First ski run...

How hard could this be? Having watched Ski Sunday and a few youtube videos, I knew that the white stuff was easier to ski on than the brown, grey or green stuff. 

After freezing my ass off getting to the ski resort and catching up with my friends (who had my ski kit in their van) there was a fun few minutes trying to remember some (any) Spanish so I could get a lift pass, skis (always useful), boots (ditto), poles (wtf  am I going to do with those!?) and a helmet (maybe in case someone skis into me?).

The first challenge was leaving the rental store wearing ski boots and steamed up glasses and carrying four things several feet long and each with a mind of its own.  Why they can't make doors wide enough to carry skis through width-wise I'll never know. Still, putting everything back onto the display gave the staff something to do as it was pretty quiet and I'm sure they can board the window up or something to stop the cold coming in.

Over to the gondola for the ride up the mountain to the main area. Not much to say here, other than a repeat of trying to get everything through a smaller gap this time with a moving surface on the other side to step onto.  Then rinse and repeat at the top. 

Skis on, and a slide over to the beginner's area so I can join the other Bambis and keep out of everyone's way.

First lesson: how to use the cable tow.  Fairly easy. As I was yanked up the hill, someone behind me said something about making sure I get off to the right for the beginners area, and not left to the Red run.  Or was that the other way around?  No clue, I was trying to hold to keep two skis pointing in vaguely the right direction (up hill)  whilst wrestling with the ski poles.

It really didn't matter which way I was meant to be going at the top...my skis chose for me and I was soon in the middle of the slope.  People were very friendly, all yelling encouragement at me as they swept past. Not sure exactly what was being said as it was all in Spanish or French, but lots of friendly waving.

The crocodile of kids all seemed to be able to move pretty quickly but alas, they may not have heard my thanks due to the distortion caused by the doppler affect as I accelerated onward,

As I descended the slope with arms, legs, poles and skis waving enough to make Bambi on ice look stable, it did occur to me that I thought the beginners slope hadn't looked anything like as long as this.  Or as steep.  Still, I was well on my way now.

I did wonder how one was meant to stop.  An experiment grabbing at a tree as a whooshed past wasn't successful, only managing to cause the snow on the tree to drop down on the poor fellow following me. Not sure why he didn't like that, it's not like he wasn't expecting snow up here.

I was able to stop courtesy of a snow bank, a crowd of children and a picnic table.

Time to find the bar.

A Beaky Adventure - The Sidobre

I decided to head east from Toulouse for a change, out past Castres and into the Sidobre area to visit some of the rock formations and to visit a couple of lakes and several miles of Michelin roads.

Link to the route.

Around Burlats and Lacrouzette are the Sidobre.  The Sidobre themselves are granite rocks that, due to some unusual weathering of the last few thousand years or so, now look like giant pebbles.  The really weird thing is that several have ended up stacked on each other:

Each of those is the size of a car.  In the last case, a very large van.  And no, I didn't push it to see.

This stretch of the ride was the most tricky, as it involved zig-zagging all over the area down country lanes and in one place an im-promptu off road section down a muddy footpath and over several half-buried rocks.  Note to self: if Google Maps thinks a path is good, but Garmin says otherwise, be prepared for things to get bumpy.  And muddy.

After I finished looking at rocks, I had a nice meandering route following the Agout river as it winds toward Lac de la Raviege. However the first part of road was marked as closed...on the off-chanceI would be able to get through on the bike, I took the turn. With the road blocked, there had been no traffic to clear the leaves, so what I had was a beautiful ride (albeit slightly slippery in a couple of wet areas) that gave me some half-decent video.

A little blurred, as I need to sort out the vibration on the camera mount...but that is a job for another day.

Passing the Lac de la Raviege, with it's HEP dam:

Unusually for one of my rides, I hadn't yet passed somewhere for fuel, and as I approached La Salvetat-sur-Agou found that both fuel stops were shut (and I don't just mean closed on the day...they both looked closed for the winter).  With my route due to head north and into an even more remote area my Garmin was showing no fuel within my remaining range...but there was a spot 10 miles to the south that I could detour to.  Easy, huh?

