Minirolls Musings

Scoping Out Scotland

Through no fault of my own, I find myself without employment over this Christmas and into January. But I’m also waiting to start work, so I’m in a weird limbo state where I can’t really commit to a new project, but also want to do something so I don’t feel useless.

Looking on the bright side, this situation has arisen perfectly in line with the BIRD2023 event I’m running for the Tiny Whoopers! This year is going to be even bigger and better than ever, with a new venue, special guests and lots of pilots from other countries making it really special. I’ll be writing about that event later, but what else do you do when you don’t have any pressing engagements – go on a little trip!

Midges and Mountains

Rise and shine
Milk that tastes like wine

Drive over to Glen Coe
Up Nevis Range we go

To look at Top Chief track
Now there’s no looking back

Over rocks and holes
To reach our MTB goals

Dyfi Bike Park

After a hard days ride uphill yesterday, today we were going to Dyfi bike park and getting an uplift. This is where you pay a chap to drive you and your mates up the hill in the back of a Landover, with the bikes in a trailer. You then spend 20 mins coming down the hill, back to the start, where you catch another Landy to the top again, rinse and repeat. So much easier than pedaling to the top, and before you say it’s cheating, I did enough uphill pedaling yesterday not to feel even slightly guilty about it!

Snowdon Struggle

Well that was equal parts exhilarating and exhausting!

It’s funny how the human mind has the capacity to ignore, and even forget, the suffering of the human body, when the suffering is in pursuit of a goal. For us, it was the summit of Snowdon. This was not the end goal, but actually the start of the reason we had travelled here; to descend on mountain bikes.

Snowdon Preparation

Oh god what have I agreed to…

Steve has been pushing me to come mountain bike down Snowdon for a while and finally I had relented.

You Spin Me Right Round

One of the major costs in converting the van has turned out to be getting seat swivel bases. These have to be very strong components to hold the weight of the passenger and seat, not only during normal driving, but also so they don’t move in crashes. Last thing you need in a crash is your seat becoming detached and throwing you around the cab.

Home Sweet Home

We had spent the night in a Brecon car park with a Victorian river garden adjacent. We walked the promenade and around the quaint village and enjoyed a rare, warm and dry evening in Wales. Just because we were in a van in a carpark doesn’t mean it was all stodgy pasta and plasticky water. Oh no no!

Twisted Comfort

I know transit vans are not luxury vehicles, they are purposely built for lugging. Tools, TV’s, machinery, pipes, sand, builders, parcels, bikes. You name it and I’m sure there is a transit out there that has lugged it, or is even lugging it right now! I’m no different, I’m using the transit to lug all the things that make up my campervan, along with my lazy ass.

And, you’d be forgiven for thinking that for a vehicle with a primary purpose of lugging, it would be able to do this day in, day out, better than any other…. Right? And yes, the vehicle is happy to go as long as you need it to. But, as with most other technology, it is let down by the soft, sweaty, organic bit behind the wheel. I guarantee, your mechanical lugger can go all day, but your ass can’t.

No Lunch Lazy

We woke with a triangular view out into the fields beyond our quirky AirBnb. The bed was on a raised sleeping platform in the eves. This allowed us a view directly out the window opposite where some huge horses were starting the days graze. From here we could look over the edge, past the beams, and down into the minimal living space.

Castle Cache Splash

Today we were solid tourists, with a bit of nerdy-ness thrown in.