Coniston - Wildcat island - Autumn sail with Ellie.

I must have some sort of switch in my brain that trips once the leaves start to fall from the trees. For the last two years now I've not sailed in the summer, this is not a conscious decision, things just seem to get in the way. Then once autumn sets in I get this urge to get the boat out and do some exploring. It's maybe not a conscious decision but autumn is a great time to sail, the water is still warm, the colours are awesome and the lakes are quiet so exploring is much more satisfying.

Today we headed to Coniston, Ellie has not sailed here and I had yet to set foot on Peel 'Wildcat' Island. We launched at Brown How car park and set only the jib for the short journey across the lake. The entrance to the 'secret' harbour is tight and with a brisk easterly blowing across the lake I didn't want the hassle of dropping the main sail at the wrong time or being blown onto the rocks.

Entering the harbour was simple with just a few pulls on the oars we were there.

Secret Harbour

It's not surprising why Arthur Ransome used this place in his stories, it is truly magical. Luckily for us the island was empty, it is a very popular spot and gets visitors all year round. For about an hour we had it all to ourselves.

A perfect place to park a boat.

A perfect place to be young, and young again.

Pirates?

After lunch and coffee and an explore we headed out into the lake for a sail. As usual with an easterly the wind was fickle one minute full on, the next we had the oars out!

Ellie practising her rowing.

All in all a great day out....

The Old Man and 1/2 a Mountain Marathon

Sick of getting wet on the bike in this barmy summer weather we're having I've started to do a bit more running.

It started out a few few miles here and there, now I'm going a little further, and higher!

Today Max and I did a run from Dunnerdale.



Max, ready and eager

We set of from the bottom of Walna Scar, the national park weather forecast, which is normally very reliable, was for a nice day 0% chance of rain! Luckily I'm packed a jacket.

Dunnerdale

The sky's were still heavy with cloud when I left home, they looked even more angry as we set of from the car. Climbing up Walna Scar we soon ended up in the cloud and sure enough the rain. We headed over Brown Pike, Buck Pike and then Dow Crag in the damp cloud, dropping down from Dow crag we dropped below the cloud giving good views of Coniston in the distance.




Coniston from the North side of Dow Crag

We soon headed back up into the clouds as we headed for the Old Man (of Coniston).

Climb up to the Old Man from Dow Crag.

Max leaving the summit after causing chaos for 5 mins!

So far we'd covered 3 miles, done 4 summits in about an hour. next we headed North along the ridge to Swirl How, the weather wasn't showing any signs of improving, luckily there is only one path so navigating is pretty simple.

We headed straight over Swirl How and dropped down to Swirl Hawse. Again we dropped below the clouds for more great views.


Stickle Pike in the distance, Wrynose pass road in the lower middle ground, wet side edge in the foreground.

We headed up, again, into the cloud and climbed upto Wetherlam. Heading North off the summit we scrambled down into the Greenburn Valley at the Head of Little Langdale.



Little Langdale.

 

Looking back up the slopes of Wetherlam.

Crossing the wet Greenburn valley floor we headed up again, we'd now covered 8 miles and visited 6 peaks.

Wet side edge is exactly that - wet. grassy and wet but fairly easy to run on after the rocky slopes of Weatherlam. We made short work of the climb back up to Hell Gill Pike and then headed South West to Grey Friar.

 

Finally the cloud had now stared to clear of fantastic views opened up. Hardknott pass with Eskdale in the distance.

 

Hardknott Pass

Looking west to the sea and the Dudden Estuary.




Looking west from Grey Friar

Dow Crag from Grey Friar

And now the crags we'd run over two hours earlier were basking in late afternoon sunshine.

 

Seathwaite Tarn

We headed down from greyfriar to Seathwaite Tarn and then headed along the access track back to Seathwaite bridge where the cars was parked.

 

15 Miles and 5000ft of climbing.

Max and me at the dam on Seathwaite Tarn.

 

Promenade à vélo après

Rule# 43 - Don't be a Jackass

But if you absolutely must be a jackass, be a funny jackass. Always remember, we’re all brothers and sisters on the road.

One crucial part of the 5 days was the evenings spent talking about the days we'd had over a few beers. Only a few beers as hangovers and cycling don't go well together. Except of course the last night where a few more beers were had, well it would be rude not to!

We talked about Gareth's shiny shoes that very nearly didn't see the light of day (they only came out on the last day after he was shamed into using them).

Gareth's new shoes

Mr Serious....not

 We talked about the sheep that could sleep anywhere, even while standing up!

Dead sheep standing.

Procy's Assos pose

 But most of all we talked about how good the riding was

That was awesome!

What?...................Where?.........Which way?

