Bonus

Perhaps a sign in the arrivals lounge of each of Sa's international airports just to cover everything?

Having lived in the UK for so long, between stints in SA, I still can't get over how good the "Northern Hemisphere" weather is here right through November and usually up until Christmas. The UK is generally crap from the beginning of November onwards. With people giving heartfelt thanks to any day with sunshine between now and March! Man it used to depress me. I didn't mind the "dark evenings" so much - especially near Christmas when people put lights up etc. It's can be very pretty and "warming" even on a cold night. But the countless "grey days" that go on and on used to drive me nuts. I was guiding someone visiting here from the UK once and he said to me "if you put up a webcam showing people what the weather is like here in Winter, I gaurantee there will be people in the UK who have just "had enough" and browse the net looking for a weekend away. A webcam will sell it for you". So here we appreciate the lack of grey and the abundance of sun during the winter.... From yesterday mornings ride and then yesterday afternoons walk....... the Pena Monenesa and the Rio Ara :-)

Crazy out there!

Not quite as easy to achieve, but if they manage to knock you down a couple of gears you'll be stuffed. We used to do it to each other on hill climbs - click click click and its game over.

Every ride is a lottery it seems! :-(

In the last fortnight I've spent 50% of my waking time working, 30% of the time riding and 20% of the time either being at, or watching on TV, La Vuelta 2020! On Sunday I bumped into people on the road at La Vuelta who would be interested in staying with us and road riding the same roads that La Vuelta followed. Having coffee on the terrace at Hotel Sanchez on Wednesday morning I was approached by a lady from Holland who organises adventure holidays to this area and wants me too be her contact point for organising Kayaking, Canyoning and of course Mountain Bike Riding. Apparently Holland "has no mountains" so they would be interested in cross-country riding - which makes things easier for me. And then yesterday a local lady, who I worked with back in the summer, called me about English lessons for her son and reminded me that when we are up and running I said we would be running "Speak English Only" holiday clubs for local youngsters whose parents are at work...... On top of that, Ainsa Council, which covers (amongst other things) the town of Ainsa, the Zona Zero MTB Trails and the village of Guaso, where our Project is, curently has a dozen improvement projects on the go. The future looks promising..........

Remember the days when you could ask to go and see the cockpit mid flight and the stewardess would arrange it for you? Did it loads of times. Doubt I'll ever get to do it again now :-(

yep......

That was quick!

SAA, Eskom, etc etc. So frustrating. Like trying to swim with a bag of rocks tied around your neck I imagine.

Boeing . . . shedding more jobs. Not a huge surprise under the circumstances. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/28/boeing-ba-earnings-q3-2020.html#:~:text=In%20the%20first%20nine%20months,targets%20as%20demand%20has%20dropped.

The Dutch certainly know how to obtain 6 Jumbos for their museum eh?

My first time ever on a plane was aged 12. An SAA 747-200. London-Paris then Paris Jo'burg - around the bulge of Africa in 1976! Since then I've been on several SAA 747's, an Air Namibia 747SP (Ex SAA) and a BA 747 from New York last year. Technically 2 BA 747's because we sat on one for three hours which then couldn't take off because of an issue and swapped to another plane!

Lufthansa 747's landed at an airport for storage and now they can't leave...... https://simpleflying.com/lufthansa-boeing-747s-stuck/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0ufKrc1fTboNQ0Iw6r6M4-yXZDijZt7808DIVdgT-S7nCQOnWV4AyHF2s

The latest from AC/DC......

:-)

We had a really nice day yesterday at La Vuelta. I've posted some pics in the "La Vuelta 2020" thread. Last night we watched the "highlights" on TV and it was amazing to see the area we live in from the air. It's easy to get used to the mountains around here and to forget just how cool this countryside is. So much that we still haven't properly discovered! :-)

Def. true! I fell asleep for 10 mins one sunny afternoon laying in what looked like a beautiful green meadow. I was eaten alive by bugs, the longish grass - which looked dry - turned out to be wet underneath so I woke up wet and caught a chill as a result. Disaster!

Closer than I would have got!

Also not a fan, but I do like this one....

The Cols are spectacular, but it can be hard getting there and away again afterwards during a race :-)

This weekend "La Vuelta a España", which was pushed back by 2 months thanks to Covid19, will be passing right through the area we live in :-) We currently live in Boltaña and the race will pass through Ainsa, 6km east of here at the 100km mark and again through Fiscal, 20km west of us at the 160km mark. With luck we should be able to see the race both times. Race officials are predicting about an hour and a half of riding between the two points while they take in the "Añisclo Canyon" with its "Alto de Vio" and "Alto de Fanlo" climbs. Plenty of time for us to get from one to the other..... The weather and temperature differences between mid August and mid October are worlds apart. The weather is currently too changeable to try and predict. Yesterday I was working in shorts and a T shirt - today I'm at home and it's raining and cold. Overall I'd guess that this is going to be a much colder & wetter Vuelta than usual. Stage 5 is following a different route than that which was originally released last year. It finishes in a different place - I assume because of the snow on the peaks at this time of year. The Route: The race will leave the town of Huesca and head east towards Barbastro. They'll be on the "old road" not the new dual-carriageway that we would use. It's an undulating road which, overall, descends very slightly between the two towns. In Barbastro they will turn left (North) and head towards Ainsa. 20km outside of Barbastro they will start riding alongside the El Grado Dam (Embalse del Grado) followed by the Mediano Dam (Embalse de Mediano) which takes them all the way up to Ainsa. The Mediano Dam has an abondoned village in the middle of it - you can see the top of the church tower, even when the dam is full. Currently the dam is 3/4 empty! Through Ainsa and 11km up to Escalona where they turn left again (West) and hit the two climbs of the day. This road is not an easy road to get any speed up on - up and down and very wiggly! The riders will have to pay attention here. It does take in some really stunning scenary though. We've driven it several times. They exit the valley at the small town of Sarvise, about 145km into the stage and turn left (South) to head down to Fiscal. This road is downhill all the way to Fiscal and it's not a bad road. From Fiscal to the finsh in Sabiñanigo they will be on, for the most part, a relatively new nice wide road that includes a 3km long tunnel and a 2nd Cat climb. I would expect an all out sprint for the last 20km of the race! Incidentally, the road from Sarvise all the way to the finish line in Sabiñanigo is the same road that they rode back on 4th September 2016 at the beginning of Stage 15 of La Vuelta - but in reverse. That was the day Nairo and Alberto dropped everyone in the first 10km of the Stage!

In between knocking the garden back into shape over the last few days, we managed to squeeze in a little hike up on the top of Zona Zero Route 10 - ZZ-010 "La Coasta Doble". It was a lovely day and the views are great. It's a nice place to go for a "quick hike" because it's only a 10 min drive from Guaso and you can drive a lot of the way up!

Yesterday - From Boltaña, up to Guaso via the footpath behind the Monastary, stopped at our Project for this pic, then up to the view point by the church. Picked up two lost riders on the way up and set them straight - all part of the service - then down to Ainsa, up to Ainsa Castle, down past the pump-track and back along the river. Perfect

Oven baked conkers were iron hard. You weren't supposed to do it but some people did secretly lol