Mille Rivieres 2009 Report
The journey down to the Ardeche
In the last week before setting off for the Mille Rivieres, there were still a few things to sort out on the Jeep. Firstly, it needed a jolly good service with fresh oil in the engine and axles. My friends at H&M in Somerton took good care of that. Westlake in Somerton had taken care of getting the two front roof panels sprayed back to black. To top it off, a few days beforehand, I found out that the heater wasn't working.
The Jeep Dealer in Yeovil got to look at that and they said that the heating controller was broken and that they did a temporary fix on it. To have cold air, just switch on the Air Conditioning and for heat (one setting) switch the AirCon off. So, pleased to be getting some warmth afterall, Caz and I set off on Thursday November 5th towards the Ardeche in Sourthern France to take part in GRM's Mille Rivieres Event.
We were planning on visiting my cousin's daughter Chloe in Paris and to stay the night there. On the way, we noticed a funny acid like smell coming in to the cab and didn't really think any more of it. The navigation software on my iPhone eventually got me to the Le Senat area of Paris after changing its mind constantly on where to send us.
Parking in Paris is a bloody nightmare and eventually after forty minutes driving around we got the Jeep parked up allbeit illegally. We'd take care of that later. Later was at one in the morning only to find we had a flat battery. Fortunately, the day before we left I took out a RAC European Recovery policy and this proved to be very valuable indeed. If you plan on doing a similar trip, go to www.rac.co.uk. The RAC were very helpful indeed and they provide a superb service! The recovery vehicle turned up an hour later and to charge the battery we decided to visit the Eifel Tower or drive by it... We then got the Jeep parked just by the hotel. The next morning to my horro, the battery was flat again. The RAC got a recovery vehicle to us within two hours and we then drove to a Jeep dealer to get a new battery. It turned out that we had cooked the battery which accounted for the scrid smell the day before. The dealer confirmed that it was the battery that had caused the "check engine light" to come on. The heater worked fine at any position and the problem was actually solved and we decided to drive on down towards the Ardeche.
Back in April at West Harptree one of the people taking part in the Test Your Driving Skills event in West Harptree had shown interest in doing the Mille Rivieres and after a few e-mails Barry Pope and I made arrangements to basically do the Mille Rivieres together. At the "peage" at Lyon this JK overtook us and this turned out to be Barry and Julia, his friend who came along to learn what Jeeps can do over and above Land Rovers! We then followed each other towards Tence where we had booked Hotel Placide.
Registration and stickage
Stickage and registration as well as the next day's start of the event took place at Le Chambon-sur-Lignon some five miles South from where we were staying in Tence.
Two weeks before, I paid €545 by bank transfer to Grands Randonneurs Motorises only to find I had underpaid them by €142 making it a total cost of taking part, including lunches of €687.
Generally, I found that the French don't like to volunteer to speak English. Perhaps they're afraid of making themselves look silly in case they make a mistake. If you try speaking French and showing that you're more than happy to make mistakes, they tend to follow your lead...
That came in handy when Caz locked all doors whilst numpty here left the keys in the ignition. Our French friends helped us break into the Jeep and after an hour or so we got the thing unlocked again. If you have a Jeep YJ/TK/JK it may come in handy to know that what you need to do is to take out the rear window where it is connected to the hardtop. You only need to undo four bolts and you're in!
After that "event" we got on with putting the stickers on the vehicle and the job's done.
In the evening we had to come back for a briefing. This was compulsory. Well, I don't know about the other Brits, but I was unable to see anything important about it. Roy Baker, who used to be with Jeep UK got some sort of prize. Well done Roy! He's a very nice chap and probably deserved it! It became clear that eventhough there were ample British participants, the organisers or marshalls were not going to even try to make themselves understood in English. This was going to be the case throughout the event.
That night we got to know our companions a little better at the Hotel De La Poste in Tence where a jolly good dinner was enjoyed.
If you're wondering where the Ardeche is in France, on the bottom of this page is a Google map that should make all that quite clear.
Day 1, November 8th
For Barry's vehicle to communicate with us, we used PMR radios. Throughout all stages there was a mobile signal in case we needed it. Us Brits tend to believe that reception is crap in "out of the way" places. That may be so in the UK but certainly nowhere else in Europe eventhough we pay the highest prices for mobile telephony.The PMR radio is a simple solution that worked well. For navigation purposes, the organisers give you a so called "tulip roadbook". Some people had proper tripmeters (Brantz). We made do with a simple iPhone app "Trails" which wasn't 100% accurate but it did the job well enough. For further information click here: http://trails.lamouroux.de/. I'm sure that there are applications for other phone operating systems that do the same thing. The beauty of Trails application is that it lets you upload your trails to a website called www.everytrail.com/. I suggest that you open another tag in your browser and follow this link; http://www.everytrail.com. Or simply look for trails by "j33per". You can then follow us through the Ardeche.
