Mountain Biking

So we all slept well, had breakfast and then headed into the centre of Newton Stewart to stock up on provisions.  It has an Aldi and a lovely butchers so we will eat well here.  (Just as well as the restaurants and pubs don't look up to much).  Newton Stewart is the only 'town' for quite a large area, so has lots of facilities: Aldi, Sainsburys, swimming pool, lots of shops etc, but it is looking a bit down on its luck - the town centre is scruffy and as I said the pubs don't look very inviting.  However, it is a great place from which to explore the area and our cottage is just fine.

We got a lot of interesting items from the butchers: lime, coconut and mango sausages, chicken balmorals (stuffed with haggis and wrapped in bacon for the boys) chicken Aphrodite for me (covered in spices) as well as some good ole lamb chops.  

We headed back to the house and got ready for a day of biking.  There is a forest park just outside the town here, Kirroughtree, so we thought we would try it out.  It was only 3 miles out of town, so instead of grappling with the bike carrier we cycled there.  Was pretty flat to start with but there was a very very steep hill on the way, I got up it huffing and puffing on the e-bike, I don't know how Matt and Tom did it - but they did!  Very impressive.

We got a little lost trying to find the park centre, but we got there in the end.  We had lunch (toasties all round) and then did the green trail (the easiest one).  We all did it fine, in super quick time, no bother.  We had a drink and then set off again on a blue trail.  First stop though was the skills loop, which Matt and Tom went round a couple of times, I was a scaredy cat and waited for them!  My mountain bike skills are not great!

We then did the blue trail, it was at the limit of my abilities with rocks and roots to deal with as well as the odd steep downhill bit and slippery rocks etc.  I got a little stuck in a couple of places but nothing too bad, and luckily it wasn't so busy that people were getting huffy with slower riders.  Matt and Tom were in their element, loving it all and not making as many mistakes as me. I don't know how they did it all without help, but kudos to them, they did!  We had another rest with tea and a bun before heading back to the blue trail, we did about ¼ of it until it hit the road home.   Another 3.5 miles, we parked our bikes in the garage and then tumbled into the house.  We were all shattered but happy.

The rest of the day was spent lazing around the house, watching the paralympics, playing Ticket to Ride (just me and Tom so we played our own longer version which was fun - especially because I won!) making tea and eating it.  Think we (may) all ache tomorrow!