Rare Adventures

Category: Recreation

Stories about day to day fun and events

Adventures in Hamsterley Forest: Biking and Breakdowns

Sunny Hamsterley, broken chains and the Gremlins win.

A short drive from the campsite landed us in the Hamsterley Forest car park ready to go. My bike was assembled first so I popped to the café to order coffees before we set off.

Normally when you buy a coffee, a “standard” and “large” coffee are only about 15-20% difference. My mate is healthy chap and doesn’t really do much to excess, whereas I am a greedy bugger, so I ordered a standard for him and large for me, which seemed reasonable bearing in mind our differing consumption habits.

Massive coffee cups

When they the coffees turned up, I knew there was going to be trouble, because the large was DOUBLE the size of the standard. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. For 40p I had twice as much coffee. My mate had finally caught up, so as I arrived at the table the look on his face was a picture, but not a very nice one. In hindsight I should have gone and got him another coffee, because he suddenly had a big coffee appetite and I had to give him most of mine.

A chat with a local helped us with our route and gave us lots of advice of short cuts and where not to go wrong, I was in memory overload with all the instructions so lucky my mate is good with detail and was paying attention. It also sounded risky, I decided I needed my elbow pads so nipped off to the van to get them, my mate was even more unhappy with this further delay as he thought my elbow pads were in my rucksack.

Gremlin strike

The first ride of the day was a black (hardest) climb. These are never fun, but it had to be done, about halfway up things got very rocky then bang – my chain snapped. We hadn’t even gone 5 minutes, and the Gremlin was at it again. I had to push the bike up the slope and was expecting communications difficulties if my mate had belted off. However, he is a good companion and was waiting at the top of the climb.

He is a great friend and is very patient, but I could tell I was pushing my luck and his patience. . Another 30 min delay while we played with various tools and eventually eventually his chain breaker did the job, and we were on our way again with 2 links missing from the chain.

It’s not easy pedalling gently up a mountain but the repair lasted for most of the day. The black turned out to be quite mild but some tricky stuff on the descent, at which point the camera moved position, so it’s not a great video to be honest.

Useless trail map

Every trail map seems to be written by an idiot or by someone who loves cryptic crosswords because they are impossible to follow, Forestry England must have a very small sign post budget, as there are just paths and no signs and those that do exist seem to point in the wrong direction. In addition, we had all the helpful advice from the guy in the café, which we wouldn’t marry up with the map. An unfortunate amount of time was lost thanks to that goddam map.

On one occasioned we pedaled for a good 20 minutes uphill to find what looked like a nice long blue run, which turned out to be a grassy lane, with wasn’t even a bike run.

Hamsterley K Line

There is one very famous ride at Hamsterley Forest called the K Line, it was once the Mountain Bike mag ride of the year, and we were determined to find it. The search involved a long climb back up a steep path and the bang; the chain went again. The repair involved the removal of 2 more links which put the chain on its last legs, so basically this was the end of the riding for this holiday and I just needed to nurture the bike gently to the top of the mountain for the last big ride down.

It was like walking on egg shells knowing that too much strain on the chain would mean no K Line, more dirty look and a long walk home. Happily we made it to the K Line and then a fantastic ride down through every type of obstacle imaginable.

Now it was time to set off. The K Line Top section has a nice steady start to get us rolling along and picking up speed winding through the trees and get us in the mood, but nothing too tricky.

Transition trail

K Line second section is called Transition, which is quite appropriate because things quickly speed up and there are lots of drops, obstacles and big humps to that get you airborne as you hit them.

K Line Accelerator

K Line final section Accelerator which is a fantastic run along tight paths through the woods, no chance to relax with trees flying past at 25kmh, it runs into the final section called Nitro’s which is a bone juddering experience as you suddenly hit a path of slabs that seems to go on forever and just when you think it’s all over, it turns left and you heading down a steep slope, still on slabs until you roll out at the end with sore arms.

After all that we headed back to the car park for a cuppa only to find the Gremlin got there first and shut the café early so we couldn’t have one. We went back to the van for an ice-cold beer from the fridge and sat in the car park in our camp chairs feeling like kings before it was time to pack up and head south to our next campsite at Settle.

