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You know, the place you think of, want to be, feel so settled in. I have a few bike related ones as well as a few other non MTB related ones. I think that my top, top, top place though is to be at the top of the Chavannes Express lift in Les Gets on a bright sunny morning. There's so much I could ride, so many places I could go... perhaps make my way over to Switzerland and grab a beer and a sandwich at Refuge de Cheserey...or maybe I'll just chill with a good coffee and a book for a while.
In the UK though it's probably up on the Quantocks ridge by Bicknoller Post. Or maybe Pole Bank on the Long Mynd. High above Machynlleth is always amazing, knowing that there's such a wonderful descent into town.
And then there's Applecross or better still, Torridon where I spent a stupendous summer back in the day looling at some pretty impressive rocks.
More frequently though, if I'm in my garden having just got home from work and laying back in the sunshine in that magical hour before the midges come out it is just something special.
What you got?
Square and Compass, Worth Matravers, outside with a pint of Moonlite and a pasty, in the Purbeck sunshine. Bliss
Specific place - Whistler.
More generally - Mountains.
Skylounge Bar, deck 12, Pride of Hull / Pride of Rotterdam, sailing down the Humber, pint in my hand, wife next to me, kids bouncing about. Generally means we’re off on some adventure around Europe. Could be skiing in the winter, or summer holidays around the Alps or Adriatic.
Oh and generally any time I’m sat here. Could be bimbling to Aldi, doing the school run, off with the bike in the back to Wales with mates, or blasting across Germany to Austria for a lads ski trip. It does everything so well. It even makes being stuck in traffic bearable.
Skylounge Bar, deck 12, Pride of Hull / Pride of Rotterdam, sailing down the Humber, pint in my hand, wife next to me, kids bouncing about. Generally means we’re off on some adventure around Europe. Could be skiing in the winter, or summer holidays around the Alps or Adriatic.
Oh and generally any time I’m sat here. Could be bimbling to Aldi, doing the school run, off with the bike in the back to Wales with mates, or blasting across Germany to Austria for a lads ski trip. It does everything so well. It even makes being stuck in traffic bearable.
I like that view too...although mixed with anxiety waiting for the next warning lights to flash 😩
More places than places that make me unhappy so that's far to many to list. Le Chemin Henri IV on an MTB is pretty well up there.
Using that Alfa to blast across Germany will put paid to the skiing before long, Hot-Fiat; one of my happy places, Hautacam closed this year due to greenhouse gas induced climatic change. I'm far happier looking out of the window of a train than sitting in a car breathing all the fumes of the other cars.
The woods in Sussex, where some friends have built an incredible community over the past 25 years.
Any trail, anywhere, with my son.
Home with my family.
The car one is a good one, actually. Sometimes I just go and sit in my immobile broken 90s Mazda and smile from ear to ear
Floating down the Avon on a board, in any weather at all
Try giving the sanctimony a rest, just for one warm hearted thread, eh @Edukator?
It used to be my house until we had a kid. Now it looks like an explosion in a toy shop and I can't sit down without a miniature human using my body as a ladder and standing on my balls, elbowing me in the eye etc.
I'm going to buy a fun car for sneaking out in.
- Others have mentioned, Quantocks, Whistler Square and Compass !anywhere involving riding . But I've recently enrolled on a birdwatching and mindfulness course and it turns out to be much closer to home . The area of the Somerset Levels that dad worked damn hard digging Peat by hand his whole life is now a nature reserve . All the years I've cycled through there I've never quite appreciated what's on my doorstep .
- The peace and tranquility which I am finally finding through Tai Chi as well is such a powerful combination 👌
- It also helps there's a proper old fashioned pub next to the reserve , doesn't sell food doesn't need to . It was a favourite of dad's too ,he grew up a couple of miles away and used to cycle down there along the sleepy branch line when there were still trains running.
- Fridays birdwatching saw my first Bittern in flight , kingfisher, marsh harriers, Great White Egrets , Cormorants. All this right under my nose if only I'd take the time to stop .
Anywhere with my grandson, most of the time!
Yesterday was spent making pasta sauce, giving my bike a wash and grubbing about for woodlice. A question usually about every 90 seconds, tiring but rewarding.
