I’ve been rather quiet - work has been pretty busy, and I’ve been trying to do a lot of riding.

League races have gone relatively well, with Paul grabbing one win, and both Paul and myself with the front group over most of the climbs. We rode Sani2C together and managed 20th overall. We’re pretty chuffed with that, since neither of us are at peak fitness. In fact Paul was giving me a push up some of the climbs on the last day. Sani2C has by far the most spectacular course of any mountain bike race in South Africa. There was soooo much single-track. And mostly nice fast, flowing, non-technical stuff, which was a lot of fun.

Yesterday was funride world champs, and the VA group had a very smooth (and crash-free) ride to come in around 2:47. Not the fastest time, but I’m not complaining. I managed to sneak in with 17th place in the very long sprint.

Cycling will take a bit of a back seat now as I try to prepare for the 7-day hike we’re doing in Scotland in early April. The average day is over 20km, and I’m carrying the tent and everything. Looking forward to it!

Sunday night saw us having dinner at a Thai cultural centre where we watched various traditional dances. We all sat on the floor and had our dinner served there too. Most of the other diners were Thais, up from Bangkok on vacation.

We set off on the first full day of our ride on Monday, 18 December. We headed out of Chiang Mai on some wide roads and over some rolling hills. Some of the hills got quite long and probably qualified as climbs. We regrouped a few times, once at the top of a pass where all the cars were hooting as they went over. Our guide explained that passing motorists hoot to acknowledge the spirits and ask for permission to pass over their mountain.

A long downhill took us to an elephant park and hospital, where we got to see elephants painting and doing a few tricks. Amazing how smart these big beasts are. We had lunch at the elephant park too.

We carried on through to our overnight stop at Lampang. Dinner was at a riverside restaurant (first of many), but we got there by the traditional horse-drawn carts for which Lampang is famous.

To be continued…

Just finished sorting out the over 400 photos that we took in Thailand.

The Scenic Route through Thailand

I’ll type up a bit of a diary in the next few days to explain more about the trip. In the mean time enjoy the pics! (click the image to view)

We got back from 2 weeks in Thailand yesterday. Arrived in Cape Town just after 9:30am to hear that there’d been 6 bombs in Bangkok, starting shortly after we left. Not cool, but nice that we weren’t their when the shit was going down.

We took over 400 photos on the trip, so I’m busy cleaning them up and should hopefully post pics within a day or two.

We’re off to Thailand in about 2 weeks time, so we’re starting to double-check all our arrangements. Finally the holiday bug is starting to bite! We’re going cycle-touring in Thailand with Spiceroads. We’re riding from Chiang Mai down to Bangkok over 10 days or so. Then we’ll spend a few days in Bangkok at the end.

Can’t wait!!

I had the first weekend off cycling for a few months, by going hiking in the Groot Winterhoek wilderness area. We did a 13km out and back route from the start to a hut at De Tronk. Unfortunately Saturday’s 13km turned out more like about 15km, and with substantially more climbing and bushwhacking than planned, when we missed a critical turn in the path. We added about 2 hours onto our outbound trip as a result. When we did get back to the trail though, we found some great pools and stopped for lunch.

We overnighted next to a big old barn and ate packet pasta, washed down with some good red wine, port and biscotti. The wind came up in the middle of the night and by the early morning it was raining with a lot of thunder and big lightning. Not ideal conditions in which to begin a hike. We packed up and got ready hoping it would clear a little, but eventually set off at 9am in a steady drizzle. Fortunately it stopped raining at about 10am and started to clear, eventually turning into a beautiful clear day with 32deg of heat. The route back was a lot easier than Saturday since we stuck to the marked path, and we got back to our cars by 3:30pm.

There’s some pics at http://www.nickcoyne.com/cpg132/thumbnails.php?album=43

Just got back from 10 days in very hot Phoenix, Arizona. Was there for business, but managed to get a short ride in the South Mountain Park on a rented bike. A great place to ride! Also I went running in the park every morning.

Temperatures were obscene for most of the trip. 45 degrees Celcius on most days, and only going down to about 30 deg overnight. No humidity though, so after the initial shock, you actually get used to the heat.

Getting back to Cape Town’s 10 degrees and rain, combined with severe jetlag, is not pleasant!

Check out some pics!