Don't know why but since the Cumbrian Xmas Cracker I've been struggling for motivation on the bike. The weekend after the event did 38m on the Saturday then, and this is quite amazing, I got the MBX out on the Sunday and went up on Winter Hill to watch the Winter Hill Fell Race in the snow. We had about 10 from Chorley Harriers running and about 15 in support, here's the motley crew on the left !So the days passed with various gym visits to the diving holiday to the Red Sea coast, Egypt. This was an all inclusive deal with Thomas Cook, specially for people 5'6" and under judging by the legroom on the 25 year old airplane ! My headphones didn't work on either flight, I should buy a lottery ticket this weekend judging by the response from the sharp tongued air hostess who said this was very rare and I was the only case she could recall where the IES (inflight entertainment system..... apparently?) hadn't worked, when I explained it was on both flights she quickly changed the subject and asked me to stop shouting. I think my ears were still not 100% after the diving.
The resort was the Tulip Resort Hotel at Marsa Alam, well to be precise, Marsa Alam was 60km south of the resort but hey, minor detail. The all inclusive actually means almost all inclusive, if you want espresso coffee €2 extra, if you want fruit juice €2 extra and so on. Had a pool side bar melee with a bunch of Italian staff who stole 3 burgers off the griddle ear-marked for ourselves and this nearly developed into an international incident had our 6'6" Drayman from Castleford not interjected. Still he praised me for standing up for the Brits and my reputation thereafter preceded me, with bar staff falling over backwards to oblige !
So to the point, the diving..... We (my mate Simon, my son Ciaran and I) did a PADI deep dive speciality course, this involved dives to 40.0m, where everything creaks.... a lot ! the dive instructor had us counting off a slate to 15 against a stop watch to see if the nitrogen narcosis had affected performance (this is where being narky comes from). My times were the same, my son was faster at 40m that on the surface which leads me to the conclusion he is better off living on the bottom of the ocean. Simon lost the plot and took double the time !
My 12 year old daughter, Katy did her Open Water Course, she can now dive to 18m with us. This is a 4 - 5 day course and quite tough, she struggled with the sea dive off a boat in 12m of water but cracked it the following day with 2 fine shore dives.
We swam with giant turtles, a dugong (a sea cow), see above, this was about 2.2m long and the locals called it Dennis ! The highlight of the trip was a dive called Elphinstone a reef about 6km offshore. We were looking for oceanic sharks or reef sharks. So, coincidentally, the film Open Water was on the hotel TV the night before so my son and I were really psyched-up for the dive. We were sat on a Zodiac bobbing around in the Red Sea wondering what the hell we were playing at when the dive guide said OK let's go and we fell backwards into the sea. Well the reef was amazing, some 300m long and 200m high and about 20m wide, the current moved you along at the correct speed to see this amazing feat of nature unfold before your very eyes. We did 2 dives to 25m for 45 minutes and were disappointed not to see the sharks but did have an encounter with a family of dolphins ! Here's my son Ciaran on the Zodiac between Elphinstone dives with Nino our guide. So after 6 days in the water it was time to endure the trip home but not before an excursion to Hurgarda, an Egyptian city about 230km north of where we were staying. It was some drive on empty roads. Hurgarda was a large enough city of resort hotels, typically Arabic. Katy got herself sunburned whilst we w
ere out at Elphinstone so struggled with the car journeys. We went downtown in the city and were pestered by locals trying to sell us all manner of things legal and not so legal ! The trip back to the hotel was interesting, a 230km taxi journey for €70. Stopped at 2 roadblocks due to the terrorist actions in Cairo that evening.
ere out at Elphinstone so struggled with the car journeys. We went downtown in the city and were pestered by locals trying to sell us all manner of things legal and not so legal ! The trip back to the hotel was interesting, a 230km taxi journey for €70. Stopped at 2 roadblocks due to the terrorist actions in Cairo that evening.Back home, restarting the training has been OK, a spin class on Tuesday and a 53m ride today, Thursday with Thomo, my goodness the legs are sore ! Planning some miles over the weekend and yes the new bike has arrived, just need to pick it up, oh and pay for it !!
Till next time......
3 comments:
Sounds like a great holiday. It must be hard work getting back into training after a nice break. Good luck.
What is the new bike?
Holiday was fantastic, fortunately with plenty of time on my hands courtesy of the bankers ! training will be easy to fit in. The problem will come when I take up a new job, it's likely to be overseas. The new bike is a Trek 6.9 RED with SRAM red, carbon wheels etc etc. It's so light it is attracted to mountain tops !
Wow, that is some bike! I luckily haven't had the urge to buy an expensive road bike yet (MTB is a different story) which is probably just as well as I quite happily jump my Ribble off kerbs and things. I'd be too scared to do that with an expensive bike.
Have you used SRAM kit before? Will be interesting to see how you get on with it. I know a few people with SRAM MTB kit and they really rate it against Shimano.
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