A nice spring ride !!!

Self portrait , getting a bit better at it ( staying on the road ! ) 

Today for a change it actually felt like spring , the sun was shinning the winds calm the roads dry just perfect for a ride !! and ride I did . I set out without any particular destination , at the end of the driveway I turned right and that set the tune for the day.  Right took me into Aurora , I looked around to see if any of my old club mates were around but found none, so I kept heading east all the way to Musselman Lake , at the usual store stop there was a gathering of about 30 riders so I pulled in also for a bite of nourishment , I felt like a lone goose landing on a pond full of geese , I was with my own but still an outsider . And as common with cyclist , one headed out and within seconds all followed , they went south I went north , the roads were full of cyclist and I did run into a friend and we rode together for a bit but he had to get home and me, well no hurry no destination , north I kept going finally arriving at Zephyr , by then I was getting tired and decided it was time to start heading home. I got adventurous and took new roads west, some dirt , having 25x700 on the bike gives me more confidence and that in turn opens up a lot of new explorations of the area within range of my biking day. 

The 9th Line heading north towards Mt Albert

One of many tractors working the land

I nice stop on a dirt road , just the sound of frogs croaking 

Spring flowers blooming in the ditches the smell of manure and freshly turned soil as tractors plow the land, birds pirched high singing there sarinades to prospective mates all signs that spring is here and life is once again renuewing itself in this enduring cycle of life. 

This year as oppose to last year I am seeing lots of geese pared off setting up nests, pleasing to pass by them on the road.

And as I cycled through the marsh on one of it's quiet roads towards me came a child on a small bike on what looked like his first ride without the training wheels , he waves at me and proudly says " hello " with a huge smile on his face, behind and even prouder father following , yes spring is here !!!

After about five hours out and 103 km I arrived back to the waving tails of the pups, weary legged and tired but pleased, I need to do more evening ridding during the week to prep for these long weekend rides.

Cycling reunion

Today Ed and I meet for our first post TdC ride !!! 

The day started out not very promising rainy and blustery but by mid day as we headed out it was sunny and warm getting up to 18 degrees. We knew the wind was going to get gusty up to 50km/h from the west so we rode out that way ending up in Tottenham for our usual TdC snack stop, then it was a fast ride east with the wind at our backs all the way to the Marsh , at times on the gravel road we were doing 45km/h just coasting !!!!. The last few km home were a challenging with hard cross winds going south and the few km we had to do westbound were right into it , but we made it home to some nice cool beers that Evelyn had purchased for us !!!

Ed trim and fit getting ready for his 3rd consecutive TdC ride , which will be a record as no one has done 3 in a row .

Check out that belly !!!, this was only my 2nd ride this month , I'm getting fat not fit !!!

And what would a TdC reunion be without a Tim Horton stop for some refuelling !!

Flying down the 5th Line , this section is gravel and we were just coasting at 45km/h with the wind at our backs !!!

Look of worry as my front wheel slips off onto the gravel just as I snap the picture .

We had a great ride, we took it easy as we both had ridden yesterday,  we totalled 87 km in 4.28 hours of riding time . This doubled my average ride for this year, when Ed said he was up for a 100 km ride I almost died as yesterdays 43 km almost did me in , it was my first ride back on Betsy so I was zooming along enjoying the fast ride until eventually I had to turn back and headed home into the wind, by the time I got home my legs were toast !! But I was careful today and survived just fine .

Interestingly this was only my 5th ride of the year for 256 km, last year by now I had been out 18 times for a total of 881 km , amazing how working towards a goal can motivate so much !!!, maybe I should sign up for Paris-Istambul !!! 

Heaven in the sun !!!

A little bit of heaven !!!

Usually I like to just write about one topic per post, but today will be a bit of a potpourri as I've not written in a while. 

I'll begin with Cuba, I just got back from a much needed vacation on it's lovely beaches together with Evelyn our daughter and grandson. Surprisingly, family vacations are very much a happening thing as there where many of them at our resort, it's nice to see this trend!

I liked Cuba, didn't get to see much of it as we were only there for a week, wanted to go to Havana but it was a 12 hour excursion so we passed on it, wanted to see Fidel too, but no luck there either !. 

I found the people friendly and helpful, as far as getting a real feel for the country it's not possible in such a short time, but oppose to Mexico where police with machine-guns hanging from there shoulders are common sight, here I only saw an occasional policeman and they just carried a small barely visible side arm , one gets a much more secure feeling in Cuba. 

The discussion of Democracy versus Communism I will leave for another post, it is one of my favourite subjects to delve into!. 

One of the highlights of the trip was a hike we took in the Varahicacos Ecological Reserve, we were lucky as the hotel was just a half hour walk away so one morning before it got to hot Evelyn and I headed out , once there, fee paid, map in hand we went in and found ourselves plunged into a natural wonderland full of cactus, exotic plants, salamanders, caves, termite mounds, bee hives and even skeletal remains it was a most amazing hike 

All kind of cactus plants and trees.

If I read the pamphlet correctly , foto on the left is a Curujeyes, it roots onto other plants and rocks. 

Termite mounds abounded, some on the ground some high up in trees.

Lots of caves, some quite challenging to get into.

Lots of bees, with hives in the rock or like this exposed on the walls, had to walk by very slowly !!!

This little guy was very friendly and would come right up to us  to  investigate.

2,000 year old aboriginal remains, discovered in 1985. 

The porous rook filters out the seawater creating freshwater lagoons 

300 year old Cactus tree, being slowly strangled by the roots of a Fiscus.

Another excursion was to the Dolphin Park to swim with the dolphins , ordinarily I don't like the idea of captive animals being exploited especially dolphins, but there's a bit of an inconsistency in believes here as I have spent half a decade working with captive animals that are extremely exploited , some day I will have to come to terms with that.

These dolphins at least were in a very large semi natural environment, en a natural estuary surrounded by mangrove trees and interacting with other sea creatures that could come into their pools. 

We had a great time swimming with them !!

We never made it to Havana but we did get a slight flavour of urban Cuba by visiting Veradero , even went for a buggy ride !!. 

I will definitely be going back to Cuba one day. 

  

Yesterday I spotted the first barn swallow of the season , she must have followed me back from Cuba !!!, it marvels me how these delicate little birds can make such a exhausting migratory journey every year, navigating their way over thousands of kilometres of a hostile over populated continent back to their birth place,  my barn.

I have no update on Wisdom, I've scoured the internet and nothing, in these cases one has to stick to the old adage " no news is good news !! " 

As I suspected neither BBC or CNN responded to my query to them. But as I was browsing for info I came upon BirdWatchingDaily.com and they had and article about Wisdom:

http://cs.birdwatchingdaily.com/BRDCS/blogs/field_of_view/archive/2011/03/21/wisdom-the-albatross-survives.aspx

This article led me to some great pictures of Wisdom and her chic taken by Connie Toops , they can be found here:

http://www.agpix.com/photographer/portfolio/A0081780_32_caption.html

"Paris to Istanbul" it conjures up images of history, mystery and intrigue, great adventures , dazzling scenery, delicious cuisine and a possible spectacular breathtaking bike tour !!!, 4,000 km in 50 days riding throw Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey, Andy you have tweaked my interest with your intent to ride it in 2013, I wonder if I can get another leave of absence ????