What I didn’t expect was the scenery on the 2 hours. I thought I had seen the wildest and remote parts of England and Wales, Dartmoor, Central Wales, Snowdonia, the Lake District and even the borders in the days before. This scenery on the drive down the west side of the Northern Pennines and into the Yorkshire Dales was breathtaking and comparable to the Cairngorms and the Highlands and Islands.

Admittedly it was helped by beautiful weather and excellent visibility, but I honestly couldn’t believe how vast, remote, desolate and simply beautiful it is. Unfortunately, it is difficult to take photos that capture the essence of the scenery, so I have just given you a link to have a look at the national park own images.

We arrived at the campsite in Settle just in time to have dinner in the pub to mark the end of our adventure. With the broken chain there was no point in trying to ride so I decided to head home the next morning while my mate headed off to do the final trail we had planned for Tuesday.

And the good news, as I pulled everything out to do the final pack for the trip home, under the bed cushion, there it was, the missing book hiding under the bed mattress cushions that don’t get moved. You didn’t beat us Mr Gremlin, we are ready for you.

The next day the long drive back south and Bristol, 750 miles on the road trip counter and about 80km on the bikes in the forests, taking what the north could throw at us and time to plan the next adventure.

Rare Riders will ride again soon.

09/07/2025
Mountain Biking Gone Awry: Tales from Grisdale Forest

Grisdale, Gremlins and Northern Kindness

The plan was to tour the northern England and Scottish mountain bike trails, my mat n his Jeep and me in my VW Camper. Life never seems to work out the way we plan it, so we ended up going in June instead, and the week we planned was crimped to a few days due to my wedding anniversary and with a trip to France on the agenda for June, all the same it’s always great to spend time with my mate wherever it is and so a great time was guaranteed.

My mate is retired too and loves his Jeep so he turned it into a camper for the week , it is amazing what you can do with chipboard and some planks. He has created a 6 foot bed, made curtains out of cardboard and used some old pond lining as a front curtain, he can even fit his mountain bike inside if he has to, though it’s a bit tricky having a night time wee, so he locks it to the tow bar. His ingenuity to create this mobile bedroom is genuinely something to behold.

We planned to rendezvous in the Lake District at the campsite new Grisdale Forest, our first riding destination. My trip from Bristol was about 250 miles and I did it in my old van without a break and I pulled off the M6 at Kendall 4.5 hours later and pulled into a petrol station to fill up before camping. At this point the implications of hours at the wheel hit me, as I stood beside the van filling with fuel still in crouched in a sitting position as my body was kind of locked into a semi sat position.

Gremlin Strike and the lost keys

I went and paid for the fuel and hopped back into the van (it only took 5 mins to regain my posture!), went to put the ignition key and it wasn’t on the key ring. WTF, how can the key not be on the key ring, all the other keys are on it. Where the hell can it be.

Then I noticed that the ring itself was stretched and realised that the most important key in my life, the ignition key, must have found a way to rotate itself and escape from the ring, Then the hunt began, on the floor around the petrol filler cap, inside the cab, around the bin where I’d dumped the packets and then a walk about the shop.

No sign of the key anywhere, I organised the bin beside the van to be opened so I could check inside, nope, not in there either. The cashier then joined the hunt and roped in other customers to our task.

Northern people are renowned for their helpfulness and within 5 minutes there were at least 10 people, who had come in to buy petrol or snacks, walking around the shops staring at the floor, under shelves and into crevices without any success. Eventually a bloke walked in and asked, “Is anyone looking for this”, and held up the missing ignition key he found outside on the steps ……. Phew.

Lots of thanks and hugs followed and I got back in the van, still disbelieving that a key could escape from the key ring in that way and headed off to the campsite for a lovely warm evening watching the sun set and drinking cold beer. Life was good again and we had a lot to look forward to.

