Peak District hill biking.

Over the past couple of days I've had a small holiday up in Manchester and the Peak District. I've been visiting Anne, Dave and their daughter Jennifer.

Dave and I went out mountain biking in the Peak District. We were quite lucky with the weather as it was partially cloudy and there wasn't any rain or wind.

We went to the Derwent Reservoir and the surrounding hills to go biking. Here's an image of the Ladybower Reservoir right next to the Derwent Reservoir.

The initial part of the ride was a gentle ride up and around the reservoir on wide gravel track.

We didn't see a soul for the first fifteen minutes, which was very peaceful. We did eventually see one fisherman in the distance and strangely enough a towel and pair of trainers beside the gravel path, but no one else in sight!

Here we are part way up the ascent and looking very happy, even though we were a little tired.

Once we started the proper ascent up one of the hills the bridle path started to get very narrow and also very steep up the side of the hill. It was just about impossible to ride the bikes up the hill so we had to walk most of the way up. It was enough of an effort walking up the hill, let alone having to carry our bikes up there as well!

The only animals we could see on the hill were the sheep and some grouse. Some of the sheep weren't that afraid of us and remained in place as we cycled by.

Once we neared the top of the hill we went over some flagstones that had been put down. They were a relief to cycle on on the way up and would prove to be really good fun to cycle over on the way down.

Here I am cycling towards the camera on the top of the hill. There was a fantastic bridle path along the top of the hill, which consisted of several dips and bumps and lots of large and small rocks to cycle over. It was great fun to cycle along the path bumping the bike over the numerous obstacles and almost falling off the bike several times. Needless to say that I had a massive smile on my face while cycling and really enjoyed it.

I was quite determined to try to cycle through every part of the path that I could to get he most out of it all.

Once we reached the other side of the top of the hill and started to descend we decided to turn back and head back down the way we came up. Continuing along the path would mean a very long cycle back to the car and we didn't have time for that.

Going down the flagstones proved to be a very good test of the suspension of our bikes. Fortunately for me I had a full suspension bike and I really needed it. Poor Dave whose fillings and arms must have been shaken to bits on his hard tail bike.

Once we started to descend the same path we came up things started to get a little hairy! I wasn't sure how far I would go down the narrow path before deciding that it would be safer to walk.

I surprised myself by going down the single track, which had a steep drop down the right and a steep climb on the left. I kept myself focused on the rocky path ahead and knew not to look right, down the hill, as I knew it would be a scary sight at the speed I was going. Dave managed to go much faster and even did a tail slide around a sharp corner.

As we got near the bottom of the hill the track got much too steep and rocky for us. Here you can see an example of what he had to deal with. If we went for this it wouldn't be a case of if we would fall off but more when and how badly!

We did see a mountain biker on the way up who was preparing to go down this part of the hill. He had a full-face mountain biking helmet on as well as some body armour. I wonder how he got on on the way down.

Also on the top of the hill we met three local lads who were out for a walk. They did look like they had just popped out for a walk around a town centre rather than a walk over the peak district. Totally unprepared, wearing the wrong clothes and not knowing where they were going really. I hope they managed to make it back without too much trouble.

Once we got to the bottom of the hill we took a short break beside a stone bridge where you could go for a dip in the river. There were swarms of midges by the river, which must have taken great delight in taking several bites out of both of us.

We then took a road path around the other side of the reservoir. It was a great end to a fantastic ride that day. We raced a little way around some of the climbs and just after one race a giant Hercules transport plane flew over our heads at a very low altitude. I put up one of my hands and yelled out to it in sheer joy!

It was a fantastic day and one that I really enjoyed. I didn't feel too tired after all the climbing and cycling and had so much energy I could have done it all again on the same day. Even better was that I didn't fall off my bike at any point and besides the midge bites I came away wound free!

Prison, ballooning in Bristol zoo.

The usual story of not having enough time to update my web blog. Apologies to everyone.

I've been back to Oxford recently and went out on the town with Emily, Deirdre and Allen. So much has changed in the city since I was there as a student. Well I guess it has been around sixteen years since I studied there!