Anywhere in the hills on my bike with some decent weather and a lovely view.
The actual where doesn't really matter...
On my own, at the top of a hill I've just ridden up, with nice weather and a view, sitting down and just being 🙂
One specific thing - putting on a tubeless tyre that goes up first time with just a gentle puff from the track pump. Happened yesterday....bliss 😆
Either blowing bubbles underwater or in a forest somewhere with or without family/dog/bike
Holmbury Hill during the golden hour
Anywhere with my grandson, most of the time!
A question usually about every 90 seconds, tiring but rewarding.
I hope he was able to answer them for you. 👍
Anywhere where I can enter into that state of mindfulness that 100% absorbs my attention, whether it’s out on a bike on a delightful road or trail, in the hills and mountains with my dog but my fave at the moment is out on the big blue in my sea kayak.
The Uists.
My mind just enters a different state when we're there. I think the effect would be lost if we moved there though.
More generally, riding through a pine forest when the sun is just above the horizon and casting long shadows
On top of a hill, in a bivvy bag, watching the sunset.
I'm there now, Crete. Lovely beaches, friendly people, delicious food, hot hot hot..... I did the Samaria Gorge on Friday, tough day but beautiful scenery. It's our favourite Greek island, we try and get here twice a year.
Camping. Somewhere where I can have a fire (aka not summer!)
Somewhere where I wake up, the sun is beaming through the trees. The birds are chatting. The stove is on, the bacon and eggs are being cooked. The coffee's going down well. And you think, why is life so complicated and expensive. This is all I need. No phone signal. Some books. My bike.
Sometimes I'll even take the wife and kids. 🙂
Not one place in particular but I seem to be most happy if I'm in a wood and can hear a river/burn running/trickling in the background (and sunny obviously)
More generally, riding through a pine forest
Yes, that's pretty special, this is me in the Cairngorms last year with my son, his pic of me, I said this is the picture to use on my funeral order of service when the time comes 
I’ll stick with bike related as it’s complicated otherwise 🤣
Physically, flying through the air. I’ve tried to recreate the feeling in my minds eye but it’s always disappointing. Mentally, a montage of biking highlights. Oddly they aren’t the rad things, it’s generally swoopy, flowy trails or paths with ideal temperatures and weather and a mixture of open, forested, sandy or tarmac (not road). Either alone or with friends.
@shark attack: I hope that child is a relative. 🤣
Somewhere up in the mountains by myself.
Out in the hills, somewhere up high on a sunny but coolish day. Find a dip in the ground and sit/lie in there. Out of the wind now so it's nice and warm, and the sound of the wind is gone. A view of nothing but sky and utter, utter silence, broken only by a skylark and the occasional distant baa. The knowledge that no one, in the entire world, knows exactly where I am.
Bliss.
In the UK it has to be anywhere in the Peak. So many happy memories.
Otherwise it always been Verbier. Since our first trip with the girls it's always top of my list. Been back so many times and will always be a special place for me.
This is my happy place, doesn’t really matter where parked up but preferably somewhere picturesque.
But as long as it’s warm and dry and I can sit outside with a cup of tea, a beer or a glass of wine then I’m a very happy man.
High mountains generally, particularly big snowy ones, Andes, Himalayas, Alps, Pyrenees, I'm not fussy. Scotland in winter from, say the summit of the Ben too. All just make me grin like an idiot.
Closer to home, very close to home in fact, and the place I chose as my 'happy place' as a long covid recovery short-cut to smiles, the Shooting Cabin above Hayfield and more particularly on the footpath just around the corner where you get a wide view of Kinder from Kinder Corner on the left - top of William Clough - over to Kinder Low on the right, then Mount Famine and South Head further over. So many many happy memories of rides and friends in all weathers and seasons.
Corsica - there is a beautiful spot on top of a hill on the mare a mare sud route that I could sit till the end of days.
Failing that, riding or walking around in the Chilterns in it's current state and weather is near as damn perfect, shame it's so expensive to buy a house here..
