BIMBLING ABOUT 2009

 

Boxing Day Fan Dance 09

With a belly full of Turkey, (or onions and lentils if Davis ever comes out for a walk or bike ride) we headed for the snowy climes of Brecon. Stopping off at Storey Arms Mark decided to try out his rusty old zipper on his rusty old coat (yes, we know, all good bimblers would have tried the zip before driving up or brought some WD40 with them but this is Bimbling Ponty-style...) and yes, you've guessed it - it broke.

 

Well, nothing for it but to throw away the coat and break out a state of the art piece of mountain equipment Chris Bonnington would have loved to have had on Everest if the technology had been available to him all those years ago - the blue Ikea bag! Bollocks to this 'North Face' / 'Berghaus' / 'Rab' nonsense for us Ponty boys - na, when the shit hits the fan, or in Mark's case when the snow, horizontal sleet and rain nearly blows us off the 'Fan' we grab the Swedish accessories, hold onto your meatballs and push on to the top. What a guy!

 

Other news for those following the Bimble saga is that after her 5 year old debut walk up Pen Y Fan our youngest bimbler, Eve, has agreed to publicity for the first time.

 

And after two years worth of various cycle challenges (Ponty - Bay a few times), (Merthyr to Bay, Taff and Trevithick routes), Tal Y Bont trail and a bimble up Snowdon (Pen Y Pass and Pyg Track) at 7 years old she tries her first 'winter' walk up the Fan the day after Boxing Day.

With an unusual wind (i.e. the opposite direction to normal, blowing you off the ridge not up it) the party got split up, one heading for the top the other retreating back down to the safety of a Brewster Bear type pub in Pentrebach.

 

Before we set off for the usual post match beer we were lucky enough to encounter some fellow walkers who'd forgotten a waterproof coat. A quick lend resulted in a couple of bottles of wine dropped off as thanks - who said the Welsh weren't absolutely brilliant people?! Thanks whoever you were.

 

 

 

Taff Trail Challenge 09

"So here we are once more, in the playground of the broken hearted..." STOP that or Fish will sue! OK, 2 years on and we're back at Brecon and wondering who packed the bicycle pump? Signed in, swapped some boys for some girls (as only valley boys can), t-shirts on and away to go.

 

At our age (well, some of us anyway) the thought of a Full Taff with the usual bimbler tradition of a hangover from hell wasn’t sitting well but after much consideration, over a pint, we decided it would be alright as Mark hadn’t been on his bike for a year and would be slower than the rest of us.

How great plans can be thwarted in an instant!

Davies the drop out decided that a £60 million government project was somehow more important than a few turns of the wheels with his mates – ah well, such is real life. Anyway, no problem, Mike would recruit a couple of women from the pub to keep us from going too fast :) …

This he did, except, instead of the chunky, middle-aged barmaids we were expecting he choose two super-fit youngsters – Ron and Sally. Now Ron wasn’t exactly fit, she’d only ran the Roman Road from Brecon the day before and as the 16 miles wasn’t long enough for her marathon training of 20 miles a day she added on a few more on! “Jesus Christ” said the fat boys in unison.

And of course Sally wasn’t that fit either, she hadn’t been on a bike for ages. She was far too busy running her dogs across the mountain, playing every sport man (and woman) invented on a daily basis to worry about a mere 55 miles on a mountain bike. “Oh, shit” said the rotund ones amongst us, what have we done this time!?

Anyway, to the race (err, sorry ride)… well, making his bimbling debut (conjure up some imaginary trumpets here) was the bionic Bod, sponsored by FixIt Screws and Bolts and not as fresh as he would have liked to have been from his Berlin marathon for kidney research. Also new to the bimbling family was Robbie from the BBC, but he was also fitter than me even with his dodgy knee.

Add the one and only Mike the Plumber, powered by Bow and White Russians, Aled & Ninja and we now had two full teams, although it must be noted that Vernon and the Goodie crew were absent this year as well as the Gower branch of bimblers who had terrible IT trouble – failing to print off a single sheet of paper in 3 months. Shame on you Warren :)

OK, to the event itself. Well, what can you say that hasn’t been said before, we came, we cycled, we kicked its ass, as Bill Murray said in Ghostbusters.

Aled managed to find the only six inch nail on the long pull up behind Tal-y-Bont reservoir, although his inner tube wasn’t grateful for the effort. Ninja had more food in his rucksac than an Ethiopian family of 34 eats in a month and Bod was a hero, weighing in at just a few pounds more than my own petite 15½ st and still managing to get up every hill the Beacons could throw at him with just one leg.

As for the girls, well, we don’t like show offs who constantly embarrass the boys who are kind enough to give them a chance to join our elite group. And the way they cycled off ahead so fast that only Aled and Rob could keep up with them was just childish. Anyway, Mike would have carried my waterproof jacket if I’d asked him! (Only kidding ladies) :)

Well, all in all a fairly good ride with us all rejoicing the fact that Derek the weatherman’s forecast of rain after 3pm was about as accurate as Gordon Brown’s prediction that the credit crunch would end in his leadership. Beautiful blue skies and warm sun it was then.

I must say I thought it a bit cheesy that they hassled us with loudspeakers and some Ibiza DJ thing as we crossed the line but the organisation, t-shirts, water supplies, mug, free tea and Pot Noodle’s (Kebab flavour) all for £8 were once again excellent. Well done Ty Hafan. Not sure about Mark having a certificate though - for £60 million I reckon he could print his own.

Bit of hassle in the Italian place down the Bay as they wouldn’t give us free beer (£3.50 a pint) but all in all a delightful day finished off nicely with an après-Taff pint down the Llan before the land of nod and aches. Not that those bloody super-fit women would be aching I bet!
 

External links:

 

Taff Trail website

 

Sustrans

PS

Next year can we use the Taff Trail at Cilfynydd please Ty Hafan, you can easily arrange a water stop down by the pitch. The old road from Abercynon is a bugger and quite dangerous for cyclists.

 

 

PPS
Can't believe we only did 2 bimbles in 2009?  Maybe I missed a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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