My first bike ride in Bristol.

I went out last Sunday to break in my new bike on the Bristol bike paths and roads.

The weather couldn't have been better really. It was a little chilly (for me) but probably quite warm for everyone else.

Here's a shot from a hill near the M32, Bristol town centre is just behind me. I've often seen the yellow building from the M32 but never bothered to try to get up there to see it up close.

On my bike I managed to cycle from my house to the yellow castle and further. It was quite nice to be able to cycle up here and see a view of Bristol and the motorway that I wouldn't normally see.

Here's a landmark on the top of the hill where the previous photo was taken.

There were two ways down from the top of this hill. The way that I came up which was a little steep but nothing that I couldn't do easily on the way down. There was also a much steeper drop down, I would have loved to have a go at it, but thought I shouldn't because I was on my own.

From this point I cycled under the M32 and then onwards to Frenchay and the Bristol & Bath Railway Path. This path is basically a cycle path that follows the railway between Bristol and Bath. I'd heard about the path but had never bothered to investigate it.

I only went on a small section of the path for a few miles as I wanted to try to explore some more adventurous routes on my bike. I'll have to do the path all the way to Bath sometime in the future.

While on the path I saw a parallel off road route so decided to climb over a small fence and get on it. It turned out to be quite a good route, which had some small technical parts to take my bike over.

There were also some mud trails, which were fun to ride though. After the trails I followed a path that ran parallel to the Bristol ring road (A4174). As I approached under a bridge I could see three teenagers throwing stones from the path to the dual carriageway! The council had put some pebbles on the side of the path to help with drainage. Unfortunately these pebbles were being used by the kids. As I got near the kids I shouted at them and then when I got really close they stopped throwing stones. I asked them what they were doing and they just replied "Dunno". Then a jogger came along and told the kids off and they then rode off on their bikes.

I did some more exploring after this incident. I saw a small path off the main off road routes and decided to follow it. The path started to get a little wild after a few hundred yards, so bad in fact I was eventually cycling though brambles and got quite cut up on my legs. I was determined to follow the path to the end figuring that it must go somewhere. Unfortunately it didn't! Eventually the trail petered out and ended up at a dead end. I had to follow the path backwards but really didn't want to go though the brambles again. I saw a small path off to a side but had to climb over a barbwire fence to get to it.

After managing to get my bike and myself over the fence I followed the path. It turned out to be a footpath so I really shouldn't have been on it with my bike. However no one was around at all so I carried on cycling. I passed some cows and eventually saw a farmhouse. I cycled towards the house and was really hoping that no one would spot me and tell me off.

Fortunately I wasn't spotted and managed to get back on a road. I followed signs towards Bristol and after 17 odd miles in total finally made it home.