After last May's Level 1 Off Road Skills (
writeup here) I signed up for this Portugal trip. It's a week of 150-200km trail rides (with some tarmac between them) from a central hotel, riding the new R1300GS through all sorts of challenging and fun terrain.
Day 1 - SaturdayAn early start to get to Heathrow for an 0730 flight to Faro in Portugal. I spotted one other helmet bag on my way to departures, but only on arrival did I actually start meeting people from my flight. As it turns out these 3 others were great and we spent a lot of time together throughout the week. They, like the other 20 or so on the trip, had wildly varying degrees of experience of off road riding. From Level 1 newbies such as myself, to decades of experience across the world such as the TET (Trans European Trail, it looks awesome,
here's the UK leg), and all sorts of stuff.
Once we'd checked into the hotel our little group headed into the marina area for some food and drink. Later that evening at 8pm we had our first briefing at the hotel, where we met Simon Pavey and the several other instructors involved in the week. Essentially those of us who arrived on Saturday had paid to spend Sunday doing a bit of refresher training, whilst the overly confident would arrive Sunday night, skipping this. It was good to see that almost everyone opted into this, even the highly experienced. The general consensus was "it's more time riding".
Couple of bikes out front so we knew we were at the right place!
Day 2 - SundayAnnoyingly it was also more time raining. Sunday started out wet and ended almost as wet.
We started out the day with a rainy ride out for about 30 minutes or so to get to a trail. Here we split up into groups of 5-7 and spent time practicing the basics. Turning in the track, weight transfer, clutch control, ascents and descents. Basically a re-hash of L1, to get us started. More stuff/guidance came as the week and our skills progressed.
I had a git of a morning doing this stuff, we were in the clouds, visibility was less than 20 metres and my visor kept fogging up. Then about 11am the sky cleared slightly and I could see incredible scenery. This along with a rotation to another pair of guides/trainers reset my brain, and I was engine braking down a steep as descent that "nobody in the other group could manage it just on engine braking" in no time, and I had my confidence back.
And wet feet. And lunch. Today's lunch saw 30 ish people cram into a little restaurant and get served slow cooked pork, beef, lamb, and some incredible vegetables too. Thoughts of trench foot disappeared as we all devoured tasty Portuguese animals. Every day was organised as such. Having done this trip - with various route changes/additions over the years - for 13 years, they have relationships with cafes and restaurants all over the region, so we're always expected. This means guaranteed good food, and also guaranteed decent speed lunch, as opposed to the Portuguese standard of at least 2 hours spent lunching. We found this out later in the week when events forced us to go off-plan.
Lunch ended and we went to some more trails and practiced turning in the road, either on the pegs or sat down using one leg. Then we did some laps of a nice little route which was great fun. All this time we were being told "with the rain there's actually more grip than when it's all dusty!" And I at least was starting to believe and test this.
I didn't fall off. I did go to the spa when we got back to the hotel though. For the first time in my life. That's thanks to my cool kids club balance of sensible people (read: actual human women). I didn't realise saunas are so hot.
The evening almost ended (because beer came after, at sensible amounts) with the briefing for the rest of the week, with the addition of a few new faces. One guy had ridden down.
Wet wet wet
More wet
And silly angles because one of the instructors' grandkids was taking these
Day 3 - MondayMy little lot came down for breakfast at 0730 after having hair-dryered the crap out of our variously damp boots and waterproof socks. As with yesterday, with this being the first day for the new arrivals, the bikes were waiting out front for us. After this they were over the road at the apartments where the instructors stay.
Every day started the same: pick up the keys, listen to who will be your two guides, then head off in one large group to the petrol station. Get filled up, then get directed to your little group at the exit. Sit about for another 5 mins. Have a brief chat with whoever is taking you out, and then set off.
We had some beautiful weather finally, though it rained a bit before lunch. At this stage we're all pretty new in my group, and going quite slow. Positioning on the bike and various little bits of style were probably missing from my riding at least. In any case, the day progressed well, and each time we al met up for coffee/lunch we'd have great stories to tell. Mostly of water crossings soaking us all again.
Near the end of the day we headed back along a gnarly little route, but I was feeling confident and following my holiday-wife at a decent pace. Unfortunately over confidence and being tired ensured that I went a little to fast into a corner, failing to give myself enough time/space to choose an exit. So the exit I took was into a rut type thing, which I then failed to find a way out of. Or rather, the bike failed and I flew off out of it successfully. Apparently you're supposed to stay on the bike though, so holistically speaking this was a failure.
