Lake District - Hawkshead - May 2024

 

So, predominantly a full Winter delay on my blog travails through family commitment (and what s friggin awful wet Winter!)…some escapes to my pad in Mallorca but not what I considered the plan would have been in October.

At last Spring is creeping in, and when I saw the weather forecast (originally 3 pretty decent days, although the third was a washout….useless forecasters 😩).

Was going to camp at Coniston, but the reviews were rather off putting, so decided on one v close to Hawkshead…and a lovely setting it was too! 🥰 (£22pn)

Awoken by an amazing dawn chorus, including cuckoos and curlews. Unfortunately it was 5am….ear plugs in future! 😉

 DAY 1

Brought my retro Kona Muni Mula MTB, due to my gravel bike being in service, but as it happened the route I planned on Komoot really needed a full suspension MTB, in fact it needed an E-MTB!

On paper quite nice, Hawkshead up to Tarn Hows…descent into Coniston, then took a lakeside cycle path, well mainly a cycle path. Komoot did warn me that there was over 2 miles of a non cycling segment. However I assumed it was just private or National Trust anti bike section but nooo! It was just impossible to ride…so walked most of it, and one time I tried to speed it up to ride…and hesitated over some rocks and gnarly roots…and went flying sideways….fortunately only with hurt pride. 😉

Eventually switching to the east side of the Lake, and ignoring another Komoot warning (red segment on the route). This equated to some impossible super steep rocky climbs…defo E bike needed if not a trails motorbike! The views though were worthwhile, outstanding above Lake Coniston with the backdrop of the Coniston fells, with views right across more fells.

 Riding into Grisedale Forest, at last I hit smooth forest compact fire roads, although really not a fan of being enveloped in nothing but bloody trees. But at least I could ride quick ish and consistently, and soon plummeted down to Hawkshead….completed! Did I enjoy?....overall a tad mixed, I hate having to walk the bike, and certainly really need a more appropriate bike….but recovered with two lovely pints of local Loweswater Gold pale ale….and after a shower and change….rode back into the village for an evening meal and a couple more, this time, Bluebird XB….some great local cask ales.

DAY 2

 Irrespective of that very early dawn chorus, the morning was beautiful.🥰 Hike today, so after my standard porridge mix, I planned a well worn route (by me), first scaled as a very young boy with my Dad. One of Wainwrights classic scrambles up South Rake on Dow Crag in the Coniston range via Goats Water. Scaled less flexibly than no doubt my more youthful days, but I still do enjoy a good scramble.

There was hesitation at first, as I wasn’t sure which gulley entrance to scale…the others apparently with sections of “easy” rock climbing….maybe one day with company. Sure enough I went up South Rake, and soon with the excellent views all around. Is that Blackpool Tower!? 🤣

 Nice chats on the route, firstly with an elder ish couple on E mountain bikes, telling me their virtues, after I mentioned my struggles the day before…perhaps if I lived in the Lakes, don’t really need that assistance in most other places. On the top of Dow Crag, was a guy with half a house on his back! He was doing a 5 day wild camp. In the Lakes the rules for wild camping are above 600m or the highest wall, and pitch late, disappear early. He enthused about the sunrise at 4.30am….tempting to give it a go, one day?

And on descending the Old Man, which was of course thronged with tourists looking out for, yes, Blackpool Tower, and not the stunning Lakeland vistas. A gripe of Wainwright!

Anyhow passing one of the derelict buildings of the now defunct slate mines, I had a brief chat with a lady about that legacy, and how communities once lived on the mountain side (as she remarked, a topless youth with trainers on, passed us, that’s the Old Man)!

Soon in Coniston, I had a beer in some very familiar pubs then returned to Hawkshead. Deciding that evening to cook my own haute cuisine, noodles with meatballs and gravy. Eat your hearts out Frenchies!

DAY 3

The forecast was grim today, very wet – in fact retrospective learning later that Honister Pass had 2 months of rain in 24 hours. 😳

I packed up just as it started spitting, and headed alongside one of the lesser well known Lakes, Esthwaite Water….and passed a cafe in a converted boat house, perfecto! I did a little lakeside walk with some twitching (ospreys breed locally) and awaited 9am for the cafe to open. Feeling replete, I headed down the coast via Arnside, then the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss….Hest Bank and a miserable Morecambe, by now it was pouring, so straight back to Sheffield.

