Back to the badlands, well Llanwrtyd Wells.

Last weekend I went back to Llanwrtyd Wells with Susan and quite a few of her friends. About half the group were meeting up to do some kayaking and the other half to do some mountain biking. I was obviously going to have a go at the latter.

Unfortunately we were running very late and Susan didn't get to my place till 10.30pm on Friday so we weren't to arrive in Llanwrtyd Wells till 1.30am. We were going to stay at a hostel in the town and a couple of Susan's friends kindly stayed up to let us in.

Here's Dinny and Susan at the start point of our first days riding. You can see Susan's car fully loaded with bikes and kayaks! The weather was quite good if very cold at around 1 degrees C!

Just by the start of the ride was a giant overflow chute for a reservoir. It was absolutely massive and the kayakers were talking about going down it in their kayaks. Something totally illegal but possibly quite fun too. Now I wonder if I could do it on a snowboard, with some snow obviously as I'm not totally mad.

After a few decent climbs and descents with the usual great welsh scenery we had a very tough ascent up some slate trails. It was quite difficult to make it to the top and we all had to stop and walk at one point or another. However once we got to the top there was a fabulous view over some of the surrounding valleys.

Susan took this (and some of the other photos here) of me starting to come down from the top. You can just make out Alison in the background. I think I must have my usual insane grin on my face as I was probably having a good time.

After a good descent we followed a path around the edge of the valley. All around us were some stunning views such as this.

Here's (from left to right) Will, Catherine and Dinny catching a breath and admiring the scenery. You can make out the narrow track that we were cycling along. At times it was quite muddy and consequently very slippery.

At the same point as before, Susan is taking a photo of Alison as she catches up with us. The river around the valley that we followed is along the left. We really were in the Welsh valleys and couldn't hear or see a road, only the sound of me falling off my bike...

While riding over a particularly bumpy part of the trail I came across a technical bit that Catherine and Alison had stopped at. I tried to ride up it and almost made it but then ran out of power (and weight on my pedal) and fell left onto my bike. As I put my right leg down it sank totally into the mud right up to my knee!

At the time I didn't notice that I had caught my right calf muscle on the big cog of my bike and caused quite a small deep cut. It wasn't until we stopped upon coming to a gate that Alison noticed all the blood running down my leg. It didn't hurt because my legs were so cold and also because I was having so much fun. I patched up my leg and tried to stop the bleeding and then we carried on.

There was one final long climb back to the cars. Fortunately it was on the road but it was very long and I enjoyed every exhausting minute of it. :-)

Once I got back to the hostel I got a chance to check out the damage to my leg properly. This photo taken with my camera phone actually makes the damage look quite spectacular. Actually most of the red is just blood and the only damage is the two dark patches on the right hand side. It wasn't as bad as I thought but it does look good and did bleed quite a bit. :-)

Later in the evening fortunately I could replace the lost iron in my blood with plenty of pints of Guinness in the pub next door to the hostel. Before we went there, actually it was in the middle of a couple of pints in the pub, back to the hostel for a fantastic stew made by Susan and then back to the pub for a few more beers. A fantastic evening of beer, great home made food and more beer followed by some very drunken pool skills!

On Sunday Will, Catherine, Dinny, Alison and I went out to do a red and blue bike run that was very close to the main beer stop at the Real Ale Wobble. The others all went to do some kayaking. Will did have the most to drink the previous night and wasn't quite feeling in top form. He had to throw up about half way up the first ascent up the red run. It was a very, very long climb to get to the top, but once we got there it was even more of a challenge to come down!

This was probably the most technical part of the descent on the red run. We had to zig zag down a long path to the base of this hill. It didn't help that the ground was mostly frozen so the tractor trails made horrible ruts to ride through. I fell off my bike several times (only bruises and smiles) and also had to walk some of the descent, but it was still fun all the same, if a little frustrating at times. By the way, we didn't cause the deforestation in the picture!

