Looking towards Perugia. Imagine the sound of larks singing

Italy 2001

This year we hired a van, bunged the bikes into it and set off on the 22-hour drive to Montecompatri, near Rome, where Patrick has a small palazzo and some eager concubines. I had just bought myself a new Yamaha WR250F
Twinkle-toes, Salvador Dali and Captain America
and was gagging to try it out in some real woods (the Foot-and-Mouth epidemic in the UK meant I had only been able to ride it on Motocross tracks until then). And Patrick in a customary fit of macho hubris had just bought himself a new Honda CR500E, 65 horsepower of motocross/desert-racer, hardly the choice of trail-riders or enduro riders anywhere. So it was new-bike-wonderland for all concerned, except for Mark who remained faithful to his long-suffering XR600.
Filippo's DR400Z looking very clean before its swim in the river
It was also to be Mark's last trip before getting married to Tricia three weeks later, so we were under strict instructions to look after Mark and make sure he returned in one piece for the wedding.

After a couple of days trailriding around Montecompatri we towed the bikes up to Umbria, where we hired a guide for a few days to show us the best of Umbria's many woodland trails.
'Me? I'm as fresh as a daisy!'
Filippo organises the annual Rallye di Umbria, so we were in more than capable hands as he took us on parts of the Rally route, a lot of which was full-on Enduro territory: tight and winding rocky goat-trails through scenic woodlands.

I managed to bend my rear brake disc by hitting a rock at the end of the first day, so we headed off to the nearest motocross shop to get a replacement. The shop (in Castiglion Fiorentino) turned out to belong to Paris-Dakar hero Fabrizio Meoni, whose wife very kindly opened the shop for us (it was supposed to be closed that day) and told us that Fabrizio was off in Egypt testing the
mmm, nice blue bike in the back there..
new KTM 950cc twin, which he was later to pilot to victory in the 2001 Egyptian Rally and the 2002 Dakar. Just down the hill from the shop was the workshop, which was stuffed with well-used off-road bikes of all types including a few huge rally KTM works bikes. Most impressive.

After a third day riding with Filippo near Montepulciano in Tuscany, it was off to Florence to get Mark's crushed and dislocated toes (sorry, Tricia!) fixed in the hospital, and ride the course of an Italian national enduro which had been on the previous day up in the hills east of Florence near Consuma.'Why are they all looking at me?'

All in all, a most excellent trip with some of the best (and most demanding) technical trailriding I've done.


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particularly elegant poses for the camera Just one more teeny-weeny grappa please..
Stop for a 3-course lunch in an old monastery Patrick digesting the 3-course lunch
'Hope they didn't mind us rinsing the air-filters in the kitchen sink last night..' 'This coffee tastes a bit oily don't you think?'
Breakfast at the agriturismo (rural B&B)
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