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Lacrosse: Edinburgh University vs Durham0
neil posted in Travel on January 31st, 2007

Edinburgh ladies beat their closest rivals, Durham, 7-4 at Peffermill sports ground in Edinburgh.

Emily “Flame” Knight (number 4) led scored two for the home team. Durham’s captain Annabelle “Babs” Norris accounted for half of the away sides goals.

Last year they had a narrow victory 5-4 against Durham to become BUSA champions. Here the score was 6-1 at half time, Durham coming out stronger in the second half, but not strong enough to claw back their deficit.

Through Guatemala0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 30th, 2007

Crossing the western border from Belize to Guatemala, the differences between the wealth of the two countries could not be more clear. The road to the border on the Belize side was a well maintained highway, with a large passport office at the end of it. As soon as we passed through this office and entered to Guatemalan border checks, everything changed. The passport office was a tin shack and the road disappeared entirely, being replaced by a crumbling track covered in a layer of slippery mud a few inches thick - the result of recent rains. The “road” continued like this for at least 25km, making for an interesting bus trip, as the driver fought to keep the bus going in a straight line. The biggest challenge was a large hill about half way along the road, which had a line of trucks stuck at the bottom of it. They didnt have enough traction to make it up the hill through the mud. Dont worry, we didnt hit anything, but other vehicles did collide…

We took this bus to a small village called El Remate, in between Tikal and Flores (where most people visiting Tikal stay), because we wanted to be able to get to Tikal early to avoid the crowds. (We decided this was important after having to wait over an hour to get our entrance tickets to Chichen Itza.) So at 5.30 the next morning we were already on the shuttle bus to Tikal. It worked - we only had to share the main plaza with 4 or 5 other tourists. The site itself was absolutely stunning, and on a massive scale, with 6 enormous pyramids, several smaller pyramids and hundreds of smaller buildings and palaces forming maze-like clusters around the main squares of the city. Exploring it took nearly 4 hours. The whole complex is deep in the jungle, and some areas have been only partially cleared, or even left covered by plants and trees, and birds and howler monkeys provide the background music. A particularly impressive sight is the view from the top of the larger temples - you can see the tops of the other large buildings poking up through the jungle canopy. In the morning, there was still mist clinging to the trees and around the tops of the temples, making the place seem even more mysterious.

After 4 hours of trekking through the jungle and exploring the city, we had had enough of ruins, so we decided to head back to Flores. It is a small city built on an island in Lake Peten Itza, and linked to the shore by a causeway, so the plan was to spend a night there before heading on to the highlands of Guatemala. (It was also the site of the last Mayan city to hold out against the Spanish and maintain independance.) But here was where the problems started: we had only changed enough money on the border to see us through one night and it was impossible to withdraw money from any of the ATMs in the city (I tried at least eight) and it being a sunday, the banks were all closed. The reason for this apparently was that the central bank had decided that the old notes had to be replaced, so they recalled and destroyed large quantities of old notes. But they didnt bother to wait for the new ones to be ready. Simultaneously, two commercial banks went bankrupt. The result was a severe shortange of physical cash. Nothing for it but to buy a bus ticket using the VISA card, and move on.

Next stop: Antigua Guatemala (which literally means Old Guatemala). Antigua used to be the administrative capital for all of Central America during Spanish colonial times - an area spreading from what is now southern Mexico all the way to Costa Rica. (Panama was part of modern Columbia, and therefore officially in South America.) It also used to have a different name, but sometime in the late 1700s, the regional governmant, and the catholic church both moved their headquarters to a new site (to be safe from earthquakes which have repeatedly destroyed parts of Antigua), which they called Guatemala City. So Antigua was renamed - it was the old city.

We spent most of our time there just wandering through the streets admiring the colonial buildings, almost all of which are still in their original state. The town is surrounded by three volcanoes - real picture postcard stuff. After a few days we decided to take a trip to Lage Atitlan, a beautiful lake which is also surrounded by volcanoes and which has a number of little villages dotted around it. We took a tour that took us by car to the top of the ridge of mountains surrounding the lake. From there it was about 35km by bike (all downhill!) to reach the village we were staying in. Kate took the road all the way, along with most of the group, but after lunch I went with Victor our guide, and Mark (from N Ireland) along a rocky walking path that took us down to the lake. Possibly the most difficult mountain biking trail I have ever taken - it was incredibly steep, very rocky and narrow. Great way to arrive though, and the looks we got from the locals were fantastic! The next day we rented kayaks and paddled about 8 miles along the lake, before stopping for a swim and then hiking back through beautiful scenery. After all that excercise, what better way to spend the next day that an 11 hour bus ride (starting at 4am) to take us across the border into Mexico?