After landing my first auto-pilot actions were to scramble back and hit the kill switch, followed by a long press to stop the emergency SOS call happening. Just then the rest of my lot arrived and helped my pick the bike up. Although it wasn't until our lead instructor came back that we got the thing out of the rut.
After that my left foot hurt on top, and changing gear was a bit painful. Oh and my ribs hurt. On arrival at the hotel I prodded my foot and then had it inspected by another lady in my group who is a physiology type person. Seemed ok, and indeed no pain the next day. Then we spotted my bruised ribs and a bit of a bruise/friction mark on my forearm. Yes, we were all in the spa again that's why these injuries were being pointed out! The ribs continue to ache a bit, but it didn't stop me riding.
Bikes!
Scenery
First watery bit of the day
A nice easy descent
A slightly less ridiculous angle
What a view! So many trails
Day 4 - TuesdayDown for breakfast and an ibuprofen to be on the safe side. Off we go with my favourite of our guide combos, a confidence-inspiring fella called Tony up front, and our Simon Pavey as tail end charlie.
It was probably the best combo for what we found this morning. Our route on the itinerary spoke of a beautiful ride around a reservoir. Unfortunately that rain over the weekend was unseasonable and more than in many many years. It started out as the trail being muddy slush, with lots of opportunity to practice proper weight transfer and avoid falling off. Then a couple of km in the whole track was under about 10 inches of water. The following few km were a mix of wading, paddling, or standing and bricking it to get through this trail. At the coffee stop at the end of this, Pavey confirmed they'd never had anything like it in thirteen years. So it felt good to have made it through this without coming off. And experiencing way more front end waggling than I'd ever like to again!
Other than a brief sprinkle, today was dry in the sky, though. This was my favourite day too, somewhat strangely. I got faster and faster, and more confident as the day progressed. After lunch we had some amazing sweeping stuff across the top of that nightmare reservoir area, where it was just damp gravel and sand. Whenever I was at the back of our group I'd pull over and spend a couple of minutes chatting with Simon, taking photos etc, before flying off and catching up with the rest before the next stopping point. Simon was fine with this approach, and seemed to just enjoy spending time out here too. Conversely, when I was second, behind Tony, he'd go as fast, and then a bit faster, than he thought I could go. So I'd always have a stretch objective! I/We'd watch his exaggerated movements and always learn something.
Back to the hotel and then out for pizza. I did drop the bike today, but in almost the exact same scenario as I did back in Wales: faffing with my tail pack and over-balanced the thing as it wasn't on the level anyway.
Tony and Simon and the cool kids club
A little stop
More fun to come!
Next year's ride
Day 5 - WednesdayThe whole group were given the option today to either have an entirely on-road day, another off-road day, or a day off. It went about 50/50 between on road and off road. I opted for off-road. Our group was 7 this time, with a couple of faster people who were also a couple. Of married people. We started the day with dry feet, until coming round a corner of the trail and seeing a deep river. We walked through it first to find the best path, and so as the water level reached our knees... well, yes, wet feet.
Anyway, we crossed that river by going slow as, and keeping both feet down. Apart from my holiday-wife who was so short she had to go balls out across it. We then continued until i rounded a corner and saw a bike literally upside down. Thankfully Tony was already on the scene. We're still a little uncertain what happened, but the fella above's wife came off and was sat at the side being tended to by Tony. We kept a respectful distance and eventually found that she needed to go to hospital. Being in a steep valley we had no signal and no GPS so she had to ride pillion whilst Tony gently got her back to the road. With suspected broken ribs this can't have been much fun but she kept smiling. We then followed, and then one of our group got ridden back in to bring the slightly bruised GS out. Shortly after this the recovery van arrived - it shadowed us every day - and took her to hospital. She was back with us at the hotel later sporting two broken ribs. No more riding this week
.
We were impressed with the professionalism of our guides in dealing with this situation. No panic.
After this we were in the wrong area for lunch so we took some new trails, some wrong turns, and then tried to find somewhere for lunch, Spotting some Harley Davidsons outside a restaurant we parked up and got a table. And spent over two hours having lunch. It was great food again though. We didn't have a bad meal the whole week.
I expected we'd just ride mostly directly back to the hotel now, for the usual 1530'ish finish, however the guys didn't want us to lose out, and so we stayed out until just about visor switch-over levels of light. I think 1830 we got in. What a day. The injured lady arrived a little later and was smiling but confirmed the broken ribs.
