Loving Life in Interlaken, Switzerland with Team Dog Tag
[vimeo 104024826 w=500 h=281]
Riding around the Isle Of Wight
At the weekend we set off in a mini adventure, to cycle around the Isle of Wight.
Armed with our road bikes, energy drinks and Bounce Balls we set off from Shanklin and headed towards Ryde heading North East along the coastal path. This part of the Island is the most built up, travelling through Sandown, Bembridge and into St Helen the scenery changed from holiday resort to quaint English sea side village with twisty streets and white painted buildings. Sea View is the next village along the coast, which offers plenty of cute coffee shops, ice cream stalls and fish and chips, a perfect place to stop and take in the view of Portsmouth, however today we were on a mission. A mission to train for Ride London, we have two weeks until the event and so today wanted to keep stopping minimal!
The sun by this point was blazing down on us and when we reached East Cowes we had a banana stop and refilled our water bottles whilst waiting for the chain ferry. Just over a quarter of the way round we were making good time and were happy with our progress. West Cowes is a bustling sea side village which on a bike will test your slalom skills as your navigate through tourists, shoppers and buggies!
Munching on Jelly babies and Bounce Balls at intervals we were feeling strong having covered a good proportion of our ride.
From here the landscape changed from coastal road to country roads with plenty of twists and turns and a great deal of hills! We made a stop in Freshwater a beautiful little bay on the west coast which today was packed with tourists soaking up the sun.
We rode up to the Dandelion café where we got a take away sandwich and sat on the cliff to eat.
As welcoming as this rest bite was, getting going again we were hit with a long hill climb this was the start of the coastal road which weaved its way up and down the edge of the Island.
With not much wind this was a sweltering part of the journey in the mid day sun and we took on a lot of water. The open road was often the only thing we could see for miles as we kept spinning towards our destination.
Blackgang with only £1 left of our money I made our last water run to a shop in Niton luckily a 1 litre bottle was 65p which kept us going on the hilliest part of our journey so far. 
A road closed in Ventnor meant a gruelling diversion before the last climb up through the old village into Shanklin.
With tired legs and out of jelly babies Martyn and I were glad to be back and in need of a well earned cup of tea!
63.23 miles, 4 hours 47 minutes, 1,352 calories burnt.
Back on the ferry to the mainland, ready for our next adventure.
One Life iD
One Life iD is a functional, affordable and aesthetically simple identification bracelet. The bracelet incorporates a silicon strap in a variety of different colours which is easily cut to wrist size and then secured with a stainless steel clasp.
The stainless steel tag is engraved with a unique QR Code, webpage link (URL) and PIN to allow access to the user’s online OneLife iD profile and emergency details to be shown if they are in need of help.
Each bracelet is linked to your online One Life profile which has information like your ICE (in case of emergency) numbers and any allergies you may have. The bracelet is similar to that of a medic alert bracelet but with a dash more style!
The bracelets durable materials are tough wearing which is great for an active lifestyle you can put this bracelet on and feel safe in the knowledge that should something happen to you, your emergency contact details are a click away for any one to access.
However recently I went snowboarding and found out that with wrist guards on you cannot wear the bracelet something I hadn’t thought about. Looking at the One Life iD product range this is easily solved by buying the necklace version.
One Life iD for me is all about peace of mind when I am training. Being a cyclist I often train alone either out in the woods or on long country roads so knowing that my emergency contact details are on my wrist puts my mind at ease and allows me to train hard without worrying about getting into trouble. Don’t get me wrong I don’t feel invincible, this is no magic bracelet and I am still cautious when training alone but it gives a certain peace of mind which helps me to concentrate on training.
As well as ID, One Life do a range of tags which can be attached to kit in case it’s lost, these are great and I attached them to everything, the durable plastic makes then mud, water and oil proof! As a cross country mountain biker my kit gets doused in everything the elements throw at it so knowing I have tough durable tags labelling it as mine is great in case I ever miss place something.
Carrying an ID bracelet with contact details if you are into outdoor sports is a really good idea especially if you are doing sports where the risk factor is higher. I would recommend One Life iD to anyone who is looking to take part in outdoor sports.
Happy Adventuring!
Snowboarding Mayrhofen
Why travel? To me because, we do not remember days but moments in our lives when the ordinary is eclipsed by extraordinary adventure.
