In late August / early September 2014 we ran our first On & Off-Road riding tour in conjunction with The Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and The Mick Extance Kawasaki Experience and it proved so popular then, that we have put three tours in the same format on for 2015, the first of which took place from the 26th – 28th April and the others are in July and October.
The tour is limited to 12 participants in the off-road day and this was only our second all male tour since we started DMT, in fact we could have called it a “family affair” as we had a grandfather, father and son, and two other father and sons on the tour, all very keen motorcyclists and a great group of people to ride with over the three days.
We started the tour on the outskirts of Shrewsbury and headed through the Shropshire Hills towards the border with Wales for our first coffee stop in a small tearooms which has over 27 teas on offer, not to mention excellent tea cakes! From there we continued on some very open flowing motorcycling roads into Mid Wales and lunch was at The Elan Valley Visitor Centre. We continued towards Machynlleth having a spectacular view of Clywedog Reservoir sparkling in the sunshine, and the blue skies continued all the way to our hotel which was our base for the duration of the tour.
Monday morning we headed over to the Tanat Valley to be met by Mick and his team who then kitted everyone out in all the necessary safety gear and a comprehensive briefing was delivered as to how to handle the bikes and before you knew it everyone was out riding up into the forests and mountains. As with this tour last year there were a mix of abilities as far as off-road riding is concerned but by the end of the day everyone throughly enjoyed the mud, the boulders, the inclines and declines and the sense of achievement as they negotiated the forest roads whilst learning new skills which are valueable not only for riding off-road but also for improving your road riding skills, especially slow speed and awareness of what to do on gravel or uneven surfaces.
The views were stunning and several photo opportunities had to be taken during the course of the day as can be seen from our gallery.
We returned to the hotel for dinner that evening and a presentation delivered by Mick about his experiences in the Dakar Rally. Everyone was enthralled by what Mick and all other participants in this Rally have to do to succeed.
For the last day of the tour the weather had been forecast to change, but luckily for us we continued to have blue skies although a little blustery riding over the Berwyns and into the Snowdonia National Park. The top of Snowdon was easily seen albeit the cap of the mountain was covered in snow!!!! We had a coffee stop at The Oakeley Arms hotel who had a roaring log fire burning to welcome us and then a lovely lunch stop at The Eagles hotel in Llanrwst nestled in the Conwy Valley before riding over the Denbigh Moors and across the border into Shropshire for our dispersal point of the tour.
We had a fantastic tour where we enjoyed open roads, beautiful vistas and we are certainly looking forward to joining Mick and his team for the next event in July 🙂