Minirolls Musings

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.

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.

Yamaha Offroad Experience ’21

I had forgotten how much I like the smell of two-stroke, pine forest and sweat.

The chap in front had brought his own bike which was just singing along. We blasted along the fire roads and every now and again he would give it a cheeky squeeze sending gravel shooting back at me. It wasn’t a race, we were heading to the next area of technical trail to tackle, so I just hung back and enjoyed the view, the smell and the experience of handling such a wonderful machine.

Admiral Rodney’s Pillar

We rose slowly, enjoying the last of the “best room” hotel luxury. We also made the most of the large welsh breakfast which was amazing – all the food had been amazing actually.

It had been a mixed holiday but definitely improved through the week. It was time to head home and while we were feeling tired, we also wanted to go for a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery some more.

The Gap

Today we tackled “The Gap” mountain biking route through the Brecon Beacons. It was definitely type 2 fun* my butt bones have never hurt so bad by the end of the day. But it was all worth it for the long descent after.

Date Night

We had had enough and we left.

I packed up the van with all our stuff and retrieved all my cooking gear from the kitchen (we hadn’t trusted the supplied utensils). Left it in better condition that we found it, and rolled out in search of some holiday for our holiday.

Working In Wales

Now we were established in the wonky welsh house, it was time to do some work. This is the first experimental excursion, for Aimi, where she is “working from home”, away from home.

Bike Park Wales

This is what we are here for, sitting in a sweaty transit grinding up a forest road to the top of a soggy welsh hill listening to Guns N Roses and choosing our next mountain bike route.

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!

Whoop Prep

Covid has pretty much killed off all social groups, including the BTW (Birmingham Tiny Whoopers). We were only loosely a micro drone club to begin with, focussing more on the quirky beer and flabber-gobbing about the world, but we did get some flying in. We even put on an AWESOME race event at (RIP) Kongs Birmingham. This brought me to the fringes of the organised Whoopers who engage on a country wide level to put on events and races.