Christmas Day Cycle Gran Canaria

I decided that a day tour with guides would be better than trying to sort something out for myself and booked on a  tour with Free Motion.
I had booked on the Peak Tour but due to a week of rain this route had become unuseable.
We headed north and our guide Kai ( awaiting proper spelling ) met with two local guides so we could get the best possible experience.
Now I'm not exactly sure of the start point because although I took my trusty Forerunner GPS I was so excited that I kept forgetting to start the thing. I missed the start of the first route but I did take a pic of it so you in the know will know :)

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 I was the only Brit on the tour which was mainly German I think. There was a Fin, a Dane and two Swiss, we also had the two Spanish guides who's names escape me.
We started in the rain which had been hitting the island hard for a few days and immediately I saw the effects. There was a lot of slippy mud which added difficulty to what was already a fairly technical part of the descent.
When we stopped to 'collect' ourselves we all had that stupid smile on our faces.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 Just like the emotion that some of the sections were stirring inside me, we were heading for Teror. Yes Teror is the name of the town.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

This was going to be a lunch stop and the end of the first route.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 It really was more than 6Km the GPS never recorded the first part ( well I didn't ).
Teror was a very pretty wee town unlike the touristy shore side towns in the south.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 We got back on the bus and went back up the mountain, again I didn't start the GPS so I'm not sure where we started. :(
This was a longer route which had everything. Undo-able technical sections although about four of the group did manage most of them. Asphalt transitions including climbing sections. Riding through steep narrow back streets of mountain villages, down steps, through gardens! (I kid you not, at one point I was up someones driveway holding onto an opened garage door with some of the family inside chatting !). Fast steep downhill. Riding along the coast. We only omitted riding naked whilst drunk smoking cigars, maybe next time.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 One of the very technical sections. No we didn't actually come down the cliff face but near enough.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 Another much needed rest.

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 The final push along the coast. Look carefully between the two riders in the foreground to see the rest of the squad in the dip.

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 At last, we get to the end of what must be the best and most varied days cycling I have ever done.

From GranCanMTBTour2009

 Oh, and I did get a puncture but there were about nine others and the guides mended it for me :)

From GranCanMTBTour2009 No this isn't us but it's the same hire shop, bikes and terrain.

Aroond And Aboot

This week I have been mostly in pain. From my cheek and neck, my cheek is still in limbo as there seems to be nobody to interpret the x-ray yet.

From Aroondanaboot

I went for a walk up near Culloden to find Tom Riach a boulder of conglomerate dumped in the woods by a glacier long ago.

From TomRiach

Tom Riach was full of moss and needles and hard to climb.

From TomRiach

On the way home I stopped under the Kessock bridge.

From TomRiach

Completed in 1982 and now almost always full of cars trying to negotiate the roundabout on the other side.
Then I went home, worked on Friday and Saturday which is when the stilson incident happened.

I hurt my neck

From Aroondanaboot

whilst trying to avoid hitting myself on said cheek with a stilson.

From Aroondanaboot

On Monday having taken Sunday off work with a sore neck and practically hanging myself from the door frame to relieve the pain., I decided to go for a walk with the dog.

From Aroondanaboot

We went to Nigg beach

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Ok not a great beach picture but this is where it gets a bit rocky OKAY ?
We looked across to the South Sutor

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We then found more conglomerate when we thought it was all sandstone.

From Aroondanaboot

We drove up the hill and took a photo of the firth.

From Aroondanaboot

Then we went home.
No accidents.

Fancy Canada

Decided to help out Cameron at The Canadian Tourism Commission. It's the kind of place I would like to visit, and not to sip drinks by the pool.
Here's some videos they have put together to entice us over.
There's also details of a competition at the end.

River Kayaking



Sea Kayaking


Open Canoe


Seal Attack !


Slave River Rapids


Newfoundland And Labrador Sea Kayaking


Pilot Whales Cape Breton Nova Scotia


The Canadian Tourism Commission is also running a contest for residents of the UK to win a free, personalized trip to Canada.

Should Have Gone Straight To Raigmore

I had a wee spill up on the Wildcat on November 16th. Near the end of 'Running The Gauntlet there's a wee drop off a slab onto some 'north shore'. The planks have no chicken wire anti slip and as soon as I landed my front slid away. There was no time to correct and I went down fast and hard hitting my cheek on the ground.

From Golspie crash

I corrected the bent handlebars and seat and managed down the rest of the route.
A GP in Golspie had a look but the swelling had started, I decided to wait a few days to see if the pain subsided. I was still sore a week later so went to my local small injuries clinic where I was told there was no break.
Relieved by this news I was sure the pain would be leaving me soon. Still sore 2.5 weeks later I went back to the doctors to be told I would need an X-Ray !

I'm waiting for an appointment...

Edit...
10th December. After being told on my last two visits that they could not x-ray the face in Invergordon I got my X-ray appointment  IN INVERGORDON ! Had the X-ray, now waiting for someone to look at it...

Monstrous Good Fun Old Boy.

I'm not dead, just been doing more interesting things than blogging :)

The most recent interesting thing was the First Monster. When it was decided that we were entering the team I immediatley aired my preference to do the hill climb out of Fort Augustus, not because I was the strongest cyclist but because it had beaten me once before.

This year there were 278 teams of four each person doing a running stage and a cycling stage. Other team members were:

Jean

From FirstMonster2009

Saunders

From FirstMonster2009

Brian

From FirstMonster2009

Here's the area of the event with my stages highlighted in red.

