Just thought I would say a quick hello as I have been offered a place on the MSc course I applied for some time ago, and will be starting in September. The college is in Dartington and I will be living there while I study.

But yeah, I look forward to enjoying the trails and maybe riding out with some of you guys some time.

Hi, short night rides every wed/thrs night from plympton and then as weather gets better up on t’moor for longer evening/night rides, and sunday morning rides of 3hrs or so around cann woods and moor etc haldon every now and again the quantocks (should be more often its ace)
page me or julian wilson off of here and we could sort some riding out.

well done and welcome.

@ dartington hall?

Del Hi – yep – Schumacher College, Holistic Science.

FatM – hi – I have been saving one or two Dartmoor threads and will certainly be in touch when I get down there. I wont be moving till September but in the meantime will be enjoying the photos of rides.

uh huh, they’ll be there and await the next victim….coller bone, femur, pride…..it’s all there to be broken round here.

But just one question…where the **** is Darlington college in the south west?

Err – it’s in Dartington, which is a mile or two outside of Totnes.

Ah there…

What holluscenic science???

Sorry i drink cider and know little of the world outside cows and straw, is this the study of fungi and stuff like wat the kids do to amke them happy?

totnes used to be my old drinking ground. there’s a pretty good vibe there, so long as you can rub along with the hippy bo11ocks ( there are two camps – the moneyed lot who can afford to be hippies and the crusties ) OK.
good food and good beer in plentiful supply. good music if you look.
as you might guess there’s plenty of riding going on.
dartington is a beautiful place to be.

you’ll want to pester slugwash then he’s from round that way me thinks?

pics of some of my stuff here

fungi and stuff like wat the kids do to amke them happy

especially in totnes Sharki 🙂

Heh – it’s quite a broad course covering the likes of environmental management, sustainable education, biological and social research.

Thanks for the photo link. Will have a look later when I have more time at home.

Yeah – I was down in Dartington in January for the interview and so I have a little bit of a feel for the vibe of Totnes. I also bought a couple of Dartmoor maps so at least I can try and follow your ride reports and photos when you post up in the meantime.

Its about an hours drive from Dartington to the Quantocks, but when you’re ready put a shout out, and I’m sure one of us locals will volunteer to guide.

AH!! just as i thought, getting stoned on shrooms and puttingthe world to rights in a sustainable and enviromently way… you livin in a wigwam thingy or college owned dorm like place, theys aint nun too good for the enviroment yous knows, i’ve ‘erd theys got a little grass village down int woods like, livin like obbits i’ll av you know, seems a merry bunch, pretty friendly too…..all them shrooms must be damn mellowing like…

Enjoy, but beware of the welsh down there……the buggers learnt to swim and managed to get over the channel then they wormed there way through all the mines the little buggers, full ‘o’ non devon types darn there, bloody brummies and northerner too…’stids!

i drive through totnes on the way home from work and you can spot the moneybags hippies a mile off..

Cheers Dibbs

Most of my riding will be local, but it would be rude not to have one or two rides with the legendary Knottie and friends. The trails there look great.

Oh, and after taking the very lovely Mr and Mrs Agreeable out this Saturday, they in return will be taking me out to sample Bristol’s finest rooty routes too so there is that plus maybe an Afan trip too to look forward to.

Sharki – I guess there is room for a Doonhammer down there then? 🙂

Hi Simon. I work in Totnes and live a few miles further down the Dart Valley. I’ll be glad to hook up for a ride. We do a regular full moon ride up on the moor or down in the green lanes of deepest South Devon.

there’s a pretty good vibe there, so long as you can rub along with the hippy bo11ocks ( there are two camps – the moneyed lot who can afford to be hippies and the crusties )

Oi Del, I’m now suffering an identity crisis. Which camp do I fit into?

From what I’ve gathered from your postings on here Simon, I think that you’re going to enjoy Totnes and its rather leftfield slant on life. Bags of riding both on your doorstep and just a short drive away on Dartmoor/Haldon and then a ittle further up the road to the Q’s.