My mate arrives along with the rain

Eventually my mate turned up and at that exact moment it started to rain, literally at the moment he pulled into the campsite. I duly admired his Camperjeep and we did our best to celebrate the start of our adventures but the rain was determined and 12 hours later, the drought of the north was over as we endured the worst thunder and lightning storm ever, it wasn’t just the drought that was over, some of weekenders plans were over as well after tents had been flooded or been blown away.

Gremlin Strike 2 – power failure

We decided to keep breakfast simple, just toast in my little van, then off to the trail centre. The bread was a bit big for the toaster, and I had to force it down into the slots. I hadn’t really considered that bread is an electricity conductor and suddenly everything in the van was dead.

The lethal loaf

We quickly identified the problem, the trip on the campsite supply so we reset it and tried again. Not surprisingly, another pop and the power was gone again, but this time the campsite supply was OK. So it was in the van, something that had never happened before. So, we did various checks of different sockets, the internal fuses were OK. What on each has happened, we concluded we had blown a site master fuse, but nope. It was all good, so it had to be the van.

I started to strip out cupboards thinking a cable must have come loose but luckily, My mate was a qualified electrical engineer (as well asmany other things) and said there must be another switch. He is smaller than me, he got his head into a cupboard and with the aid of an iPhone torch spotted a master switch that, even after 20 years of owning the van, I didn’t know existed. Excellent, we had power back but yet another freaky inexplicable incident, so we packed up to get on our way.

Gremlin Strike 3 – my book has gone

When I packed up, I couldn’t find my book anywhere. How on earth can I have lost a book FFS, it was nowhere to be found. This was getting ridiculous.

It was then that I realised I might be the victim of some devilish spirit trying to ruin my weekend. Then Jeepy remembered the film Gremlins, not the little fluffy ones, but the evil critters that appear after they got wet, my van was clearly inhabited by an evil Gremlin who had got wet overnight.

Off we went to Grisdale Forest where the full extent of the nights rain became apparent. Roads were flooded hills had torrents of water pouring down them, the scenes were almost biblical, but we were not going to be put off. Bikes out, on with the gear and off we went into the floods on our bikes.

Gremlin Strike 4 – lost Go Pro camera

As we set off, I noticed that my Go Pro camera didn’t seem to lock properly, but I thought it must be my imagination and not to worry. 10 mins into the first climb I noticed the camera was gone. That goddam Gremlin has been at it again, now we will have no films of our rides let alone the cost of the camera. My hatred for that Gremlin just got more serious.

There was a camera in there 10 mins ago

The rides around Grisdale were disappointing, largely due to the resemblance of trails to rivers, so we didn’t miss much without the camera. I have never seen so much water in all my life. Paths and trails were completely flooded, I was more like a paddle boat than a bike, but few made it around.

We paddled on through the water and made it to the top of the trail with an amazing look out over Windemere. At that point we had a very interesting conversation about the feasibility of the Loch Ness Monster having migrated to Windemere because is was sick of all the hunters, it’s fair to say we didn’t reach agreement on the feasibility but it was an interesting discussion all the same and my mate tried to get a photo of it, just in case.

When we returned to the trail centre there was more evidence of the wonderful kindness of the Northern folks, despite them being descendants from Vikings. I had left my mate in the café so I could just have a check on the first trail to see if the camera was on the ground but no such luck.

Northern kindness

As I walked through the car park looking dejected, a very tall stranger came the other way, he then said,

“Hey mate, have you lost a Go Pro”, he had spotted my empty case on the handle bars and suddenly the camera was back in my hand. No words could express my thanks, so we did knuckles and he cycled off.

It was time to head off to our next destination and despite the efforts of the evil Gremlin, Northern Kindness had saved my day again. Northern folks had found the key, My mate found the trip switch and the tall stranger had returned my camera.

Still no sign of the book and now my Adidas trainer had disappeared in the van, but things could have been one hell of a lot worse without the Northern folks.

Time to set off for Kielder Forest and our next adventure.

30/06/2025
An Unforgettable Night: Faithless in Bristol’s Unique Venue

I doubt anyone has not heard of Faithless, they revolutionised music in the early 90s with tracks like Insomnia and God is a Dj.