Flying into Innsbruck airport you get to appreciate the skill of pilots. Flanked by high unforgiving peaks we gently glide through the cloud cover towards to run way.
Arriving in Mayrhofen the coach meanders lightly through the skinny Austrian streets dropping weary travellers at their hotels. Finally we arrived at our stop, getting off the bus we follow our rep up a narrow street into what seemed like the back and beyond!
Hotel Alpine Garni Eder is nestled on the outskirts of Mayrhofen looking out onto the National Park on one side and down into the hustle and bustle of Mayrhofen on the other, offering the best of both worlds!
Our welcoming host, Christine can’t get the schnapps open quick enough to toast with her new guests!
Weary from a day of travelling we head to the Wald Cafe (near the ice rink in town) for a delicious three course meal, and yes more schnapps! Well fed and watered we call it a night.
Learning to walk, like a ‘boarder’
Trekking from our hotel carrying the kit for the day, we make our way to Ahorn lift, as the main Penken lift is overflowing with people by 9.30.
Learning how to walk like a snowboarder gets some getting used to! Its a bit like you have been on a horse for a long time and cant straighten your legs fully. It is also the only time when it is totally acceptable to wear clashing bright colours and of course the baggiest trousers you possibles can, I’m really regretting not packing a belt!
The 150 person capacity lift moves effortlessly up the side of the mountain taking us to the top, arriving into blistering sunshine surrounded by crisp white snow which glints in the suns rays. The runs from here all start in a massive bowl, perfect for beginners. Each run has a great expanse of space and it makes you feel like you can carve around the whole mountain on your own, an amazing feeling!
After a couple of runs we stop at the ice bar for a well earned drink. From here we travel down red 5, to the village its a great run with a little flat road, which catches me out landing hard on my bum, but my impact shorts are doing their job and I’m soon back on my feet.
The Penkenbahn lift which is a hive of activity first thing in the morning has now eased and we walked straight into a gondola to the top. This is one of the longest gondola rides I’ve ever been on. From Mayrhofen which has no snow, we rise over trees and a steep cliff where the snow starts to show its self and I can feel the anticipation growing in my chest.
Mayrhofen is a great place to start snowboarding from, it offers so many options from Ahorn, Penken and over to Hoberg and Rastkogel. There are many runs which can be linked together to make long swooping runs down the mountain.
Linking together reds and blues we eat up the piste.
Martyn and I explored the piste an linked as many runs as we could crossing them off along the way determined to do every run and then journey off-piste if conditions were okay.
My favourite run was Red 1 which led onto Red 11 a mixture of terrains were covered in this run and it was exciting exploring its many features. It started off flat but quickly you arrived at the first downhill which was narrow, but opened up into a large bowl were you could make the most of the space around you on long traverses, it then narrowed again before opening up for the final home run down to the lift where you could really build up speed, such an exhilarating feeling, cutting through the snow.
After the first two days we have completed nearly every red run on Penken and Ahorn and decide tomorrow to head further a field, and check out Eggalm, which I have been pronouncing ‘egglam’! This unfortunately turns out to be my last boarding day as events unfold that no one could of planned for!
Exploration at its finest, by bus and board.
We set off on the Greenline bus nice and early heading to Eggalm two stops from Mayrhofen. The bus stops in Rastkogel and then proceeds to its final destination, the Hintertux Glacier, somewhere we have been told to visit on friday, when the visibility is good. Today the visibility is no good, but as we came all this way it would be rude not too!
As expected the visibility is poor, even at 3250 m. So we plan our route down which links together to make it to the bottom as a group. Red 5, 8, 4 and then 3 to the gondola. As always Martyn leads the way, a good track on his iPod, and he forgets our plan sending him totally in the wrong direction! Ending up on red 11, not to get separated Hayley, Kris and I follow Martyn into the fog on another adventure.
Why I love the mountains.
Making it into the bowl of the glacier the weather clears just enough to show us that behind the mask of fog lay spectacular peaks topped with snow which tumble down to the valley floor. The feeling on the side of the mountain of total isolation but also being totally connected to nature is what keeps me coming back for more. Up here in the grips of the outdoors is where I feel most alive, its the balance between being on top of the world but so insignificant compared to the might of the mountain at the same time. Its a feeling only found from outdoor adventure and one I live for.