One of the biggest changes is the castle that is next to the Westgate shopping centre. I don't remember ever going there as a student but the place has been recently converted into an area of restaurants, theatres and apartments.

We went to have dinner there at Carluccio's which was very pleasant. At the start of our meal a play started in the square. Here you can see one of the cast members on the balcony speaking down to the audience. This was only the start of the play and it then moved on to somewhere else.

After dinner we went to some of the old pubs that I used to frequent as a student. Once of the places was The Gloucester Arms. It's a bikers/metalers pub, which was always full of smoke and smelly bikers. Unfortunately because of the recent smoking ban the place only really smells of bad BO from the bikers! Deirdre tends to drink white wine when we go out. When I got to the bar I had to ask them for a wine list, knowing that they wouldn't have one. I got a laugh from the barmaid, and a reply that they didn't even serve wine let alone have a wine list.

A few weeks ago the Bristol balloon festival was on at Aston Court. My sister Helen came down to visit me over the weekend with my two nieces Aimee and Elise as well as my brother in-law Aran.

At the Balloon Festival there were other things shown as well as lots of hot air balloons. Here you can see the local TA showing off their big guns and how to do an assault on a bunker position.

There was also a pony and carriage display team called Chariots of Fire which both Aimee and Elise were very impressed with, as well as a motorbike stunt team.

Here's one of the very odd shaped hot air balloons, which was shaped as an Action Man. It looked very cool, but we didn't see it take off. They just inflated it and then eventually deflated it again. Maybe it was meant to help out in the TA training.

There was a very big fairground at the festival with lots of rides and the usual stalls as well. One of the smaller rides was this bungie-jumping ride for kids. Both Aimee and Elise had a go but it wasn't very cheap. At ten pounds a kid for only five to ten minutes jumping time they must have been raking in the money. There were four kids bouncing at a time and at that rate I think I should start one of these myself and make some money on the side.

Unfortunately we totally missed the evening ascent of the balloons. We decided to be more environmentally friendly and caught the bus to Aston Court. The bus back ran every hour at half past the hour. The ascent was scheduled to take place around six pm, but by seven they still hadn't taken off or even inflated.

We could see all the balloons laying flat on the field but none of them were inflating. We had to catch the 7.30 bus to get the kids back home in time, just as we were getting on the bus we could make out some of the balloons going up, so we only just missed it.

Here are a few of them just passing the Clifton suspension bridge. It must have made a great sight to see them all rising.

The following day we all went to Bristol Zoo. It's the same zoo that Johnny Morris used to film from for all the kids TV programs that he used to make. I have very fond memories of his TV show and his voices he did for the animals.

One of the more impressive animals at the zoo was the silver backed gorillas. Here you can see the dominant male during feeding time. Helen said that he really did look like a large man in a suit. It's amazing how human they behaved.

He must have been a lucky gorilla as he had two females to keep him company and one of them had recently given birth to a baby. The baby gorilla was especially cute and was also very shy. He rarely strayed very far from his mum and spent most of the time hanging on to her arm.

While we were having a picnic lunch at the zoo there was a floorshow on for people to see and meet some of the smaller animals. She demonstrated some ferrets, mice and also a python snake.

At one point they wanted some child volunteers for the show. We were about to ask if Aimee wanted to go up there when we noticed that her face was covered in juice from eating red cherries. Maybe she shouldn't go up there while looking in such a state! Obviously she didn't have a clue that her mouth was covered in cherry juice, but she did look very funny.

The python snake that they had on display was particularly impressive as well. You could get very close up to it and I did. Unfortunately they didn't want you to touch it just in case you caught something of its skin.

They also had an example of the skin that a larger python would have, which was taken from an illegal poacher. I think the kids were more impressed with the snake skin than the real snake, maybe they were thinking what a great new belt or bag it would make!

Here's a picture of my nieces though a glass bubble. You could crawl under a display of locusts to see them from the other side in more detail. Most of the locusts were giving each other a piggyback for some strange reason according to Aimee and Elise!

