The star of ‘Long Way Round’, ‘Long Way Down’, ‘Race To Dakar’ and ‘By Any Means’ is live on stage at a theatre near you! With big video screens and some amazing clips of his adventures – some of which have never been made public – this night with Charley is going to be one to remember! If you liked any of Charley’s shows – this is going to be your classic night out. Get the opportunity to ask questions and chat to Charley – as well as get your book or DVD autographed at the end of the night…. This is Boorman close up – and no mistake!

We also have a very special guest on the show – Simon Pavey, the BMW Dakar Legend and director of the BMW Off Road School will be on stage discussing his own amazing life – together with his experiences in Charley’s TV shows. Up close and personal with Simon Pavey

All of this is being pulled together with one of the few people who’d dare to ask those ‘awkward’ questions, Billy Biketruck. Billy will be your host for the show – interviewing Charley and Simon and getting to the nitty gritty. Be shocked at the questions – and be doubly shocked at some of the answers!!!

On top of this, you can enter the BMW UK Sponsored prize draw, at any of the venues around the UK, and win yourself two places on the acclaimed Off Road School, including two nights local accommodation. The winner will be drawn at random from all the entries at the very last stop on the Charley Boorman Live Tour, Dublin. To win this fantastic prize all you need to do is attend one of the many dates at a theatre near you throughout March and have a great night out!

To find out when you nearest gig is and book tickets visit;

www.charleyboormanlive.com

Portugal 2010 – A picture of Paradise

Sun, sea, great roads and better off road. It sounds like paradise and the Off Road Skills Portugal trip in February was a bike riders heaven. And if it wasn’t for the unlucky weather system that gave Portugal it’s worst weather in a very long time, it would have been absolutely perfect.

Using the www.Biketruck.com arctic lorry to ship eight brand-new F800 GS, six G650 X-Challenge, a handful of the X-Country and all the ORS kit, the team found their home in the costal resort of Vilamoura, a mere 15km from the nearest major airport in Faro. Flying in the week before to set everything up, we quickly discovered the potential that Portugal has, with great tarmac, phenomenal dirt and incredible views. This was going to be a great few weeks riding.

Simon has been harping on about the riding in the Algarve ever since he returned from three weeks in the sun, guiding dealers around on the F800 GS launch back in ’08 and so he decided the time had come for another ORS Trip. Joining him on this trip was ORS co-Director Linley, Senior Instructor Gwyn, Senior Technician Evan and junior instructor/photographer Llewelyn.

The plan was for two groups of customers to come over a week each. Joined by a healthy sized group of ten on both weeks, there was great atmosphere and a fantastic two weeks ensued. Based out of the 4 Star Dom Pedro Golf hotel we were surrounded by every holiday activity you could want for you and any additional family members. Many of these remained unused however and over-shadowed though in the wake of the amazing riding.

Setting out at around 8:30 every morning the weeks flew by with mixed weather, but the temperature remained relatively warm despite the mix of sun and rain. Averaging around 130 miles each day, meant the groups were putting in some serious riding time that was split up only for coffee, some serious lunch stops and to admire the incredible views.

The riding is simply stunning, the tarmac is as good as anywhere you’ll ride in the world, the trails are as easy or hard you want, are endless and more fun than a bouncy castle! You need to come on this incredible trip, you haven’t seen riding this good ever. Just ask any one of the customers who joined us for the beginning of what is one of the best overseas tours available anywhere.

We would like to thank all the customers who joined us, John Bentman for his journalistic coverage, all the staff who made this possible and Luis from Dom Pedro for his great support of the ORS Team.

Details of next years tour will become available later in the year.

To see the Images from this years trip click here www.thatcamerakid.com

And coming soon will be a video of the trip too!

BMW Off Road Skills Instructor Tamsin Jones, has managed to fight her way to the finish of the 2010 Dakar Rallye. As the latest instructor from the ORS to claim a Dakar Rallye finish, it brings the total number of ORS Team Dakar’s to an extremely impressive 14! Tamsin has every right to become part of that list too, with some impressive tales and adventures to go alongside her finishers medal. Fellow Off Road Skills Instructor Craig Bounds was somewhat less lucky in his attempts. Craig’s second Dakar was going rather to plan, with some very impressive top 30 results including a fantastic 18th place on stage 2. But as the finish loomed, Craig’s KTM 690 Rallye gave up the ghost 25km into stage 13. After some desperate attempts to restart his bike in the sand dunes, with the aid of a pair of horses, Craig managed to get back to the liason through 12km of sand, his bike running purely on tick-over. All of this was done in some particularly extreme weather, so hot his petrol had started to boil in the fuel tank!

And only two weeks prior to Dakar’s start, both riders were at ORS HQ with the rest of the team taking part in the Instructor training, a weekend where all the Instructors come together to re-iterate and share their methods for teaching and demonstrating off-road techniques. As usual the Off Road Skills Team are always striving to be the best that they can.

The Off Road Skills season starts up again soon with the ORS Team heading to Portugal for two weeks of tours at the beginning of February. The School starts proper on the 18th of March with our very popular Day in the Dirt, followed immediately by a Level 1/2/3 GS and a Level 2 Enduro on the 19/20th.

Tamsin Jones will also be heading up the ORS Women’s Only School on the 27/28th March and the 28/29th of June.

To book you ORS experience click here.

Images by Llewelyn Pavey – www.thatcamerakid.com

Off Road Skills is proud to announce that all 2010 events

(except Portuguese Paradise) can now be booked from the comfort of your computer desktop. On-line booking is officially live. From this site you can view live

availability of all our dates and bike choices, book your course and manage your account. If you have booked via telephone you can still use the system to log in using your email address and manage your booking.

So have a look around here, choose your course and then -

Just click book now in the bar on the right on any page or click on the logo above to go straight to the booking system.