Wednesday 31 May 2017

Nepal again, more video

Those of you that commented on the video of the road back into Kathmandu seemed to enjoy it albeit in a scary way so here is just under 30 minutes to give you some idea of how the "roads" were

Enjoy and try not to have nightmares

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Ireland

Barely got my breath back from the return from Nepal and we were off to Ireland for the "Norton" meet at the Beara peninsula in the deep South West. I opted for the T3 in the hope of hassle free riding, that proved half right! Alex and I left on Wednesday, good run to Cairnryan and a good boat trip to Belfast, we stayed the night with our friend Bernadette in Newry. Her sister and brother in law were also there and a grand night was had by all with genuine Irish hospitality to the fore. Thursday we set off and headed across country avoiding main roads where possible and ended up just South of Limerick in Adare which is a pretty tourist town. Friday we ran down to Kilmackilogue and our place of stay for the weekend. Normally we have a run over the Healey pass on the Saturday but there were 3000 cyclists with that idea. Fiona had to work so flew to Dublin and hired a car arriving at Kilmac at 1am, the bar as always was still open! We had a run into Kenmare on Saturday and enjoyed chilling out having lunch and watching some "queer shapit" folk finishing the cycle race. A great weekend organised by Martin Connachy, great to see everyone again and full marks to John Martin for making the trip over from Texas. Much drinking and hilarity all weekend and Sunday sad to leave to head for Dublin, we took the main road with Fi following in the hire car, my perfect running Guzzi on Friday had turned all temperamental and Italian on me on Sunday so I was glad to get into Dublin without incident. Sunday night and Dublin was still buzzing, a few pints in the Temple area and then we were joined by an old racing pal of mines Richie Gavin who stays in Dublin, we hadn't seen each other since the early 90's when we were both aspiring Isle of Man competitors, plenty craic and great to see Richie again. Fi left for her flight on Monday whilst Alex and I rode back to Belfast in heavy rain, the rain followed us but did let up for the last 25 miles, I arrived home wt, cold but happy to have made it without mechanical incident, good company, good craic, what more can you ask for?
Guzzi still clean
Tony, Bernies brother in law try's Alex's bike for size
Lunch stop, warm & Sunny
Lunch stop Friday, still warm but not so sunny. Bert will be interested in the truck!
Leaden Sky's
But Martin is cheery enough
Saturday sun
Our home for the weekend
Nice spot
Pretty
Men in Lycra. Not so pretty
Fi meets Minnie and Micky
Kenmare
Kenmare
Cool fishing boat
Tasty Escorts were at the hotel when we got back
Luke on his Condor V twin
Unusual
A brace of Nortons, old and new
Hugh enjoying a beer and a moan no doubt
Guiness and food, braw
Luke on good form
Nice part of the world
Classic road racer Mark Connoly with one of his sons
Helen, our host for the weekend
Fi try's the Vinnie for size
Fi Martin and Andrea pose with the Vincent
Dublin so it has to be a pub
Alex and Fi at the bar
Then we went here
With Richie, we were both a bit thinner and had blacker hair the last time we met!
Dublin by twilight

Tuesday 23 May 2017

The ride into Khathmandu

I do intend doing a video of the trip however that'll take a while and since i may have the attention of the good people who look at my drivel I thought i'd post 16 minutes of Footage from the run into the City last Friday. For the full effect watch it next to a sewage works and a bus stop with an old bus spewing fumes and see if you can generate some dust as well.
Now ask yourself "is my commute really that bad?"

Monday 22 May 2017

GoPro shots from a hard day

Now back home and time to reflect. these stills I lifted from some gopro footage, all taken from the Marpha - Muktinath-Marpha Tatopani day, its hard to convey but these give an idea I think of the conditions and what we did that day.
Always water
Ropey bridge
Gravel!!!
Fi waits her turn to do the suspension bridge
Local holds her up
Not a great feeling
Nearly there
Good gravel
Climbing up to 3700M
Stunning but hard
Slippy down
Slippy up
New bridge!!!!
Rocky in parts
Most parts
Pretty but slippy
Feet down
Feet up
Feet wet
Smooooth
Ok
Ok, the team through the wilderness
Almost a road
Not a road
Catching breath
Landslide
Right said Fred helping Fi
It looked like a bigger drop on the day (but still fatal if we'd been pushed over!)
Waiting
Through
Heading South and down
Acting the goat
Roads acting the goat
Bum crunching
Slowly slowly
Cows always there
Slippy
But nice
Waiting for the Army to pass
And another bridge
Almost worth it!