A busy weekend.

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Saturday morning I had an appointment with the training group starting in Otley. Didn't dash round as I thought I had everything sorted ready to go. When I was getting ready tI couldn't find my long-sleeved t-shirt so made do with a short-sleeved one. Then as I was about to leave I couldn't find my gloves. Thankfully i remembered they were in the dryer, phew. However I was late setting off and got a phone call on the way there asking if I was coming.

Arrived at the car park in Otley to find no spaces either for myself or any of the rest of the group. Not only that but one of the support riders, Richard, hadn't been told it was Otley this week so had gone to Guiseley. So we all drove to the outskirts of Otley and set off from there.

Richard brought Haley with him this week. She is the only other female rider this time so we will be sharing rooms. The morning was glorious but cold. We eventually set off about 10am and took the lanes out towards Knaresborough. Hell, the first hill we went up my legs felt like they were made of wet paper. I struggled up and was puffing and panting like Darth Vader. Then I discovered I hadn't brought my drink with me. Lucky for me Richard shared his drink with me.

We took an off road course at one point, an old railway line that has been adapted for walkers, horse-riders and cyclists. Not long after that Peter got a puncture.
While they were fixing that I was chatting to Mark who I discovered had got through prostrate cancer and was still beating me up those goddamn hills.

We eventually got to the cafe in Knaresborough and had a cuppa and a bite to eat. When we were about to set off back, Mike discovered that he had lost his sports glasses. They were nowhere to be found. I also got to know Haley a bit. She seems like a really nice lass, a scouser.

Then he tried to fix Mark's bike seat and foud that it was actually broken. Some gaffer tape and ingenuity later Mike decided to ride that bike and Mark rode Mike's bike. Mark had to get back for work so Mike, Mark and Mark's mate (I think he's called Phil?) took off together and left Richard, Peter, Haley and myself to ride back together.

Again I was struggling with the hills and Richard stayed with me and Peter headed off at the front with Haley.

As Peter didn't know the route back he went straight on at the place we have normally turned off at and headed straight for the roundabout at Pannal. I was secretly relieved to not have to do more hills. So we headed home on the normal Otley to Harrogate road.

We arrived back at the cars not long after Mike and co. Really disappointed with myself today as I have really been flying the last couple of weeks.



Sunday. Coach Ramble - Ilkley to Bolton Abbey. Not long after I got up I realised there was already a covering of snow and it was still coming down in huge flakes. This could be interesting.

Isobel and I set off and not far from arriving at the pick up at Jacobs Well I tried to turn right but the car went straight forward. Luckily there was no problems with this and I was eventually able to correct this and arrived just in time. However the bus was running late so we had a little wait.

Peter Dawson arrived and parked behind me and we noticed that he'd had a bit of a bender on the way there. He's hit a low wall and caused quite a bit of damage to the front of his car.

It continued snowing heavily all the way up to Ilkley, via Addingham and Silsden. Everything looked so pretty. However we got on some tracks that were downwards sloping and very slippery so a few of us decided to slide down on our backsides rather than slip and fall on them.

We arrived at Bolton Abbey and Arnold was going to add a loop on to the walk but we were later than expected so we didn't have time to do that so he said we could do what we wanted as long as we met the coach in the car park at 3pm. Some of us walked the paths climbing high above the river. Going up was slippery at times but coming down was a nightmare. At one point some strangers lent me two walking poles so that I could get down the hill. One of their party was at the bottom so I passed him the poles so that he could get up the same hill. I had to do another descent on my bottom as it was too slippery to attempt standing.





We then walked across the ford and past the Cavendish Pavilion back up the hill and met the coach. Altogether we had done about 8 miles but it felt like more to be honest.

We went to the Craven Heifer for a carvery afterwards. We were home for about 6.30pm.