Return to Cannock.

The Carnival returned to Cannock on Sunday.
Forecast was for a mild and Sunny day.
That ensured that we had -50 deg. and rain.














It wasn't really THAT bad.
We all had a great time playing in the midlands mud and met the two newest members of the Virtual Carnival.
Eamonn's two lads James and Tom.














He told me they have only been riding a short while but they both went like seasoned pro's.
There was a lot of good singletrack sections to get us all grinning.
Loads of slippery downhill to make us either laugh or fall off (or both).
And a few jumpy bits where some of us nearly left the ground.
Most of us were happy to take easy falls and slide along the ground.
Not Mr. Chicken!
He had to look for the nasiest place to crash.
Once he had perfected his style he took a run-up and showed us how to stack it BIG stylee.
Respect.














After that it was time for food.
We walked all our mud through a lovely clean visitor center and sat down to re-fuel.
Always looks good when the bikes are placed in a line.















Many thanks to Eamonn for the guiding.
Here's to next time.

More pictures are on Fotopic website.
Go to your right and click on ...er......Fotopic.
Cheers.

A Visit to Cwmcarn South Wales.

The Carnival Upped sticks and rolled into Cwmcarn on Sunday.
It was a great day out.
We met up with a couple of mates from Chamonix. Ed and Chris.
Ed has a brand new bike after breaking his last one at Chicksands.
A lovely Red Cotic Soul. Very nice.
Chris still has the same old Specialized in Stealth Black.
Lap one of Cwmcarn reminded us how much we love/hate the first section of technical climbing.
Casualties on the first lap were:
Debbie. Broken freewheel 5 minutes into the ride.
Terry. An off and a bit of a roll around the floor.
Cham Chris. Had a slide off into a bank in one of the wooded sections.
All great fun. No broken bones and everyone was smiling after the last downhill section onto the carpark.
We were all thinking we could have done that FASTER!
Lunch was a nice fry-up (it's gotta be done).
Then lap two.
More of the same fun and the sun came out. :O)
Casualties on the second lap were:
Mini Me. Cut his finger while demonstrating his trials skills. (he didn't need airlifting from the mountain)
Alex. A tricky root gap. She spun off and fell down the hill a bit.
I laughed at her.
Me. I did exactly the same trick and fell off trail side and rolled around a bit.
As we thought, we went faster on the downhill sections this time.
The last hoon down to the carpark saw the Carnival out of control.
Nicky managed to stack it half way down. He got dusted down by dad and was off again in seconds.
Top Day. Top Biking Buddies. Top That!
All pictures remained inside the camera because it gave up working. Doh!