The journey continues, in search of good weather!
Back on the bus our new plan is to head to Rastkogel get the lift up and use red 1 to board down into Eggalm in order to complete this peak.
The start of this run was an easy blue linking onto a red route which snaked through the trees into the village. I have never been great on flat roads. I spent my first season in Soll walking a lot of them!
This year my confidence has grown, along with my skill, however, as I found out on one icy corner not as much as I thought. Coming down on my toe edged I went to switch to heel as the board went flat and gained speed I over compensated digging in my heel edge hit some ice and landed with all my weight on my left elbow.
There are times in life when you feel like crying, but crying gets you no where. On the side of the mountain you just have to keep moving.
I instantly new this was not just another knock, my arm popped and felt very painful. Luckily Martyn was sitting close by and came to move me out of the way of many skiers racing by. After a moment unable to board I got up and walked to the clearing where Hayley and Kris sat. My arm felt so bizarre, like it wasn’t attached to my body and I was sure it was dislocated. Having never dislocated or broken a bone before I was reassured by Martyn’s comments of “you probably just knocked it badly” after discussing with Martyn that no I could not ‘skate’ down on my board we started walking and Kris and Hayley went on to see if they could find help.
We walked for what seemed like an age before we got to a bar on the corner of the run I sat down feeling rather queezy. Martyn spoke to the bar manager in his best Austrian to call a taxi whilst Hayley helped me with the pain, a shot of schnapps and two paracetamol!
The taxi ride off the mountain was long and winding every pot hole made me feel like my arm was being ripped further away from my body.
We reached a small hospital in Lanersbach relieved to be out of the taxi. The next few hours were a blur. I went into a small room where a lovely nurse gave me Tramadol before several X-rays. I then was put to sleep, with a dislocated and cracked elbow. Good night world.
Waking up with a bump.
Waking up to bright lights and people speaking Austrian, was all together bizzare, like waking up inside a dream and not quite knowing whats real. I was soon reminded of what had just happened which brought me back to Earth with a thud.
The next day was arduous after spending a considerable amount of time in a doctors waiting room my 15 minute appointment cost 70 Euros! After saying good bye to Martyn at the lift the consequences of some silly fall felt very real.
It’s not whether you get knocked down, its whether you get up that counts.
Friday was a better day Martyn treated me to a steak Thursday evening (which he had to cut for me as I couldn’t use my hand) and today was a glorious sunny day, one which I was determined to enjoy as we travelled back to the Hintertux glacier where the day had began when I had my accident.
Today is one of those days where if you let them your emotions take over and the fact your holiday is ruined (as well as the start of you mountain bike racing season, but lets not mention that right now) may turn you into a stormy dark cloud.
Not today though, I released that inner child we all have kicking about who said, “Oi why not build a snow man and chill out!“ You know what, that was a great plan. I stood and admired the shear beauty of my surroundings watching people take there first turn on skis and board down the glacier watching the magic of the snow as it allowed safe passage down the mountain to the young and the old.
My snowman may have had no eyes but he was the coolest snowman at 3250m on that Friday. Heading back down to Martyn we had our last mountainside lunch of curried sausage and fries before I sat and took pictures of Martyn playing off piste.
Although I was gutted to not be able to follow and play around off-piste the time sitting in the snow was well spent on reflection of how you never know whats round the corner. You never know when you might catch the wrong edge and this is why I feel its so important to live the life you dream of, if the doors you want to walk through aren’t open, go find the key.
Memories of Thailand
Sitting in the UK dreaming and planning a trip to Thailand was great fun. Waking up with the realisation that you are now in Thailand was a whole other level of incredible excitement, and after long nights/days sleep in Bangkok our adventure begun with a 4am plane journey.
We arrived in the mist of the rainforest, quickly stashed our bags in our room and ventured out into the jungle, it was incredible. I’ve never seen so many trees and flowers and so much water! A moment of not looking where I was going ended up with a leach clinging on to my big toe, lucky a quick reflex and determined not to end up having to have it burnt off, enabled me to shake the little bugger off! We trekked to a waterfall which was stunning.
