Downhill Biking at Triscombe

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Today was another energetic day for me as I headed up to Triscombe in the Quantock Hills to partake in another one of my hobbies, downhill mountain biking. It is one of my favourite hobbies as it mixes large amounts of adrenalin with skill and a lot of exercise as downhill biking is actually very tiring and in the UK once you get to the bottom you have to push back up. While it is one of my favourite hobbies it is one that unfortunately I have little time for and this is only the second time I have been out this year. I headed up with a friend from Exeter and we met up with some of his friends there, it turned out to be a very long day as we didn’t leave until about 6 due to not realising how late it was due to having lots of fun and the long days at the moment. This is the first time I have been to Triscombe and I was very impressed with the trails, they were all a decent length (which does have the downside of a long push up!) and very varied with. Read the full article…

An Afternoon Walk on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

Today was was forecast to be beautifully sunny and as I am based in Exeter I made plans to head to Dartmoor in the afternoon once I had finished work to do a 9mile walk in beautiful scenery. Thankfully the weather did not disappoint and today we were greeted with clear blue skies and sun with temperatures up to 27 degrees! Though at times it was almost too hot! We started at two bridges before heading up to Longaford Tor via Wistman’s Wood which is a wood of stunted oak trees that are very odd to look at due to their lack of height. After this we headed up to Bellever Tor via the old Powder Mills where gunpowder used to be made. We next headed down to the West Dart River and over the two sets of stepping stones which were very picturesque before heading back along the moor to the car. It was a great walk encompassing many of Dartmoor’s wonderful features be it beautiful scenery, odd woods, old buildings from time gone by, stepping stones and stone circles and we could not have chosen a better day to do it on. Today I was focusing more on landscapes. Read the full article…

Scrambling in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to Snowdonia for a long weekend of scrambling and mountaineering with the Expedition Society from my university. As we headed up the forecast was not looking good at all but we all remained positive and the weather was better than initially forecast though we did have to alter our routes slightly due to the weather. On Saturday we scrambled up the north ridge of Tryfan which is a fantastic scramble though unfortunately when we went up we were in hill fog and rain which remained until we had left the summit but as we were walking up to the Glyders after Tryfan it cleared beautifully and we were treated to fantastic views and sun. This improved weather stayed all evening which enabled us to have a BBQ to end a great day. On Sunday our plan was to do the Snowdon Horseshoe which is one of the classic routes in Snowdonia which includes Crib Goch which is a fantastic knife edge ridge. As it was a bank holiday weekend we headed to the car park for 7:30 to ensure we got a space as it fills up early and. Read the full article…