Oh! On this slightly off-piste part of the day we came down from some heights through a forest trail which was covered in fallen bark/leaves from whatever lanky/leafy trees they have in that area. It was amazing as it looked like it'd be low low grip with all the long slender leafy stuff, but actually one could make quite a bit of progress with quite aggressive braking/acceleration. At least I could any way. It was pretty hilarious and I found my self laughing quite often when coming down these steep ass tracks. Even now we were still getting a bit of 1-1 advice and tuition whenever we stopped.
I was official photographer for our group by now!
This was a fun section, quite low grip levels so pretty funny coming down steep bits
Cool kids!
Day 6 - ThursdayOk Thursday, The big day. This was pitched as a night trail ride after Tapas in the hills. I thought this would mean an easy day but nope! After a bit of rain early on we had some nice road riding to get us to the trails. These bikes, even on the Metzeler Karoo 4 things, have incredible grip on tarmac. Alas it was only Friday I remembered the 'Sport' display mode, and checked my max lean angle. 37 degrees. That wasn't trying too much either.
Ok where was I? Oh yes. So after some fun road sections we took a wrong turn, the bane of everyone's life having to turn on the trail! Thankfully I was becoming more confident and turned the thing round without making a fool of myself. The rest of the group... took a while longer.
Anyway. More riding then lunch somewhere. This was pretty good again. Then off for more sweeping trail stuff where I could get up to 5th and even 6th gear. It's very satisfying! Then more coffee. Then with the sun setting, we gradually made our way up into the hills to a village named Salir and a Tapas place called Janela da Serra. There we met the rest of the group, our injured lady, and another guy's wife. As the sun went down we enjoyed some amazing food and good conversation. Replete with not a little trepidation.
Back to the bikes we go, and I hastily switch over to my clear visor. And add my wind proof top. We set off as one big group on the road for the first half, then all into a trail we'd done in the day, but which - even with the fancy new R1300GS lights - looked a bit more scary at night. Every shadow made stones look twice the size. Only one person I know of fell off on this, and I had someone on my bum the entire time. I thought I was a slow arse on this section, but when I got out to the exit of the track I had the instructor only there - we'd lost maybe 4-6 people as drop-offs on the trail - and we spent another minute waiting for the next bunch to catch up.
Then it was a relatively speedy night ride on the road back into town. Again I was impressed with the pace of these things on these tyres. Apart from the doubtless terrible mileage I'd get from these tyres doing any proper tarmac distance, I'd be tempted to put them on any GS I get. It opens up so much fun... at least in Europe proper.
Ok, too late for the spa tonight, but not for beer.
Watching the turning round shenanigans
Pausing for some space again
A dog
View from the Tapas place
A churchy thing outside the Tapas place
Day 7 - FridayLast day! Today would be a late lunch/early finish back at the hotel for 2pm. And that's what it was. By this stage I was faster than everyone in my group on road as well as off road. This made it a bit difficult as for some reason we didn't have a tail end charlie today so I had to stay relatively close to the back of the group. This meant instead of going up and down the gears I'd end up sitting (sometimes literally) in 2nd gear.
My main takeway was that I had to ensure next time I'm not in the slow group. Which is why I've joined the TRF and went to sit on a CRF300 today.
Back to the hotel and a nice buffet type affair with decent wine. Then to a beach bar (the only one on the beach, which was nice, not some overcrowded seafront affair) for some cocktails and sunset, before steak over the road a bit. Real good steak. The steak was great. Then wine back at the hotel again. The wine was great.
Last time on this little beauty. Note I managed to smash the mudguard fork protector bit!
Beachy place
Day 8 - SaturdayFlying home day. As happened on the way in, airport transfer taxi was provided by the organisers, so we had a leisurely breakfast and got the taxi at I think 0945. Faro airport is pretty small and wasn't busy either - unlike busy ass Heathrow on the 10th, because fricking school holidays. Also the return flight was nicer as I didn't have a small child kicking the back of my seat all 3 hours. We also had some turbulence too which I always enjoy. Although this time the glee was tempered somewhat as I'd just dropped an earbud, and bending down to fetch it has hurt my ribs again.
Plane landed, I didn't crash. Said goodbye to new friends and got in my car and drove home.
Me
Oh yeah, whatever day this was, we were all queueing for the crossing... because Simon had dropped his phone in and so a search party was required
We must have done dozens of river crossings
In summary: It was a great trip, I highly recommend both L1 and this. There's a Tasmania trip in December I'm mightily tempted by too. Though I may just get the CRF300 and start learning UK and Europe first.
