About us Bike Hire Tarifs Reservations Gallery Resources About Us | Company and Crew | Bikeman's Blog 20 May 2008 This has been a quiet start to the season, a time for reflection and development. My derrière has been on the bike these past few days checking out the Vallée du Céou and surroundings, notching up the kms while creating new and exiting routes from our now official base at Castelnaud. I love the vibrant greens at this time of year, the leaves have only just unfurled and there is a fresh new smell in the air. The misty mornings give way to breezy blue skies, perfect for cycling. We are developing an idea to subscibe to a national federation to provide a catalogue of trails directly from our base. We already have 350km of walking trails, many of which are suitable for mountain biking, but this federation will create new mountain bike specific trail, waymarked and mapped. I am hoping to create a mountain biking area that is accessible to a wider range of abilities. Mountain biking has always been the doorway to new and exciting challenges, a chance to be at one with yourself, your bike and the environment, and this region can provide an extended playground to facilitate this. This month we have seen the return of the intrepid St Etienne guys that came the beginning of last year and who attacked the 'Spider Pants' route around Beynac. This is a tough 45km trek over various terrains, with over 1200m of climbing over its length. In 2005/2006/2007 it was a gruelling mountain bike race where the winner arrived in 2hour15min - that's an average of about 23km per hour. Not bad. Sheeesh. I opted on the same day to do the Esparoutis route, 20km over to Cenac along the Dordogne river and back over the ridge of cliffs. 29th September 2007 Looking back over 2007, we have met and supplied bikes to some very competent cyclists. Some competent by mistake. Of the season's highlights, the pair that arrived at Roccamadour by moonlight, the return of South African group Johan and Co, Donna and hubby Dave leading off on another intrepid adventure, Irish Chris and Co who came back for a second dose later in the season, to name but a few. This year, the new Bulls Road Bikes proved their worth, so a special thank you to Bob for planting the idea in my head. 29th September 2007 2007 seems to have flown by on one of our busiest seasons to date. August found me guiding a group a German canoeists down the River Dordogne, and despite the language barrier (I don't speak German) we got back to Creysse happy and whole. Kate held the fort while I was away, eased her little Renault Kangoo into 5th gear, and restructured the booking system. Women! (smile) There were a few new things that worked well this season. Our new home was pure luxury compared to my old caravan which by the way was transformed into a bike trailer for the Kangoo to heave between campsites. Kate's new toy this year was a new fangled telephone/PDA/browser thing which she programmed with all our reservations helping us to deliver on the right day AND time. 15th May 2007 We are well into the beginning of the beginning and the bikes are rolling around the villages rounding up stray hills. Our first french mountain biking group (photo) set the standard for the season completing a 45km circuit around the Céou Valley, guided by yours truly in an epic attempt to remember the route from our club ride the day before. I'm going to keep my feet firmly on the pedals this season, and notch some kms up .. I need to get fit again ! 10th February 2007 This year seems to be going very quickly and I still have much to do. I have begun another job parallel to the Groundman job. I just couldn't resist it. I teach french to Primary School children around Lincolnshire and it is certainly a challenge for the old brain cells. It is interesting also to see how technology has changed in the classroom. We used to have chalk on a blackboard. Today it's all about SmartBoards that are interactive and can relay screenshots directly from your computer. Apparently you definitely shouldn't write on it with the dry-wipe pens as I found out last week amid cries and shouts from the class. Oops. One thing you can do is to create web-style pages and use the interactive board to animate the lessons. The kids love it. So here is another creative outlet for my HTML programming skills. This may mean that I stop tweaking this website now. Naaaaaaaaah .. I'm taking next week off to finish rennovating our town house so that we can put it on the market. Watch this space for photos of work in progress. The house currenly has no water, gas, heating, bathroom or kitchen. So clearly lots to do still. 1st November 2006 I have found a splendid new job in Lincolnshire and am thinking about staying here forever ... Only joking. I do like it though. The title Estate Groundsman doesn't quite capture the entire scope of the job since the work is as varied as felling trees to plucking ducks, both of which may come in handy in the Dordogne at a later stage. The job finishes on the 30 april and so MultiTravel will reopen its doors on May Day and I'm going to need all the help I can get to start up in time. 9th September 2006 September rolls quietly on, giving me time to move into our new house and in doing so I have discovered the old collection of music cassette tapes. How quaint in these times of CDs and MP3 players. So I made the effort to plug the hefty walkman into the speakers, slot the tape in, and take a trip down memory lane to the sounds of the 80s and 90s. This creates the perfect frame of mind for shifting endless boxes but not so effective for being ruthless when chucking stuff out. Kate is back in England for a brief spell teaching music again, but she'll be back in a week for our 3 month marriage celebration. 1st September 2006 Season 2006 seemed to be drawing to a close early this year, with a slight lull in rentals at the end of August. Fortunately the Ceps (Boletus mushroomus) are early too, and are delicious with a lush aubergine risotto. You have to have a good eye to spot these elusive ceps, and you have to know which forest to look in. Its these sorts of techniques that don't get passed on willy-nilly from those who know, for fear of too much rummaging competition in the forest. I've been here 5 years, and despite having subconsciously absorbed various details susceptible to locating Old Boletus, can I find them ? ... can I 'eck ! Instead, this sunny day was spent delivering wife to the airport, and emptying my caravan into the new mobile home, a whole 20 yards away. The Bike Bus Base is shaping up. Though not officially a base as such considering my 'ambulant' (mobile) status, it is certainly the 'Hub #1' and this will be emblazened on the sign posts next year. I ordered the signs in May this year and they are 5 months late. I was hoping they would be in place for this year, but alas, it will have to wait for next year now.