So what was the best?......... In my opinion:
Best climb......Luz Ardiden. Just for the aesthetics
Best descent....... has to be Col du Tentes, its high, no traffic, great tarmac and you can see whats coming for miles.
Hardest climb........Col du Tourmalet, from the East.
Most awesome ride........Col du Soulor to Col d'Aubiqsue.

5 days - 250 miles - 44000ft

Go there, you won't regret a single minute.

Day 5 - Col du Soulor and Col d'Aubisque

Rule# 5 free your mind and your legs will follow.

Your mind is your worst enemy. Do all your thinking before you start riding your bike. Once the pedals start to turn, wrap yourself in the sensations of the ride – the smell of the air, the sound of the tires, the feeling of flight as the bicycle rolls over the road, the steepness of the climb, the scariness of the drop, all things to take your mind off the pain.

If someone had suggested leaving the longest and hardest day until the last day I think we all would have suggested that person was slightly mad....... That person is slightly mad, but for other reasons.

On 2nd June every year the locals take the large metal statue of a cyclist 'Montee du Geant', from its winter home in the valley, back up the mountain and place it onto the Col du Tourmalet for the summer. We had intended to join the group and venture back up the Tourmalet. But as we'd already seen the summit twice it seemed stupid to go back again when there was stuff we hadn't done. So we decided to head out and tackle the Col du Soulor and see how we got on, at 4800ft it would be the lowest col we had done and it was only 25 miles away. So again we headed down the valley that morning. As we got to 'Luz we met the giant and a large group of cyclists heading the other way, for the next 5 miles heading down the valley we were advised by numerous people we were going the wrong way!! How wrong they were!!

'Montee du Geant' heading back to the Col du Tourmalet

At Pierrefitte we'd again been advise by Rob at the hotel of a nice short cut along the back roads, again Rob's advice took us along some great roads that brought us pretty much to the base of the climb up to the col. A fairly easy 2000ft climb later and we were at the summit.

Not sure where we all were!

So was that it? Time to go home?..................No.

We'd talked the night before about carrying on and doing the Col d'Aubisque but as were all tired we'd agreed to just do the Soulor and see what happened. Well we were at the top and in the distance we could see the Aubisque, we could also see what lay between us and it:

The road to the Aubisque.

 

Well the only way to describe it is a 3000ft slab of rock with a road cut into it about 1/3rd of the way up. We headed down from the col a mile or so then started the traverse. The road is an excellent two lane road that winds its way along and through the side of the slab. The only issue is the lack of guard rail, barrier, wall or safety net and the knowledge that if you did stray to close to the edge that certain death was not far away. Oh.... and the fact that as you head out your on the right (wrong) side of the road and cycling next to a big drop.

Heading out

At the other end, note nothing to stop plunge to the valley bottom.

I can safely say its the scariest and at the same time most awesome mile of road I've ever ridden across. After the traverse there's another stiff 1500ft climb to the Col d'Aubisque.

Now those are bikes.

The last hill?

So that was it, we headed back over the traverse to the Col du Soulor. I even plucked up the courage to video some of the return ride, see the video posted before 'day 1'.
After getting back to the col we headed straight back down into the valley. Stopping at the base of the Soulor we had a coke or two and a baguette sandwich each. Now all that was left was the ride back down to Luz and the climb back to the hotel!

It was heating up again in the valley, we got to Luz and opted for some more caffeine in the shape of espresso and coke (a cola). Since we'd descended from the Soulor black clouds had started to form and the sky was looking angry, as we set of from the cafe in Luz it started to rain. Cool refreshing 'Carlsberg' rain (if Carlsberg made rain it would probably be the best rain in the world) this rain was just right. The last climb was so much easier with a cool dose of rain.

So that was it we'd set out to have an easy day and ended up doing our hardest, you can trick your body into doing anything if you take you mind of the pain!

Day 5 - 67 Miles and 12,800ft of climbing

Day 4 - The Col du Tourmalet.

Rule# 10 it never gets easier you just go faster (or further or higher - or all three)

Training and racing is hard. It stays hard. To put it another way, per Greg Henderson: “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”

When the end is the other side of the mountain, short of digging a tunnel, you've got to fight the gorilla!

After two days of climbing back to the hotel we decided a down hill finish was in order. After some more good advice from Rob we agreed on a loop heading out close to Lourdes, finishing on the Col du Tourmalet from the east.

Route = black dotted line

So we set of on our usual 5 mile descent, happy in the thought that we would not have to come back that way, at least not that day.

The route down towards Lourdes was the same route we'd done on day one, we then joined a cycle path that headed further down the valley. Just before we hit the town we headed east into what I can only describe as a typical British dale, short ups and downs, narrow roads, green grass and enclosed roads, just like being at home. Only sunny and dry! After a excellant 10 mile route across country we hit the main road heading East out of Lourdes, luckily it was fairly quiet as we took a right and headed towards Bagneres de Bigorre and started climbing.

