Biking Birder Rides Again 2015

Friday 27 th March. Breakfast early with a lady. Angela who was on her way back from Swansea to Liverpool. She talked about a school in The Gambia that she supports with her husband, wullingkamma nursery. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=o.199029231789&ref=mf After breakfast it was out into the sunshine and a long day spent cycling to the next almost inaccessible RSPB reserve west of Caernarvon, Morfe Dinlle. The road taken went past the entrance to Portmerion. No time to visit this time, the focus on this year's Biking Birder is birds. “This birder gloriously vindicates the rights of the birder to bird and the assembly rises to you, Sir!" To quote The Prisoner . . almost. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tra3Zi5ZWa0 Through Porthmadoc and up yet another long, steep section, I eventually found a superb old railway line, now a cycle track. This took me down to where a turn off took me through a few small lanes down to the edge of the reserve. Not...

Tuesday 24 th March. The journey back to Machynlleth to collect the bike, panniers and carry on towards Lake Vyrnwy was uneventful and surprisingly comfortable on the Virgin train with fewer people on it than the day before. Goodbye to Josh at Wolverhampton and onto Shrewsbury, eventually reaching Machynlleth at 3.00pm. I collected the bike, loaded up and had a pleasant cycle ride towards Lake Vyrnwy. In fact it was lovely despite a quick shower that had me sheltering from the hail in an old sheep barn. Now there were two barn owl boxes inside with a lot of pellets but no way was I going to disturb the occupants despite needing them for the year list. It seemed like the whole route was uphill but with a light breeze behind me I breezed my way up. I was determined to get to Lake Vyrnwy and so as darkness fell I continued onto a B road. It was beautiful with the stars bright and a crescent Moon to the west. Beneath this was a very bright planet which one I don't know. Or...

Friday 20 th March  A solar eclipse, 90% so would be good one drew me out of the B and B before breakfast when it had just started. Three students had welding glass and passed it over for me to view the chunk missing on the right side of the Sun. After breakfast around 50 people, mostly students were on the cliff side awaiting the moment of maximum coverage at 9.30am. My front tyre was flat so I pushed everything along to the seafront end and thinking that the repair could wait, used binoculars to get an image of the eclipse on a white fence post. Quite a pronounced crescent, I next took photographs using my bridge camera set at its darkest setting. Even at maximum the Sun was still very bright but the photographs showed its brilliance and the shape of the eclipse to the left.  Some students had no protection at all. Others were using just a sheet of paper! More sensible ones had welders goggles and one person had a steel colander which created fabulous images of the ec...

Is it really so long since I updated the blog? Sorry, I have been either so tired by the end of the day due to the hills or I've been so busy in the evening doing research for an article that may be published in Birdwatch magazine. So let's catch up. Monday 16 th March  Lampeter to Gwenfrydd Dinas RSPB reserve was a day of long upward bike pushes and time spent navigating the maze of small, narrow country lanes. Actually I pushed the bike up higher than Snowden by 10 feet. (As of the 23 rd of March I have ascended hills totalling more than Everest this month alone! 33,240 feet up). All these statistics are available on my Facebook page and I have been keeping a tally on a spreadsheet. Now I knew Wales was going to be a challenge but I'm only half way. Now I am sure there is a conspiracy of some sort going on in Wales. Everyone I meet seems to be from Essex! The girl at Cardiff Youth Hostel, the lads out for a lad's weekend, Essex. A couple in St David's...

12 th March 2015 A day cycling In reasonable if somewhat misty drizzle turned into one of very heavy rainfall as the distance was covered. The change happened as I enjoyed a large hot chocolate at Tesco's in Carmarthen. From Llanelli to there I had taken the coast road around to Kilkenny and from there the hills had started before getting to Carmarthen. Back in 2010 I had had 2 punctures along this stretch and I remember what a beautiful day it was with lots of sunshine and no wind. I also remember photographing a mass of jet trails over a number of electricity pylons. They were to be the last jet trails seen for a couple of weeks because of the Icelandic volcano stopping air travel. From Camarthen the road was mostly dual carriageway with great smooth tarmac. You tend to notice the quality of tarmac a lot when one;s cycling especially when heavy laden. It's not just the pot holes one notices but the texture; the use of pebbles or not etc. I have always intended to m...