Shows the advantages of the UK with its variations and opportunities in short travelling time, and just what I needed after some recent travails.

Where to next? 🤔

 

 

 

 

Home Sweet Home - Sheffield Oct 2023

So Sheffield it was, just 3 days after some ridiculously heavy rains, with extensive  flooding in many parts, and damage too, as I was to learn.

12 days before flying out to Mallorca, and almost all but 2 days it rained everyday, what seemed like continuous rain!

I managed two gravel rides, the second on my first organised ride with Alpkit…just a tenner contribution to a charity…self supporting, and the intention was the social element. Although I rode nearly all of it with a guy Chris from the Fusion CC club, who’d rode previously with the guys at Mallorcan Cycle Tours! Small world!

The route was quite challenging with the climbing, some pushing but often quite slippy, and wet under tyre…but this was one of the only two nice Autumn days!

Also I managed a few walks, one was to check the storm damage along Rivelin Valley, which was quite severe in places, and another around Higger Tor and Burbage Edge with Mick and Tye.

The amount of rain seemed to have one benefit, the Autumn colours seemed much more vivid than normal, with some fantastic oranges…see the photo from Bradfield.

So here I am at Terminal 3, Manchester Airport- wondering what Mallorca holds for the next 3 weeks plus…on a road bike! 🫣😂

EURO TOUR 2023 - The Epilogue

The Epilogue - London - 20th October 2023

So all good things come to an end. Driving to Annecy nearly 6 weeks ago feels like a lifetime ago…but then I could say I have squeezed a lifetime, nearly, into those weeks - and I’m so pleased I kept the blog fresh and regularly updated….one rainy evening (very soon no doubt) I will sit down and slowly reflect on all the stages! And the last 14 months or so, since that last race!

As for this trip though, I cannot complain. The weather was excellent almost continuously, and from all the locations identified when I conducted my initial research, I visited just about every place, plus extras including Hungary; visiting John in Vienna…and even Lago Molveno from a recommendation was a super bonus!

Even the driving, irrespective of duration, was never laborious…mainly due to the continuously amazing views, but also simply because of the discovery of new places, as the excursion progressed.

Standout moments? Very difficult because it was all quite amazing, so any comparison is relative! 

But moments that really captivated me, some, in an almost semi spiritual sense do include:

• although not always fully visible, but Mt Blanc and the glacier at Chamonix. Annecy does have a spectacular setting, but the sight of the Mt Blanc massif just nudged up the wow factor a couple of notches!
• The Matterhorn. A couple more notches! The iconic sight of this beauty blew me away, I never tired of looking at it…and combined with the Five Lakes Walk was a top three highlight (although starting the walk from Zermatt would not be repeated, should’ve got the gondola!)
• Staring at the tempting sight of Mount Legnone (2609m) overlooking Lake Como from my campsite, I finally succumbed! The rating is justified by the rooftop views from the summit, right across to the French and Swiss Alps…and the scrambling to its summit, but the descent was rather laboured!
• Really not liking by initial impressions of Lake Garda, fortunately the campsite I tried was full, but the lady there recommended I continued driving for another hour to Molveno. What a little gem! Next to a beautiful azure blue lake, surrounded by my first viewing of the Dolomites. And perfectly explored by a cross country bike circuit, after catching a gondola to the higher levels!
• Possibly my number one highlight. Siusi Alma (overlooked by Alpe di Siusi) was simply jaw droppingly spectacular, and it got better. Riding the panoramic circuit, after taking a gondola to the higher levels, there were in fact two more massifs, which the ride explored….really amazing, one of my best rides ever!
• I’ll say Slovenia per se - not sure if any one landscape would make my top three. But Lake Bled is a very nice location, but the surrounding hinterland is nothing spectacular. But once in the Alpine territory and especially Kranjska Gora and the views from my campsite were memorable.
• Vienna! I hadn’t planned to meet up with John, but the 4 days were great, they flew by and I was very impressed with Vienna, and his new (ish) life he has out there!
• I’ll lump the Austrian and Bavarian Alps together…a huge area, and so much more to return to… I got the impression that these areas have as much to offer as the more well known parts of the Alps, but quietly get on with it…one day I will discover more! 

