Wandering along Watery Bottom

After two days of continuous rain, Sunday morning presented a sunny disposition, so we decided to take our lovely French friend Sylvie for coffee in the Cotswolds.  Boots on, we strolled up Cleeve Hill ...... 

.....and descended down into Watery Bottom, a narrow ravine dropping down  to the The Washpool – a sheep dip built in 1897, and an enigmatic relic of the sheep farming industry once dominant in the Cotswolds.

Trangia boiling merrily, we sat on the hillside watching the mountain bikers contemplate the steep descent down into the valley. To a man they adopted caution and contoured down the gentle sheep trails instead. Shame - I wanted a Youtube clip!

Coffee made, the Chocolate Brownies eaten and back to the car - another mini adventure.

 

 

It's not a good look but .......

So, out on the road yesterday for the first time in a good while, sporting my Mo Bro moustache. November is the month were fellows across the globe sport interesting facial growth in the aid of Movember and Sons. The official reasoning goes like this..

OVERVIEW OF MOVEMBER

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

There's more to be found on the excellent website .. http://uk.movember.com/?home

This is mine. It's uncomfortable and I don't like it. Strictly speaking, it's not following the rules either, but as a member of a Common Room with plenty of active participants - I didn't want to feel 'left out'. All I need now is a Tweed Suit to wear for the last week! 

The tache was of no help ascending Cleeve Hill mind. The climb to the 'Col de Cleeve' is a regular feature in the Cotswoldcyclist retinue. As a fitness marker, three minutes off the pace is a poor performance. Considering the PB is 9 minutes 59 seconds, it's a bit of a climbdown. On a positive note, it was blowy, fresh and fun.

When graffiti works!

Ok. I live in a school, and as a consequence, all my IT activities take place behind a Firewall of the most prudent kind. Blogging has been frustrating, as all attempts at photography and design has been thwarted. However ........ all now seems to be working! Hurrah!  But we shall see .............

In the meantime .. here's a photograph taken on an old railway bridge, now part of the Honeybourne Path, a pleasant meander through Cheltenham along a converted railway line. A perfect example of the right kind of graffiti, complemented by nature itself.

A first attempt to load a photograph

 

Cotswoldcyclist Steve and Beautiful Wife Jo on the Coast 2 Coast

Enforced downtime!

Well .... it's not been the most classic cycling period of my life of late. Here's a bullet point summary.

• A viral infection of the most sinister and secretive kind. I've had antibiotics chasing it around all over the place - it eluded two doses. As a consequence cycling was a minimalist activity over the summer, much missed.
• That said - it did give me plenty of time to enjoy a fabulous summer of sport, starting with Bradley at the Tour and continuing with the Olympics.
• Autumn has now arrived and I'm tentatively back on the turbo, seeing how it goes and biding my time before heading out on the road again.
• I've fallen madly in love with Echinacea and sleep!
• My brother in law has kicked my butt in the annual mileage competition by a country mile!

Of course a lot more has happened in the meantime and I have enjoyed my cycling vicariously through magazines, books, the TV and Twitter. However, it's now time to pick up where I left off.

The Exmoor Beauty .......... just another Beast

So ........the Exmoor Beauty, a newer, more relaxed kind of cycle event. Enough of the gut wrenching, spirit sapping, masochism of the burgeoning cyclosportive, characterised by the Exmoor Beast. A return to the era of 'a nice cycle out on the beautiful British countryside with mates'. Or so the preride blurb suggested,
Well ........this was no 'Beauty' that I was riding.  And neither were those swearing, panting, grinding, fellow cyclists suffering all around me. This was the Bonkers Beauty, the Hailstorm Beauty, the 22% gradient beauty, a beauty that was so puncture ridden that I had to give a fellow Beautician a spare inner tube and a loan of my pump after he suffered his third deflation. This ride was puncture carnage! Riders crouched behind bushes and hidden in secret countryhome driveways, ashamed that they'd spent too little, and weren't running bombproof Continental GP 4000's. Learn a lesson cheapskates!
So ..... the Exmoor 'Spring' Beast then. £27 spent to be out in the wet, wind and hailstones. Bizarrely. and despite all, a really great day out on the bike and one of a pair of annual 'must do' events - the 'autumnal' Exmoor Beast and Exmoor 'Spring' Beast. 'Nice cycles out in the countrside with mates?' The moor the merrier!

 

A close encounter with a Buzzard.

Out in the hills yesterday and I was amazed by the amount of road kill on the tarmac. A Buzzard! How did he go down? And what a mess! Then a pheasant, followed by a squirrel. Poor fellow buzzard was clearly being attended to by some carrion predator, so I stopped just around the corner to view the return of the lazy feeders. After thirty seconds I couldn't be bothered so rode on, musing on a galleried photographic exhibition of Road Kill Portraits. Why? Because all the heads of the poor victims were completely intact and really quite beautiful - as if they were sleeping. And how often do you get to see a Buzzard close up? Watch this space.