French France Part 2

Saturday started with some pain au choc and coffee. Some of us seemed a little worn out from story telling the night before. Anyway at 9.00am sharp our guide for the day turned up with his mate on a KTM 125. The KTM wasn't running right so myself and Gordon tried to put it back together right. Once we had put the needle back in the slide it was running fine. The rain was the only dampener on the day. We all stood around for a while hoping it would stop, but it didn't. In the end we set out knowing we were all going to get wet.

Our guide (more on him later) seemed to know the local area very well and we were soon taking in some fantastic trails. We were sticking mainly to forest roads so as not to get too wet. The first challenge came when we stopped to investigate a misfire on Jeffs bike. While we were waiting myself, Geoff and Phil went to investigate a step climb through the trees. Phil went first and I followed him. When we reached the top there was no sign of Geoff anywhere. We returned to the bottom of the hill to find Geoff and his bike hanging from a 8ft bank on the side of the road. I tried to get my camera out to take a picture but as I did the bike crashed to the ground and rolled onto the road below.

By about 12.00am we were all soaking wet and I steep rocky climb finished some of us off. Nobesy went into what can only be described as a spin. His eyes glazed over and he then started to punch the tank of his new Honda. Our guide seemed unmoved by this and suggested we had some lunch.

When we arrived the first suggestion was rabbit Nobsey seemed pleased by this but after some negotiation by the veggies we ended up with a feast that suited all. We had a struggle to not allow our guide to pay. The food was great and it was very hard to get any enthusiasm to leave the warmth when we had finished. Gordon mopped the floor and we were off. It was a popular decision to return to Moulin Du Roc as everyone was cold and our guide had been riding all day in Jeans and a leather jacket. When asked if he wanted to borrow waterproofs he had so 'No I am a man'.

We parked our bikes in the barn and set about making washing lines to dry all our gear.