So back to the first day... We set off from Le Cambon-sur-Lignon a little after 9am only to find that we got our knickers in a twist, navigation wise. This was despite Julia having a degree in navigation! Eventually we forgave her!
The trails on the first day were not really that challenging other than that the JK owned by yours truly was a tad wider than the average 4x4 used. It became clear very early on in the trail that both Barry's and my Jeep would need a respray by the time we got back to the UK. Some people had quite righly protected their 4x4s by applying some kind of cling film. I thoroughly regret not having done that as the trails were overgrown with particularly nasty and sharp thorns.
Lunch was great with a starter, main course. fromage (cheese), dessert and coffee. Uhh, and of course a glass of wine...
After lunch we went on for another two hours after which we called it a day. We skipped the last section which apparantly was a bit more challenging. A group from Belgium managed to break a rear axle and one of the chaps told me that the "assistance" offered by the organisers amounted to the square root of bugger all. Our news journalist freinds writing for 4x4 Magazine led the way to Langogne where we stayed for the night.
Day 2, November 9th.
After a nice evening at hotel Domaine Barres it was off to the starting point of day two in Le Bastide Puylaurant. It was cold and very wet and after another very meaningful briefing in French it was off... Fortunately, a Belgian guy was happy to translate into Dutch which was quite handy. The French love to talk and particularly about very little.
Day two was more of the same but with snow which made for very scenic views. Combine the snow with beautiful Autumn colours and you can imagine that that would have looked like. Have a look at the photographs here... Lunch again was great!
The laning was similar to the previous day with more scratching and horrible paint damaging noises. The navigation wasn't much better either! Barry, Julia and us had gotten to know eachother a little better again and the "craigh" was great.
We reached St Privat de Vallongue later in the afternoon at which point the off-roading took on a more meaningful form. The only trouble was that it was getting rather dark. Furthermore, some of the earluer groups hadn't made real good progress and were holding us up.
At this poiunt I should point out that there are three starting times you can opt for; 7am, 8am and 9am. The most civil starting time is 9am which was the group we belonged to. This also meantg of course that we would finish in the dark.
It is njeedless to say that Barry's and our Jeep performed very well indeed and that we did that last section carefully and well.
It was then a matter of finding our hotel some seven kilometers away from St Privat. After a quick check-in we had to get back for the evening's entertainment. Ample wine and food in a large tent with more French being spoken and not ackowledging all the other people that had travelled from afar. Good entertainment was guaranteed. Hmm... that diodn't really live up to the expectations raised through the price that was paid so to speak.
Day 3, November 10th.
Day three started in St Privat and was to take us around the village and further South. In fact, the first section took us to the same place as the previous evening but doing it in reverse. The two Jeeps performed flawlessly and made light work of the terrain on offer.
On the third day we were joined by Nathalie and her boyfriend in a Land Rover Defender 90. This couple are from Brugge and run a restaurant called Pro Deo. On our next trip to Knokke, we'll have to pop in for dinner!
As we had become accustomed to, we lost our way shortly after the first section and then made some educated guesses as to where the directions were meant to be taking us.
After what seemed quite a long drive, we saw where the trail was to be picked up. Quite a few vehicles were gathered at a spot where a Range Rover had just broken a half shaft. The nice chap from 4x4 Magazine suggested we should skip this first section to avoid damage. The opposite was done of course and after a quick recce, I decided to give it a go. The section proved interesting but totally doable. I was well chuffed that Barry decided to follow. Barry's JK perfoprmed fantastically well particularly when considering that his front diff is open and in the rear there's "only" a limited slip diff.
Shortly after that section, we enjoyed another copious lunch and then started to make our way back in the direction of Calais. After three hours driving we found a hotel and that was it as far as the Mille Riviere was concerned.
The journey back
The journey back home was uneventful. Barry and I followed each other from time to time and some two hundred kilometers from Calais we parted ways. Eventually at 9pm GMT we reached Somerton where a comfortable bed was awaiting us.
Summary
The Mille Rivieres was quite interesting. It is damaging in as much that your paintwork suffers hugely. I wouldn't be surprised if I will end up with a re-spray. The trails are not really difficult. In fact, I had hoped for more challenges. The cost is considerable especially as my JK consumes 15 liters of petrol for every 100 kilometers. The value of the Pound has gone into freefall and a pound is now only worth as good as one Euro. So cost is a consideration.
The organisers are pleasant enough but I cannot help but feel that they could do more to communicate better with the British contingent.
Ultimately, an event is as good as the "craigh" between participants. Having my mate Barry there with Julia made it very enjoyable as well as meeting others like the 4x4 Magazine guys, Hills and Roy.
I will not do this one again but certainly would like the Trophee Chevignol a go. That event is held also in the Ardeche but is more challenging but nothing two JKs can't handle.
Finally, I would like to say thank you to American Expedition Vehicles as my Jeep was performing exactly to plan. RIPP SuperChargers also deserve a mention for making the JK perform like a Jeep should as the standard 3.8 V6 is so painfully underpowered.
View Mille Rivieres in a larger map
