Looking in two directions at once.....

That's what I'm doing right now.... Looking in two directions at once.
I'm looking backwards over this past year at the same time as looking forward to 2014.....

For various reasons this past year has not been a good one...... Apart from the success of the 'Ten Countries in Ten Days' (10in10) ride I feel that I have achieved very little.. 
Plans made for various rides fell by the wayside due to reasons beyond my control.....my cycling mileage has fallen to half of what I achieved last year and even on this blog I have written fewer posts than any year since I started  the 'PurpleTraveller'.
My Mojo seems to have gone missing to some extent.......

I can put some of this down to the fact that I lost a number of people who had figured strongly in my life over many years..... The passing of these friends and most recently a family member seemed to hit me harder than I could have imagined and I found that my heart wasn't up to doing much at all.........
Even during the year that I was undergoing cancer treatment I seemed to achieve more than I have over this past year......

Over the years though I have found that setbacks seem to spur me on given a reasonable recovery period, so with that in mind lets look forward to 2014........

First up......
Now that I have the MTB one little challenge that I intend completing is the South Downs Double.. The South Downs Way was one of the first National Trails that I did years ago as a backpacking trip and since that first trip I have backpacked the route on three separate occasions.   
The route runs from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east and is a wonderful offroad route 160kms in length.

A few riders attempt the 320kms return route in 24hrs........ but not me..! 
I plan on doing the return route the easy way by taking my time over the trip so that I can take photos and just enjoy the route more.... 

I will be carrying lightweight camping gear on the bike in MTB trekking style rather than using panniers etc as I do when road touring and I will probably give myself five or six days to complete the 320kms.......... so my ride could be called the South Downs EASY Double.....

Next up...
I will finally get around to doing the Lon Las Cymru route across Wales from Holyhead in the north to Chepstow in the south..... 
This will be completed as a traditional touring ride but there will be one big difference with the way I plan on doing it..........!!

My plan is to cycle from home here in Bournemouth to Chepstow and then to loosely  follow the English /Welsh border North before turning West to continue to the start at Holyhead......
After completing the Lon Las Cymru back to Chepstow I will then just carry on back to Bournemouth. 
In effect then just one huge loop of approx 1,000kms. 

As well as these two trips I also plan on a short cyclepacking trip with friends along the Tarka Trail in Devon as well as completing the West Country Coast to Coast route.....

For now I have been getting out along the coast on the MTB and I also plan on getting some riding in over Christmas and the New Year holidays and also spending time with the family.....

I wish you all Seasons Greetings and a really good New Year.......

Getting out along the coast....

It's Arrived....

Wednesday's delivery

 It arrived early on Wednesday morning.....very early...so early in fact that the courier actually got me out of bed......
The delivery consisted of one large box containing my new mountain bike..... quite a speedy delivery, as I only ordered the bike on Monday....

The contents of the box.....

I told Anne that it was an early Christmas present from me...to me!!
Inside the box the bike was very well  protected with sealed foam wrapping and cable ties.....
Within twenty five minutes I had the bike fully assembled and all set up.......

All prepared and ready to go...

Getting a new bike of any kind is always a fun experience......
Every time I get another  bike I always say 'that will be the last bike that I will buy'......I mean, lets face it, at almost sixty six years of age how much time do I have to ride four bikes...? 
So I will say it again... That will be the last bike that I will buy..!!

'Head to the woods' on the seat tube...

As you can see in the picture above......On the seat tube there is the legend 'head to the woods'.....
So that is exactly what I did.....!!

I just had to.....

GENESIS Core 100

I just had to..... buy a mountain bike that is....!!  
Following my recent ride with my daughter and her husband and the two boys it seemed silly not to... I mean I didn't want to have to keep borrowing my daughters Felt MTB everytime I go for a ride with them...having my own MTB seemed to be the way to go.

I didn't want anything too expensive, as a MTB will be just an add on to my real love of road riding but I did want something that seemed good and capable and I wanted good value as well....
I asked for some suggestions on twitter and Gary @gazwagon  came back with a recommendation for Genesis bikes.....

Luckily at this time of year there are a lot of good bike bargains to be had on existing models as the manufacturers introduce their new range of bikes....

I managed to get a Genesis Core 100 with a very nice 40% discount..... the only drawback is the colour...bright orange..!!  
Mind you my youngest grandson will approve of it as it is the same colour as his bike....

Changes........

Wicker and Wood Bike....

This time of year a lot of people seem to change their bike... buying the latest models that the bike manufacturers are promoting....

I have always thought that the start of the winter is not exactly a good time to be buying a new bike unless of course you are buying a new winter bike.... 
If I am going to change a bike the springtime seems a much better time to be spending my hard earned cash on something all shiny and new...

Having said that...since my recent ride with my daughter and her family I have found myself checking out MTBs online... I'm not saying that I will actually buy one....just looking you understand....

If you are thinking about a change, forget  steel...carbon...titanium...aluminium..or even bamboo... why not go for wicker and wood.....that is what the bike in the picture above is made from.
I saw it outside of a shop in town. 

It probably won't give you the fastest or most comfortable of rides, but hey...you will be different and you certainly won't be one of the sheep following everyone else.......

Talking about changes....there are going to be some quite major ones for me over the next 18 months or so. 

First of all, after fifteen years here at 'Purple Towers' it's seems pretty likely that a move to a different location is a distinct possibility. 
I can't say when exactly, but I would expect to re-locate sometime within that 18 month time frame. 

Anne and I are already spending more time in Devon so that seems to be a favourite area for us to move to... 
More information on that as our plans develop and unfold.....

I also plan on starting a different type of adventure than some of those that I have done in recent years....This one will be with Anne...
I can't say more that that at present but I will share more on this over the coming months. 

