Moved the old bike section over from my previous and now nearly defunct webspace. Find it here. Alternately I now have another little website dedicated to that sort of thing, find it here

Writing this post on the channel ferry – we’re off to France for our summer holiday. More to follow…

Back in Lemmo now after our five weeks away. Will try and sum up the trip since leaving Perth.

Our three week stay in Western Australia saw us drive our dull Mitsubishi hire car around 3000 miles.

Day 1. After leaving Perth we headed north via the Pinnacles National Park to Karballi

Day 2. Spent the morning looking round Karballi NP (pretty stunning) and then back on the road for a few hundred km north to Monkey Mia. The
journey was broken up by a detour to Hamelin Pools. The pools contain some really old bacteria or something. Thrilling. The afternoon was spent on the beach at Monkey Mia.

Day 3. Up early to see the Monkey Mia dolphins. Then left for Coral Bay. Arrive Coral Bay late afternoon, hit the beach for some snorkelling.

Day 4. Leisure time in Coral Bay.

Day 5. North to Exmouth. Stayed in a motel on the Naval Base. Headed out for an afternoon of snorkelling in the Cape Range NP. Saw all sorts including a few sharks. Managed to get bitten by a fish. Fortunately not a shark so all was well.

Day 6. More exploration of the Cape Range NP.

Day 7. Back to Coral Bay for the afternoon.

Day 8. Up early. Drive 1000 miles down to Denmark on the South Coast. Quite a long day all told.

Day 9. Kick back in Denmark. Quite a welcome change from the harsh environment in the more northern regions visited.

Day 10. Leave Denmark via the Giant Tree National Park and it’s elevated walkways onto Margaret River to celebrate our 11th (!) Anniversary.

Day 11. Afternoon vineyard tour. Plenty of wine. Happy days.

Day 12. Up early for the final drive back to Perth. On the way visit a lighthouse and a long pier in Busselton. Arrive back to Northbridge late.

Day 13. Early start to return the hire car and get our flight back to Sydney. Arrive Sydney early evening, straight in to the town where Elizabeth has booked a Rockefeller apartment. Head out for a fine meal in a panoramic restaurant. Back to the penthouse apartment for more vino and fine conversation.

Day 14. Up late. Taxi to the airport. Hop on the flight back to HK. Arrive HK late, straight into the city. Met Gillian, Sean and co for another fine night in Lan Kwai Fong.

Day 15. Up too early. Taxi to airport. Flight to Frankfurt then back to Birmingham. Home.

That about sums up the rest of the trip. Watch this space for more pictures as they are sorted out.

Following a few days in Sydney the next stage of our trip saw us fly the width of Australia to Perth, WA. Of all the Australian states WA is the only one we did not visit on our previous trip some 7 years ago. First impressions of Perth are quite favourable although it is pretty hot.

Hope you had a good new year’s eve wherever it was spend.

Our new year’s eve was spent on a ship in Sydney Harbour – it certainly was a fine way to see in 2008.

Next stop on our travels is Sydney. Currently staying with Elizabeth in Newport, one of Sydney’s northern beach towns.

Already enjoyed a fine hot Christmas Day on the beach. Looking forward to new year on sydney harbour.

First stop on our 5 week travels / holiday sees us in Hong Kong.

Click the above image to see the photo album.

Seen and done plenty already. Big thanks to Gill and Sean (Suzanne’s cousin and husband) for sorting us out with somewhere to stay.

Next stop Sydney for Chrsitmas Eve.

On Sunday Susie celebrated the monumentous occasion that was her 30th birthday. In order to help her celebrate we organised a party at ‘Bubbles’ bar in Leamington Spa on Saturday night.

Susie and Uni friends celebrating

The turnout was excellent and the buffet was ravaged. A good time was had by all I hope, a few pictures can be found here.

Sunday was considerably calmer. The morning was spent packing various guests off with bags of buffet food. The afternoon was taken up with unwrapping an enormous pile of gifts. In the evening we ate out at the Thai Elephant which was as top notch as ever.

There are fewer happier events in our household* than when I finish building a new bicycle. This one is a Specialized S-Works E5 Road. It’s light (at a shade over 18 lbs), fast and as a bonus doesn’t try to throw me off like the old Trek OCLV used to.

* I speak only for myself

Yesterday (Sunday 10th April) saw Geoffrey and I take part in the 21st edition of the “Hell Of the North Cotswolds”. For the uninitiated the HONC is a 100 km reliability ride around the road and trails of the Cotswolds, starting from the town of Winchcombe (about 10 miles from ‘nam). This was (about) the tenth time I’ve ridden this event and was the first time all 1000 places were filled ahead of time.

We managed to set a record of our own this year by only starting 20 minutes late. This unfortunately meant the first 10 or so miles were spent riding (and waiting) behind slower riders. Once the trails cleared a bit we made fairly steady progress round, the only problems being my lack of fitness and one puncture. After almost six hours riding we arrived back in Winchcombe tired (me especially) but glad to have made it round. This years statistics are as follows

Total distance covered : 65.90 miles
Total time : 5 hours 52 minutes
Average speed : 11.2 mph (how weak is that?)
Number of wrong turns : Four
Number of wrong turns which involved riding up steep hills needlessly : Two
Amount of food grubbed : 20 fig rolls, 3 chocolate bars, 2 cakes, 2 bananas, 2 cereal bars and one jam sandwich.

This year’s route was billed as being one of the hardest ever with lots of new trails being included. It was definitely a good route but much of it seemed to be tracks included in previous years ridden in reverse. Still, the last 10 miles was good, the descent of Waterhatch being a much better finish than the energy sapping grassy trails on Cleeve Hill.
Bring on next year.