Ride Limousin - central France

[Pepperbox]

Just back from 4 days/5 nights staying and riding with Rowena and Torsten at Ride Limousin in France. Travel time was short and my mate doesn't have an offroad bike at the moment so we hired their 250 Yamahas (carbs). Torsten took us out for 4 days of very varied terrain, scenery and degrees of difficulty. The riding area out there is huge with trails for every ability. I had a couple of undignified dismounts but waited until the third day to do the job properly by getting spat out of a rut and taking a footpeg to the shin right between the top of my boot and kneepad. Need tougher boots with pads right to the top...

My mate waited until the 4th day for his lesson in humility with a relatively simple off resulting in his legs separating like a wish bone and a resultant groin strain. Not life threatening but, it brought a tear to his eye and we decided that was enough.

All up we covered well over 300 miles of which more than 70% of time was spent off road.

They can provide B&B, Dinner B&B, GPS routes, bike hire and GPS and, guiding with or without bike hire.

Rooms are nice, clean and well appointed. Rowena always offers a post ride beer and her cooking is excellent.

Our first three days were in the 30s while day 4 was 10 degrees and raining.

Highly recommended.

Lessons learned: Wear the best boots you can find and, body protection. We all came off at some point including Torsten the guide (oddly, he was unscathed). If wearing Fieldforce Pro armour, take out the coccyx protector. With a bit of sweat and bouncing around in the saddle, it seems to make a run for the darkest crevice which is most uncomfortable! Take lots of layers. The weather changes significantly day by day.

We'll go back with our own bikes when my chum has finished with the horse liniment...