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As we seemed to miss most of the typical summer weather this year and as I am planning trips for next year, would love to hear of weird and wonderful places that have struck a cord with you.
OK, will start with mine, it would be a tiny little place called Porlock Weir in Somerset, as kids we used to stay in one of the three cottages that used to get cut off when the weir was flushed, crab fishing, playing in the 'smugglers cottage' set into the hill, old pill boxes left after the war and swimming on a pebbly beech. Amazing walks to Culbone church, great memories of trying to get up and over Porlock hill on knackered bikes.
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This year (last week in fact) we hired a narrowboat at the Wales end of the Llangollen Canal. The first thing that happened as we left the hire base was crossing the Pontycysyllte aqueduct
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From there on, we raced through the canal at speeds of up to 4mph, parking outside pubs, having few beers and generally good scoff, before returning to the boat, like this
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or the meres outside Ellesmere where we could moor the boat in splendid isolation and chill over looking whichever of the meres the canal runs next to
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Then after a few days watching the world slip by in slow motion we headed into Llanagollen, a lovely town, to catch a trip on a steam train.
Doesn't sound much but was an amazingly refreshing break
Annual trips to www.bikeverbier.com and a few exotic long-haul adventures with and without bikes.
BigButSlimmerBloke - can you cycle along that aqueduct?
That would be quite something if you did not like heights, canal trip looks amazing, somthing I would like to do too.
For me, nothing beats the sun on your back while listening to the whir or the chair lift and the gentle clanging of alpine cow bells.
A week in Turkey, back in May was simply great. Loved it. 🙂
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7226/7227424206_1fa788c743_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/takisawa2/7227424206/ ]Main Pool-4[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/takisawa2/ ]pten2106[/url], on Flickr
But a week goes very quickly... 🙁
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7085/7227415764_9f322ca82d_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/takisawa2/7227415764/ ]Come to take us home[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/takisawa2/ ]pten2106[/url], on Flickr
ski - yes, the surface is good but it's narrow and popular with walkers. It's part of a world heritage site which is 11 miles of canal from the pontcysyllte aqueduct at trevor stretching to the Chirk aqueduct which would be an easy pleasant round trip. As i recall (I wasn't watching the towpath too much) the towpath is all in good condition and easily cyclable on a road bike, although not so sure about the chirk tunnel (421 yads long).
width of the towpath shown here (it's wider off the aqueduct)
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There are also trips across the aqueduct and single day boat hires (c£100/day for a boat that can carry 10 people)
chirk aqueduct
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Ours has to be the trips to Bike Verbier
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30 th birthday, VIP table for sunset at cafe mambo, just me and the good lady. Then loads of times since on our hols with the kids, standouts are sunset at st ninians cave (just the four of us, no one else there), bar b on a deserted beach in port William again at sunset in fact most of that week in scotch land was unforgettable. Canal boat is on the list but only when we've saved up enough!
Barrier Reef swimming over the edge of the coral was like flying over a cliff edge. Then looking down and seeing a manta ray on the bottom.
Made 2 hours of sea sick worthwhile!
Mammoth Lakes. Absolutely loved the place.
Long time ago, so might be different now.
Too many great memories from not enough trips. Highlights:-
Weeping at the top of the Mossettes - it was my first trip there after getting divorced from my bike hating wife.
Feeding my 70 year old parents Pretzels in Grand Central Station.
Riding up and down Ben Nevis on a rigid Marin years ago and then getting ratted in the pub.
I'm old - the list goes on and on. I only bother keeping nice memories now. I'm letting alzheimers kill all the bad ones 🙂