The Year Ten of Us Went Somewhere Warm

Marianne Prowse · 2 July 2026

A riding group that had done the same wet British weekend for years, and the winter it did not.

The Usual Arrangement

Ten of us, a booked bunkhouse or a set of B and B rooms, and a weekend spent slightly damp. It worked and nobody complained, and it was the same every year for a long time.

The recurring problem was never the riding. It was that ten people staying in five separate places do not actually spend the weekend together, they spend it arranging to meet.

Booking One Building

The year we took a single house instead, the trip changed shape. Bikes in one place, one kitchen, one table, and the evening stopped being a logistics exercise.

When the group finally did a winter version somewhere hot, we booked the same way and ended up in a ten-room villa in Bali rather than a hotel block. Riding in the morning, everyone under one roof afterwards, which is the whole point of going with people.

Would We Again

Yes, and the maths is not close once there are more than about six of you. Per head it came in under the bunkhouse.

The catch is the same as it always is: somebody has to do the booking and the shopping, and that person should be rotated and thanked.