley for their company as always. From my recent trip to Spain and Portugal we need to sort helmet comms cos it makes the riding so much more fun being able to chat whilst on the go.

Until next time. Now I've got some cleaning to do.