Devon TRF Group Forum

Myself and RichT4 are putting together a trip to France from the 5th - 14th April, so it's a bit of a diy package on a shoestring!

We are getting the overnight Ferry on the Friday night from either Portsmouth or Plymouth, then when it docks in on Sat morning, grab some croissants for brekky, then trail ride for 3 days down to the Dordogne, spend 4 days at a base(My mother-in-laws house), where we will kip under canvas in the large garden and trail ride for 3 - 4 days with all our kit removed off the bikes, whilst taking in some French culture and red wine! It's then a 3 day trail ride back and home for Sunday 14th April.

You will need a rack of some sorts and panniers to carry your kit, which will comprise of tent/basha, air bed, sleeping bag, clothing, washkit, toolkit, tubes, pump, waterproofs, stove, mug, plate, cuttlery, brew kit, 2 meals at least, snack bars..........this list is not endless, but just bare i mind that the more you carry, the bulkier the kit, the harder work it will be trying to ride with it! For this trip, it is always trying to buddy up with someone, so that kit can be shared between you and not be duplicated i.e. brew kit, tyre pump/compressor, spare tubes, underpants......err sorry that's just what me and Rich do.

Pics below are of the bikes on the Croatian/Bosnian border

Your bike needs to at least get 100 miles to a tank of fuel, and you must have breakdown cover for Europe. We will be doing approximately 1500 miles, so make sure that your bike is up to spec for the trip, as we're not hanging about trying to get bikes repaired unless it is simple enough to fix in short time. Therefore if you turn up with knackered sprockets/chain and wheels bearings on the way out, then you're on your own.

The ferry cost is approx £185 return for a reclining seat overnight, the rest of your money needed is just for fuel, food and beer/wine for 9 days.

The routes are being worked on at the moment, and are being made up from known tracklogs and routes from various contacts. At the moment we have decided that 8 riders is enough for this trip, but if more want to join, then we may have 2 - 3 smaller groups. The more the merrier that have sat nav the better, so that everyone has the route, just in case someone needs to or accidentally deviates! personally I'll be using a garmin with France Topo mapping. The route when finalised will be emailed to you a week before we leave, plus the 3/4 days of trail riding.

The weather forecast down there is generally dry and on average 19C, but as we know can't be relied on.

This is being advertised on some other forums that I frequent, plus the organising of it and ideas from previous trips will be done on this forum http://devontrailadventurists.activeboard.com/