Yeah, right.

The shortest route to Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, the Location of the Hallowed Fuel, was directly over a col.  Two cols, to be precise.  Neither particularly high (about 900m) but both currently in the clouds.

Take the road in my video.  Make it more twisty.  And narrow.  Add heavy rain.  And 20m visibility.

There should have been a steep drop to one side (these roads usually do) but I'm damned if I saw it.  Most of the time I could see the lane markings.

Fortunately, Saint-Pons-de-Thomières had a 24/24 fuel as promised, so a quick coffee later I was ready to rejoin my route and continue my journey.

On the other side of that damn mountain.

Oops.

At least this time I knew what to expect.

Back in Saint-Pons-de-Thomières I found the road on towards the next planned stop at the Lac do Laouzas. This was another HEP dam at one end of a large valley, but it was raining too hard to get the camera out.

After a soggy look at the map, I decided not to carry on the planned route along the Michelin-suggested scenic routes, but to cut north to Moulin Mage (just because of the name) then head homeward from there.  

All in all, not a bad day out. 240 miles in about 8 hours or so.

Time to plan the next trip...bring on the snow!

Shopping for Christmas

As uncle I do feel duty-bound to ensure that any gifts I give shall be selected as follows.

There are four criteria to be considered:

A/ How much mess can we make?

B/ How much noise can we make?

C/ What bad habits might this give?

D/ Is it safe?

Each criteria is allocated a score between one and five, using the following guidelines:

"Messiness"

1 =   Mother Would Approve

2 =   Better clear up before Mum sees it

3 =   Look out, Dad's coming

4 =   You're going to need to redecorate

5 =   You're going to need to move

"Noisiness"

1 =   Seen and Not Heard

2 =   Batteries removed before lunchtime

3 =   Batteries removed before teatime

4 =   Neighbours knocking on walls

5 =   Police knocking on door

"Bad habits"

1 =   Mother Would Approve

2 =   Dad would agree this is educational, but let's not mention it to mum

3 =   The doghouse has room for two

4 =   Look, kid, keep in touch via email

5 =   Sorry officer, he's not mine

"Safety"

1     Mother Would Approve

2     It's only a bump

3     Better have a plaster handy

4     One day you'll look back at this and laugh

5     Well, you always wanted a ride in something with blue flashy lights

Once each category has been scored, add these three values to get the final "Annoyance Score". 

Anything over 6 is looking good to me.

Comments

I realised my comment settings may have been a little over enthusiastic - let's see how this works.

Eurotour 2012 - Part One - Back to Blighty.

Finally, I've found a bit of time to update the blog with some stories from my recent trip around various parts of Europe.

I spent three weeks riding a loop around western Europe, taking in 6 countries over 2,800 miles.

The first stretch was up through France, pretty much due north from Toulouse up to Cherbourg for the high speed ferry to Poole.  Whilst this looked feasible in one day, it was going to be a long day's ride, and I fancied being able to see something other than Autoroutes and so broke the trip up with a couple of overnight stops on the way.

Google maps of the route link.

Day one covered Toulouse up to B on the map, and was mostly Autoroutes unfortunately as I left a little later than planned.

The first stop, at "B" was a great little B&B "The Loire Affair" (link). The owners had family staying that weekend, so the B&B wasn't available - however the kindly let me use the gite for no additional cost.

The satnav had a little fun finding the place, however, and I ended up in the 'wrong' farmyard. Luckily the owner knew where I was aiming for, and despite a bit of a language barrier gave me directions to cut across a couple of farm tracks (with a warning to mind out for her husband and his tractor).  Farm track, my arse.  It was a couple of miles across a field and a dirt track - luckily Beaky was up for it, and everything was dry so the road tyres coped!

The gite itself was great, and would make a nice little get away in the country.

Saturday morning and I was off early for the next leg.  A little more relaxed as less of the journey was on autoroutes, but I did want to make sure I stopped at Le Mans since I was so close.

My satnav took me right into the centre of the town of Le Mans, and whilst I wanted to have a look around I needed to be sure I had time for the racing circuit, so headed back out towards the track. 

