thought i’d drop all the skedaddle people a little post to let you know what me and Laura are up to.

We’ve been in Queenstown for about 3 months now, and we’re loving it!

I’ve got a job fixing bikes in Queenstown and laura is selling clothes! (so she’s happy!)

I’ve been biking in a few places in my time with Skedaddle, and i’ve seen some great trails and some great riders, but i think Queenstown has to be the craziest!

This place seems to have a really high concentration of great riders who think nothing of throwing themselves.. and bikes off huge gaps and jumps and to top it all off, there actually (annoyingly) really nice people who are more than happy to give you a few pointers to help improve your riding, (tips for me mostly have been along the ’stop being such a p**** and go for it’ variety) but it seems to be working as my wheels seem to actually be leaving the ground when i go for a jump these days!

And don’t even get me started on the scenery, lord of the rings didn’t even do it justice!

infact it’s sooo good over here i’m going to have to try and set up a trip for Skedaddle, but maybe with a few less death defying drops!

so watch this space and maybe in a while you’ll find yourself over here and loving it too!

cheers,

 jim

p.s, i only took these pictures it’s not me on the bike. (my sense of self preservation is still annoyingly to high!)

I caught the train from King’s Cross on Friday nite to Settle via Leeds. Met a girl Barbara on the Settle train who was also doing the mountain bike weekend. Andy the tour guide picked us up in the van and we then drove to the cabin near Ingleton. The stone walls along the way are spectacular. They are (dare I say it) better than those in the Cotswolds. The rolling hills (not a lot of trees around) reminded me of the highlands in Scotland.

This superb desert biking adventure focuses on the deep south of Morocco, a land of big skies and stark mountain ranges where mud-brick kasbahs appear to rise up out of the desert, sitting in tranquil palm oases and framed by dramatic backdrops of snowcapped mountains. We ride along Morocco’s dirt roads, taking us from Marrakech to the Tichka Pass, the highest in the High Atlas, and then southward, descending along the Draa Valley to the fringes of the Sahara Desert.