Northumberland

Dovehole

As I’ve not been out doing any climbing of sorts for the past wee while, minus a cracking day at Dunkeld Polny Crag with Brian, I organised a cheeky 3 day boulder trip with 5 of the boys to Northumberland. This was their first time down so it fell to me to be the tour guide of the trip, using the campsite in Belford as the base. 

Casual Crag Attire

 

Noble attempt at His Eminence

The first port of call I wanted to check out was Dovehole on the way down the road. We couldn’t find anyone in the farm to ask permission as the guide states so left a note on the car. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay long as we were washed off in torrential rain after just managing a 5+ as a warm up. The crag itself is situated on the hill in a clearing, being a little sandy but with amazing looking rocks and lines. Definitely have to go back at some point! With soaking feet we headed to Back Bowden to the Bat Cave to do Brant (6b+)We tried a few more down by Merlin’s wall though the midges were so bad we retreated… a day of retreat! Not bad to say it was so wet.

A bare foot night in the pub followed, which was good as England were playing so with the Scots in tow was pretty funny with the locals. For once I had the upper hand. To top off the night on the way back I spotted a pair of size 11 boots in the charity shop which I picked up the next morning at a £3 snip! Just a shame I’m a size 8! Still it avoided the trench foot I was getting!!! We spent the Saturday getting sunburnt at Bowden, managing 25 boulder problems in the day. Nothing too special just a few 6’s and the 7a sandy mantle, but some good efforts on His Eminence (7a+) from Jacob and the 6b in the cave we were close to finishing but too drained to get at the end of the day. Sunday was spent at Kyole in the Woods, where I got some new routes including a good 6a+ and 6b+ I’d never done. Brian and Arthur decided to leave an hour before us to head up the road. It’s a shame that when we got back to the cars theirs was still there with them nowhere to be seen. Turns out they’d took the wrong turn and were running around like lunatics trying to find the way out!

Ten under the Ben

This weekend I headed up to Fort William for the no fuss event Ten under the Ben bike race. After last year’s relentless 24hr race as a pair with Nikki we thought we should go solo since it's only half the time. Nikki unfortunately didn't get her solo place but entered in a girl trio, placing well to finish in 3rd.

Somehow I convinced Amy and a few of her friends that it would be a really good idea to come up and support and go walk Ben Nevis in the day whilst I'm on the bike. This proved to be a success with cracking weather on the Ben, however with it being the summer solstice there were supposedly loads of people. On another note after nearly 3 years of not meeting any of my mates she finally met too many of them!

The race started at 09.30 to finish at 19.30 with the extra hour to trail I'm taking it to 20.30. Lining up behind the bagpipe lead out band and then the model t ford I followed Rich to sneak to near the front, thankfully starting ahead most of the 600 people strong pack. This from what I expected and hears about afterwards avoided a fair few crashes, scrapes and mechanicals as soon as the single track was reached.

The course itself was a great 10.5 mile lap, diverted on the first to 9.5 mile to spread folk out. Long fire road uphills and fast technical downhills were the order of the day, including the upper red trail with the big fire road slog. Not my proudest moment getting completely dropped by an 8 year old kid who just flew up it. Didn't see him again! The river crossing seemed to result I. A few pulled brakes and wet feet too!

In the end I decided in lap one to try and get 7 laps in, switching positions constantly on the first 5 with a girl with a bloody elbow Nikki knew. I fuelled up every lap for ten mins but on the 6th I came in for a big feed. I saw her cycle past but didn't have any energy for emotions! In the end she did 9 laps coming 4th in female solo. I did feel for her though as I started looking respectable with the bib shorts under some MTB shorts and a Jersey and top on that. Lap 2 I shed the top and lap 3 the shorts to be in full Lycra the rest as it was so warm! What a treat?! Amy and her friends thought it was funny when they got down off the Ben...though I was laying out in the bibs!

I ended up doing 7 laps (73 miles) in 9 hours 35 mins. I had time for another though I was happy with that as I didn't want to kill myself. Especially since on the last lap my seat bolt sheared off leaving me without the saddle and a protruding pole! Thankfully i was coming near the start so stole another seat of a friend’s bike to finish! Another great No Fuss event which I'll try to do again next year.

Food:

Pack of jelly babies

Jamaica ginger cake

Half warm microwave pasta

Bag of cashew nuts

Spinach

Flapjack x3

7 energy gels