Well they were pretty terrible in the wet but in the dry I used to love the second part of the old red route – there was a dirty slidy slalom downhill bit in between trees that I loved, then the long singletrack back to the car park.

I am currently living in Brazil and I am using the Michel Thomas course which I used to learn Spanish. It does help having a Brazilian girlfriend of course. There are quite a few differences in pronunciation between Portugal and Brazil Portuguese, the Michel Thomas method teaches Portugal but it is probably the best system around, especially for the price.

The hard pronunciation bits are the nasal sounds, but you get used to it. Also, the vowel sounds are kind of inbetween ours, but nothing really hard – its more a memory thing. It is harder to learn than Spanish as it is less regular and the sounds of letters change depending on position, but not so bad,

Cheers folks. There is a language school here so I will also talk to them to see what they also recommend. I'll also check out those other course too.

Bit of a crazy year for me and will continue to be so. Started off in Devon, at college, with lots of great photo opportunities of many different things.

I then met my girlfriend in February who was on a 3 week module, so I bored everyone silly with lots of photos of her which made a break from seeing my ugly mug every day 😀

I then finished college (the teaching part) and went to see her in Brazil for a couple of weeks (inbcluding my 40th) and then went to Peru. Peru had its many challenges, and I decided to come back early. I am currently living in a hotel, as my girlfriend has pretty much been living in hotels for the last 9 years as she travels due to being a consultant(she does have a house where her Mum and sister live, but she is only there 1 day a week).

I am here for 2 months writing my dissertation and book, and then will be in Dumfries for 2 months writing and riding – yay! I don´t know when but some time in October I will emigrate to Brazil.

Quite a year. Am loving everyone else´s photos in the group too. A slightly different mix from last year, as this year we have old pros doing their second year, and others going through the same agonies of trying to accomplish the challenge – it really is not that easy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/sets/72157623112561096/

I would like to add my commiserations for Matt and all who knew Bert.

I for one just want to express my humble and personal view that I find dogs deeply spiritual beings who are very protective, and it is no wonder that so many owners find the loss of such a friend can be difficult, so hugs from me.

I like biking quite a lot, but then again i am off spending 2 months in the rain forest as of tomorrow and that will be something else too so yeah, biking isn't the be all and end all, I have quite a lot happening in my life right now. Looking forward to August and September in Dumfries mind 😀

I was going to say hello but I feel that as a driver of a 1.4 Vauxhall Meriva I lack any form of credibility and am not qualified to join this thread 🙁

Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Am currently on the 19th floor of a very nice hotel, working on my dissertation and staying with my GF who due to work lives in hotels Sunday – Fridays.

I am very lucky in that I don't fly home till early August but there are many worse places to be stuck than Brazil huh? Hope everyone else who is genuinely stuck manages to get home safe and well soon.

Yep – plenty of mountains to check out in Minas Gerais. However, there is a worrying trend it seems of combining full suss bikes, lycra and slick tyres in the city. If anyone sees me going down that route you have permission to shoot me!

My girlfriend took me to one of the most historic cities in Brazil for the weekend.

Did some scoping out of the local MTB scene as well as this region could be where we will be living in a few months time.

I had a chocolate cake with some very warm chocolate on the inside and icecream. Yum! 😀

Bunnyhop Happy Birthday and have a fab day today 😀

Big 4 0 for me today so goodbye thirties. Still, it is hardly the end of the world for me today or in fact this whole weekend 😀

Dave

Hi – sorry – mine wasn't a post about work – just interested to see if you were planning on moving to Brasil/Brazil. She is a director of quite a large business strategy consultancy and has worked for many CEOs of various top Brazilian companies. She is not currently after any more work right now but thanks for the offer!

Ah Bunnyhop – congrats to you too. I'll say it now as my lovely girlfriend has planned a trip into the countryside meaning we have to get up very early tomorrow. It's the big 4 – 0 for me! The last day of me being in my thirties 🙁

Just out of interest, where are you planning on living? I am in Belo Horizonte right now, and my girlfriend and I looked at a flat here where she can live for a few months. That means I can be with her in Brazil in July. After that it obviously depends on her, as she is a business strategy consultant, pretty well connected and has had a number of job offers in various states. I'll be back here in October once I have submitted my dissertation.

I was going to fly yesterday from Glasgow but my girlfriend talked me into flying out last week instead. Glad I did otherwise I would be having my birthday tomorrow without her and in Dumfries as opposed to being in Brazil 😀 Phew!

Absolutely excellent video. Glad you included the outtakes too, as whenever I rode it was a real stop-start faff-fest with one trip over the handlebars too.

Just one thing, there is a really steep almost u turn type corner, maybe you could have videod it from the top looking down to show the steepness? But yeah, tip top video and really enjoyed it.

I think his problem was that he did not have enough speed and he was too heavy on the brakes. I could do that no problem, I would just take it at much more speed and lay off the brakes. Momentum is your friend and all that. Hope he was ok though. At least he tried.

Folks – I'll post a post nearer the time looking for what suits people best and try and settle on a date that suits as many as possible. Maybe mid September would be good as a goodbye ride before I emigrate 😀

Forge – I will be back home in August so will have plenty of time free for some other rides too – I haven't yet gone off piste with Trekster at Mabie yet – can you believe it??

