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www.adventuromania.co.uk e-mail sf.palmer@virgin.net
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Riders Comments
Hi Stephen and Vica, Many, many thanks, for the great experience this year. despite the climate trying to do its hardest to stop us. The lads all had the best riding ever. The snow made it so much more challenging and better for it. The diversity of the terrain and spectacular landscape make it impossible not to find something to satisfy all levels of riding and styles [trials, motoX and enduro] all catered for. The hospitality at the end of a hard days ride was perfect a cold beer or a bowl of hot soup what ever was needed. Every need catered for [even no eggs!!] The food once again was plentiful and very tasty. You and the family did us proud. All the effort you all put in to make our stay perfect made the holiday a pleasure. Thank you all.!! We all look forward to next year and coming back to see you all again. Cheers Martin, Brian, John and Lee.
I have now been out to ride with Adventuromania twice and will be
back soon I hope. To tell you how very rewarding the experiences have been is not
convincing enough unless I say a little about who I am. I worked in Central America and
was the operations manager of a highly respected adventure company for five years.
We ran high quality, high priced custom made trips. I have guided hundreds of groups down
rivers, guided tree climbing in the rainforest, multi day jungle hikes, canyoning in deep
ravines. In my spare time I kayaked unknown rivers, did solo first descents and had wild
adventures. This is all great but what is means is when I go on a guided motorcycle tour I
am often disappointed with the service and the organisation. With Adventuromania I
recognised all the good aspects of a first class operator and in my first meeting with
Stephen Palmer I saw a professional guide. He is attentive, he learns about his clients
and energetically delivers exaclty the right level of Steve Whetman - 2008 Adventure Company reference: Serendipity de Costa Rica e mail steve@nookie.co.uk Dear Sir I wanted to let fellow
TRF members know about the fantastic opportunities for real off-road and trail fun offered
by the dedicated and enthusiastic team at Adventuromania.
I had a fantastic week with Stephen. Originally anxious
as I was a complete novice and travelling alone, my confidence and skills grew quickly
during the week – as might be expected riding off-road over varied and often
challenging terrain for several hours a day. I needn’t have worried about travelling
alone as the other guys booked in for the week were great company and the hospitality from
Stephen and Vica was second to none. I hired one of Stephen’s very forgiving Honda
CRF230s for the week. These bikes are perfectly suited to the conditions, which ranged
from wide sandy cart tracks and large grassy hills to more technical narrow, rutted,
rocky, steep and slippery tracks in the forests. At times we ventured off the trails
completely. The first morning was relatively gentle with time spent
familiarising myself with Stephen’s CRF230, riding on relatively easy tracks and
practising some controlled ascents and descents which would be all important later in the
week. In the afternoon things got much more technical and I did struggle as my lack of
experience and growing tiredness led to one frustrating mistake after another. To my
novice eye, the tracks looked impossibly steep, although I did eventually make it up and
down them all. On the second day after a great night’s sleep and a
hearty breakfast we set out in perfect sunshine on a long and very enjoyable ride through
woods, streams, across hills and at one point down a set of concrete steps in one of the
villages. This day was a little less technical than the first and really helped build
confidence. I took a well needed rest the next day whilst the other guys in the group took
a trip into the mountains – something that required a bit more skill than I had! My third riding day was wet, in fact the only rainy day
of the entire trip – which wasn’t bad for October. We rode to the largest town
in the area mainly through the forest, often on narrow little used tracks. Again there
were a fresh set of challenges brought on by the conditions and whilst I was still making
lots of frustrating errors, confidence was still growing rapidly and I was continually
surprised with what the bike could do. On the final two days I had the unexpected luxury of
Stephen to myself and so we were able to concentrate on some of the more technical terrain
that I had struggled with earlier in the week. Looking back, the progress I made was
pretty rapid and I wonder if I had followed my original plan and just bought a bike to use
at weekends, how long it would take to get to build up the experience gained in these five
days. I would recommend this holiday, not only for those with
substantial offroad experience, but to anyone
thinking about or just starting enduro / trail riding as a fantastic way of gaining
experience and getting up to speed. With the location, food, hospitality as well as the
riding, this was a fantastic holiday which I hope to repeat next year.
