Part one of a week spent exploring the tracks and trails of Dumfries & Galloway in the company of friends.
Cycle Touring Archive
A couple of days of Dorset
I recently caught up with @whileoutriding for a couple of days/nights exploring the trails of southern Dorset on two wheels with an emphasis on great pub and cafe stops, and a good opportunity to do some more bag testing. It’s a part of the world in which I’d not done any riding at all despite it being not much more than ‘just up the road’ (about 4hrs drive). A good time was had. The area seems …
Three Moors
A super bikepacking weekender / mini-adventure from Minehead home to Cornwall, via Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.
Local Trails
I find that when I have a difficult coding problem inspiration often comes from entirely unrelated activities… I’m in a cafe on the plaza in Arequipa this morning writing code which is of course why I’m playing with pictures and scribbling a quick blog post. Well, that is my excuse for now. It is almost lunch time too. I’ve been in Arequipa almost a month now, not quite sure where the time has gone but …
Anything But
I have homework, as well as some proper work – you know that stuff that earns £, to do this afternoon so of course I am doing anything but. Hence this post and only because I have a couple of pictures kicking around that may, or may not look pretty. I am still in Arequipa. Chest bug is improving, albeit slowly, but happily the Spanish classes have been brilliant. I’m having my grammar issues sorted out …
Village Life
… following on from yesterday’s post I stopped for a couple of days in the small town of Santo Tomas. I found it quite an interesting place, it had a bit of a Wild West feel.. something to do with the artfully crumbly buildings, and the hats. Situated in a valley at 3660m (12,010ft) the climate felt pretty nice, and sufficiently benign to support some proper tree growth. The first proper trees I’d seen for a …
On from Espinar
It’s been a while so I think I will split this into two posts… one today and one tomorrow. When I last wrote I was in Espinar and planning a slightly easier route for a while in the hope that it would help me get rid of the lingering chest bug… but there was still the matter of a 4700m pass to get over in order to get away from Espinar and find that mellower …
Dia de la Bandera – A Photo Essay
Street photography from Dia de la Bandera (Flag Day) in the town of Espinar, high in the Andes of southern Peru.
Onwards and Upwards…
.. at last. I was able to leave Chivay after just over 2 weeks of convalescence so to speak. Still not 100% and with a persistent chesty cough I decided I was going anyway. I did however take it easy on the first day, just cruising gently back up the valley of the Rio Colca, back to Sibayo at just under 4000m and 36km away. As I cruised slowly up the valley I met an …
Onwards… perhaps
Hopefully this will be my last post from Chivay. It has been two weeks and I feel at something of a crossroads. Yesterday I went for a short spin up the valley on my unloaded bike, just to see how I was… I was OK, but not brilliant. My chest is still bit tight and I have periods of feeling really tired and weak. Whatever that infection was it really screwed me over. Morale is …
A little bit more Chivay
One is still in Chivay. It’s been a week now. The last couple of days I have been navigating the apparent chaos of the Peruvian rural healthcare system, and, having found my way around it I’ve been really happy despite ending up with a large, and somewhat painful needle in my arm… not to mention being told I must not eat any cuy (guinea pig) for the next few days…..! Now, I’m generally shy of …
Chivay
… not unexpectedly, some street photography from Chivay. It’s a lovely little town and so far being forced to stick around hasn’t been a chore, rather the opposite.. although I am having periods of low morale as the days tick by and I still feel weak and chesty… But as always when I spend a bit of time in a place the place seems to make time for me. There are some friendly folk around, …
Arriba…
It was a bit of a late start leaving Arequipa… one last leisurely coffee then a chase around the steep suburbs above the city in search of a ferreteria selling stove fuel (‘ron de quemar’.. essentially ‘rum to burn’ – otherwise known as meths.. at least in the UK), by which time it was lunchtime and made sense to enjoy a set lunch from the cafe adjacent to the ferreteria. It’s a steep climb out …
Arequipa… part 2
We delayed departure from Arequipa by a day to spend a little more time exploring what is a rather wonderful town. There are a ton of riding photos and stories from the road to come tomorrow, I have my feet up in Chivay today, but this set I think are best kept separate from those… so without further ado….. oh no, wait… before that – a couple of recommendations in particular if you’re heading this …
via Arequipa
Hitting the road tomorrow so now seemed like a good opportunity to sling up a quick post with some pics. In Arequipa at present in the south. I had thought I might go north to begin with but the wet season seems to be lingering much longer up that way (it’s an el Niño year)… and purely by chance an old riding friend happened to be flying into Peru from New Mexico earlier this week …