ride-tribe are home
Well, we're back in one peice from the great ride-tribe road trip, and are even more pelased to say that so is our car! We had a great time out on the road and caught up with some old friends, and making a good few new ones too.
We started our trip with some fine sunny days driving up through Spain and France. We got to Dunkerque for the ferry and the rain started... and that was pretty much it for the next fortnight!
Our first appointment in the UK was the Endura Sleepless in the Saddle 24hr event at Catton Park. It was such an epic that it gets a page all to itself!
Next stop was Aviemore, for Karl to dot the i's and cross the t's on his SMBLA Mountain Bike Leader assessment. That was duly chalked off with the help of the one and only Jules Fincham of Cycle Wild Scotland. Faaaaaantastic!
However, things didn't got entirely according to plan, as it was during his assessment that Karl had his now fabled midge-mauling. Whilst stoically fixing a split tyre he came under full scale attack, stuck in no-mans-land as his fellow examinees (and examiner!) ran for cover. Two days and a very swollen leg later it was off to the emergency docs. Oops...
Meanwhile, our trip rolled on and it was off to Glentress for Nikki to ride with her old Uni mate Hal. Hal's a bit of a newbie to MTBing, sucked in the sport via his ultra-enthusiastic son. So naturally, we had to ensure some Spooky Wood action shots that would garner Cool-Dad Points from any self-respecting 11-year old!
Mission accomplished it was time to turn the Terrano south and head for home. Several days and campsites later we rolled back into the Alpujarras ready and refreshed for our 2009 season... come visit!
