He was very lively today, he spent some time in the kitchen and found an oat which he brought to show me. There was also a moment with a cleaning cloth and then later I showed him my apple core so he took it off me and ran away. I didn't let him keep the core but he had a few bites and I also shared it with my other turtles too.
Occasionally I trim his nails as some of the back ones grow very twisted. I only take the tip off and he isn't bothered while I'm doing it so I'm not hurting him.
I've been riding this since may when I built it for a bikepacking trip through Iceland. I've done about 1800km so far and I've tweaked the setup a bit now it's got some miles on it and I'm pretty happy with how it rides. I'm also very happy with how it looks too.
I've dismantled my other gravel bike for painting so this is my main gravel bike for a while.
Nobby loves fruit, especially berries so he got a left over cherry today. He went back in his tank after The video to enjoy his treat.
My partner and I did the king Alfreds way this weekend, we split it up into 3 sections starting near Swindon on the Ridgeway. It was an amazing route taking us through some wonderfully quaint and whimsical English village countryside even passing Stonehenge, the white horse lots of historical earthworks. The trails were very varied with amazing woodland singletrack, wide gravel trails bridleways, farm tracks, countryside B roads and even a bit of city riding through Winchester and Reading.
It was a bit harder than I thought it was going to be and we put in some long days to get around in three sections.
I would recommend this route to anyone but it's worth taking a bit longer and enjoying the scenery/tourist attractions and some of the trails are pretty difficult so not a first timers route!
I went on a lovely 60km loop out of Manchester into the farmland. Repeating some old sections of trails and exploring a few new ones. I was thwarted by a golf course at one point and some trails that are marked on the maps but have become fully overgrown. I ended my ride with some lunch at a local cafe with a massive sandwich! Some days are just perfect for a ride!
He appeared out from under the sofa with this in his mouth. It looks like he found a bit of a Dorito and he saw me get my phone out and charged at me. He's back in his tank now enjoying his floor treat.
We took a bus to Blondus in the north of Iceland and cycled back to Reykjavik down the F35. Unfortunately we had horrific head and side winds on day one (strong enough to blow the bike out from under me at one point) then on day two the route was supposed to descend out of the plateau and back onto the road but instead it seemed to keep climbing or being flat (with a head wind) for most of the day until we got to the top of the last climb and found a 5km decent when it stated raining heavily! We found camping about 30km after the road started again and then today we started riding in the rain which got heavier and the wind kicked back in during the afternoon. Was it enjoyable? No not really at every turn Iceland managed to make our ride worse, I've never been so bored of riding my bike as 10 hours of headwind when the scenery doesn't seem to change much! Anyway here are some pictures that make it look amazing.
Also the bikes worked flawlessly and so did all of our kit. I'm especially pleased about this as I built my bike (purple Kona) specifically for this trip.
I wandered into the lounge to be greeted by Nobby chewing on my flip flops. He's such a bitey little monster.
My friend was over with his dog and Eddie was trying to get into his backpack for the dog treats. Because he was a good boy he got a bit of one! Don't worry I put him straight back in his tank so he could eat it.
I've been on the basque MTB Pyrenees odyssey week and we did 6 days of riding the most mind-blowing trails, there was a fair bit of van uplift but most days started with hours of hike a bike with the last day being the hardest climb, I had my bike on my shoulders for about 2 hours. We did about 5000m of climbing and 17000m descending over the week. I'm pretty tired now!
I looked at my Strava heatmap today and decided to try and find some areas I hadn't covered before so although my route was through lots of my usual locations I found some excellent new bits of trails and my favourite which is flowy single-track. I did however ignore a section whilst mapping that said it was blocked and when I got there it was blocked as a footbridge was closed so I ended up wading across the river and climbing out up the steep bank on the other side. I'd probably do it again, the trail was worth it.
A lovely 50km loop out of south Manchester under the airport and tona bakery for brunch.
As the heatwave continues here in the UK Nobby has been sunbathing (his open mouth always makes me laugh) in the garden again. Today he brought me this.
For all the Nobby fans here he is enjoying the heat wave in the UK this week. Also contemplating biting my fingers that are holding the phone
Don't worry he will only stay out for a bit before coming back in for a splash in his tank
100 miles through 4 different English counties. I'm riding home tomorrow morning.
I'm on my own this weekend as my partner is away gravel riding in Slovakia (sister in the wild trip) so I decided to challenge myself to my first imperial century gravel ride loaded up for camping. (Extra heavy packing as I'm training for our Iceland trip in a month)
Some highlights were the view of Joderal bank telescope, chrome hill (the funny pointy ones) Tissington waters and some of the old industrial canals and mills around leek.
Just waiting for my mate at the pyramid before the evenings ride out.
Usually he likes to bring a leaf in with him, today it's a bit of a feather. He's still got it now wandering around the lounge and hanging out under my chair.
These old steel Konas are outrageously adaptable. This is the second one I have modified (the first being much more aggressive in its stance) and it's for our upcoming Iceland bikepacking trip next month. I started out with flat bars as they were in my parts bin but after 400+km test riding I've converted it to drops, mostly for the extra speed (to keep up with my partner!) and also to make it slim enough to fit through all the narrow UK single track and trail entry points. Today's ride was the drop bar shakedown and the grx levers and calipers are an excellent upgrade.