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The apparently required bike glamour shot, pre-ride.

The early part of the ride, up a long gentle slope that apparently used to be a tram track. Quite rocky under wheel in places.

The view across the valley to a reservoir, which I would name but have decided not to. Not that I've forgotten or anything.

At the top of the first climb, just before a rather excellent piece of downhill, we stop to check the map. You've got to be sure about these things.

On the way down we found this digger. It was really big.

The downhill wasn't without problems. You can't see it very clearly here, but there was a really big hole and an exposed pipe where the path should have been.

Fords are fun.

Whoaaa...

...aaaAAAA...

...yeeaaaah. I didn't get my feet wet, either.

This bit of track was quite easy going. Just before this was a fast road downhill, which was just after a really long road uphill (which we both managed without stopping).

Bike/scenery glamour shot, check.

On first glance, this doesn't look like a very challenging bit, but camera perspective is a funny thing.

See? This was actually a very steep gorge to negotiate. We both managed to ride down (barely), but getting up the other side was next to impossible.

The group of riders coming the other way had the same fun/trouble with this bit that we did. We guessed from their accents that they were from Australia, but didn't think to mention the cricket until we'd moved on. Probably best.

Mmmm, scenery. This was another long gentle uphill, bit rocky, but no problem if you've got a full suspension bike, I discovered later when I borrowed Matt's.

Right at the top, the path suddenly drops away down an initially steep incline into the massive valley beyond. It's pretty spectacular, but I didn't get many pictures of it. I'd like to have taken more, but the batteries I bought in case my other set ran out turned out to be flat already. I think the 'Ever Ready' company should change its name.

View from just over the top, having negotiated some fairly big rocky steps (just about). You can see the path ahead down the left of the picture.

Pausing to check out the scenery before the big descent. As you can see, the path was very rocky, far more than when Matt had last been up there some years before. The descent from here was brilliant, after which we stopped for some lunch and then took a route back alongside a canal, which was very pleasant. Total distance cycled 33.78km, maximum speed achieved 44.9km/h.