Once we completed the red run Catherine, Alison and I went and rode a blue run while Will and Dinny took a long tea break. This was slightly less of an ascent and the descent was much less technical with a track which was much less bumpy going through the forests.

After we finished riding we met up with the others in Mertha Tydfil to browse some very cheap book stores and have some lunch. Unfortunately for the others, they couldn't do any kayaking as the river levels were much to low and they would end up pushing their kayaks along the river rather than paddling along.

Still it didn't detract from a fantastic weekend of cycling and meeting some new friends. I had a great time and would love to get out again with the same group for more cycling, and possibly some paddling as well... maybe...

I'd like to thank Becky for my early new Christmas present, some full cycling gloves for the winter. I'm sure they helped stop me getting more grazes and cuts on my fingertips!

The best technical descent ever, near Bolton too!

Last Saturday My mate Dave and I went to ride the Rivington Pike Loop, which is just west of Bolton. Dave got the route we took from the Internet from a guy that claimed it was the best technical descent ever. Well a claim like that was enough to convince us to have a go at it.

Here we are at the base near the start of the off road section of the route. The ride would take us around 20 miles over mostly exposed terrain. Note the odd units on the sign.
From here you can see the two peaks that we were to eventually climb up.

This muddy bridle path is typical of most of the off road terrain that we encountered. There were quite a few horse riders around as well as a few cyclists and ramblers. I'm sure we also encountered just about every type of animal poo you could find on the hills as well. You name it we either saw it, rode though it or stepped in it!

This shows a TV mast along with mobile phone masts near to the top of one of the hills we climbed. Before we started off from the cars Dave realised he had forgotten to pack his waterproof/wind breaker, which wasn't so bad as fortunately it was quite sunny today. However as he was getting dressed he realised he had also forgotten to pack his cycling shorts! He accidentally packed his swimming trunks instead!! He went out with his trunks and a couple of T-shirts, while I had my two thermal layers and a windbreaker and my well padded cycling shorts. I suppose I was being a wimp and he was going hardcore cycling with swimming trunks.

This is the view down a winding road, which was great fun to go down really quickly, and even more fun (for me) to cycle back up on the return route.

Here's Dave at the top of the first hill. We had lunch here sheltering behind the rocks against the very windy conditions. As soon as we moved away from the rocks you could feel the icy wind trying to blow you over. Having lunch here was great for the views, but not so great as we started to cool down and the only way from here was down the exposed hill.

When we saw the other hill from here I thought wouldn't it be funny if we were meant to be at the other one instead of here. As it turns out we did take a wrong turn from the unclear directions and were actually up the wrong hill! Never mind I'm sure we needed the extra exercise, and it was fun to make it up this hill as well.

About half way down the first hill, here's Dave about to 'drop' off on the descent. Dave was consistently much faster on the downhill sections. He summed it up as he was mostly waiting for me at the bottom of hills while I was mostly waiting for him at the top of hills.

Dave at the top of the second hill where there was a small single castle turret. We had to cycle on a steady slope around the hill, as the direct route up the hill was much to steep and up some stone steps. I think he's also managed to produce a dog from his swimming trunks. Needless to say that it was bloody windy up here too. We did have some spectacular views over Bolton and the surrounding countryside.

A very strange gatehouse that we saw about half way down the second descent. Unfortunately it was all boarded up. From here we came across the main part of the technical descent. It mostly consisted of the remains of a narrow rocky creek riverbed without the water, i.e. full of small and large rocks to ride over and test our suspensions. It was fun and quite satisfying to ride down but also quite hard on the arms. Not quite the best technical descent ever, but good fun all the same.

At the top of a small wooded area we came across a small flowing river and still pool of water. Very picturesque and calming, and sheltered from the wind as well.

As usual we were both caked in mud at the end but very happy too. The course felt like much more up hill cycling than down hill, which suited me fine, probably due to the longer steep ascents. Another fine day cycling, and even better was that I only fell off once, and I was going uphill at the time so it wasn't at speed. Nothing as bad as the last time I was out with Dave and did a face plant!

