Holiday Destination No 1: Sheffield

Since I started mountain biking, Charlie has not spared me the details of how fab the biking in Sheffiled is. We brought our bikes over from NZ and although they were a real pain at times (e.g. carrying >45 kg around on my own at London central bus station), we got some good use out of them in Sheffield. It was time for some serious riding and time for some serious catching up with Charlie's mates. We had 4 days there and I knew I was in for 4 days on the bike, unless I wanted to be left behind.

It was nice to see Charlie back with his old friends again. The picture below is taken from our last day at Froggatt Edge of Gill, Mark, Charlie and Nick: Nick is fighting cancer at the moment and both Charlie and I were totally paranoid to bring any bugs with us from our travels. We used hand sanitisers frantically and made it to Sheffield without the swine flu. Nick is doing incredibly well and has an incredible family that supports him. You can follow his progress on his blog.


Unfortunately Nick couldn't come biking with us. We had some great weather for riding. This is from Cut Gate, which is in the Peak District. The area provides some fun trails that appears pretty flat until you start accelerating!

At the top of Bleaklow with Mat and Unlucky Steve, who has got his name after numerous biking accidents. He managed to stay on his bike for this one.

There are loads of trails around the city and some of them were not as clearly defined as the one above. We often bush bashed through bracken and stinging nettles and was lucky to find the track. A bit different compared to Port Hills in Chch.

At the top of Riverlin Valley with views over Sheffield. These silly buggers are CB, me, Mark (with the long blond hair) and Jim. It was cool to see how fast you potentially can bike through the undulating terrain. My excuse was that the others have had many many years of practising (They are quite old :-).

Another day, another trail, this one down from Stanage Edge.

I was totally buggered at the end of this day. Mark looked a bit more fresh than me.

This is a spot (Porter Clough) where Charlie smashed up his finger in 1999 when he fell into the stone wall on the right in speed. I wasn't that stupid and made it down in one piece.

Scenic riding in White Edge:
Tea party in Grindleford in the Peak District National Park. Check out the size of the mugs!! We all had a pint of tea to celebrate the awesome day out. In picture: Me, Mat (left), Mark and Dave on the right.

The cafe is run by some seriously rude people and the whole place is full of signs telling you what you are not allowed to do:

"Private Property - Not public toilets. 20 P otherwise, OR Confrontation"

"This Cafe is a very busy work Station. Will Parents Kindly Have Complete Control Of Their Toddlers At All Times - Otherwise Do Not Enter !!!"

I was a bit worried that I would get booted out when I went to the loo to fill up my camelbak...there were plenty of signs telling me NOT to fill up my water in the cafe. Oh well, rules are there to be broken aren't they?