Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

      

Friendly old girl of a town...

Sunny skies greeted us in Copenhagen. A quick visit to the Little Mermaid and pleased to find she was all in one piece. Then a walk around Kastellet, a fortification constructed in a pentagram, with an obligatory photo sitting on a canon. Our next stop was to be Vor Frelsers Kirke - Our Saviour's Church - which has spiral stairs leading around the outside of the spire but disappointingly it was closed for renovations. A look at the pretty colours of Nyhavn and then a wander down the Strøget to the Rundetårn. A climb to the top of the round tower doesn't involve lots of stairs, but rather a ramp that winds its way to the top. Views of all of Copenhagen greeted us at the top along with a glimpse of Sweden across the water.

As it got dark it was time to go to Tivoli, an amusement park right in the centre of Copenhagen. Luckily for us we knew the right people so avoided the monster queues to get in. It all felt very festive, lots of sparkling Christmas lights but really we were there for the rides...which were fun, but one of the main ones broke down right before we were due to go on, and it's not quite Alton Towers!

Newstead Abbey Circular

Up and down and up and down, that's how it went today. A route described as pleasantly undulating; undulating yes, pleasant not so sure about that! I suppose you have to go uphill to enjoy the downhills, I would just prefer the uphills to be on something other than nasty sandy soil.

Total Distance: 16.05 miles (not including detour)


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Silver Worms

These big silver worms eat people! I have seen them sliding through the streets, with men, women and children in their bellies. They must be stopped!

Trent Lock Circular

      

A nice ride along the river to Trent Lock, through Kegworth and then back towards the river. Then things got a bit more 'interesting' as we attempted to navigate our way along a bridleway across the fields in the fading light, our wheels totally seized up with huge quantities of the clay soil. Headlights alerted us to a road nearby and we managed to gain the tarmac again. Before long we were once again lost in a field, the bridleway sign pointed towards a track that looked promise, but alas it disappeared into nothingness. By this time the light was well and truly faded. Although we could make out our destination in the distance, various dykes, reeds, and water courses prevented us from getting there so we had no choice but to turn back and stick to the main roads. So a real adventure, nearly 40 miles in all including detours, a bit longer than anticipated but mostly good fun.


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Grangemill Circuit

Having faith in the weatherman's predictions that Sunday would be a total washout we dragged ourselves to the peak to complete a leisurely 11 mile bike ride. The first half followed the High Peak Trail and the cuttings and embankments provided shelter from the wind most of the way. The second half had us wishing that we'd already invested in the clear glasses we'd been talking about, wheels flinging sheep and cow poo at you takes some of the enjoyment away from downhill sections.


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My first Munro!

   

Well, the nightmare 7 hour journey up to Scotland for the weekend proved to be worthwhile. Although did start to doubt that it just wasn't meant to be after we spent an hour getting lost trying to find Asda before getting to the hills and then our chosen route turned out to be no go due to 'deer management'. But alternatives are never far away in that part of Scotland.

Saturday we walked up Coire Odhar up to Ben Lawers (my first munro) then across to Beinn Ghlas (my second munro) and down again the same way we came. We'd had a late start so the light was soon fading but we just managed to make it to the cars without resorting to the headtorches.

Camped in a nice little spot beside Loch Tay and a babbling brook and Sunday we took a leisurely drive back, enjoying the views, the lochs and the autumn colours.

Clumber Park & Surroundings

So, my first trip out on Esmerelda (she was christened on our return with water and Muc Off!). We did a 16 mile trip round Clumber Park, including a rather nice downhill section through a sandstone cutting. Our route came from the Mountain Bike Guide Nottinghamshire

Total Distance: 16 miles

See photos on flickr


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Derwent Valley Bike Ride

Such a glorious day, who'd waste it in work. Had a great ride around three reservoirs, Ladybower, Derwent and Howdon. The dams are great, okay they're not as big as the hoover dam, but they're far prettier.


Total Distance: 15.5 miles

See photos on flickr

Route Map

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Back to Las Vegas

And so back to Las Vegas, 3000! miles later. Just time to see the bright lights and visit the all you can eat buffet at the Rio before flying home.

LA (Briefly) & Joshua Tree National Park

    

Our journey south went as far as LA, nothing much to interest us there, we saw the Hollywood sign up on the hill and that was enough. So east to Joshua Tree National Park, a new place for both of us.

And it didn't disappoint. Lots of granite boulders (quartz monzonite if you're interested) surrounded by, unsurprisingly Joshua Trees. Lots of fun scrambling about, the rock is some of the roughest I've felt, very grippy! Found myself a throne, and a nice little hole to lie down in, would have been a great bivy spot but the rock was so coarse I worried about my sleeping bag getting torn so stuck to the tent.

Elsewhere in the park were the chollo gardens, thousands of cacti all together on this one particular hillside. At night we had fun pretending to be joshua trees as the sun went down.

Definitely a place to go back to (and I'll be taking a full rack of climbing gear next time). The campsite right amongst the boulders was once of the nicest I've been to.

Pacific Highway 1

Revisiting another place I've been before but this time the sun was shining and going south rather than north means it's much easier to pull over and stop whenever you feel like it.

A visit to Point Lobos State Park for a spot of wildlife viewing. Pelicans, seals and sea lions all plentiful in and around the water. Mikkel decided to do a spot of ocean side bouldering on the frankly, rather dodgy weird conglomerate and lived to regret it when he managed to leave a quantity of skin there!

