riding in N America was the most fun, Utah, Colorado, California hard to beat for sheer variety..

That’s a stupid comparison though – California to Utah is the equivalent of UK to the other side of the Alps. It’s like saying that ‘Scotland, England, France, Italy’ is hard to beat for variety (which would also be true).

I’ve not ridden abroad but I sometimes wonder that the UK climate must seriously limit the places you can cycle. I live in Scotland which is of course amazing for MTB but I like to create new routes and the extreme wetness can make things tricky.

I’ve scoured my local area for new options but always seem to be hindered by a huge bog or miles of bracken. I’m not complaining about the UK conditions at all because that’s what makes it the special place it is. There must be dry places abroad though where you can just pick a hill and select an awesome way to ride down it without encountering huge bogs etc.

There are very few places in the world where yo can go where you want when you want. Where you can wild camp and where you get such a huge a huge variety.

It all depends what you want but this trumps all for me.

20 Camping at Carrour by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

This is where I will be riding in two weeks time. Half an hour’s drive from my mum’s place in Somerset West, RSA.