Maiden voyage of the Banana Boat

 

Our new bright yellow Tarpon 130T. A perfect morning in Caswell Bay in clean 1 foot waves.

Day-o, Day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Google does Morse Code

To celebrate the birthday of Samuel Morse.

Anyone into canoeing?

Is anyone out there into canoeing? If you know about this stuff, and you would be willing to pass on a bit of knowledge and advice I would really appreciate you contacting me at chris @ hikewales .co .uk

 

Many thanks :)

Heavens above

I just saw the ISS and Discovery (still docked) pass over my house after a tip off (thanks Den!).

Hell of a spectacle. Check when it flies over yours at www.heavens-above.com

 

Spring has sprung

Doom and gloom? What doom and gloom?

It’s amazing how nice a bit of sunshine makes you feel.

The Swansea forecast for the next few days looks wonderful*, and for once, BBC, Met Office and XC Weather seem to agree.

*Disclaimer: Forecast generated 12.38pm on 17th March 2009. It’s probably going to chuck it down tomorrow.

Augmented reality – wind farm style

If you have a few minutes (and a webcam), take a look at this and then go and try it. Jaw droppingly amazing fun!

Welsh Space Invaders

One for all you 40 something's out there. If you are Welsh, or know and love Wales… even better.

Have fun! Welsh Space Invaders.

Happy birthday Dr Seuss

The best Google header EVER!

I’m a big fan, I grew up with Dr Seuss books and my three sons have a pretty vast collection.

Nothing like filling kids heads with a bit of lunacy during a bedtime story. Makes for interesting dreaming.

How Welsh are you?

Happy St David’s Day

To celebrate the feast day of our very own St David, my company have devised a ‘How Welsh are you?’ test for our good friends over at www.wales.com.

Even if you are born and bred in Caerphilly, it may still hold a few surprises for you. You don’t need to be Welsh to have a go and you even get a certificate celebrating your honorary Welshness at the end of it.

Google Earth… ocean

Google Earth 5 now lets you explore the oceans too…

With ocean in Google Earth, you can:

 Dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench

 Explore the ocean floor with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC

 Learn about ocean observations, climate change and endangered species

 Discover new places including surf, diving and travel hotspots as well as shipwrecks

You can check out the HD version on YouTube

The Big Picture

Powerful stuff.

What a world we live in.

New best friend

Queer Travel

After Duncan's amusing post, I saw this and thought... "Just brilliant!"

A poster for a German gay travel website.

 

Via I believe in Advertising.

Christmas idiocy

Today I had an invite to an office Christmas party (not ours), that termed the festive get-together as a 'Christmas Networking Event'.

I would rather die, honestly.

Twats.

One does not simply walk into Mortor

 

Apologies, way off topic but it made my day and it uses The Beast by Milt Buckner.

Two wheels

I’ve been getting back into mountain biking recently after a few years spending my hill time on my feet.

I bought my first MTB back in 1988 – a beautiful black Cannondale SM700 (but with an upgraded Deore XT groupset). That bike cost me a whole terms grant. I still have it and it’s now set up as my touring/commuting bike.

The pages from the original catalogue I drooled over as a student

Back then, I did a bit of racing. The sport was so young, I was lining up against the likes of Paul Hinton, David Baker and Tim Gould, the elite racers of the time (Tim is actually in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, Colorado). No suspension, no disc brakes, no Camelbaks and normally no helmets.

My current bike (a 1999 Marin B17) is full bounce, 6” rear and 4” front, and I’ve had some good times belting around the woods or riding the purpose built trail centres around Wales. But I’m a bit more concerned about busting a collar bone or ending up impaled on a pine stump these days (family to feed and all that).

1999 Marin B17

So I am going back to my cross country (XC) roots – basically enjoying a good walk but on two wheels. The Beacons are criss-crossed with bridleways and the park positively encourages MTBers.

Back in the 80’s, it was a very different story – probably because MTB’s were brand new, just over from Cali’ and cyclists were taking to the hills for the first time, so riders didn’t know that a lovely twisting singletrack footpath wasn’t fair game and that it was bad sport to use a snoozing sheep as a ramp. Walkers were pissed off with lunatics flying past them at 30mph, ripping up paths and the sheep weren’t ecstatic either. It really was a battleground out there.

These day, the sport is mature, XC riders know and respect the hills as much as any walker and the kamikaze ‘downhiller’ fringe have pretty much confined themselves the FC trail centres.

I managed to find a great little book on riding in the Peak District for when I am staying with  my folks and another set of MTB routes in the Beacons. These books, combined with Memory Map and my Road Angel, are going to give me a whole new way to get out into the hills.

My B17 isn’t much good at this XC stuff, the geometry is all wrong, it doesn’t climb well, the bounce is too bouncy and it’s starting to creak a bit. So the hunt is on for a replacement.

I am lucky to have the acquaintance of Guy Kesteven, the gear guru from ‘What Mountain Bike’ and ‘MBUK’ magazine – we work with him on the MBWales website my company developed for Visit Wales. I have been firing off “What about this one Guy?” emails knowing that he has ridden and wrecked more bikes that most.

I have almost made up my mind.

Remember this day

By Patrick Moberg

Brooooom

I just love this.

The Skippy Racer Scooter.

