The Long Mynd

Climbed the Long Mynd for the first time in my life. I rode down it a few years ago and that was scary enough - you don't have much control going down something that steep. This time I went up the climb, almost a mile of 20% gradient. It was no feat of superhuman endeavour, just slow hard work, keeping it going in the bottom gear, but I rode up every inch. The trickiest part was keeping balance - if I rode out of the saddle the back wheel would slip - if I sat down I could feel the front wheel lifting unless I put my weight right forward which didn't make it very comfortable. I guess the howling tailwind helped. Anyway, here's the view from the top.

A very cold bike ride to Malvern

Walking on Malvern

Walked up the Malvern Hills today with Ana. We had to climb quite a bit before we got above the mist but the summit of Worcestershire Beacon was above the clouds and gave us wonderful views across to the Costwolds. As we neared the top, two mountain bikers came up in seriously low gears and going at little more than walking pace. They should have been out of breath but one of them was keeping up an ongoing monologue about some computer software he was working one. The other listened in stoic silence as his companion prattled on about Java classes and exceptions, we could hear him from 100 years and he didn't draw breath. As they drew level with us the silent one gave us a wry and long-suffering smile. I had to resist the impulse to to shout at them: "For f***'* sake man, shut up and start enjoying the view... and change up a gear!" but I didn't.

Here's the view over the cloud tops - in the distance you can just see Bredon Hill and the Cotswolds.

In the Clun Valley

Fountain