I had a stopover at Metz to break the back of the Calais journey, and by teatime the following day I’d arrived at my pal’s place, Paul aka Gaston,  in Tooting! Soon followed by a  Weatherspoons meal, then a few more beers in a nice traditional pub.

The following day, we went over to Leyton, ostensibly to ultimately see my daughter Katie, including a Leyton Orient vs Barnsley footy game (to keep us out of the pubs!)….unfortunately Katie was unwell, so she stayed in…but on her recommendation we headed to a beer trail in the Walthamstow / Lea Valley area. Huge warehouses converted into multi purpose complexes, quite amazing…we watched the England vs S Africa rugby WC quarter final…and then saw the last part of The Warlocks. An LA based psychedelic rock outfit…very impressive!

Home by 1.30am via a chicken takeaway place! 

A pleasant walk and breakfast in Tooting Bec, in glorious sunshine….and then the journey back north to Sheffield…catch up with family etc and eventually consider where, and plan the next adventure! 🤷‍♂️😎

EURO TOUR 2023 - Stage 16 - Bavarian Alps (Germany)

Stage 16 - Bavarian Alps - Garmisch  18th to 19th October

I left the hotel near Innsbruck with a low tank on enthusiasm, I think there has been an element of demob happy, for an inexplicable reason….I think ever since the weather changed, and I know I didn’t scrape the surface of Austria. 

Also on this morning, I felt bizarrely a bit distant, then realised, although I always say it does not affect me, I’d had no coffee (cheapskate chose not to have the hotel breakie. I was tempted to use my gas stove, but couldn’t reach the smoke detector to cover it, I didn’t dare risk it….just in case I caused a mass evacuation!).

Heading north, and climbing towards Germany, I pulled into a lay-by, and had two coffees….I felt better immediately. Although, my initial plan was to road trip around the locations I’d planned back in Sheffield on Google Maps….and I even thought, by mid afto, I could take a few hours out of the Calais journey?

But then, I looked at myself….thought I didn’t want to get to Sheffield, and regret not doing something….and that almost certainly included just driving through points of interest with no detailed exploration and stopover….I eventually came to Garmisch (which from the car was very nice). But then the backdrop of the highest massif in Germany came into view…the Zugspitze….almost Dolomite in profile….and perfectly facing it, without any interruption soon was my tent….in a village (Grainau) just a few kilometres from Garmisch.

By 1pm I was on my bike, a Komoot route but with some starter pointers from the lady at reception…a great route that went around Lake  Eibsee, a small cobalt gem in the woods, but with the mountain backdrop….thereafter followed pretty continuous climbing (but I knew once at the top, it was pretty much all downhill thereafter)…eventually I dropped into the ski resort of Ehrwald, which at the time I didn’t realise, is in Austria! Then a great gravel downhill all the way down to the campsite, back into Germany!

In the evening I popped down to Garmisch. Clearly very Bavarian, obviously, but lovely, in fact arguably the nicest town I’d visited on the whole trip. But unfortunately not matched by the quality of the curry, I decided to treat myself to, at a nearby recommended restaurant. Very insipid.

It got slightly worse, when I returned to the campsite for some reason the security gates wouldn’t let me in! So I had to leave the car with bike and camera outside the campsite…worried me a little, and I slept badly.

Very minimal rain and a cloudy morning, plus the poor night persuaded me to move on. I was going to do a cable car / hike circuit to the very tops…on a blue sky day it would’ve been sensational. But, as already stated I intend returning here and Austria with much more exploring. (For ref: €28 but €3 refund for car not on site!)

On the road again then, navigating to those places I’d mapped before leaving Sheffield. First, Plansee, which was very nice…then Fussen. At this point I was clearly leaving the Alps. Fussen and area is known for the castles, which except as a 5 year old, I’ve never had an interest in…so a short reassessment on the roadside, and soon, I was heading to Calais, in two stages (Metz stopover…€39 basic hotel) through pouring rain, and Le Chunnel was booked for 3.30pm the following day.

So that what the end of my trip…a summary must follow….😊