Category: Family matters

Fine weather led us to South Yorkshire. It tends to be a pretty looking place in early summer and we were not disappointed.

Two Hawthorns – in not typical Yorkshire weather

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It was Lovely weather and we visited that bit of England that is green and hilly and you go past, on your right, on the way to the Lakes. We did not climb there so we did not stop. I have often looked at the map and seen a hilly area of moorland and thought about a visit.

Judy close to Bowland Knotts

I made many visits to a place that climbers called Clwyd Limestone, in reality it is the Eglwyseg valley and is located close to Llangollen.

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Well dressing time in the Peak district

Bakewell, Middleton, Elton, Winster, Darley Dale, Rowsley with an off road section to return to Bakewell.

It was nearlly June so shorts would be fine. Wrong! It was cold and it was only when I had a full set of winter gear minus the winter hat that did I feel anything like comfortable. I looked across with envy at Lynne’s winter hat that she was sporting.
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The wettest May since the early eighties combined with a workload that is different but just as tough has led to no entries for a few weeks.

Yellow Archangel
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One of a number of pleasant river crossings

7 hours and 4 mins riding not counting stops of which there were many
112 Kilometres
25 Km off road

All the photographs from the holiday can be found here

Sometimes it appears that you are doomed and then by a number of semi-miraculous events or possibly just good fortune all is saved. Today was a bit like that.

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Sunrise at Costa Rei as I start marking my e-portfolios

On Easter Monday there was a lot of traffic on the roads so it was lucky that when I decided to leave my cycle and embrace the road there were no cars coming. Only bruising, a few cuts and lost pride.
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Lynne in the tunnel on the Dorgali road

I like to get a long ride in and today was the day. I decided to ride to Dorgali and back, 120K of serious accent with mountain passes and the remote aspect which intrigued me. I thought about this ride 4 years ago when I climbed at Cala Gonome it is said to be the wildest bit of road in Sardinia and the most beautiful. I came prepared this year with two mobile phones one for Lynne as well as one for me so I could bail out if necessary. Last year doing this type of ride worried me as an accident would be tricky to say the least. I had an 8:00 am start with 8K of serious up-hill and another 10 Km of gentle up hill.

It was a fantastic ride in perfect weather. The major problem was meeting two Italiain cycists and raising my pace for about ten miles before they stopped for coffee. I paid for it for the next day with a stiff knee. It was so good though Lynne and I did the most exiting part together the next day. The photographs are from both days.

Time 6:20 in the saddle
Distance 121 Km
Average speed 19 Km

Lynne was finding mountain biking too much like hard work, so we bought touring bikes. It is all about choosing your road!

Roads can be in various conditions but today we found one that would have made a good film set for a film titled “After the bomb” and it got worse.

Slideshow of the route
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Getting biblical near the church of St Pietro

It said on the TV last night that it would be 26 degrees today! I woke up to big drops of rain and a cloudy sky, I did not believe. I used the suntan sparingly and set off for a big ride into the National Park. 700 metres of ascent over 20 Km was pleasant with a large number of orchids and cyclamen.
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We made a 1:00 am start as we were flying from Luton early in the morning. The intention had been to get a few hours sleep. It was a good idea that did not work in practice as Kate rang at about 10:30 pm – she had forgotten that we were flying later that night.

The view from our apartment in Maria Navarrese as we unpacked the next morning
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Our first outing of the year with the touring bikes. It was a surpirse then to spend the first hour off road. We started from Stoney Middleton went down the main road to Calver then off road to Longstone. Later we visited Bakewell and hoped to get a brew in Chesterfield at Rick Scott’s house.

The view from High Rake looking towards Curbar
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The weather was warm and we got the touring bikes out. It took so long to get them set up and drive to Elton that we had carrot cake and coffee before we started. It was a pleasant ride apart from a cat that did its best to commit suicide under my front wheel. As it was a new bike my reactions were slower than I would have liked.

One of the wild first flowers in Spring – Coltsfoot
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The Proposition – I did not take photographs this weekend it was too cold to take my gloves off.

Lynne and I went to a see a film on Friday night an Australian western, not a common subject for films. It was called the “The Proposition”, there were some great landscape views, sunsets, violence and a lot of flies! (more…)

A new friend that no one, in my opinion, should ever think of eating.

The weather is full-bore winter, it is close to the middle of March and there are few signs of Spring – the odd Lapwing, a few snowdrops and some catkins. Today it was close to freezing with a bit of sun mixed in with snow/sleet showers. Somebody once said there is nothing wrong with the weather if you feel cold when cycling you are just wearing the wrong clothes. (more…)