On the way back from the waterfall two Thai boys on mopeds roared up to us and stopped to ask if we wanted a lift. Deciding the walk seemed rather far, we went for it and hopped on, I shot off into the rainforest on the back of a moped as I watched Martyn’s (my partner) moped slowly drift from view as we were going much faster. I thought about what I learnt at school about not talking to strangers, now I’m on the back of some guy’s bike in a foreign country, probably not the best idea in the world!
Arriving safely back to two feet again the language barrier didn’t seem to stop my new Thai friend and I chatting whilst we waited for the others to catch up.
The next day we went elephant trekking, elephants are mystical creatures, so big and awkward looking and yet graceful and friendly at the same time. Sitting on top of our new elephant friend we trekked through the plantations of rubber plants and bananas. The elephant’s master walked alongside and shouted things at the elephant who responded accordingly, very well trained elephants!
No More Jungle Adventures
Leaving the jungle was a sad day, we had made some great friends both human and animal! But our adventure went on as we now traveled to Koh Yao Noi which means Little Long Island (I will let you work out why) Arriving at the jetty from Phuket we rented a scooter to get around, this was a new learning curve for me having not really ever been on and never driven a scooter, Martyn picked one with gears and assured me he would ‘teach’ me how to ride it!
Ulmars nature lodge was a picturesque yoga retreat on the side of the island. The huts were made of bamboo and inside there was just enough room to walk down the side of the bed to the ‘ensuite’ by ‘ensuite’ I mean a toilet sink and shower in a concreted area out the back!
We had come to Koh Yao Noi to deep water solo, which is where you climb and then when you get tired or as high as you can go you jump into the water. Frustratingly the first two days on the island the rain had held us up and although we were enjoying the tranquility of the island, where there seemed to be only a handful of people, the need to adventure was starting to make our paradise island a little too small.
I woke the next morning half expecting to hear the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof of our hut but there was nothing, silence, I peaked out of the curtain to see beautiful blue sky and not a cloud in sight.
Wolfing down breakfast and jumping on our bike after checking twice that we had packed everything, we made it to the jetty in time to grab some lunch (fried chicken on rice with some kind of vegetable, pineapple made into handy to eat sticks and soup in a plastic bag). The long tail boat chugged out into the calm, inky blue water. The scenery was breath taking in every direction there was lush green islands and sandy beaches.
Rock Climbing and Diving
After a while the boat slowed and we helped to pull sit on kayaks off the roof of the boat and paddled up to the first climb. Staring up it didn’t look like much and I felt confident about climbing. It wasn’t until I watched Martyn try and balance between the wall and moving kayak which kept getting picked up by the swell and pushed into the wall that I realised this was no walk in the park. The rocks up close where gnarly and sharp from years of sea crashing into them. Finally he made the leap and shouted back that he was okay so I got out the camera to film him, he made it look so easy, but then he tended to make everything look easy. He traversed across and up about 8 -9 metres and then shouted to me to take a picture as he jumped.
My turn! As the kayak got closer to the wall I pulled on my climbing shoes and assessed the wall in front for the best route up, suddenly staring up at the wall it looked huge and I couldn’t see how on earth I couldn’t make the jump Martyn had, standing up on the kayak nose and touching the rock it was wet as well as sharp. “Oh great! what a barrel of laughs this is going to be ! ” I thought, as the swell made me practice the splits as my hands were perched on the rock. With one foot below and the other tantalisingly close to taking a dip I made the decision to go for it and with a leap jumped to the rocks.
Scaling the wall was a lot easier now and I quickly progressed around and up where I had seen Martyn go. I decided not to go so high, with my Dads voice in my head saying “just remember once you have climbed up you have to jump off”. Not being a fan of usual abseiling when climbing this was sound advice as when I turned to jump off, even from around 3 metres up it looked scary! I decided to traverse a little further round and down slightly, this seemed a lot less scary but still I couldn’t bring myself to let go of the rock. Now with an audience of Martyn, the captain of the boat we arrived on and our guide, and with lots of encouragement I shut my eyes, held my nose and jumped.
Overall Thailand gets an A from me. It’s such an epic country and there’s a whole load of things to see and do. The people were also so, so friendly and always seem eager to help where they can.
If anyone has any questions or would like some insights into arranging a trip to Thailand and what to do when getting there please let me know in the comments below.