Away days

Over the years I have been lucky enough to have some fantastic trips with my bike. From the well known 'Wheelwrights' coast to coast in England which starts at St Bees and ends at Robins Hood Bay to no less than three differant Scottish Coast to Coasts. A few rides in the Pyrenees whilst staying at a friends house and likewise a bit of exploring around Chamonix whilst camping and visiting friends who live there.

As a group we've had numerous trips to Wales and the 7 Stanes, done the South Downs Way, stopped off in the Forest of Dean and completed many a Polaris challange.

The following pictures give a taste of some of the places we've seen on our travels especially the train and cycle trips in the fantastic Scottish Highlands.

 This is Martyn on the Knoydart peninsular traveling between Inverie and Kinlochourn. This area has the highest rainfall figures in mainland UK. As you can see, the day we spent cycling this section of the Scottish Coast to Coast we were blessed with bright warm sunshine and incredible Scottish scenery.

 This is Martyn again a little further on in the trip. This is a singletrack section near Aviemore near loch Morlich under Cairngorm. From here it was over to Tomintoul then on to Ballater where we passed Loch Builg in Glen Avon.

 The weather had turned by the time we got this far but the riding was still superb. This is me on the Singletrack which goes around Loch Builg, a really great trail and well worth the visit. From Ballater it was up and over Mount Keen then a great decent and a final blast to reach the coast at Montrose.

  On another trip to Scotland where we completed two smaller versions of the coast to coast. This picture is on the West Highlnd Way between Kinlocleven and Glen Coe on the 1st day of riding.

 Later on that same trip while doing a one day coast to coast between Bonar Bridge in the east and Ullapool in the West, Brian found this puddle rather deeper than expected. This was a great days riding, I got the route from a old magazine article a few years ago and after consulting the os maps came up with our own version.

  Well thats enough of Scotland for now so here is a great picture Duncan took of George and the unusal circles on the lake. This was on one of our yearly February trips up to North Wales and in this case features the Marin Trail. The conditions were bloody cold with several inches of snow on the ground. It turned out to be a fab ride with a lot of fun and even a decent snowball fight half way round.

 Later on that same weekend and at Coed y Brenin the conditions remained the same and the surrondings were so beautiful. The riding was a bit sketchy and required lots of concentration but lead to plenty of comedy moments. Here are George, Mark and Duncan having a rest at the top of one of the climbs.

 A year later and back in Wales again we were lucky enough to get in some more snow riding. This time its Charlie and George (no, not that old Arsenal player) but at the differant location of Nant y Arrin.

 Well this ones a little differant, it took Mike and myself bloody ages to get round the Forrest of Dean trails on this thing. Still, at least we didn't get distracted like Huw did in this picture of a trip a few of guys made to the Black Mountains.

Heres another venue, this time its me on a low level ride around the Chamonix Valley. What a beautiful place it is too, stunning scenery and great riding to go with it.

 Another picture from the summer of 2005. This time its at the top of the Col De Tourmalet in the Pyrenees which is literally a few miles up (and I mean up, about 1,300 meters) the road from Martyns new French house. It shows Paul, Martyn and myself by the summit sign. The trip back down was a real blast.