Death From Above

Most awesome.

There was getting up VERY early and hiking in. There was sitting. Many hours of sitting (truth be told, we brought all kindsa books and sudoku to entertain us, but never touched them. We were having too much fun watching the other folk coming through). There was free stuff (on day one we got Haribo!) (the sigh of disappointment when it became clear the chips float weren't throwing chips into the crowd was heart breaking) (on day two I almost fought a man for a King of the Mountain cap. I WON).

There was looking at the view through binoculars (especially on day two when we were on 'cote de Oxenhope' and had all the valleys lain out before us up to the 3 peaks in the purple misty distance).

And eventually. EVENTUALLY. There were outriders and sirens and the red official car and then... BIKES!!! All the BIKES!! Leaders and chasers and peleton and I saw Chris Froome's butt on the very first day and Dave Beresford looked STRAIGHT AT ME out of the Sky car window and BIIIIIKES. :D

Esh, the peleton is scary even if you've remembered to step back.

And then the long walk home with the rest of the crowd, winding our way along back footpaths to the real roads on the other side of the moor/down the valley to the train station.

It was awesome and amazing and brilliant and wonderful. Best Weekend EVER.

So, got up at 4:30 to cycle 20 miles to see the Tall Ships sail out. [I popped over yesterday to see them in harbour (and buy binoculars^[1] and a map for the cycling)].

Just got back after doing 30 miles (nice friends gave me a lift part of the way back) with a tan line on one leg and a big oil smear on the other. Have showered (for the suntan cream), Moisturised (for the sun burn) and eaten an ice-cream (cos it's summer and that's what you do).

So worth it. :D

The cycle out was amazing, the sun rising at my back, mist in the fields hiding what was land and what was sea with just the windmills and the Saltees sticking up identifiably. It's a fantastic road, just high enough to see all the way down to the Southern Coast across rolling fields. Usually I hate to cycle on it because it's stuffed to the gills with drivers in a hurry who pass too close and hate all cyclists with a passion. But at 5am? Totally empty. My road, my lovely road. I could pick the smoothest spots, wobble into the middle when enraptured by the view. Oh, it was brilliant.

And now I have sausage rolls. Best day ever. Fact.

( Now with bonus pic! )

^[1] I have binoculars now, binoculars are cool.