A group of us from Guernsey decided that we needed to visit France for some off road trails. We had previously been to Salisbury Plain the the Wilshire green lanes a few times and had a blast there, and also to Brittany for a dabble. This time though the Limousin region was selected. The decision was made after some searching of the interweb and staring at maps. We had


France, whats there not to love. Check out that cheese. That has never complied with any EU law for sure. Sadly couldn't drink to much wine for obvious reasons

several criterea that we used to locate a venue. These consisted of; Trees, we are devoid of large woodland in Guernsey so trees would be fun to ride through. Hills, the places we have ridden before had no significant climbs or decents other than the tank area at Bulford (which your not supposed to be on anyway). Long trails, most of our lanes here are at best 800 metres long and whilst you can join them up to create a reasonable run out, they are not that exciting at all. So with all this in mind and a laptop poised with a charge battery we searched.


The barn is the bar! Its an honesty bar complete with jukebox and dartboard

Now we ride to France a lot. After all it is our cheapest and closest port to
get to. Also France has fewer people and quite loose rules for off road riding. From my understanding, and from speaking to local riders, they consist of one major guideline. If it can be driven on and there is no sign (official and not hand written) saying to the contary, you can ride it. You are best to avoid the Parc National areas as well. Where in France we started to think.


The natural home of the KTM. This was also one of the closest fuel stops to Riders Rest

Pyrenees? well we were not sure Massif Central? I had never been there so again, I didn't know. However when searching one thing kept coming up and that was that the Limousin region was almost encouraging riders and Land Rovers to come and play. There was also another attraction, Riders Rest. Now anyone who has spent anytime searching the internet for off road trails in France will probably have encountered the Riders Rest website. Infact it was almost anoying how it kept popping up. In the end we gave in and booked ourselves in. I say gave in as we normally enjoy the whole French thing. Language, food, the road side cafes etc and Riders Rest was a good few KM's from any town or village and is run by a couple of Dorset ex pats called Wendy and Tony. Tony is ex forces and used to be a RM dispatch rider (amongst other things). Decision made but we kept our time there short, just two full days, so if we didn't like it we could move on.



After a easily managable 550 KM ride down stopping at Poitiers overnight (crappy ferry times from Guernsey enforced a two stage ride) we arrived. Wow, pretty area or what. It fulfilled our boxes for sure and the IGN 1:25,000 maps did not lie. There were hills, lakes and forest a plenty. As we arrived just after lunch we accepted Tony's offer of dumping our kit and going off for an explore. He pointed us in the right direction to get going and off we went. Now when I normally trail ride I have a map board mounted on the bars and a Garmin Etrex GPS mounted above the clocks so I can navigate effectively. This was not needed there and my tactic changed. Just ride, then ride and ride some more till you were lost. Then just look at the GPS for coordinates and plot them on your map. A fantastically liberating way to ride. This was achievable due to the ridiculously large amount of trails and the



complete absence on people. Oh the other rule not to be broken in France is no off piste riding. This was not an issue. Infact if you sailed past a good looking track you just said to yourself 'oh well, there will be another' and sure enough, there always was. Clearly the area is ridden a fair amount as many of the smaller tracks where forestry had not been werecarved out on the corners and berms had been created as a result. That said we spotted nobody. Three hours later and some great trails later, we returned.


Stunning views a plenty

The accomodation is very clean and you could have either a room or a bunk room spot. The bunk room cost �27/night and this included towels, bedding and breakfast. This is what we opted for and as a result we were travelling very light on the way up and down. Just a role bag on the rack.

The second day we were out for about eight hours with a lunch stop. We covered about 170 KM's and basically only ever crossed tarmac rather than drove along it. Our adverage speed was 40 KPH but with some faster and some slower stages. The faster stages were the long sweeping forestry trails and the slower were the steep washed out tracks which looked more like river beds. We had no punctures (I am touching wood as I speak) and no breakdowns. This was amazing considering the fact we had a KTM with us!



There are so many trails there that whatever the ability you either think you are or actually are, there is something to suit. Its not extreme enduro country by any means, but I am sure you could find something, but it is perfect for the Tenere in my humble view. It was certainly perfect for me. There were enough small jumps on the faster tracks to raise the heart beat a little and if you wanted to drift you back wheel around on the trails there was no issue. Equally drop your speed and stay in contact with the ground and have the back wheel follow the front. I had a new'ish TKC on the front and a badly ageing one on the rear. I left the TKC's on as I like them on the


about 160kms in and still the bikes were clean as it was dry and dusty

road at our travelling speed of 110 to 120 KPH. I did wind the bike up to 138KPH (GPS not speedo) but got a little scared when the hadlebars started moving of thier own free will from side to side so backed off. We had three BMW F800's, my Tenere and one KTM 950 Adventure. One of the F800's kept


This was a pig of a trail given the recent forestry but huge fun non the less

falling over and he did not ride with us on the second day but did a cracking road ride instead. He was very new to both biking and definately off roading and we probably were a little excited the first day and should have considered him more. However he is still keen and wants to join us again next year when we intend to go down for four full days of fun.


Travelling light is lovely. Eight days of kit.


One of the other riders there doing the excellent roads in the area was riding a Super Tenere with pillion. A lovely couple and an excellent rider by all accounts.

Any questions or detail please ask. However please do not ask for traces or routes as please note my comment earlier that we just rode till lost. We have lots of GoPro footage but the file size is huge and haven't rteduced it yet.

Thanks for reading and this really is a great spot. Possibly for a european meet? I would definately recommend this spot.

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DickyC

Gun Metal Grey 2014 XT660Z
'Advice is sought by someone who knows the answer but doesn't like it'

'The adsence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously'

Good write up DickyC, would like to do that next year if i can get my mates off their sports bikes

Take your mates. The roads around there are also crutch rocket eaven (apaprently). You just need a another to go trailing with.
Cheers

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DickyC

Gun Metal Grey 2014 XT660Z
'Advice is sought by someone who knows the answer but doesn't like it'

'The adsence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously'

Nice pics and words. Thanks for sharing your little adventure.

Reasonably familiar with the Limousin, but not been for a while. I agree that it would indeed be a good contender for a Euro meet-up venue (and I just happen to know an ex-pat who runs a campsite just outside Limoges too!)

BTW - You do release that amount of cheese will give you terrible nightmares!

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Excellent write up, thanks. Nomad's place is becoming a must do destination. Up til now we have only ridden in the North of France but I feel a trip on the XT instead of the KTM looming.