On the Sunday we went to see the new indoor ski slope near the Trafford Centre. It was quite impressive and I can't wait to have a go on my snowboard the next time I'm here.

Geocaching with my neices.

I went to Farnham to see my Sister Helen and her family last weekend.

I guess both Aimee and Elise had recently had a new dance mat game because it was definitely flavour of the month.

Here's Aimee on the mat and the next picture is of Elise. They did eventually rope me into playing with the mat as well, fortunately for me they didn't think to take a photo of me as well. Aimee being the younger of my two nieces can't quite jump on all the pads on the dance mat so Elise has to help her out sometimes with two of the pads.

On Saturday evening we went to watch Elise sing with her school group on a stage set up in the Farnham town centre. It was on the evening that the Christmas lights were due to be turned on so there were plenty of people out Christmas shopping as well.

She looked very smartly dressed in her school uniform on the outdoor stage singing a few songs. Afterwards she said that she could see us in the crowds as well.

We also went to visit some of Aran's relatives who lived near by. When I was sitting there I started to think about the previous weekends mountain biking, and I thought that I couldn't be in any more of an opposite situation sat here. :-)

On Sunday morning we went out geocaching with a GPS device. I'm sure most of you have heard of geocaching as it's a craze which anyone with an internet connection and gps device can take part in. You look up a set of set waypoints online with an accompanying set of instructions as to where to go and what to look for. The instructions eventually lead to a hidden box which you can exchange gifts and fill out log.

The route that we took was only a very small one with a few puzzles that the kids could solve. Here's Aimee posing for the camera while Helen, Aran and Elise try to work out where to go next.

Once we finally found the hidden cache in a forest the kids had a big surprise as among other things it contained an electronic Sudoku game!

In exchange for the Sudoku game and a 3D ball bearing puzzle we dropped off a couple of travel bugs. A good exchange in my eyes!

Once we got back home Helen made a marvellous roast dinner for us all in the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent playing with the kids and helping out Elise with her English homework. Mind you I don't think that I was that much help as Helen pointed out some obvious mistakes that I hadn't noticed. :-)

Thank god for computers that's what I say.

Starting fights in Tescos!

Grr! I'm so angry right now. Just got back from food shopping at Tescos and I was at the petrol filling checkout. Normally I'd pay by pump but because I had some discount vouchers I had to go to the checkout.

Once I got to the front of the queue there was a problem with one of the pumps on the forecourt and the assistant on the till to my right had to go and help the guy out. The guy who had just got to the front when the attendant moved away from the till asked "What the f*&k are you doing"! The assistant then said he had to help out someone at the pump. Then the abusive man said "No, stop and serve me, I'm a customer". The assistant then apologised and said that he had to help the other man as he was having problems first and was a customer as well. The abusive man then called the assistant a "f*&!ing as#%ole".

I was so annoyed at this point I turned to my right and said to the guy that he would get along much better if he weren't so abusive. He obviously took offence to this and then started on me. I had finished being served at this point and just smiled at the guy shook my head and walked out.

Nothing more came of this except for me being quite annoyed. One because there are people like this in our society and in my opinion they shouldn't be given the time of day. Two, at the fact that no one else in the queue behind me did anything about it. There were two people at the till getting abuse and everyone else just turned a blind eye to it. I'm sure if it had come to a fight they would all have run away and not want to get involved. What's wrong with this country when no one will stand up to idiots who think that they can get their way by bullying other people? Grr!!! I think I should do what Lola does and just hide in my bed.

Anyhow, a while back my friend Allen had asked me to help him jump start his car with mine. I pulled my car up next to his and popped the bonnet. He then proceeded to connect the jump cables and tried to start his car.

After a few seconds the cables started to smoke! I got out of my car and so did Allen, he then realised that he had connected the cables the wrong way around! The cables then started to smoke quite a lot and also melt. I quickly gave Allen my top to pull the cables off the batteries. They were much to hot to touch and fortunately he managed to remove them with my top wrapped around his hands.

