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| Korn |
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Korn
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 Posted: 18:43 - 08 Sep 2006  Post subject: Two days on Salisbury Plain |
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Owing to Ste's unique status of employment (lazy bum  ) and me having most of this week off work a plan was hatched late on Tuesday to take our trail bikes and head off to explore Salisbury Plain. So that's just what we did...
We arrived on Salisbury Plain on Wednesday evening and quickly found a small village in which to park the van and unload our bikes. With the position of the van saved in my handheld GPS and the two poor little XR250s heavily overloaded with camping gear we left Market Lavington and headed north.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010002.jpg
Since neither of us had though to check if there were any live fire exercises scheduled for the army's lands the next day, and not fancying being woken up by artillery, we headed away from the danger areas of the plain and into the woodland of the Vale of Pewsey.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010004.jpg
Pretty soon we found a suitable little forest away from any signs of human habitation. After turning off the trail and slowly picking our way through the woods for a few hundred feet we found a nicely sized clearing in which to make camp for the night.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010005.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010008.jpg
With the tents set up the next priority was obviously - a fire! Judging by the amount of logs we'd had to ride over on the way in, this particular forest was certainly not short of fuel, and before long we had a small campfire started and a suitably large pile of firewood with which to keep it fed.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010014.jpg
As the fire crackled on the rest of our night was spent carefully opening the various beers we'd brought with us which had - after being strapped to the bikes - turned into a series of fizzy hand grenades, and investigating the various eerie noises our animal neighbours were making. Though as you can see from the next pic, we were suitable prepared to defend ourselves against even the most vicious of squirrels 
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010022.jpg
The only other punctuation to the several hours of drunkenness which preceded sleep was being repeatedly buzzed by some sort of light aircraft between 1 and 2 am. After getting the map out a quick position fix on the GPS revealed that our forest was in fact quite close to a municipal airfield, although what the pilot was actually doing up that late has remained a mystery.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010020.jpg
The next morning, having packed up camp and buried the remains of the previous night's fire we headed out of the forest and made our way back towards the plain. After a quick stop back in Market Lavington to offload the camping gear into the van and refuel the bikes, we were set for a full day on the trails.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010028.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010030.jpg
Salisbury Plain is vast and the sheer number of byways, lanes and trails lends itself well to exploring on a bike. The army are also very good about people being on their land, and except for the camps and a few areas which are permanently closed to the public the majority of it is open access when not in use by the army themselves.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010035.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010042.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010034.jpg
At one point we came upon an innocent-looking outcrop of woods which when we entered via a heavily rutted trail turned out to be teeming with soldiers! The bemused squaddies told us they were setting up a mobile HQ in there for an exercise the following day, and that it was supposed to be secret. We thought it best to bugger off post haste.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010052.jpg
Half way through the day we discovered that my bike had managed to lose its numberplate somewhere along the way. Despite back-tracking several miles of trails we failed to find any sign of it and so called into a garage in Shrewton where the owner - suitably amused - kindly gave me a plastic green tupperware lid and a permanent marker with which to fashion a replacement.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010036.jpg
Quite a number of the lanes on the plain are heavily rutted from army land rovers and 4x4 users, though there are also plenty of trails which can be ridden quite fast, save for the occasional puddle or section of bumps. The tracks used by tanks are fairly obvious as well, though they generally just carve their own way over the terrain as they see fit.
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010053.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010029.jpg
In places the army have laid down their own nicely graded gravel roads which we made use of throughout the day, though always on the lookout for a dust trail on the horizon signalling an approaching convoy. Needless to say most of the vehicles we met travelling these roads were much bigger than our little enduro bikes, and since most of them were also armed we thought it best to always make a point of giving way very, very quickly...
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010057.jpg
Towards the end of the day we found ourselves on a hill overlooking the Army Driver Training Area, a course of dirt roads punctuated with massive jumps, holes, drops and hill-climbs. The course is technically not open for public access although since the army weren't using it at the time... well, it would have been rude not to! 
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010118.jpg
As the sun started to go down we headed back towards the van, cutting through Larkhill and Westdown Artillery Ranges. We'd previously had to avoid the Westdown range because of red flags flying (meaning no access) not to mention the quite obvious explosions and smoke hanging over the horizon!
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010055.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010059.jpg
Having packed the bikes away we started for home, passing by Stonehenge just as the sun was setting. Unfortunately the henge had shut its doors at 6:30, however - somewhat more fortunately - the fence around it wasn't particularly high, so we hopped on over. I'm sure the druids would have objected to it having opening times anyway...
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010062.jpg
https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Salisbury/normal_P1010064.jpg
Having seen the sunset we started off home again, stopping only briefly for a pizza at the services. A thoroughly enjoyable two days, and there are still loads more trails we didn't have time to explore. Another trip is definitely on the cards I reckon.
More pics here: https://www.kornel.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=98
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries
Last edited by Korn on 03:38 - 09 Sep 2006; edited 2 times in total |
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colin1
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lee125
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Posted: 20:59 - 08 Sep 2006  Post subject: |
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looks very fun   nice pics aswell 
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theory:PASSED! A2 test:PASSED 08/11/2006 restricted to 33bhp for 2 years |
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JpWard
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| Posted: 00:33 - 09 Sep 2006 Post subject: |
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I know that area quite well in places and can i say id love to take a bike or indeed the quad round it
Great photos guys it could be a Sahara adventure! |
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| Korn |
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Korn
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| Posted: 01:51 - 09 Sep 2006 Post subject: |
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matt_uk
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Teya
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JpWard
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| Posted: 11:39 - 09 Sep 2006 Post subject: |
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@ KORN are you a photographer by any chance? Those pics have very good angles and i would expect them to be wrapped in a frame in the Off road section of Hein Gericke  |
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stevekingchef
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| Ste |
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Ste
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| Posted: 16:45 - 09 Sep 2006 Post subject: |
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Very cool couple of days, loads of trails around there to ride.
Steve, the trails are marked on OS maps and they're legal. Areas get closed off when the army are blowing stuff up and they put flags up to let you know where you're not allowed. There wasn't really any planning, decided roughly where we'd leave the van before going, got there and found somewhere to park, saved that position in korns GPS meaning we could always work out how to get back there. Other than that we pretty much just went where-ever with a few quick checks on the map to see where we were and what trails are nearby. You can pretty much go where you want on Salisbury Plain as long as there aren't flags flying which indicate the army are doing something there.
Look out for military bases that aren't on the map complete with a car on foreign plates parked outside the fences 
Definately have to go there again 
My pics are here but there's only a few different to Korns.
Things to remember next time, a torch and some fire lighters.  |
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stevekingchef
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| Luke_Retrofly |
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Luke_Retrofly
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| Posted: 11:28 - 10 Sep 2006 Post subject: |
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JEALOUS 
Maybe you can wait for me to have a day off next time, ya bastards.
Seriously, looked liked wicked fun, if u dont take me next time, im going to cut you in your sleep
Luke
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Korn
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 17 years, 230 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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