I’ve seen them a few times over the years and they are always awesome but this gig was different. Their iconic lead sing Maxi Jazz died a few years ago, so it was unclear how the band would present itself without him.

This gig took place in an enormous warehouse in Bristol called the Document, very odd name for a venue and doesn’t reflect it’s personality at all, maybe Underground might have helped us know what to expect !

This gig took place in November 24. It was a great show, with the band tastefully using images of Maxi during key tracks and also introducing new ideas to their set, with cover versions of other bands classics which turned it into another amazing night of energy and emotions.

As you can see from the video, it was packed and everyone was having a fantastic time including my pals Pete and Sue who look like people from Top of hte Pops !

17/06/2025
Christmas Day Surprises: Extreme presents

Zip wires, axe throwing and mountain adventures

At the annual “what do you want for Christmas” discussion, it was pointed out by my family, that I have everything I want because I just buy it when I need things.

I suggested maybe we could do something unusual for the present rather than buy things. I was thinking maybe a meal, boat trip, maybe even a weekend away. My family seemed to take this idea more to heart than I had anticipated.

On Christmas Day I opened my cards as normal. In the first card there I was a bit surprised to find a voucher from my youngest son for an Axe and Knife Throwing experience, which I had to admit did reflect what I had asked for.

The second card just said Happy Christmas Dad in the normal way and when I came to the third card there was another surprise. A voucher for the longest and fastest Zip Wire ride in the world, from my wife.

Wooksie was clearly trying to get her own back, because she knows I am scared of heights, and she loves things like jumping out of planes with parachutes. In normal circumstances she is a woman who does detail, but on this occasion she was so keen to buy the biggest, scariest and fastest Zip Wire ride she hadn’t checked the location, which happened to be Snowdonia, over 6 hours away by car.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed that the present was for two people, and Wooksie clearly assumed she would be coming as well.

Axe Throwing

Youngest son is no mug, and realised that I was unlikely to go on the Axe Throwing at Bristol Activity Centre on my own so ended up getting a free day out as I ended up paying for him.

What he didn’t expect was a master class in Axe and Knife throwing from his old man, after a slow start The Dad Lad ended up winning the throw off at the end – hoorah for Dad and note the medal.

Flushed with success, I put on episodes of Vikings of Valhalla to imagine how I would have fared if faced by screaming Norseman, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Axe Throwing was only 20 minutes from home so wasn’t a challenge. Getting to Snowdonia was a far more epic journey and after months of procrastination we picked a day and headed for Snowdonia and Zip World.

Zip Wire Snowdonia and Gremlins

As it was a special treat, I hunted down a really nice hotel based on the design of a 5* French Chateau on Anglessey. I kept this a secret so it would be a nice surprise when we got there, and it was only for 1 night.

The nice surprise turned out to have teeth, because on the way up Booking.com sent me a reminder that I was staying at the Chateau the next day. I pondered this scheduling error from my calendar, and on checking I had booked to arrive on Thursday, not leave. This meant we didn’t have a hotel for the tonight.

Desperately, I tried to ring them from a service station without Wooksie noticing that I was in panic mode. When I got through, they were very helpful and understanding, but full.

We changed drivers so I could deal with the problem in the passenger seat, because at this point, we were sleeping in the back of the car rather than a Chateau. I was discreetly tapping away on the phone trying to find a hotel without Wooksie noticing, but got dirty looks for fiddling with my phone and not chatting.

Eventually, I found a hotel in Bangor. I have to admit the feedback was only 6, but it was the only one with a double room and a view of the Menai Straights that night. I broke the news to Wooksie who took it with her normal good humour, as she said, I’d expect nothing less, “nearly a 5* hotel sums up my life”.

The hotel was truly awful, how it achieved a rating of 6 I will never know. The door on the bedroom didn’t fit, the lock didn’t work, the bar down was huge and full of students celebrating the start of term, or end of term or something that involved lots of noise, and as for the view of the Menai Strait – only if you leaned out the window and tree had been cut down.

A night in Bangor wasn’t much better, we tried a pub that seemed to have an integrated fish and chip shop. This was going OK until the bingo started.