Unfortunately my top had melted plastic on it and was ruined. The cars still worked fine after all this but I doubt it was any good for my car battery, which was brand new from a few months ago. A valuable lesson learnt, by the both of us.

Real Ale Wobbling Day 2.

The second day started much slower than the first. We were all aching a little from the previous days riding and it looked quite wet and about to rain outside.
Eventually we got out of bed and down for breakfast but only just! :-)

Here we are at our parked cars in the Llanwrtyd Wells town. William is on the left who we happened to meet. Susan's other friends and him were planning on going kayaking on the second day because of the heavy overnight rain. He said that there were several people who weren't going anywhere this morning because of the previous nights partying.
We decided to make our own route up this morning along the second days cycle and see how we got on to decide how long we could cycle for.
While we were getting ready an elderly woman came out of her house where we were parked and asked us if we wanted to come in for a cup of tea. We politely turned her down but it was a lovely moment.

Once we started to ride out of town it started to rain. Fortunately it didn't start off too cold because of the heavy cloud cover. There was a heavy mist and fog over the hills though. At one point in the morning there was a very long climb up a winding trail. It was quite knackering cycling up the hill and I had to stop once before getting to the top. We must have cycled for 20 minutes or so uphill without stopping.
Once I got to the top I was quite out of breath but my legs felt fine. I made a comment that if I was to die here I would be very happy. After all I was on my mountain bike in the hills with two women. Can't think of a better way to go myself. :-)

There were several streams that we had to cross today. Here's Wiki riding though one of them while I wait my turn.

And here I am making my own splash.

At one point we went right into the forest along a very muddy and steep descent. It was very dark in the forest, but not quite as dark as this picture makes out. At some points in the descent we had to walk, Susan however stayed on her bike and gingerly pushed/walked her bike down.

Susan took several pictures in this dark forest but unfortunately most of them didn't come out very well. We hardly saw anyone out today, probably because of the climate, but there were also casualties from the previous nights partying.

After the forest descent we managed to get a little lost on the tracks. It also started to rain a lot more as well. We were still having a good time in the rain. I remember this point as we had to walk up a series of very steep drops and at one point we were all laughing at how tired and wet we all were. Laughing in that insane way. :-) We'll all remember this moment as one of the many highlights of the weekend. Despite being wet, tired and a little lost we were all having a great time and felt totally alive.

Wiki and Susan trying to decide where we were and where to go next. Just after this we started to cycle up the trail behind them. I remember feeling quite exhilarated while cycling uphill as it started to get windier on the exposed path. The wind and rain made me yell out to the sky "Come on, give me your worst!", at this point Susan noted while following me that it then dropped a noticeable few degrees in temperature and also started to rain much heavier.
Shortly after this there was a fantastic long descent down to back where we entered the course. As I was descending I was expecting to catch up with Susan but didn't make much ground to her. She later confessed to me that she didn't use her brakes while going downhill either! We didn't expect to come back here and by now it was 1.00pm so we decided to call it a day as we were all a little tired and very wet and cold.

Here I am trying a steep descent. As you can see I did bottle it about half way down but then managed to regain my composure and continue to the bottom and all the happier at having done so.

Just after we got back we got changed into drier clothes in some public toilets. Not my best moment but I was thankful to be able to dry off a little more and not be in freezing cold clothes.
As soon as we started to settle down in a pub it started to sleet and then snow quite heavily. The hills around the town were covered in snow, we were quite relived that we decided to come in when we did, otherwise we would have been in the snow on the hills. Mind you at the same time some part of me wished that I could have been out there because it would have made the ride even more 'fun'. I'm sure we would have laughed about being caught in the snow as well. :-)

Finally here's the weather conditions that we had to contend with on the way home in Wales. You know you're in the welsh valleys when the welsh is above the english on the road signs. I'm just following Susan's car with her kayak perched on the top of her car. At least the snow helped clean a lot of the mud off my bike.

I had such a fantastic time this weekend, it's one of those weekends that I'll always remember. It felt like a holiday as we were in a country where I didn't understand the road signs. :-)
It's weekends like this that really make me feel alive and so thankful that I spend my time doing that things that I enjoy doing. For me life just doesn't get much better than this.

