Adventure Film Festival - This weekend (16th August)

[Mr Free Market]

Well I thought it was a cracking event: some great films & talks. Here are some piccies....

Now while some travelled light, & by light I do mean it



(this chap had come from Cumbria), others brought the [strike]kitchen sink[/strike] sofa



However, this was definitely the best rig

[Mr Free Market]

A view of "the field"



& one nice touch, all the rows were named after famous over landing routes

[Mr Free Market]

& then of course there was Austin himself



As soon as they announce dates for next year, I'll be making space in the diary

[TRIX]

Hello guys and girls this my short report on the adventure travel film festival or ATFF for short .Run by Austin Vince and Lois Pryce, two legends of the adventure travel world I was expecting this to be a awesome event , I would not be disappointed .
Firstly I had planned to go to this for a year but due to lack of money it looked very doubtful I could go, but the day before I was due to leave I got a couple of good tips at work and decided to use the money to go . This in some ways was a good decision but it did mean that I had to let down some other friends who had hoped I would be at the Bristol mag event; you cannot be everywhere so I made the difficult choice to head to the ATFF.
First issue on leaving was that discovered that the rear suspension had locked up solid so I would be riding a hard tail f650 , fortunately the wonderful venue at Sherborn in Dorset was only 113 miles so not too much of an issue . Held in a large girls school the venue is rather stunning in itself, the old buildings are fantastic. The facilities were very good although I think that possibly Austin chose the toilets and Lois the showers , composting toilets are not my favourite thing .
I arrived around 5 pm and quickly set up the tent and headed off to registration paid for my ticket which left me £15 for the weekend but as always being prepared I had two pot noodles of the tesco cheap range and 6 rolls to eat plus a bottle of cheap cider so all would be fine . In fact things were about to get better than fine , I bumped into the legend of on the road cooking Mathew Cashmore , if you have not seen his you tube channel you really should look it up , this guy could make a cardboard box taste good from his superb travel kitchen . On hearing of my eating arrangements for the weekend he announced in his fabulous welsh accent that he would not hear of it and he would feed me for the weekend , suddenly I had breakfast lunch and dinner . Matthew makes pizza and turns a frying pan into an oven to cook them , it takes about ten minutes and is fantastic. Hopefully he will do a you tube film of it or even a demo at the hub next year, big thank you Matthew you’re a star.
I set up my now porous and rapidly deflating on exped chair to watch the first film of the weekend , this followed after a rather good talk from Ben Fogle of castaway fame , the film was called Trabant across Africa and as the name suggests followed the journey of a couple of 600cc two stroke cars from Prague to Cape town, it was a very good film that proves if your determined enough you can go anywhere in anything see www.transtrabant.cz for more info.
After the film I sat around the camp fire talking to many of the interesting people at the event and listening to what appeared to be a impromptu sing song with a rather good guitar player who’s name I did not get , apologies for that.
Reflating the exped I went to bed only to wake up on the floor half way through the night , repeat inflation and back to sleep . Up in the morning and after a visit to the Cashmore camp I took a look around the various traders there. A good mix of vendors selling various things from books to sporks and everything in between. I have to mention Sam Manicom who has to be one of the nicest guys on the planet , he also writes superb books and if you have not read his book into Africa go buy it , you will not be disappointed. After a chat with Sam I headed up to watch another film .
The Omidvar’s are two brothers that set of from Iran in 1954 on two Matchless motorcycles too travel the world they finished the trip ten years later after visiting some truly amazing scenes , they took in parts of the world that most of us only dream of visiting Eskimos and Amazonian cannibals along the way , as far as I know this film is not available so if you were not at the festival it’s unlikely you will be able to see it, which I think is a shame because it was very interesting .
Next thing I went to was a talk from Dace Cornthwaite , Dave has done some amazing things and now gives talks to inspire us mere mortals . I have to say he is very good at it .
After a short break back getting fed again I went to watch Mondo Sahara made by Mr Vince himself there is nothing I can say about the man that has not already been said and the film was up to his normal perfect standard including spaghetti western shots and music that sounded like it was from the same films . it follows the journey of a half American half British team on their travels through Spain, Morocco and into the western sahara . Im not going to spoil the film for you with details here , just buy it and watch it , its great.
Another break and then after being forced to drink wine by my mate Stace Martin (cheers mate it was lovely) I shot off to watch one of my favourite bands , The Jolenes . Superb as always and the crowd would have them playing all night if Austin had allowed it but after an encore it was time for the main film of the night. Now I have to be honest I was not going to watch this but was talked in to staying by Rachel ( Ed March’s girlfriend lol sorry Rachel) I’m so glad I did. Alone across Australia was for me one of the high lights of the weekend . Jon Muir films himself and his dog as he walks from one side of the continent to the other through one of the driest places on earth with no backup and eating off the land , he would not even except drinks from the odd remote farm house he came across , whilst at the end of the film is one of the saddest things I have seen I will be adding this film to my collection truly inspiring and filled with real emotion .
I left the film and Rachel supplied me with a beer and after watching the Jolenes now playing in the marquee outside with friends I wandered around to the James Cargo boys and girls , im still wondering if that was a good move , they supplied me and Rachel with more beer than we really should have drunk , well me at least , they also entertained us with balloon sucking antics and then singing in there now strangely helium induced voices , very funny . After one more trip to the camp fire it was off to bed , ummm 3.30am .
Breakfast supplied by Mr Cashmore again started to put my rather tired body back together before beginning packing up , well actually I went back to sleep then packed up 4 hours later, arriving home around 6 Sunday night.
What a fantastic weekend if you get the chance to go next year go . There was far more there than I could see and I think I did not see even half the films . Thanks to Austin , Lois and all their volunteers for putting it on and to all the above who made my weekend so good .
Wonderful atmosphere great people and the best friends a man can have ………

I have put some pictures up on good old FB the adventure bike riders page , not the magazine one thats different but of course equally good

[Freeloadeur]

Cheers matey, I wish I'd gone now.

PS You've got mail (but nothing interesting looking).