There is a museum of the 24hr race here at the entrance to the circuit, and well worth a visit.

I think the Aston Martin had to be my favourite, if not the mini.

For a few Euros I could buy a track pass that allowed me to walk around the stands - alas the track itself was closed as a Porsche group had it booked (and yes, had I been able to I would have taken a fully-laden GS around!). It was getting pretty hot in the sun, and I didn't really fancy walking too far just to see empty stands, so returned to the museum.

A souvenir sticker for Beaky was a must, then whilst I grabbed a cup of coffee in the little cafe and looked at the leaflet on the circuit I realised something interesting...most of the 24hr race is on the public roads around the track...

I finished up my coffee, suited up and pointed Beaky in the direction of the road section. The first section that is on public roads is a looooong straight, broken up by two chicanes (*not* open to the public...). It's strange to see all the armco and race fittings around on what is otherwise a normal road. At the first corner I came to (Virage du Mulsanne) the real road goes up to a roundabout, with the track braking off just before to cut the corner off. Following the track on through the forest I came up to lots of painted signs and sandtraps showing the track taking a sharp right....luckily I spotted the small "stop" sign that I had to obey as I was turning right onto a different road!

After a few hundread metres the track peels off into the circuit area, and I followed the road back to the museum, before bouncing up onto the pavement for a cheeky photo op of Beaky in front of the circuit entrance.

I then decided to go around again...and get some photos this time!

Enough playing...time to head into town and look around.  Some lovely old buildings in the centre.

See that little window...the fellow below was in there.

I left Le Mans and headed onward, stopping for a quick detour into Felaise when I saw who once lived there - William the Conqueror. Alas no time to visit properly, so maybe next time.

The stop for the night was at Le Clos Castel near Raids (link). Again, very friendly owners, Steve spent several hours chatting to me over a few beers telling me of the WW2 events in the area which included the farm itself being heavily shelled.

Sunday morning, and off to the late-morning ferry.  A nice relaxed hour up to Cherbourg, with more and more UK registration plates on cars along the way as I got closer.

The sneaksy bikeses get loaded on first into special frames on the floor that stop everything sliding around once at sea, and with Beaky safely stored I found a seat, bought a newspaper and a coffee and settled in for the crossing. 

Once in Poole, it was a quick passport check then straight onto the 'right' side of the road (not the wrong side...) and a blast through the Dorset countryside via Dorchester to get home to Mum's.  Not bad for the first 750-odd miles.

More later :)

Song of the Day: Mysterious Times, by Sash.

"Mysterious Times"

Life
Mysterious life
Where we're moving around, dancing the rhythm of life.

Time
Mysterious time
Where we're counting the hours and days to the end of our time.

And we're feeling the change and we don't know why
Choose one direction just one more time
Don't say I'm thinking too much if you see what's behind.

[Chorus]
And these are Mysterious Times
Mysterious Times
No trick of the mind
For this moment I feel like we live in Mysterious Times.
If you see what's behind, these are Mysterious Times.

Soul
I feel my soul
For this moment nobody can stop me from flying so high.

Real
Nothing is real
In a world of illusion you only see what you feel.

And we're feeling the change and we don't know why
Choose one direction just one more time
Don't say I'm thinking too much if you see what's behind.

[Chorus]
If you see what's behind, these are Mysterious Times.

The Plucky Little Bike

It's been a while, but Emano asked for a photo of the Little Bike that featured in a previous post - so here you are.

The plucky Little Bike (a Honda CBF125) was replaced by Beaky the G650GS in May 2011.  Then, in February this year I upgraded again to Big Beaky (also known as Beaky), a larger F800GS. Big Beaky is a bit of an attention seeker, and keeps getting into the scenic shots.

Oh, and a friend of mine from work is to blame for the Beaky name...something to do with the front mudguard :)

Still here!

Okay, so it has been a while since I used the blog, but since I have moved to France I thought it would be worth inflicting (I mean, sharing) my ramblings with people.  It's likely the new posts will concentrate on my various travels, but I'll try and include the occasional gaming story and perhaps the odd update on Archie's whereabouts (you never know).  Also expect a run of "lessons for France" as I settle into life down here in Toulouse.

