Back in October 2007 you may remember that I was in the UK collecting a new motorbike - A Moto-Guzzi Stelvio 1200 4V? Well whilst I was away from Ridersrest a Cpl from the 1st Medical Regiment called and spoke to Wendy regarding accommodation for the "Help 4 Heroes" charity trip he was involved in from Munster Germany to Timbuktu and was looking for a place to stay over night.
Wendy of course said "Yes!" immediately even after being told that the party consisted of 22 all ranks from the regiment who were riding Service Harley Davidson's enduro bikes. In fact she was not phased one bit and offered to accommodate them all as sponsorship and then gave a Weekend break for 2 at Ridersrest to be auctioned the proceeds going to the charity.
When I got home I was a little surprised and was challenged at how we would sleep and seat 22 burly soldiers in a house which had the sleeping capacity of an additional 16 people besides us. Not phased Wendy insisted that we went ahead and that she explained to Greavsie (Cpl in charge of organising accommodation for the Trip) that they might have to be on put me up beds around the house, which incidentally they would have to bring...
Once I had spoken to Greavsie I became more concerned to hear that the party consisted of 12 bikes, 2 Land rovers, 1 Sherpa mini bus and a 7 tonne Pantec lorry.
Of course they would put a link to http://www.ridersrest.net/ on the MunsterEnduroClub's website. Well it is for a good cause and publicity can only be a good thing, right?
We spoke to the neighbours who were excited by the prospect and to Kay & Mark who offered to shelter some of the lads which made the prospect more doable.By the time the date was firmed up (16th Feb - My Sister Denise's birthday) the group has shrunk to just 17 thankfully. Consisting of 9 riders + 8 in 4 support vehicles, 3 Land rovers and 1 7 Tonne Pantec. A tad more manageable in fact bang on the max we could do comfortably which was a blessing as Kay & Mark were slap bang in the middle of packing up house in the UK to move over here permanently so this let them out of their obligation...
You can read more about them here on Pages 38/39 of this on-line motorcycle mag and a running blog of the trip here MunsterEnduroClub
We were expecting them at around 18:00 - 19:00 given the route and the bikes. so I rode in the direction they were coming from to ride into Riders Rest with them. At 17:00 we received a phone call from the lead group informing us they were still 240 Clicks away from Limoges, which is another 75 Clicks from us, I returned home to the warmth and waited. After what I thought was an appropriate time I drove out to Chamberet to meet and escort them to Ridersrest.
The 1st Group of 4 riders was safe here at approx 21:00 cold and truly emotional and within half an hour we heard from 2 riders who had made it to Treignac Tourist office and wanting directions, It was far easier to go and get them - Wendy sorted the now 6 riders out with a hot curry followed by apple pie washed down with buckets of Tea and a few bottles of beer before they showered and went off to bed.
At 22:00 Dave Sippet called (The QM(T) for the 1st Medical Regiment, a Former Royal Marine whom I had met during my time in the corps) driving the Pantec, saying they were about 180 Clicks away. By 23:59 I had RV'd with him and brought him up to the house. The Pantec by now had 2 of the remaining 3 Bikes and riders onboard. The 3 Land rovers turned with the last bike strapped to one of them as we were parking the Pantec completing the group. Everyone was here.
Wendy again rose to the challenge and fed and watered all 11 of them. Once fed and showered they hit the sack and the house was still by 01:30; Wendy had tidied up and set for an 080:00 breakfast by 02:00 and in bed herself. She was still awake when I joined her after helping Kev the Mechanic unload two bikes from the Pantec and start problem solving on them.at 04:00.
At 07:00 we were up before everyone Wendy started cooking a full English and porridge and I set about waking them all.
By 10:00 I had escorted them all to the A20 through Seilhac and saw them safely on their way south and on to Spain...
After having spent the last couple of months in the relative boredom of Winter the house looked like it had been hit by hurricane and we felt like it had.I must add the guy's were good ambassadors for their Regiment and the British Services and whilst the house had been filled to capacity it had not suffered any damage nor had we excepted there to be any, perhaps we were left a little fatigued though...
Verdict: We are glad we did it and although we did not have much time to socialise with any of the guys properly we would not hesitate doing it again.
The height of the week social events for the comune was to set up a table in the local car boot which I think was more of a community social event more than a UK car boot, we bought some beer glasses ;)
Friday I went along to Harley Davidson Limoges to have a new front tyre fitted on the Rocket, Why does it always rain when I have new tyres on my bikes? I would strongly reccommend the dealership and found them exceptionally helpfull to a fault.
Wendy and I rode down.