Via swissmiss

 

A bit more digging found this... bargain.

Trackers

For those readers of a certain age...

Remember Trackers?

Before mountain bikes, before BMX, even before the Raleigh Grifter, (and about the same time as the Chopper), we had Trackers.

A 'racer' with the drop handlbars swapped for cowhorns and if you were flush, you would have some knobblies for 'bombing 'round the woods'. Your wheels were always buckled from jumping and your tyres were always a bit too bald from 30 foot skids.

Suddenly remembered mine on the way home from work tonight. Happy days.

Mears v Grylls

My good friend Bryn sent me this very amusing link.

Who's the daddy?

Ray's the daddy.

 

I've got my camera back

After four long weeks I have finally had my Canon 40D back from Jessops/Canon after a mystery Err 99 message appeared when booting up.

During that time I have been on a camping trip, my baby has started crawling and has grown a head of hair, my eldest has learnt to ride a bike and lost a front tooth (non related incidents) and lots of moments that I would love to have captured have passed.

My family have enjoyed the break though.

Look out kids, daddy's locked and loaded again.

Introducing the amazing Shit Box

You have just got to see this and it it British. Great website too.

"The Shit Box is a lightweight portable cardboard toilet made specifically for outdoor use"

One of these and a poncho tarp and you are set up for a 'scenic' anywhere.

Buy one now, these guys deserve success.

Well here we are...

...half way into May and there is a distinct lack of hill action here.

 

Alan and I are planning to walk the Beacons Way this summer, a couple of days at a time as we are seriously lacking brownie points after last years escapades.

We just can't seem to get it kicked - we are both busy with our prospective businesses and Al is particularly hopeless at answering emails! We'll get the walking kicked off soon and a couple of overnighters this summer. I have a Jungle Hammock to try out!

I have been spending the last month or two re-learning photography and have been bribing my kids with the rare delights of chocolate to pose for me... it's actually starting to come together. I used to illustrate for a living and it's been years since I picked up a pencil or paint brush, but I hooked up with a dear old buddy (Hi Dai), who has turned into an amazing pro photog since we last spoke several years ago. I think I may have found my art again - what a bloody relief, I thought I was destined to spend the rest of my life running a creative business and not doing anything creative.

Have a look at my Flickr folio - just the kids at the moment and screaming 'newbie', but it is keeping me out of trouble!

It's been a while...

Sorry, it's been a while since I last posted. Work is crazy, the garden is going crazy (big veggie plans this year - tom's, sweetcorn, carrots, runner, French and broad beans, red onions, various salad crops and asparagus), the kids are filling loads of time (brilliant fun!) and I am having fun with my new camera.

This is my eldest, taken this evening.

So what's been happening?

Cookie has started his trip, that'll be worth keeping an eye on.

It's finally getting warm enough to do stuff outdoors (we had our first BBQ this weekend)

I can see that the outdoor bloggers are starting to plan trips.

Pablo's doing loads of cool stuff as usual.

Bob's got loads of new kit including the brilliant toasting forks from Light My Fire. These got loads of use in the Cowell household last year.

Go and buy one for each of your family now if you want them to love the outdoors as much as you do.

Summer's coming :)

Cheers!

What a lovely day.

Managed to get loads done in the garden (as well as a glass of good Sauv' Blanc). A day in the Beacons was on the cards as Sarah and the boys are in Yorkshire with mum and dad for the Easter holidays, but Alan had a party with his biker buddies out West, so I stayed here, dug my vegetable patch and played with my new camera.

I am now the proud owner of a Canon 40D and some serious glass to go with it. I haven't used an SLR since I put my T70 in the attic when I got my first digital compact, and Duncan has been making me very jealous with his photography exploits.

I am really looking forward to getting out in the hills with this beast.

The only thing is, it adds about 6lbs to my day pack plus a tripod. I think I read somewhere that they do a camera mount for Pacer Poles... I'm off to Google it.

Justifying my Katadyn filter

Now that drinking bottled water is immoral and the eco-backlash gathers momentum (and not a moment too soon), did you know that it takes seven litres of water and 162g of oil to create a one litre plastic bottle [Observer].

It takes the same energy to drive half a km as it does to produce about a pint of bottled water. Ouch.

This is only the tip of the statistical iceberg.

Carry a filter and dip into a puddle to quench that thirst.

Airport Express

I installed an Apple Airport Express today, just for pushing my iTunes playlists from my XP PC through to my stereo. The wireless was crap (low signal, because my house is made of bricks, not plasterboard), but I installed CAT5 into my lounge last year and it works a treat.

I have been meaning to do this for ages and was wandering around PC World and there it was, calling out to me. It took hours to find the info via various forums for using Ethernet cable instead of wireless, but eventually, it all fell into place. I am now waiting for a posh optical cable to connect the AE to my amp.

I have tried another 'Media Adaptor', but it wouldn't work with iTunes playlists, so that will be on £Bay soon.

On another totally unrelated matter, my wife has a friend who works in Next - do you know they have competitions for the best 'looking' employees? How crass is that!

SEO For Bloggers

File under: Of no interest to anyone but my fellow Bloggers

Aaron Wall has written a Blogger's guide to search engine optimisation. If you read anything about SEO, read this.