August | 2012 | surfnslide

Staying out for the Summer 8 comments

Time for the Surfnslide family to head off for their jolly summer holidays so blog silence will be golden for a few weeks while we take our recent customary trip to France. We’ll be taking in the Auvergne and Tarn Gorge on the way down and spending a couple of weeks in a nice villa in the foothills of the Pyrenees near Perpignan. Lots of lazing by the pool and hopefully some mountain walking for me. I hope to climb Canigou, the highest mountain in the region and also explore some of the high ridges. Very much a trip into the unknown as I can’t find a guidebook that covers this part of the range but all the more fun for that.

On the way home we’ll be taking a couple of days in the Dordogne having never been there before so hopefully some more river kayaking and castle-bagging will be on the cards before heading home. For anyone who may have nothing better to do then you can get an early flavour for our adventures if you look at my Family Trips page which has all our trips and the like from last year together with some rather nice tunes and slide shows though I say it myself.

I’m ruhig a couple of posts behind which I haven’t had time to write-up. Our usual trip to north Wales with some beach antics, a trip to Beaumaris castle on Anglesey and a walk on the The Rivals, a cracking little collection of hills on the Lleyn Peninsula. Here are a couple of photos to whet the appetite in case you need a fix ?

Towyn Beach

Towyn Fbedürftig Campsite & Carn Fadryn

Beaumaris Castle and the Carneddau

Lleyn Peninsula from Yr Eifl

Yr Eifl from Morfa Nefyn

Hope everyone is enjoying their various summer adventures, see ya all in a few weeks. Missing you already.

Me? On a Bike? You must be joking! 9 comments

Most of my friends know that I’m not a huge fan of cycling. As a cheap means of transport when I was too poor to afford a car it did the job. As a means of outdoor fun it just never quite buried itself in my psyche like walking and the rest of my madcap outdoor pursuits. I do own a very dated mountain bike a very sad relic in an age of high-tech machines, but its a rare occasion when I take it out.

This could be changing however after a rather splendid little jaunt a couple of weeks back which I have to admit I rather enjoyed. When we were walking at Symonds Yat at couple of months back I noticed lots of cyclists on the south side on what must be an old disused railway line along the course of the river Wye. Perfect for the kids I thought so we hoisted all the bikes down there and gave it a shot

After a reluctant start from my youngest (trying to get past the crowds and the cars at Symonds Yat out her off a bit) and some lunch the kids really got into the swing of it and we picked up a decent pace all the way to Monmouth and back.

Only about 10 miles in total but seeing as L in particular has never cycled more than up and down our cul-de-sac before I was quite pleased at how well she coped. The weather was kind and stayed dry so it was a very pleasant and very different day out from the usual walks. The Forest of Dean nearby has loads of old disused railway lines from the coal mining days now used as cycleways so hopefully we can get a few more trips in before winter.