San Francisco

    

Completely avoiding the hassle of parking in San Francisco and getting a nice ride across the bay to boot we caught the ferry from Larkspur into the city.

Had a nice little wander, visited the sealions at pier 39 (they're noisy buggers! see for yourself below) did the obligatory tram ride, saw wiggly Lombard Street and then did a bit more wandering. A day was more than enough city time for us. Back on the ferry with all the commuters (what a great way to commute!) then back in the car and onto Pacific Highway 1 down the coast.

China Camp

A lazy day after a lot of driving. First night out in the new tent in a wonderful little spot in China Camp state park overlooking the San Francisco Bay Area and I finally got to indulge in a spot of rock (pebble?) balancing.

An evening trip to the Golden Gate Bridge overlook, Mikkel complaining that it's not gold at all but red/orange - there's just no pleasing some people!

Yosemite

Moving on from Tuolumne we drove down into the valley, great views round every corner, it really is an amazing place.

Caught our first and only glimpse of a black bear wandering along the valley floor and tried to spot climbers on the huge expanse of rock that is El Capitain.

To Glacier point to look back down on the whole valley, with great views of Half Dome then down to Mariposa Grove to feel small amongst the giant redwoods. Walked through a tree and were treated to a close encounter with a deer and her fawns. Camped at Crane Flat under a blanket of stars.

From Yosemite west towards the San Francisco and the Pacific Coast. Resisted the lure of a small town Chilli cook off but couldn't resist a quick stop at REI and picked up some more spacious sleeping quarters. An evening of deja vu as we failed to find a vacant campsite north of San Francisco (well, we did find one but I remembered the reason we'd ditched that idea last time $45 a night! for a campsite!) and ended up in a motel (ok, so it was more expensive, but better value).

Sierra Nevada

After the heat of Death Valley we travel north, up through Bishop and Mammoth until we reach a point where we can cut west across the mountains and into Yosemite at the Tioga Pass.

Mono Lake and its Tufa Towers provided an interesting distraction along the way, lots of birds and creepy amounts of alkali flies along the shore.

Then up into Yosemite, shades of green a welcome sight after a week with the sometimes bland colours of the desert and finally some cool air. Although as we discovered later that night, maybe a little too cool, but I realised what a good investment my expensive sleeping bag was and I stayed snuggly warm. Low of -5 C we later learned.

Heading West

Badwater Basin
Originally uploaded by ebygomm

In search of cooler weather we head west towards the Sierra Nevada.

Via Death Valley, so no respite from the heat just yet, in Badwater Basin 282 feet below sea level, 85.5 metres and 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mystery Canyon Aborted

Enjoying Zion
Originally uploaded by ebygomm

We got an early start, planning to do Mystery Canyon, shuttle sorted, permits sorted, gear sorted.

Had a nice walk to the head of the canyon, dithered a bit about where the trail down started, got going, scrambled amongst horrible chossy mess and scree, abseiled various bits, route not looking anything like the description and we got to an abseil that would mean the point of no return so we decided to scramble back up as we just weren't happy with the way things were. Back at the top we just had an 8 mile walk and over 2000 feet back to the valley floor in 38 C (100 F) heat - phew!

Bryce

Horseback riding in Bryce
Originally uploaded by ebygomm

Escape the heat by driving up to Bryce Canyon National Park. At around 8,000 feet it's a good deal higher than Zion and a whole lot cooler.

Mikkel persuades me to take a horse ride, it was...ok, although I have to say I still prefer walking but I rode a proper horse, Mikkel just had a donkey, well a mule but it looked like a donkey! But it was really nice to wander around amongst the hoodoos.

Zion - Hot!

Woke up to the sight of the towering red walls of Zion, and spent a leisurely day seeing some of the sights and trying to stay cool. It's unseasonably hot here.

Canoeing on the Colorado

Shower time
Originally uploaded by ebygomm

After a very warm night camping alongside Lake Mead we had an early start ready for our canoe trip, we hired a canoe from Desert Adventures which included the shuttle service and the relevant permits - great service

We put in just downstream of the Hoover Dam and spent the day paddling nearly 12 miles downstream to Willow Beach(map). Along the way lots to see, caves to paddle in, hot springs to shower under, the cool (12 degrees C) water of the Colorado to dip into when we got too hot.

Hot!

Lake Mead
Originally uploaded by ebygomm

Unseasonably hot here, first day spent getting some supplies, went for a drive and a quick dip in Lake Mead.

36 degrees at 2am meant we didn't get a great nights sleep.

Climbing Denmark Style

Here in the flatlands, it's a bit limited for choice climbing wise. Luckily for us, some nice people had built some concrete bunkers and for some unknown reason these now have various holes in them, making for some nice little bouldering problems. In a great location too, right on the beach. Murder on your fingers though, but hey, you can't have everything.



My fingers got sore from the bunker bouldering pretty quickly, so time to relax and fly the kite instead

Welcome to the world of automatic geotagging

No more hours spent geotagging my photos on rainy days. One GPS + One Digital Camera +GPSTagr = automatic geotags = happy me!

So unbelievably simple I'm amazed.

See where we went for a walk tonight and what we saw.

Places I've been!

My world map looks surprisingly bare still, but my USA one is coming along quite nicely

Summer's on it's way

Planet
Originally uploaded by ebygomm.

Well, the clocks have gone forward and it's almost like summer.

This week I've had fun playing with polar panoramas, I'm rather pleased with my first efforts