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. BBSB's plan is too good to be true. I speak as the ex manager of one of the world's largest internet casinos. We made huge amounts of money from people with "systems". As Einstein said, the only way to win at roulette is cheat 😀

Kirroughtree is great. I am going to sort out another group STW ride there end of August/ early September, just as I did last year.

I will never in this lifetime do either the chute or slab, even if it is just a case of laying off the brakes!

Personally I don't find the climbing that bad at all, but that bit at the top, Bran Burn Bash, and also the newish bits around Nil Desperandum really beat me up and are just too rocky for my liking.

I think Ae is brilliant if you like to get two wheels off the ground, and also there is quite a lot of descending too, but these are a bit too much for me too, although I love the short descent after The Edge. I always keep two wheels on the ground down Omega Man, so I guess I don't ride Ae that often. That isn't a criticism, I can see how for some people it is excellent, and there are parts that I really enjoy. I guess for my type of riding, you don't get much bang for your buck, and I tend to stick with Mabie, Dalbeattie and Kirroughtree.

The best advice I was given was to go with the flow, emotions wise. It can be a bit of a roller coaster. I had 2 mates take me to Ibiza a good few weeks after my sister died, and it was OK but then I had a right break down on the beach around 8pm when I was just sat on my own. A couple of strangers just came up and they were very supportive. Believe me, in difficult times it often brings out the best in people, even strangers, so as I said, my deepest condolences, and try not to hold things in. I also had a good friend of mine die in the Paddington train accident. A lot of my colleagues were in that as I was working in Slough at the time and quite a few commuted in on that train. While it does not ease things if I tell you that others have been through the same, in time it does get better, and just know that a lot of people feel for both you and his family.

Wow – respect is due! Hopefully you really enjoyed it despite the manic schedule. I tend to do one every couple of days or so, with rest days needed in between.

Stuff like this were you after?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zENdvTrs8OY&feature=player_embedded

[warning – contains the F word]

Have you thought about emigrating to somewhere nice and warm and sunny? 🙂

Anglesea?

Does anyone have Jedi's phone number? I think a certain someone off the forum could do with some skillz lessonz 😀

I'd love to tell you this was a set up but errr……….

Annoyingly enough I enjoyed it and wish I hadn't watched it now as I'll miss the rest but hey ho.

I think if I turned up on one of them at a STW meet, given how rubbish I am some may have a go at me for being over-biked 🙁

Thing is, I still can't quite come to tell my parents that for the last 2 years I have been drinking one of the world's most potent hallucinogenics, left a well paid job to do my MSc just so i could then go to deepest Peru to write a dissertation about it and then write a book about it………. They seem to think I am doing something with medicinal plants and reiki I think. They'll read the dissertation and then I think it may sink in. It will be quite a hardcore dissertation and not leave out the terrors, the filth and the mental anguish one goes through. I've kind of tried to tell them but I don't think it's ever really registered.

Yep – I can honestly say I have enjoyed all of them apart from 'Wholeness and the Implicate Order" which I have not yet read but will do. I am going to be writing a book about shamanism and will be basing the book on an expanded version of my dissertation. I have been investigating doing a PhD in shamanism but my MSc supervisor said I was better off writing a book in the first instance, so that is my plan of action in October…..

Like hoochylala I am finishing the first part of my literature review for my dissertation 😀

Am aiming to go to Mabie on Monday, maybe.

I guess the Tao is your friend if you just do the reverse of this process? maybe?

There was a great drought where Wilhelm lived; for months there had not been a drop of rain and the situation became catastrophic. The Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no result. Finally the Chinese said: We will fetch the rain maker. And from another province, a dried up old man appeared. The only thing he asked for was a quiet little house somewhere, and there he locked himself in for three days. On the fourth day clouds gathered and there was a great snowstorm at the time of the year when no snow was expected, an unusual amount, and the town was so full of rumors about the wonderful rain maker that Wilhelm went to ask the man how he did it. In rue European fashion he said: “They call you the rain maker, will you tell me how you made the snow?” And the little Chinaman said: “I did not make the snow, I am not responsible.” “But what have you dont these three days?” Oh, I can explain that. I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order, they are not as they should be by the ordnance of heaven. Therefore, the whole country is not in Tao, and I am also not in the natural order of things because I am in a discorded country. So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao, and then naturally the rain came.”

Alpin – I remember that thread – it was awesome! We all bowed in deference to your god-like riding skills did we not? 🙂

Well full respect for anyone doing it as it looked knackering! I wouldn't want to race myself but would love to ride some of the routes.

Ah right – I never win anything to be honest so for me it's all about taking part. I can't actually remember the last time I won anything. I think I must have won something once but I forget what.

Yeah – they showed one where they had to re-route the start of one of the races. I wish I had paid attention to the articles in the mags around then. Is it an annual thing then?

Also, are they pure DH bikes as there seemed to be quite a lot of pedalling involved, maybe more so than your normal DH type race.

What are we going to do? Ask people to take a riding proficiency test and then limit their spending on bikes to certain brackets? If that were the case I would never be able to get anything other than a a bike shaped piece of metal from Tesco!