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Yorkshire Tour 2009 Remembered: Mountain Biking

MildertB — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:45:32 +0000

Alternative title: TREE ROOTS vs. ROOT CANAL

When I signed up for the mountain biking activity I was promised a gentle pootle around a pretty, green forest. Unfortunately, I was sadly mislead. Our little group set out from the cycle shop (once Mr Strange had arrived and Stu had insisted on buying it’s entire contents) on the nice, flat, tarmac covered road, looking daft in helmets and wobbling around. Well I was anyway. This pleasant experience lasted for the first 2 minutes of our journey. Then began the ascent to hell. Whoever said hell is located in the fiery depths was wrong. It’s embodied in a vertical, muddy, stony, tree root covered hill somewhere in the north of England. We finally got to the top of the bank, only to be presented with further uphill struggles. The group split at this point with the, er, fitter members somehow disappearing up at quite a speed. The majority of us struggled on slowly. Bringing up the rear at quite a distance behind, I considered Blair Witch-style abandoment in the middle of a strange forest being a preferable alternative. Unfortunately Stu circled around me bellowing all manner of ‘encouragements’.

Against all the odds and several litres of P-Max later we managed to reach the summit. I think the general concensus was that for £25 a trip to the dentist with the imminent threat of root canal treatment would have been more enjoyable. However, the descent almost (well sort of) wiped the memory of our uphill nightmare. Travelling at dangerous high speeds down stony tracks was exhilirating, even if small, furry mammals were massacred in the process. Edd and I paused in our descent to admire the tiny girl, seemingly making the opposite ascent totally alone, on a pink bike with stabilisers. She was definitely making better progress than we ever had.

There were many highs and lows to our travails: breakneck speeds through the rain was a real high; Max returning covered in blood something of a low but the real highlight was Barney, in a premonition of things to come, joyriding on Chloe’s shop mobility mobile, failing miserably to complete a successful 3 point turn.

By Sam Hudson

Directions to Tour

Vikki — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:45:22 +0000

Exit the A1(M) at junction 45 head to York along the A64.
- Continue along the A64 until Malton, turn onto the A169 to Pickering.
- Remain on this road until you reach Sleights, and have descended down Blue Bank
- Take your first right turn towards Ugglebarnby
- At the end of the road turn left at T-junction (1.5 miles approx)
- Continue until the end of the road and turn right (0.66 mile approx)
- At the end of this road turn left (2.75 miles approx)
- Half mile along turn right to Robin Hood’s Bay and Fylingthorpe
- Next take the right turn to Fyling Hall
- Travel through the school grounds and down a steep hill
- Cross over the little bridge and up the other side of the hill
- At the top of the hill on a bend is the farm track to your right
- This will lead you to Demesne Farm luxury holiday cottages

If in doubt click here and get full directions from google maps

Mildert B tour Itinerary 2009

MildertB — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:17:16 +0000

It’s only 5days away now tourists! True to form Barney has planned out our trip to the minute and I’ve got to say it’s pretty impressive!

Some highlights include:

Skym Quiz – If you have not experienced this then you’re in for a treat!

Boggle hole – I’m guessing this is a big hole filled with small cubes with letters on them, we will then have an anagram competition.

Big Red Bus tour – Barney (aka Big Red) has kept his tour company quiet. It will be very exciting to have a tour of all of the important landmarks in his life including the shop where he first bought p-max.

Falling foss waterfall - Was just called foss water until it fell

Oh and some cricket!

Anyhoo… please download the pdf itinerary here or by clicking on the image.

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