Make sure that you let us all know when you arrive and we can hook up for a ride.

Trailmonkey

Hi – certainly will. I am hoping to travel for a month or two beforehand but will be back here posting in September for sure.

I also like to visit megalithic sites, and there seem plenty of those to find looking a the Ordinance Survey maps and my Julian Cope book.

Highest concentration of those in western Europe. We ride past them all the time on Dartmoor 😀

Hello aswell

Enjoy Totnes, reminds me of the bar in Star wars but seems like a really nice place.

Lots of really great trails and always someone about to ride with. Let us know when you arrive.

it will be great to meet you Simon. Always welcome on our twice weekly rides.

Oh and Dartington college is so far out it should have its own hemoisphere. You’ll love it!

Well done Si and the best of luck 🙂

Thanks Aleigh – just trying to turn things around and be somewhere that is right for me. Feels like I am getting there now.

Evenin’
I got your email the other day – just be careful out there as you’ll be close to Saltash & you know what they say about Saltash………

Simon, if you would prefer to live by the coast in Kingsbridge let me know….

Forget evenings riding after work, eveings kayakin on the estuary after work is where its at!

Si – I’ll be living at the college through till maybe March. I think that is best as much of the course is about the discussions outside of lectures.

I will be going to Peru in Spring 2010 to work on my dissertation and then will probably need somewhere for a month in the summer as I write it all up.

Snaps – crumbs no – I have no idea what happens in Saltash!

Neither do I, but I know someone who does…

‘ere you lot leave Saltash ‘The gateway to Cornwall’ alone – Thank you very muchly 😆

Welcome to Devon Simon & I hope to catch up on Dartmoor some time to meet the legend that is Mr Ralli

don’t you mean the armpit of cornwall?

any, just what totnes needs, another stinking hippy 😉

Well to be honest, I am not too sure the word “legendary” is apt. Not as far as mountain biking goes anyway.

I offered to guide Mr and Mrs Agreeable and Roper around one of my local rides in Spain this weekend. However, Roper and Mr Agreeable shot off in the distance, and I also then lost sight of Mrs Agreeable too.

I did manage to find the “JanetStreetPorter” singletrack but then both Mr and Mrs Agreeable are DH as well as XC riders and they were doing jumps down the woody singletrack, while all I managed to do was ride into a particularly thorny bush.

I did see Knottie and friend try and clear a tree from a trail. Mr and Mrs Agreeable went looking for boulders and turned one tree blocking our route into something to ride over!

But yeah, I am of course really looking for ward to the very best the SW has to offer in terms of both trail and riders.

any, just what totnes needs, another stinking hippy

I’m no stinking hippy. I spend a fortune on personal hygene products don’t you know 😆

Oi Del, I’m now suffering an identity crisis. Which camp do I fit into?

neither – you don’t live in totnes, and refuse to pronounce your village’s name correctly, damn you! 🙂
how the hell are we supposed to adequately confuse the incomers if you pronounce things the way they are spelt? i’d start pulling up the road signs myself, ‘cept i’d get lost…

Jambo where’s that road sign pic you took in Tavy…you know the one! it must of been one of dels, ‘chippins’

how the hell are we supposed to adequately confuse the incomers if you pronounce things the way they are spelt? i’d start pulling up the road signs myself, ‘cept i’d get lost…

Oh dear Del, I think we’re working at cross purposes here 😉 Before we moved to the village whose name I can’t pronounce we lived in a tiny unsignposted hamlet. I erected my own signpost and, behold, nine months later Devon County Coucil replaced it with a proper, official one! Suddenly delivery drivers could find us, (unless they were driving 7½ tonners then they’d get wedged in down the narrow lanes. Hahah!)

Anyway, incomers like Simon Ralli won’t be needing any additional confusing, he sounds like a proper, full-blown, Totnesian yoghurt-weaver to me 😉

Simon R, here’s a link to the Totnes shop selling your favoured newlife hygiene products, the sofisticated type that sort the high-income, downshifters out from the eau-de-cannabis scented crusties.
.
http://www.greenlife.co.uk/