What country are we in again?

Pic du Midi, the Tourmalet is just behind.

That's about as busy as it gets

Excellent back roads, they know how to lay tarmac in France.

As we left Bagneres we started looking for somewhere to eat, it wasn't until we got to St Marie-de-Campan, right at the foot of the Tourmalet, that we found a decent spot.

During the Tour de France in 1913, on the slopes of the Col du Tourmale,t Eugène Christophe broke his forks; he then walked for 14km to the village of Saint-Marie-de-Campan where he worked for almost four hours at a blacksmith's repairing the damage. The blacksmith shop is still there.

We found a little cafe, 'we'll just have a small snack' we agreed. A three course meal including trout and pasta for the main course and about an hour later we emerged, stuffed with food. Not sure if it was because we we're hungry after 4 days of riding or just putting of what was about to come! PAIN.

We knew what was about to come........

So all we had to do now was ride to the top of the Tourmalet and freewheel back to the hotel.

There was a distinct split in the team after our stop, one half consisted of those who had managed to digest at least some of the meal, the remainder who were struggling to keep the contents of their stomach where it should be. I believe the battle was lost.............. once or twice.

It was mid afternoon, no wind, mid 30's in the shade, 10 miles and about 4000ft of climbing. I can safely say this was the hardest single climb of our week.

The road just goes up, with hardly any hairpins, its relentless. As the road reaches the ski resort of La mongie it gets steeper and the buildings just seemed to radiate heat from every direction.

Procy in La Mongie, self portrait, 'fighting the gorilla'

Its another hot and steep 3 miles from La Mongie to the summit but at least there are a few hairpins to break the monotony.

Llamas or Alpacas?

The last drag to the summit.

The summit, 2nd time in 4 days.

And that was it we'd fought the gorilla, we were tired but we'd won and the slopes had gained some pasta and trout on the way.

Its all downhill from here. The hotel is 8 miles that way!

Day 4 - 65miles and 8,600ft of very hot climbing.

Day 3 - Circ du Garvarnie and Col d' Tente.

Rule# 85: Descend like a pro.

To put it another way: All descents shall be undertaken at speeds commonly regarded as “ludicrous” or “insane” by those less talented. In addition all corners will be traversed in an outside-inside-outside trajectory, with the outer leg extended and the inner leg canted appropriately (but not too far as to replicate a motorcycle racer, for you are not one), to assist in balance and creation of an appealing aesthetic. Brakes are generally not to be employed, but if absolutely necessary, only just prior to the corner. Also see rule# 64 

Rule# 64:  Cornering confidence increases with time and experience - This pattern continues until it falls sharply and suddenly. (The road and/or the rider and thereafter the confidence)

After a hard day the day before and a few beers the night before. Oh......... and boiler room-gate (I'll explain later). We decided to have an easy day..................only one climb.

Circ de Gavarnie is a natural 'bite' taken out of the side of the Pyrenees. 800m across at the based and 3km accros at the highest point. It has the highest waterfall in Europe.

We set off down our 5 mile descent to Luz....' then took a left and headed up the valley. The road to Gavarnie is deceptively easy being a 2000ft climb over 10 miles.

Circ de Gavarnie from Gavarnie village.

From Gavarnie the road climbs upto Col de Tentes which at 2270mtrs is higher than the Tourmalet. This is an excellent climb from Gavarnie about 3000ft of climbing in 8 miles. At the top the road is barriered of from cars. the tarmac however carries on until the border with Spain.

Bob about 1/2 way

Alan and Gareth at the 'end of the road'

Past the end of the road heading towards the border.

Procy's patent bike stand.

At our highest point (procy's bike used as camera stand)

Now we had the descent to do. There was no traffic, apart from a few half dead sheep, who were to ill looking to do anything apart from lean on each other, and two motor bikes. A great road surface, as there are no trees you can see whats coming from a long way off. So this was the perfect descent to live up to rule# 85 and see how far you could hold your nerve into the corners.

Alan, Procy and Bob are true ambassadors for that rule! I'm still playing with rule# 64 at times.

Rule# 85 to be obeyed.

Day 3: 49 miles and 9200ft of climbing

Oh I nearly forgot - Boiler room-gate. As I'm reminded most of the time when at home, we're not the tidiest of people (boys that is). Living up to this we were given a polite reminder that wet clothing hanging up in the corridors, on the fire extinguishers and in the boiler room were not really the done thing, as there was a perfectly descent drying room for that sort of thing.....its fair to say that from then on the 'cold' drying room became warm and very effective. Never let grown men loose on their own!