Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
It’s been a while since I’ve properly taken the mountain bike out, but over the past couple of weeks I’ve been sneaking back onto the trails. I even joined a local group for a very chilled night ride. It’s getting to that time of year were the dark nights are longer than the days so...
I think the most notable thing about the weekend was the rain on Saturday. When I got up early, the little raindrop on our home info panel that I built was already full to the brim. The Borth & Ynyslas weather station in our garden had already recorded more than 25 mm of rain. At...
Autumn has definitely arrived in West Wales. It’s been blowing a hoolie for days now, which has meant plenty of windsurfing opportunities. Just for a change, I’ve been out in a few different places. Usually, I simply walk across the road and launch opposite our house, and I’ve done that of course, but earlier in the...
As far as the Welsh Nuttalls go — those peaks over 2000 ft — I’ve summited most of them in the Glyderau several times. However, Y Foel Goch and Gallt yr Ogof at the eastern end of the range had yet to be bagged. Not surprising really, as they are smaller in stature than their...
Despite having recently upgraded from my wheelbarrow to a new trolley as my windsurf transport of choice, I did something a little different on Sunday — time for a road trip. The winds were SSW and the seas were large and angry. Too large and angry to sail on my own off the seafront at...
After weeks of wall-to-wall sunshine and prolonged drought, Rhys and I had planned a day in the hills to tackle a couple of scrambles on the Idwal slabs. Typically, we somehow managed to pick the only day with rain forecast — not just the day, but the exact few hours! Still, it was in the...
Onto Lewis After a comfortable night at the hostel and a scrambled egg on toast breakfast, I was feeling revived, clean and ready to go. So I was soon on my way, following the main road above the loch and crossing the border into Lewis. Although geographically a single landmass, Lewis and Harris are often...
A Damp Start and the Battle with Midges It rained most of the night. I don’t get much sleep at the best of times, even at home in my own bed, but in a tent with the wind blowing and the rain lashing at the sides, there’s no hope. The wind did ease overnight though,...
All Alone It was all change today, as Anna would be heading home. We were, of course, up and ready to go earlier than we needed to be, but there wasn’t much point hanging around. We headed off towards Lochmaddy so that Anna could drop me off where I’d finished my walk yesterday. This time,...
More Islands Within four walks I’d already covered 64.8 miles of the 155-mile Hebridean Way. I’d visited five of the ten islands, and a bonus sixth by car, and was about to start day five with a quick trip from Benbecula across the causeway to Grimsay and then across another to North Uist. This was...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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