Real Ale Wobbling Day 1.

I was finally at the Real Ale Wobble event this weekend. It has been a long time coming and I've been really looking forward to this even since I was entered into it earlier this year. The weather was originally predicted to be heavy rain and light winds on both days, but fortunately for us it turned out to be just overcast on Saturday, but much worse on Sunday.

The idea behind the event is to do some mountain biking while drinking real ale along the course. The event is held over two days and non competitive.

This is the start of the event at the local school sports hall in Llanwrtyd Wells.
I'd never seen so many keen mountain bikers in one place. There were 600 entrants this year.

Here we are at the first check point on Saturday morning. All looking very clean and also full of energy. Susan on the left and Wiki on the right were both insane enough to join me. It was originally Susan's idea to do the event. We figured that she's the most insane and Wiki the was the fittest and me somewhere in the middle.

This is about half way up the first steady climb. both Wiki and I managed to set a good early pace up the relatively wide start.

There were a few of Susan's friends on the same event which we had a good time with. The tall guy in Orange was called William as well, and he was obviously the loudest of a good bunch of friends!

The trail soon narrowed and also turned into a series of quite deep mud pools that we had to cycle though. At some points the water came up to my knee! It was quite good fun to cycle though the water, if you can call it cycling.
At one point Susan had someone following her and all she could hear was the guy yelling at her not to slow down or stop because they would then have to wade though the water and mud.

Here's an example of some of the trails with very steep drops on one side. All the more exciting to ride long. :-)

Some of the fantastic scenery that we saw all weekend. The views were quite breath taking at times and made the up hill cycling all the more worth it.

Susan with Wiki behind leading a small pack of riders down a slight drop.

At one point after a good downhill ride over slate and stones there was a sharp turn left up a very very steep rocky incline. No one managed to cycle up the hill despite a few attempts. No one made it more than a yard or two up here before having to walk.

Eventually we stopped for a snack break about half way around the course. Fortunately we had arranged a packed lunch at the B&B that we were staying in. At this point I had fallen over my handlebars once at a steep drop. There was a fallen tree at the base of a drop and I was concentrating on ducking under the tree. Unfortunately there was a wheel sized hole just before the tree which flipped me over my bike. I only grazed my right hand but it drew a bit of blood, made worse by the mud and water everywhere. My first aid kit came in use today! I wasn't the only one to fall before the tree either, but I did make it look good by going over my handlebars.

We did more climbing after the break around the side of some of the hills. You can see some riders along the path in this picture.

At the very top of this hill were some boggy grass lands. It was quite breezy and very difficult to ride along what was barely a path. We had to stop and walk several sections as it was much to wet and muddy. Susan said that this part of the course she found the most difficult because of the wind and difficulty of the track. You can see her in the background here.

Just over the top of the grass lands there was a steep drop with lots of slippery grass and mud. You can see Wiki and me standing on the edge. After the initial steep section which we walked we had lots of fun cycling down the rest of the slippery grass. I had such a smile on my face coming down as I went sidewards several times, but held it together without falling.

Finally at the first beer stop! There were only two beer stops on the course. We were expecting a beer stop at the top of every hill but in the end there were only two, which disappointed Susan and I.

Finally at the second beer stop near the end of the course.

You can see the amount of mud and grass that my bike had collected on the first day.

We finally got back just before it started to get dark at 4.30. Because of the delay in registering we didn't start till 11.00. Five hours of cycling was quite enough for all of us. We were so happy to get out of the wet and muddy clothes in our hotel. We only had a bath in our ensuite. It took me two baths of water to clean the mud off my legs!

In the evening we had dinner at our own B&B and then went into the town to meet up with Susan's friends. There was a very good live cover band in a tent set-up behind a pub. We spent most of the evening dancing the night away and drinking beer. Because we had to cycle the following morning we didn't get very drunk but all had a great time listening to the music and chatting the night away.