Mrs Pondo and I have been lucky to go to some lovely places, but I THINK I'm at my happiest on the south Breton coast - we camp there, and I can take or leave camping, but I utterly love the life. Cycle to the boulangerie in the morning, croissant for breakfast, make a giant sandwich for lunch, cycle to a beach, bask in the sun, read, swim, snorkel, maybe a few cheeky beers or a glass of wine as the sun sets. I could live the rest of my life like that if I had to, no sweat. 🙂
Somewhere between here & there.
Firle Beacon, East Sussex on a warm breezy day. Between the masts and the mound, travelling east to a pint in Eastbourne.
Sat on the loo while perusing the arguments on here 😉
Increasingley spending time with my wife and child, at home or away in the camper.
And anywhere on any bike at anytime. This year I have finally found the headspace for guilt free biketime 🙂
The Lake District. Not really anywhere in particular so long as it's not overrun with tourists. Out on the quieter hills somewhere.
Back in the days when you could actually waterski properly on Windermere, it was amazing to finish a dawn ski session (we'd be on the water at 6.30am, not a ripple on it, sun coming up over the hills) and then just sit by the lake afterwards.
I have two, both are near Hayfield...
Ruth's bench- I always stop and have a chat with Ruth whilst admiring the view and contemplating life. I never met Ruth, although I feel a connection to her.
Nineteen Trees (mistakenly called Twenty Trees by some). Just the perfect "Mint Sauce" spot for me. The day after I started treatment for my cancer I fell asleep under those trees. And I always say hello to Charlie if I'm cycling up the hill, or try to impress him with a turn of speed if I'm coming down the hill 🙂
Biking ... sitting on the wall at the fisherman's hut on Loch Ordie in Dunkeld.
Padding ... Loch Lubnaig just outside Callander.
General ... Teresita restaurant on the beach in Viareggio, Italy ... And relax.
Oh and generally any time I’m sat here. Could be bimbling to Aldi, doing the school run, off with the bike in the back to Wales with mates, or blasting across Germany to Austria for a lads ski trip. It does everything so well. It even makes being stuck in traffic bearable.
Username checks out
Sat on the Borsat lift w my wife and boys and hipflask in the sun talking about where to have lunch and failing to keep up with them anymore.
And here in the UK, anywhere on the downs w my bike, preferably on the ridge, sunny early morning in the summer w just the breeze and the skylarks for company (shame can't post video)
Being in the mountains
Nineteen Trees (mistakenly called Twenty Trees by some).
Everyone calls it Twenty Trees cos the alliteration just sounds right.
Everyone (well, all the locals) also know that there are only nineteen trees.
+1 for Charlie's Cairn, I'll often stop by that for a few moments.
Everyone calls it Twenty Trees cos the alliteration just sounds right.
Everyone (well, all the locals) also know that there are only nineteen trees
If we're being that pedantic...
Back in the days when you could actually waterski properly on Windermere, it was amazing to finish a dawn ski session (we'd be on the water at 6.30am, not a ripple on it, sun coming up over the hills) and then just sit by the lake afterwards
It's a mere. Not a lake.
Lochan Uaine & Ryvoan bothy/pass - walking or biking.
The Highlands in general.
Sitting listening to the birds and the breeze, whilst looking at the sunset views from Castlerigg Hall, Keswick.
Whitley Bay seafront in the worst of winter weather, marvelling at the power and ferocity of the sea.
Watching cricket at New Road, Worcester, my home town.
It's a mere. Not a lake.
A mere is just another name for a lake, is it not?
Everyone calls it Twenty Trees cos the alliteration just sounds right.
Everyone (well, all the locals) also know that there are only nineteen trees.
I counted them twice, just to be sure.
Tempted to start a crowd-funding initiative to plant a twentieth tree in the name of arboreal pedantry 😀
A mere is just another name for a lake, is it not?
Google says not, a mere is disproportionately shallow for its surface area - a very big puddle basically. Also a mere doesn't have a thermocline. So strictly speaking, not quite. But also yes.
Anywhere in the Flinders Ranges - reminds me of the Lake District (but with no lakes, trees or grass or people) and Arkaroola is pretty special for the Geologists in the room. Coward Springs (just below Lake Eyre) for a warm spa on the edge of the great artesian basin after a couple of days drive up the dirt. Also at our cottage in Hawes in the Dales - sheep, grass, rain and lush countryside…..