David

Kendo0
neil posted in Photos, Neil on January 29th, 2007

Kendo is the beautiful art of hitting your fellow man with long bamboo sticks. The sport is based around two person duels. To score a point you must make contact with an approved part of your opponents armour, release a kiai (shout representing warrior spirit), stamp your front foot and be ready to attack again. All of this has to happen at the same time. Making a very tricky sport designed to be the pinnacle of traditional Japanese swordsmanship.

While Edinburgh Universities Kendo team spar, they speak Japanese. Greeting, bowing and applauding by tapping their do or torso armour. As a Kendoka makes a strike he/she screams the area they intend to strike and draw the scream into a war cry. Judges raise red or white flags for the victor. The matches do not take place on a strip as in fencing, but over a reasonably sized ring. The movements are a little like boxing as the Kendoka go in for a clinch to immobilise the others shinai (sword), striking quickly as they pull away. Towards the end of the training, the team do some demonstrations for the newer club members. This develops into a person on person melee spinning throughout the dojo.

Photos, finally0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 24th, 2007

I finally got round to putting some more photos online. The photos so far include pictures of Merida, the New Years party, various Mayan sites in Mexico and a couple of pictures of Belize. More photos will be added soon.

 

Pictures can be found HERE

Viva Guatemala4
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 20th, 2007

So back tracking a bit as we haven’t posted in a while. We last left you for a tropical carribbean island. Dave has now officially gotten his open water diving certification …. and you will be glad to hear I have abandoned the corn rows!

Daves dad, Andy joined us for a few days (much beer was consumed, as we were trying to do our bit for the Belizian economy)and we took in Lamanai, a huge mayan site. They estimate it has over 900 individual buildings, of which only a tiny proportion have been uncovered. To get there you jump on a speed boat at Orange Walk town (somewhat close to Gallon Jug, dont you just love the names… there is even a place called Pulltrouserswamp) and head 30 miles upriver.

After a few days in the jungle we headed back for the coast. This time to Placencia, a small town that up to ten years ago didn’t have a road, so they built the main st along both sides of a pavement…really, main st is only 4 foot wide. It’s in the guinnes book of records as the world’s narrowest street. We booked ourselves a 4 day kayaking trip, not much kayaking got done as the weather wasnt great but we got to live on our own desert island for 4 days. Just us, our guide and cook, the hermit crabs and 6 palm trees. Dave walked it and it was 360 paces or (one fifth of a Roman Mile) to a complete circuit (tiny).

Andy left us yesterday, on a tiny tiny plane and we did the 5 hour bus trip north to Cayo. There we saw xunantunich, another really impressive maya site (I know I know, no pictures yet, but soon I promise).

We left for Guatemala this morning and head to Tikal tomorrow so more pictures of that soon too.

A petition, Mr Prime Minister!0
neil posted in Travel on January 19th, 2007

I strongly urge you to sign this petition (if UK citizen)

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Cycles-on-Trains/

Can you think of a better way to get around? The only thing holding it back is the amazingly poor design of the bike racks on trains and the abusive and unfriendly attitude of rail staff to people wanting to put their bikes on trains. When trying to encourage people to get out of their cars and get exercise, its a great solution. Plus having to drive to less places just to go cycling would be good too.

It benefits everyone and hurts no-one. So I signed it.

I like this online petition system, good work folks! You even get a nice email from Number 10!!

Wet and wild in Islay2
neil posted in Photos, Travel, Neil on January 18th, 2007

Islay, off the west coast of Scotland, is one of the first to meet the spinning wet depressions coming in from the north atlantic. In winter, its cold and very very wet. Good times for wave power. When the weather breaks however things get beautiful quickly.

Badminton: Further off camera lighting0
neil posted in Travel on January 13th, 2007

I made it to a team training session for the Edinburgh University badminton teams today. It was the first one back after Christmas and people were trying to find their groove again. They were also about to become the new “club of the week” for the SU publicity office. This meant I had to arrive with my massive extendable pole and proceeded to flash them with it. I mounted my SB-800 on a lighting stand and proceeded to do half of the shoot with it.