Mark Lebbell 2006
Once upon a time there was a land not so distant from your own, an immense land of legends and myths, a place we read about as children where hills rear up into vast mountain ranges affording views of great beauty. Imagine this place thickly carpeted with dense, dark and twisted forests of ancient trees where paths are narrow and winding and crossed with the footprints of unfamiliar animals – animals that have hooves and tusks, or that howl in the night through sharp teeth. The trails of this land wind snake-like around fallen trunks and deep gullies, through undisturbed leaf litter and timeless orchards of plums and apples hanging like jewels. The trails of this land meander through fields freckled with hundreds of anthills solid with age, which unseat you if you ride into them without care. This is a land where you will experience the unfamiliar and exciting sensation of having to concentrate on picking your own line through the terrain, between the trees, around the bogs, across the rocks, over the ditches, across the meadows, through the pastures, down the mountains, up the climbs… Often you journey without trail or road over seemingly endless hills, through meadows of hay cut and piled into the pointy stacks of Hans Christian Andersons’ world and where the earth erodes down to rocks which glitter with fools gold and quartz. Elsewhere the ground sparkles with silica and mica, while locals working the land rest on their pitchforks as you ride into view. They offer you cheese, alcohol, fruit and a friendly welcome, chatting to you as though you have always been friends but their language is old and strange to your ears - you do not understand each other but the sentiments are good. When you return to your steed they turn back to their soot scorched huts where smoke from the chimney trickles lazily into the sky and their dogs of huge proportions guard the door-less entrance, their throats wrapped with a spiked band to protect them from….. 80, 100, 120, 150km plus, the trails might turn into undulating tracks of pits and ridges, deep holes, cart tracks woven with streams and crossed by cascades of water. Elderly women in headscarves stop to watch, clutching their canvas bags of provisions, traditionally clothed women carry brightly dressed infants and whole families clatter by in horse-drawn carts. Through villages you ride and as you gawp at the
long low houses with their decorated fronts and shuttered Back in the wilderness you ride where there is no sign of man. There are no fences, no gates, no walls, no hedges, just ditches to jump and banks to take off from. Hundreds of kilometres pass without boundary and trails disappear into nothing but space and freedom and mystery, to pick your own way through marshes choked with Bulrushes, bogs populated with thick undergrowth and pastures scattered with lizards. Climbing higher and higher from one mountain to the next, from 5th to 1st gear and at the top…breathless views where wild horses run free unhindered, flocks of sheep are guided by shepherds in clothing you’ve seen in storybooks, wearing moccasins of leather which curl up at the toes. And what of the Prince? All Fairytales have princes and in my story our Prince guides us tirelessly and with good humour on our adventures, selecting routes from 100’s of his own devising. He skilfully weaves the journey into a story for all abilities and speaks the tongue of the land, knows its terrain intimately. Our Scottish Prince and his Romanian family wash, feed, and care for your steeds and clothing. His knowledge of the land is gained from years riding here, his home accommodating you with clean, warm, dry rooms and delicious home-cooked food.
So there is my story, incredible scenery, challenging riding of great variety, trails as long as you want them to be and the best holiday I’ve ever had with or without a bike. The cast; "The Prince" – Stephen Palmer. "Hardened Enduro Rider" - Clubman H&H and Enduro series winner, Expert class rider. "Storyteller" – Lady of 5’ 1" stature, improving ability, occasional H&H, LDT and Rally participant. The Land – Transylvania, western Romania. The means by which to make the fairytale come true for you, "Adventuromania, off-road motorcycle holidays". Stephen has built his business on cooperation with the locals, permission from the authorities and respect for the land with a love of high quality off-road riding supported by excellent accommodation and meals. Go on, you wont regret it! Sweet dreams……. Maria.
The biking was absolutely fantastic, we have never had the opportunity to ride so many different types of terrain in one week, the forest tracks, mountain paths, river beds and muddy trails were all challenging, but manageable, it was brilliant. It was also so nice not to have to cover miles of tarmac in order to get to the trails, to be able to ride 100 meter's down the road from your house to get on off-road was great. I even got used to the dogs chasing us by the end of the week!!! Say thanks to your sister-in law for all the great cooking and all the rest of the staff who made our stay very pleasant. Peter, Mike & Martin Nelhams
It has to be said, i couldn't find fault with any aspect of this holiday. A typical day start's with a hearty breakfast then kit up for some unbeatable trail's on quality bike's!. Steve is very quick to work out a suitable pace for the group which help put me at ease early on. All kind's of trail's are undertaken and when you get high up in the mountain's, word's can't describe the view - you just have to see it to believe it. On returning to the accomodation it's shower and sit down to a superb three course meal washed down with whatever takes your fancy and some friendly banter to boot!. Rest assure steve and vica go out of their way to make you very feel welcome so why risk going elsewhere, this holiday has the lot. Rob Wilson. rowil@blueyonder.co.uk
Words can't describe the experience we all had trail riding in Romania with
Stephen. We all agree that this was the best trail riding we have ever had and can't
imagine anything can be any better. To sum it all up.........Fantastic value for money, a good time had by all.
You have to ride here to believe how good it is. No fences, thousands of miles of trails and friendly people everywhere. Enduro or trail riding depending on how I felt - and the guide goes at your speed. And the food is fantastic. Charlie - 2 trips - and going back again. ( 3 trips now 2006 !!!!) E- mail charlie@scottishenduros.co.uk
When the original plan to make the trip to ride in Romania was hatched I have to admit
that I was more than sceptical, I thought how good can it really be?
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They say that fairytales have their grounding in the truth, real places,
events and people. Well here’s one for all you adventurous dirt bikers out there,
read it before you go to sleep and dream about what you could be doing next year sometime
between May and October. ..........
windows, little packs of
children run laughing alongside you, arms outstretched trying to ‘high-5’ your
hands and touch you in your bright heraldic colours and shining armour. When you stop at
‘the’ store for food and drink you find a crowd soon gathers to hear your
language and see what you buy, whilst others admire your steeds and ask you questions,
which you cannot answer.
The flashes of red glimpsed through
the trees of these great forests are not of Little Red Riding hood on her way to
Grandmas’ but of the extraordinary Honda CRF230 upon which we travel, a superb bike
for this terrain and also the steed of choice ridden by our Prince (a successful ex
Scottish enduro and motocross rider of many years experience). He showed us that the bike
could climb the steepest climb, tackle the rockiest, muddiest, most slippery terrain and
jump ditches with ease. This bike could put a hardened enduro rider through his paces and
if ridden by an expert will give an enduro bike a good run for its money. Less experienced
riders will appreciate how easy the bike is to ride and be amazed by its mountain
goat-style capabilities. If you prefer a 2-stroke then our Prince has these also, though
you are welcome even to bring your own bikes by van or trailer.