Ups and Downs......

Since we have been at our 'over winter pitch' we have had some pretty good weather... It has certainly been a lot nicer than when we were here last winter....

Yes we have had some strong winds...rain....mist and fog.... as well as some icy conditions but in the main it has been pretty good for getting out on the bike...

Before my latest medical hiccup I was managing to get out for a ride on a regular basis....
Mind you it can be pretty hard going....
Down here in the Dartmoor area of Devon it is all ups and downs... You are either cycling uphill or going downhill...there are hardly any stretches of real flat roads at all.

I remember when I cycled Lands End to John o' Groats a few years ago everyone in our team agreed that the Devon section was the hardest and riding around the local lanes has brought it all back to me...

Within just a couple of miles of our campsite there are a number of climbs in excess of 17% as well as a couple hitting the 25% mark...
As if that wasn't enough the road that passes the campsite is part of a climb listed in Simon Warren's book '100 Greatest Cycling Climbs'. The climb can be found on page 31 of the book and is titled 'Rundlestone'.... Simon rates it as 7/10. 

All the climbs in the book are tough, therefore 1/10 equals hard and 10/10 equals 'it's all you can do to keep your bike moving'....
This means of course that it is a great area for training and improving your hill climbing abilities....
As soon as I can... I hope to be back out on the bike and attempting to do just that.....

Great Cycling Weather...Great Cycling Country...

Static over Winter...

It has been about a month since my last post on this blog but I have had two good reasons...

We have moved to our winter seasonal site which means that we will not be moving on again until next April.... 
However since we arrived the site has had ongoing internet problems with engineers working up poles etc trying to restore the service.... A few days ago the problem was finally sorted allowing me to make this post...

As well as that I had a bit of a medical scare... I won't go into all the boring details but it does mean I need to have a MRI scan and some further treatment....
How long this will take is difficult to say but hopefully it will all be sorted before we plan to head off again next spring.....

As I have not had reliable internet access for a month I need to catch up on all my favourite blogs as well as making a few more posts here at the purpletraveller blog....
If you have wondered why I have not visited your blog for a while I hope that the above answers that question and I should visit you soon....

Below are a couple of images that were taken as we left our last touring site of the year before  
arriving  here at our winter static site...