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Showing posts from October, 2015

Lost in the wilderness style geocaches

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There is one type of geocache that I love above all others, and that's the type that gets you lost miles from the nearest road, in a beautiful piece of countryside. Now, let's get something straight here - I live in Northern Ireland, which is a fairly small country. Huge expanses of woodland are hardly our thing at all, which means that we dont really get the epic adventure style geocaches. There are a couple in my list that look worthy though. Far From The Madding Crowd is one such cache, on the spongey Antrim Plateau, or Scawt Hill (which isn't suitable for kids) with its 100ft cliffs and great views. So I'm looking forward to skipping a few roadside cache-and-dash geocaches and heading for an adventure soon.

Resurrecting my mountain bike

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In a dark corner of the garage, my old mountain bike lies covered in a thin layer of dust. She hasn't been used much since I got married, but as the kids get up a bit and can now ride bikes, and I get a little soft round the middle (this may be an understatement), I'm starting to look at ways to get fit again. I need something that doesn't necessarily take half a day (like hiking, fishing, golf, etc.) but doesn't need significant training outside the activity itself (like rugby) or a set time (five-a-side football). When I was a teenager, several centuries ago, I loved nothing more than getting this bike out and careening down the Brustin Brae and straining everything to get up the other side, before another downhill toward Cairncastle. The way back was a major challenge, and I loved it. So yeah I'm not really into downhill mountain biking  - more roads, with plenty of hills. I reckon I'd love the flat Coast Road as well. I'm a little conflicted on