I still intend to continue with my big annual cycling adventures and I have a number of plans for next years ride in the mix.... I just need to work out the logistics of each route before making the final decision... As soon as that decision is made I will tell you about it here......

Half Term Ride.....

As it has been my grandson's half term holidays this past week,  my daughter and her husband invited me to join them all on a day out at the Moors Valley Country Park and Forest on Wednesday......

My Daughter and her Family.....

 Moors valley is not too far from where they live so they often pop over there with their bikes and make a day of it.... 
The weather forecast was for a nice day with only a small chance of rain.. 
I must admit that I had doubts over the accuracy of the forecast, as the moment I got into my car to drive over to their house near Wimborne it started to rain, but this cleared up and by the time we were all ready to set off from their house it had all the promise of a really nice day.....

My Grandsons and their bikes...

Being a road obsessed cyclist I don't own a MTB, but I was able to borrow one from the stable of bikes my daughter and her husband have....
We had a good ride along the gravel track forest road and also on the single track that winds it's way through the Pine forest with technical bends and tight turns...nothing too difficult... but at a moderate grade it is great for the kids...as well as sixty six year old roadies..!!

Bikes taking a lunch break...

We enjoyed a really nice lunch at the picnic area near the car park, but it wasn't long before the boys wanted to get back on the bikes and ride some more.... soon we were on the single track again....
On the way back home we stopped off to take a look at the steam railway......

One of the Moors Valley Steam Locomotives....

 Moors valley has an authentic narrow gauge railway which is obviously very popular with the kids...it currently has 17 steam locos and 2 diesel versions...apparently most of these were actually built at the Moors Valley railway workshops......

A view of the station area...

All too soon our day out on the bikes was over....
The weather had remained fine and dry for us and I really enjoyed the MTB riding as it made a nice change from my road bikes.....
Looking back on it I would list it as another of those 'special days'.........

Some Days are Special..

Some days are special....yesterday was one of those days.....

Just before the weekend I had a message from Jon Joynes (one of the 10in10 riders) asking me if I would like to pop over to Somerset one day this week for a cycle ride around the area near his home town of Yeovil.
A quick glance at the weather forecast showed me that the only day worth considering looked to be the Tuesday..yesterday... all the other days of the week had predictions of precipitation over the 40% chance...
As one of my many motto's goes along the line of 'why cycle in the wet if you can ride in the dry?' our choice of day for our ride was made...as it was Jon had the whole week free of work so was as flexible as I was in choosing the driest day...and didn't we make the right choice..!!

Blue sky and strong shadows...a stunning day for a Somerset ride.

I got up yesterday morning and was greeted by bright sunshine so all bode well for a good day's riding... First though I had to drive over to Somerset..one of the four counties that is adjacent to Dorset the others being Hampshire Devon and Wiltshire. 

As I set off from home the weather was gorgeous however the moment I turned off the coast road to head inland I found myself engulfed in fog...and that was the way it stayed all the way to Yeovil.
As I arrived at Yeovil the sun seemed to break through and all looked good again.

A pretty Somerset scene on our ride..

At Jon's house I got myself sorted out..removed my bike from the back of my personal Tonka toy (4x4) and we set off...
I have cycled through parts of Somerset in the past but not much in this particular area so it was nice to have a cycling buddy show me one of his regular routes....

As we rode along we both remarked on what a truly stunning day it was... It was one of those Autumnal days that are really special where everything seems to have come together to create a  perfect day.....

Nice weather and not much traffic...perfect!

We headed north of Yeovil on a truly lovely cycling loop...there was not a great deal of traffic even on the few sections of main road that we rode on ...most of the route though seemed to use the country lanes that Somerset has an abundance of making for a very nice relaxed ride..

One of the villages that we went through was Kingsbury Episcopi...over twenty years ago some friends of mine lived in Church cottage there and cycling through the village brought back lots of happy memories of my visits and time spent there all those years ago.....

Jon's Dad with the Mercian...A great winter project..

Jon had organised our coffee and cake stop at his parents house...
It was really nice to meet Jon's parents who had organised both chocolate cake and  jam doughnuts..my two favourites....
We all sat outside chatting and enjoying the warm autumn sunshine and talking about everything under the sun including caravans..classic cars and of course bikes.

Jon's Dad showed me an old Mercian bike that he has.... it would make a first class winter restoration project... 
Although it has surface rust to the frame the bike looks solid and intact and it would be wonderful to see it fully restored... 

The problem is though, that his Dad has a number of other objects of  desire that are good restoration projects.  Like most restorers it is hard deciding which project to start on next... Caravan...Car..Bike..??

Surface rust only on the Mercian

All too soon it was time to head off and continue with our bike ride.....

As we headed back towards Yeovil we were able to reflect on what a perfect day's ride we had enjoyed...how lucky we had been with the weather....how enjoyable the route had been....how good it was to get out on the bikes and ride with a friend....

Before I knew it, the ride was over and I was loading the bike into the vehicle and then heading back home to Dorset....

One last view of the old Mercian

Today when I woke up I was greeted by rain lashing down and strong winds and it looks as if those forecast predictions of rain were absolutely spot on....

As I said at the beginning of this blog post...
Some days are special.....yesterday was one of those days....

Berghaus - Forty Marathons in Forty Days...

THE ULTIMATE TRAIL INFOGRAPHIC..

I've always been up for a bit of a challenge as regular visitors to this blog will be well aware, but here is one that I personally won't be attempting....

1000 miles is an impressive distance to run by any stretch of the imagination...
To do it in 40 days across the high route of the Great Himalaya Trail is an incredible achievement...  but that is exactly what Berghaus athlete Phillipe Gatta  is attempting to do, setting the fastest known time for the route.

Here are some of the stats from Phillipe's expedition in an Infographic to help give it a sense of scale........