From FirstMonster2009

Right lets get this done so I can go and do something more interesting.
Saunders completed the first stage in a great time, although fortunately behind Nell so I got to see her hand over to Gavin Hastings at my transition point. I don't know how celebrities are supposed to act but just milling about and chatting like everyone else was in line with the relaxed friendly atmosphere.

I then ran slightly faster than I though I would though not quite Olympic material. I averaged 5:06 min/Km over the 8.3Km stage. I have cycled the route before but running it was actually more enjoyable.

I then handed over to Jean who ran off, thinking back I cannot even remember that transition. My brain must have been fried ! Quite worrying. I then got changed into my cycling kit and set off on a bus to Fort Augustus. Where I tucked into a lavish meal of a cup of soup and a bread roll ! After a few phone calls I determined just about when Saunders would arrive but he was quicker than expected so my trip to the toilet was abandoned !

I set off up the hill.

From FirstMonster2009

It was hot. I kept the pedals turning. No cramp ups. I topped out :)

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Elevation, speed and HR tables follow for your perusal.
Elevation

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Speed

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Heart Rate

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After the hill I got the head down and went for the stage end and survived the scary descent into Foyers. I handed over to Jean once again.

From FirstMonster2009

Team Mackay support vehicle had arrived by now hence the photos. At Foyers I didn't need to wait for race transport and was whisked off to Dores, the next transition. We passed Jean on the way.

From FirstMonster2009

Jean had had a good cycle too so we were moving up the rankings.

Now Brian sprinted to the finish, arriving before us in the car !!

From FirstMonster2009

We met up with Nell again.

From FirstMonster2009

We finished 77th out of 278, not bad.

From FirstMonster2009

From FirstMonster2009

My only criticism would be the rather random nature of the food distribution. I needed more than a cup of soup and a roll in Fort Augustus. Fortunatley Team Mackay support ( Karen ) went off and bought me a sausage roll.

This was outweighed with the sheer brilliance of the event and the organisation.

Good Times Bad Times At Wildcat

Kayaking is dangerous. I took precautions and made sure I had the right gear before I paddled off, well at least after the first few frights !
Cycling is also dangerous as we found out recently.

Molly had completed the blue routes up at the Wildcat and Learnie several times she had even done the blue at Glentress. She assured us that she could handle the red route at Golspie Wildcat..

Sol and I explained it the best we could and told her to chicken run anything that looked too difficult. After easily completing the ascent she was fired up and ready to go.

From molly crash

But soon after a nasty fall on the third last tabletop and a trip to the hospital she looked like this.

From molly crash

Still smiling !

Things were a bit better this month after the arrival of the Prophet. I returned to the Wildcat and took it around the Black route. It took me ten minutes longer than normal to go up and the same time on the way down but the ride was so much better.

From molly crash

The best thing of all was ... NO PUNCTURES...

Havering On: Why Bother with Gaelic Roadsigns?

Havering On: Why Bother with Gaelic Roadsigns?

Passo Tonale

We're just back from a weeks skiing in Italy.

From PassoTonale-09

Last year our friends went to Passo Tonale. This year we accompanied them on a return trip along with another family, and so we were ten.

We flew in to Innsbruck which is a very picturesque airport the sun set as we set off on our 3 hour transfer so we had to wait until the next day to find out just how beautiful our location was.

Here's the scene from our hotel window.

From PassoTonale-09

From PassoTonale-09

After the usual arsing about with the Ski hire and lift passes we were ready to go.
Now just some 'credit where credit is due' here for Snowbrainer the online hire service, they were a pleasure to deal with and could not have been more helpful. The hire shop in Tonale was of a similar standard. There were no queues and we were asked if we were happy with the ski's that they had selected for us. I managed to snap my pole in a chairlift incident and they were replaced at no cost. One more bit of advice, DO NOT go to the Pharmacy in Passo Tonale, the guy is a ripoff merchant and I told him what I thought of his prices.

Pharmacy apart, Passo Tonale is a fantastic place. 100Km of runs, 6 black, 23 red, 12 blue.

We were split into groups as our family and the kids in the other family had signed up for Ski School.

From PassoTonale-09

From PassoTonale-09

From PassoTonale-09

Yes, the epitome of a dure faced jock is smiling in the photo !

After two hours of lessons we spent the rest of the day practising and exploring. We all quickly found our ski legs on the blue runs.

From PassoTonale-09

We spent some time trying out the mountain restaurants. A beer can help you relax when tackling your first red run.

From PassoTonale-09

Although I had none when I was taken away by my friends to PonteDiLegno. This was going to be a nice day out on blues and reds but we ended up at the top of a black. What the hell, let's do it.

From PassoTonale-09

I was genuinely looking forward to doing it although some of it was taken sideways and I had a couple of falls on the bumpy sections I loved it.

At the bottom we met up with the rest of my family and went up another chairlift to another restaurant with some stunning views outside.

From PassoTonale-09

From there it was only some bumpy icy reds to the bottom.

From PassoTonale-09

Our lessons were going well and to finish off the week the memberes of each group were to race each other in slalom. I had seen it on Ski Sunday and was looking forward to having a go.

In the kids group my daughter got sixth place and my son was third. The two kids from the other families we travelled with got second and first, what a sweep.

From PassoTonale-09

From PassoTonale-09

My wife was in the beginner adults and got a fourth place. I surprised myself and managed first.

From PassoTonale-09

From PassoTonale-09

That was the last day of the holiday. We had the 6 or 7 course Italian meal that night and after 4 days of sun, one day cold overcast and one day cold but sunny we flew back to windy rainy Scotland the next day.

Right, where's the brochures for next year ?