So we left, went into a cosey looking wine bar called Voltaire and unfortunately had our first ever vegan meal, which was kind of tasty and I’ve got a tick in that “Ever had a vegan meal” box now.

After a 6 hour drive, this was all very unwelcome but the views of the Menai Straights were pleasant enough before we went to bed full of excitement about the 30 second Zip Wire ride that awaited us.

The Zip Wire location was on the slopes of Mt Snowdon and located in a disused quarry. It turns out that there are a number of these in Wales that utilise natural features to help tourism, which seems a very good idea. It also turns out there is one in South Wales, less than an hour from our house – hmmm.

First impressions were really good, with a very professional set up and safety preparation. We had booked a time slot and pretty much everything went to plan.

The package contained TWO rides, which was a bit of a surprise. First ride was a practice and we had to walk a few hundred metres up the mountain to the launch pad. The process was reassuringly regimented as we were loaded on to beds.

Then our body bags were connected to the rails. There was lots of shouting of check this and check that which was also reassuring as we prepared to launch. Then the bump, as the beds dropped and we were suspended in space, the heart jumps, misses a beat and then we were off. Flying headfirst towards the wall of the quarry but in the way was a big bumper pad and some nice young people grabbing us as we arrived and a gentle landing, before loading into our transport to the top.

Next big surprise was the transport to get to the real deal at the top. No chair lift or gondolas here in Wales, we were driven up in a monster truck. It was about 4km of winding roads climbing up at some crazy angles, the trucks seemed to defy gravity at times and roared those big wheels up the trail.

When we arrived at the top it was a totally different perspective to the practice run. The ride is about 2.5km in total the bottom looked a long, long way away.

There must have been a least 20 people in the truck so being a gentleman of a certain age, I let the young people go first, then the elderly and infirm, women until eventually Wooksie pointed out I was going to have to get on sooner or later.

Now the adverts say that you can reach speeds of 100mph on the run down, which I was a bit dubious of, so I set my Garmin to time the run using the Snowboard widget.

It was the same procedure for loading on. Lying on beds followed by lots of shouting. Strangely this ride wasn’t as intimidating at the start as the practice run.

This was mainly because when you are loaded the ground is quite close so you don’t get the feeling of height. Things soon change when you get going but by then you are literally flying through the air.

The ride was a strange experience. We started off slowly and Wooksie moved ahead because she is lighter. It’s not like I’m competitive or anything, but I wasn’t going to come second to her!

So I put my head down to accelerate and next thing I am flying past Wooksie. It’s as if I’m rocket propelled when my extra weight to take effect. I opened my mouth to shout encouragement only for my mouth to fill full of air at 90mph, instead of noise coming out, my cheeks just flapped uncontrollably until we started to slow down at the bottom and being rescued by a young person with a very long stick with a hook on the end.

As you can see from the Garmin record above, I hit a maximum speed of 145kph, which is roughly 90mph, if I’d just kept my mouth shut I would probably made it to 100mph, might be the story of my life.

It was a really good day out and lots of fun, and almost justified the 12 hours in car getting to Snowdonia and back. It will be interesting to see what my next Christmas card contains.

16/06/2025
Unforgettable Utah Saints Moments at Shineon Festival in Minehead

For those of you that don’t know, Shineon is a legendary gathering of Indy music fans at the Butlins resort in Minehead, Somerset.

It is wall to wall live bands for 3 days spread across the various venues within the holiday resort. People range from 20 year olds that grew up with Oasis loving parents to oldies like me that haven’t grown up.

Drinking and partying is a big part of the proceedings and people that arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed on Friday night look a lot rougher by Monday morning, but that’s life and we love it. I will be posting a few more gig stories from there in the future.

So these are snippets from the legendary 90’s dj duo the Utah Saints, who pioneered remixing classic songs with the new wave of rave and electronic music that was hitting the streets in 1991. I hope you go and check out some of their other tunes after this.

Bear in mind that this gig was going on at about 3pm on a wet Saturday afternoon, it really helped sort out those hangovers, but not for everyone as you can see !!

14/06/2025