Well I’ve finished moving, my internet connection is up and running, I’ve found a York climbing wall, I’ve ‘diversified’ my job so that it no longer sucks (as much) and I have a new bike! So all in all I’ve stopped moping about and I’m back in training.

Hopefully we’ll see a few more posts cropping up in the next few weeks. If you guys want to send me some of the latest Portland pics I’ll chuck them up here to get the ball rolling.

Well, the weather’s rubbish, winter is on its way and my bike’s been nicked, I think Mint Sauce says it all

Well, the weather was great, the food fantastic, and the Peak District exceeded all expectations… a few highlights below, more photos can be found here.

Day 1: Mountain biking

A brief pause by the dam

The reservoir from our elevated lunch stop

The dam (one of), in sunshine, finally... while everyone else has pedalled off down the road.

Day 2: Geocaching

On the highway.

Pondering the valley... there's a cache down there somewhere.

We descend...

"This side of the wall." "No, that side of the wall." "No, this side of..."

Victory is ours!

The spoils...

Day 3: Bouldering

Rob traverses the Cobra.

Nic traverses the Cobra.

Boulder of many uses...

So, speaking of planning, the weekend approaches.  As I see it, currently looking as follows:

Day 1:

All going well, we should arrive at 10.15 on Saturday.  Head out to Derwent Valley for a day of mountain biking.

Days 2 and 3:

Play it by ear:

switch(weather) {
   case good: activity = bouldering or climbing; break;
   case mediocre: activity = geo{cache,hash}ing; break;
   case abysmal: activity = climbing wall; break;
   default: pub and further planning;
}

Any additions/deletions/modifications?  Do we want to be any more organised?  (face it, could we possibly be any more organised? what could go wrong?)

So, we’ll definitely pack harnesses and shoeses; question is: should we bring ropes and gear too?  Quite happy to, as it’s a feasible load (especially with three of us); at the same time, if climbing is not likely to be on the cards, we’ll leave it at home, as hauling great loads of nylon and metal up and down the country for fun is, well, not really that much fun…

I realise that the weather will be a pretty significant factor; will keep an eye on how the forecast develops.

In terms of the long range forecast, I reckon it would be good to get another day/weekend in at Portland before the Summer deserts us (if it hasn’t already); looks like the next free weekend is last weekend in September (27th-28th).  What do people reckon?

Following up on my shiny new GPS device, I was thinking about what we’re going to get up to the bank holiday weekend and I came across these:

http://www.geocaching.com/about/

http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Main_Page

What do people think? We could head out on a geohashing adventure, walking and climbing whatever gets in our way.

While we’re waiting for Ryan to upload the action shots from the Yat weekend, here are a few fantastic photos from Rob. Despite the ocassional bout of rain it was great to get out to the forest of dean, everyone managed to complete the dreaded ‘tarzan swing’ through the trees. The high winds down the Yat also made the navigating the rapids somewhat interesting. Anyway, it was a great weekend and judging from the various ideas flying round the table at the Saracens head we’ll have a few more great weekends soon enough.

GPS

It’s a very geeky GPS device, while the missus was buying the latest round of walking gear I stumbled across it and found myself compelled to take it the checkout. It is quite cool as it allows me to record things like this:

A nice morning ‘hangover run’ during the fairly messy A-Life conference. So expect a few more gps routes when I put in decent peak district rides.

Sheffield’s having a funny effect on me, I’m thinking a lot more about large expeditions and a lot less about fast races. I think it’s all of the stunning scenery. Anyway, to get some ideas I’ve harvested a load of links and posted this picture of a VW van. Who knows, one day we might be able to go touring round the alps in one. If anyone has any ideas, let me know in the comments.

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001903.php

http://www.cyclingholidays.org/

http://www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk/leaflets/wildcamp.html

http://mbruk.co.uk/

http://www.scotclimb.org.uk/area_index.shtml

http://www.seakayakscotland.com/

http://www.adventurousexperiences.com/gallery.htm

http://www.whiskycoast.co.uk/

http://www.bicyclemania.co.uk/eventskyeindex.htm

Just a few photos from the Burbage valley, Mel’s so taken with the Peak District that there’s a serious plan afoot to walk the Pennine Way!

Top of Consti Hill

Well I took a week off to celebrate my little sisters b’day and graduation and my cunning plan of fixing up her bike and taking it for a ride was cruelly thwarted by a bunch of chavs who’d stripped it for parts! Not to be outdone I decided to put in a few runs instead so first of all I ran up Consti hill a decent 6k from Tessa’s house. It was a beautiful day and looking out over the bay reminded me why I like Aber so much.

Back in Symonds Yat I took the dog for a few runs and scoped out a few forest routes to the pub for the forthcoming go ape weekend.

*Symonds Yat isn’t in Wales before anyone says anything