As with all university sports halls, the lighting temperature is somewhat of a mysery. I decided that tungsten looked best and added a filter to my flash. My flash then dumped buckets of red all over my images. This was’nt as bad as it sounds as it prevented them all being an odd shade of canary yellow.

Shooting with off-camera flash is a revelation in this place. I get less action as the cycle times are lethargic, but what I get is much better! I can control the light direction too, and chose to shoot mainly cross lit. This had its good and bad points, but I like the drama of the images that made it.

Without flash:

Off camera lighting and mountainbikes, take one0
neil posted in Travel on January 10th, 2007

Took bikes and off-camera flash to Bristo square today. Managed to blow out Cammy’s rear tyre going up a staircase so Frasers bike performed all stunts. Shooting in some form of daylight would be better as these pictures were taken very very blind. All the photos with a brown jacket are Frasers and used with permission.

Thats Mabie baby!3
neil posted in bikes, Neil on January 9th, 2007

By the time that Scotlands slacking sun had got its ass out of bed a convoy was racing for Dumfries. After three people with degrees (and one with a doctorate) mistook the word “farm” for “forest” we arrived at the deserted Mabie forest trailhead. It was looking like a top notch day.

The first thing we did was screw up. We decided to do the blue route in the morning and the reknowned Pheonix trail red after lunch. The blue at Mabie is obviously unfinished. It starts on some promising singletrack, then turns into a forest road for the rest of the trail. Just don’t bother with the loop, session the blue singletrack to get your corners down (as Kathryn did). There is no reward whatsoever for actually riding the entire trail.

The red however is a different beast entirely. It curls intestinally around Mabie forest and manages to fit a decently long trail in a pretty small space. The riding is very different to the Glentress red. Glentress’s run suddenly seems like a BMX track. Mabie seems much more like it was always there and the trail “grew” rather than was built. This means that some challenging rocky features have been included in the trail. Rocky chutes, drops (rollable) and rough roots appear with only a little warning. I take my hat off to whoever built the trail, the obstacles are precisely pitched at the improving mountainbiker. None are titanic or intimidating but there is plenty of challenge for those who seek it. The berms are good but take a little getting used to as they are made from loose rock. Robbie highsided one and rode away with scrapes to his palms. Boggy areas are traversed with north shore style boardwalks, the only one of these is an intimidatingly narrow bridge over a rock stream. A sudden panic attack caused me to stall out on the bridge and fortunately I rotated off it backwards rather than falling into the rocky stream some distance below. There are some crazy log-ride options for the daring, but we passed them by. For out and out nutters there is also the nearby Kona Dark Side and some progressive north shore not shown on the map. I counted two deliberate water splashes on the red route. The biggest has a wee step but can be ridden at speed. The only thing the Pheonix trail lacks is air. There is air, but I miss the tabletops of Glentress.

Robbie ran out of puff. Fraser tore his chain apart again and again until he completed the latter sections with no chain at all. George acompanied him out of the forest to meet Kathryn. This whittled us down to myself and Christine. We hit the final section in failing light. Its a good section and well worth doing. I only have a vague idea of what it looks like, but it was great fun. The final drop can be traversed either by a nice slope or one of three chutes. Fraser and I had sessioned two of them before lunch. The one that goes near vertical over a rock is thrilling, but less scary than you might imagine. I was taken aback when a family went past and youngest girl declared she was going to do a ramp. Fortunately she meant the escape slope and did’nt try her single footed technique on the chutes. This meant I could leave with a sense of achievement rather than being out-ridden by a ten year old.

If you are a red-router then Mabie will be good for you. It is probably not the course to choose to graduate from blue runs however as the obstacles are a cut above. That said a good front wheel hop and calm nerves will suffice for 90% of the trail. There is a cycle shop and cafe at the trailhead who will rent bikes but they did’nt carry a chain for Frasers bike. They will however provide a burger based lunch and a warm place to munch sandwiches. Nearby Dumfries provides a good evening meal if you can find somewhere safe to stash cars loaded with bikes. The drive from Edinburgh is about an hour and a half.

Mabie’s website can be found here.

Christine has photos and writings here

Georges photos are here.