Well the 1st away weekend of 2014 is done and dusted and a good one it was too. 4 of us went off to Wales for the 'There & Back' bear bones bivy event. Charlie was our ring leader with MattR, MattG and myself making up the foursome.

The 1st day was beautiful and sunny though very cold but at least we found the time to stop and make a brew. The riding itself was ok, not great but alright. We were all on singlespeeds and possibly all fully rigid. We covered about 50 miles over the 2 days and considering all the rain lately were incredibly lucky to have a dry weekend.

We managed to find a spot in a woodland to bivy which kept the frost off and us warm and cosy. In the morning we packed up quite quickly and headed back out and up onto the open hillside to make breakfast with our range of gadgets (all part of the fun). Charlies home made cooker looked ace and seemed to cook really quickly - might have to borrow the instructions to make one of those which includes tin cans and coat hangers.

After eating I took the easy option of back down the hilla dn along the main road back to the event centre where I waited for about 2 hours chatting to other entrants and drinking tea, eating toast and cake untill the other 3 arrived bacjk from there more direct but hillier route of choice.

All in all it was a good weekend, great company and lovely to get away somewhere a bit differant - I'm now planning another version but this time up in the highlands.