Happy Christmas – 2019

Welcome to my Christmas blog post – which is a sort-of substitute for sending Christmas cards and provides an opportunity to look back on 2019 and highlight some of the things that happened…

New Year at Ravenside

I spent New Year with Chris and Corinne on their small holding near Newcastle. No major projects this year (like barn building) but lots of other jobs to be getting on with.

Sussex

On my way back to France (driving in the Land Rover this trip) I stopped off to see Nanna and went out to lunch with Lucy and Bella…

Sunshine

Back home in early January to glorious sunshine…

Alvor

In January I flew to Alvor in the Algarve to visit Tim and Helen who now spend the winter there. First I had to take Hebe up to Limoges for Alexander and Laurena to dog sit. This invariably involves a visit to the Brasserie Michard, but I see from this photograph that we went somewhere else on this occasion..

Back home, then off to Toulouse for the flight to Faro…

Back home and off to Limoges again to collect Hebe…

KTM 250 EXC

In February I bought a new motorbike, having sold the other two…
Blog post here :
https://v2xs.com/ktm-250-exc/

Zoe & Oli’s Wedding

Back to the UK for my niece’s wedding (sister Sara’s eldest daughter)…

Blog post here :
https://v2xs.com/zoe-and-oli-wedding/

Marrakech

In late February Alexander, Georgina and I went off to Morocco for a week. The previous year we had spent a week in Agadir but were looking for a bit more excitement and we certainly found it in Marrakech…

Blog post here :
https://v2xs.com/marrakech/

Sunday Trail Ride

Out trail riding with some of the guys from the “Lot of Bikes” crew..

Blog Post :
https://v2xs.com/sunday-trail-ride/

Sport Adventure Dodogne

My first experience of one of the Chris Evans sport adventure trips was in the Normandie mud in November 2018. Trails riding in the Dordogne proved to be a lot less slippery, and much faster…

Blog post :
https://v2xs.com/sport-adventure-dordogne/

Keeping Up With The Boys

Just when I was starting to think I was getting the hang of the new bike and having successfully completed the 3 day navigation enduro in the Dordogne, I went out for a ride with some of the young lads from Lot of Bikes…

Blog post :
https://v2xs.com/keeping-up-with-the-boys/

Montesa Cota 4RT

Decided I needed another trials bike to develop my skills, having fallen off the KTM a few times…

Paris With Lucy

Long weekend in Paris with Lucy…

https://v2xs.com/paris/

Golden Gnome Treasure Hunt

Organised by John from Lot of Bikes, this was a team event involving navigation (with map and compass!), trail riding to obscure locations and solving tricky clues – the last one being attached to a buoy floating in Montcuq lake !
https://v2xs.com/golden-gnome-treasure-hunt/

Specialized Sirrus X

Another new acquistion…

https://v2xs.com/specialized-sirrus-x/

Summer Parties

I don’t get time for quite so many adventures in the summer time as I have to pretend to do a bit of work selling shade sails. But there are plenty of fetes and events to fill the evenings and you never know who you might meet…

https://v2xs.com/summer-parties/

Rando de Courbiac

More ..
https://v2xs.com/rando-courbiac/

Morocco Or Bust ?

The trip to Marrakech earlier in the year gave us the idea of doing a road trip to Morocco in Jan/Feb 2020. Having seen the huge number of Renault 4s in Marrakech at the end of the 4L trophy we thought it could be a great adventure…
https://v2xs.com/morocco-or-bust/
https://v2xs.com/morocco-or-bust-2/

The Vince

Doug, Mark and myself “The Old School” signed up to do a motorbike navigation event in the Pyrenees called The Vince. It is run by a rather eccentric guy called Austin VINCE who has done lots of round the world tours and now regularly runs adventure holidays.

The 2019 event is restricted to the use of maps and compasses only – no GPS allowed. Austin and his team have placed a series of small metal tags on objects scattered around the Pyrenees – typically on trees/posts/electric pylons. He has then supplied a very small scale map and guide book to tell you exactly where each tag is located. The event is held over two days and you are allowed exactly 12 hours each day to navigate your way around the objects collecting the information on the tags. Different tags score different amounts of points. The winner is the team with the most points at the end of day 2.
https://v2xs.com/the-vince/
https://v2xs.com/the-vince-2/
https://v2xs.com/the-vince-3/

Holiday Visitors

Plenty of visitors this year including Chris and Corinne (their first holiday for 10 years). My sister Sara is a regular and loves to get her dose of sunshine…
https://v2xs.com/sara-and-laurens-holiday/

Golden Gnome Challenge Trophy

Another event run by John based at his house north of Montcuq. This is an annual competition and involves trials, motocross and enduro…
https://v2xs.com/golden-gnome-challenge-2019/

San Sebastien

A wonderful week in San Sebastien with Susan…
https://v2xs.com/san-sebastien/

Charity Run

5Km charity run in Cahors to raise money for breast cancer research (ladies only)…
https://v2xs.com/charity-run/

Quatrelle Farewell

What happened, what went wrong, have we missed the epic adventure of men and machine battling against all the odds to get to Morocco or Bust ?
https://v2xs.com/quatrelle-farewell/

Sport Adventure – Morvan

Morocco

Another fabulous week away with Susan, visiting Marrakech and Essaouira…
https://v2xs.com/morocco-nov-2019/

Egypt

A week in Hurghada with Georgina…
https://v2xs.com/egypt-nov-2019/

More…

Well it’s not the end of the year yet…
Georgina, Alexander and Laurena should be here for Christmas, then I’m flying to the UK for a tour of the UK to visit the family. Back here early January to start the adventures again – trip to Alvor and Morocco at end of January…