After the zoo we went for some great food at a tapas bar beside the Bristol docks. As you can see both Elise and I enjoyed some really great banoffee pie deserts. It was a surprisingly large desert and we both felt quite sickly after trying our best to eat as much of it as we could.

More off roading and pub cycling.

I've been cycling the Bristol to Bath cycle path for the last few weeks every Sunday Morning. The distance from my house to the end of the path at Bath is around 17 miles each way which is probably near my limit with a couple of stops along the way. I've only done the full distance once but I have done three quarters of it several other times.

It's a good flat route to cycle along and I believe follows along the old railway path. Well it's relatively flat along the cycle path, but not so flat from my house to the path.

There is a great tunnel along the path at the Bristol end, and on a hot day like today it's a welcome break from the sunshine. It's quite good fun to cycle though the tunnel at speed as all you can hear in it is the drips of the water and wheels of my bike.

There are several places along the route where you run parallel to the old railway track. I'm guessing that a few train spotters keep this steam train running along the railway. At a couple of points you even have to open gates to cross the track.

It looked like a fully working train and the carriages also looked like they had cutlery laid out on the tables ready for lunch.

If I decide to stay in the UK then I'm going to have to invest in a proper road bike. It can be quite knackering to ride a mountain bike along the smooth tarmac. The gears are all set so low that most of the time I'm in the top three gears, also the knobbly tyres don't do me any favours.

Earlier on in the week I went out on a brief country ride with some work friends. Wiki is planning a pub bike ride for our development summer day out in September. We decided to ride the route that Wiki has planned for the day, unfortunately without stopping at any of the pubs.

It's only 5.5 miles each way with one small hill and one larger one. I'm sure that everyone can walk up the hills if they are struggling to cycle up them. We also have most of the day to do the route which only took us about 40 minutes without stopping.

Here you can see Wiki, Claire and Severien in front of the Maharajah's well near to the Cherry Tree pub. This 370ft well was built for Stoke Row village by the Maharajah of Benares (now Varanasi) in 1864. As the local area governor, who was from Stoke Row, had told the story of a boy in the village whom his mother had beaten after drinking the last of the water in the house during a drought.

The Maharajah was so touched by the story that he financed the digging of the well, along with a keeper's cottage and a cherry orchard to provide for the upkeep of the well.

Here's a lovely picture of Claire that she took just after taking photo of me in front of the well with my camera. I'm not sure what sort of face she's pulling at the camera.

Once we got to the Cherry Tree pub I was quite looking forward to a few pints of Guinness, however Wiki had other ideas. While Claire and Severien waited at the pub Wiki took me out on an off road track that she wanted to show me. I was expecting a short ride around the area but it turned into a ten mile off road trip.

I really enjoyed the off road track, there were a couple of small single track drops and some up hill bits as well. We did it all while hardly stopping at all, but I had stopped at one part on an uphill grass hill. While I was cycling up the hill I came around a bend only to see that it got even steeper which made me want to stop and walk the rest of it. Meanwhile Wiki just cycled past me, disappointed that I had stopped so near to the top of the hill.

I think that Wiki is without a doubt one of the fittest people that I know. Throughout the bike ride she barely looked like she was ever out of breath. She did confess that on the big hill she did break a sweat. I think I broke a sweat just getting up the small hill, let alone the big one. My only saving grace was that I could ride faster along the trails and downhill off road sections as she was a little more afraid of coming off her bike than me.

Here's WIki on part of the off road course beside a big mud puddle that we decided to cycle around rather than though.

Once we got back to the pub I had my well-deserved pint and then we went to Wiki's place, which is close to the Cherry Tree. She made us a fantastic dinner of Thai meatballs and rice. Yum yum!

One funny thing was that once we had finished at Wiki's place it was quite late so we caught a lift back to Wallingford in the back of Nick's van. As there were four of us I volunteered to sit in the back of the van with the bikes. I think you can just about make out the bikes and foot holding up the bikes to stop them falling on me on the left hand turns!