I've decided to leave the blog right here. I took a look at alternatives, then when I came back in here and saw the new interface I realised this works well - especially as I use Picasa (i.e. Google) for my photo sharing, and blogger has a dead-easy way of adding them.  Don't worry, this won't turn into a slide show - I'll just add one photo from my trips, with a link to the album on the off chance that anyone is interested.

So, kick back, relax, and go back to doing whatever you were doing.

Part bike, part goat. All Beaky.

The route took me down past Foix (although I didn't stop!) but instead of turning south east toward Andorra, I forked right and southwest toward a little village called Olbier.

The satnav gave me a bit of trouble, as for some reason it deleted Olbier and the next stop at the lake from my route, and started on towards the mountain passes quietly ignoring the road sign that proclaimed the pass was closed.  Luckily I spotted what it had done before going too far past my turn.

As I headed back to Olbier I was flagged down by a couple of bikers heading for the mountains. They had spotted the sign, and assumed (because I was heading from that direction) that I would know if this was true.  I didn't have a clue, of course, but it turned out they were two Airbus employees from Toulouse...small world! I explained I hadn't come over the pass, but would be going back that way later, so could only suggest they apply my plan...try it and see.  They too were just out for a ride and not too bothered which road they ended up on - since I later found the pass to be open, I assume they had an enjoyable day out as well (although the chap's sports bike was going to be a handful on some bends!)

Anyway, back to Olbier - a tiny village that was mentioned in Lonely Planet as having a ruined Templar chateaux, and since I was in the area thought I would take a look.  It's ruined alright...if you think how the castle on the edge of the cliff at Penne looked, this outcrop of rock was even smaller.  Alas I couldn't find an open gate, so assume the chateau is off limits, but to be honest it didn't look like much was left to see in  any case!

Auzat is an quaint little village that is the scene of the invention of cricket.  Well, perhaps not.  But it should be with that name.

Next on the list was a lake that I had spotted on the map to the south.  No reason to visit other than it was at the end of the road (in fact, it was past the end of the road according to my satnav, but Google Streetview showed the road went as far as the lake!). It turned out the lake was man-made, with a large dam to the north that the road climbs up to at 1,500m. There was still a lot of snow on the peaks around, draining down into reservoir via dozens of little (and not so little) waterfalls and streams.

From the reservoir, I went back down the twisty track to Auzat, then turned left to follow the mountains.

The road headed up into the mountains on some great twisty roads - some barely had anything marking the edge of the road in places.  I stopped at a little cafe in the middle of nowhere that I can only assume caters for the hanggliding / parascending enthusiasts - just before this was a peak called "Free Flight View" or something. Lovely spot, with a little lake - reminded me very much of Dartmoor in terms of the scrub land. The only difference was the ring of mountains around it!

Heading on up the mountain from here, I found the pass that had been discussed earlier.  Very much open on the approach side, despite the signs.  Several nutcase cyclists on the road - nutcase as they were cycling up a bloody mountain!  All very friendly, and would wave as I passed.

Going down the other side of the pass was more of the same to the next town.  This gave me two options - a clear route back to the north, or my intended route over a second pass that was also marked as closed according to the bloody sign posting.  I figured I would chance it - I can turn the bike around in the road unlike a car, and the sign for the first peak was obviously wrong.

The climb up to this pass was even more scenic than the previous ones, and the views from the pass itself was simple stunning - entirely surrounded my mountain peaks, most with snow on!

Whilst I was stopped here, several cyclists were about one of which has a GS himself (I think he was saying the GS was better for the legs than the bicycle, if not for his fitness!)

From here it was another descent back down into more little villages, before heading out of the valley back to Toulouse.

What I did notice in the area was a very different architecture to what is around Toulouse.  The buildings were more grey, not surprising since the local rock was that colour, but they were more of an alpine look with steep roofs and small windows - which again makes sense given the snow fall they get!

Not a bad run for nearly nine hours, even if I did forget to grab my waterbottle from the fridge.  Still, plenty of little shops open.  I think my biggest complaint is the seat on the bike...it really starts to be uncomfortable!