I am keen to progress onto the next stage with this now. I created a first mould to determine the amount of materials I would use and highlight any flaws and errors in my production process. The trick now is to create a fairing then glue of bolt it to the DRZ stock headlight surround and fill in the gaps with high density insulation foam and car body filler.

My working conditions are not ideal as I don’t have usable garage space so I am relegated to a cold and slightly leaky conservatory. This affects curing times but on the plus side if I do make a mistake the resin doesn’t set so fast on me that I can’t rectify them. It’s all part of the challenge and learning curve but it immensely satisfying to create something new from bits of old bike.

Apologies for any menu issues any of you might have had yesterday. I did an upgrade to the site and expanded the menu to include the everywherevirtually social networks. Only problem was after trying out a few different plugins I was a little zealous in removing the ones I didn’t need and accidentally took out the one controlling the external menu links. Oops!

Normal service will resume after the break

It is that time of year again when the snow starts to fall and thoughts of the next winter season enter the mind. The video below shows a few highlights from a ski trip to Lech Zürs am Arlberg in 2011. Find out why this resort in Vorarlberg has earned its well deserved reputation.

Lech Zürs am Arlberg 2011 from everywherevirtually on Vimeo.

This video was filmed right at the end of the 2011 season in April 2011. By sheer good fortune it snowed the week before our arrival and then the sun shone for the duration.

It was a perfect combination of fresh snow and blue skies. Coupled with the beauty of Lech Zürs am Arlberg and the extensive nature of the ski area you could not have asked for more.

A truly spectacular place to ski.

I was fortunate enough to visit Provence recently. In particular the area close to Mallemort and the Luberon, made famous by the book on Provence by Peter Mayle and the subsequent film starring Russel Crowe, “A Good year”.

I had visited this same region back in 2007 and had flagged a few places I wanted to explore in greater detail on a return visit. One location in particular was the Gorges du Regalon. On a drive from Mallemort to Gordes, the hilltop town featured in the film I mentioned above, I spotted a little sign to a gorge.

I had heard no mention of any gorges as this area is all about wine, lavender, retired Brits dabbling in a spot of golf and generally taking it easy. Nevertheless there was this little sign and at the time I drove up the dusty white limestone track. There were signs saying “Payant” and suggesting I pay at the hut. But it was vacant and there was nothing to impede my progress. I parked up but the Gorge was not immediately within my sights and I was pressed for time. That was 2007.

Fast forward 4 years and I found myself at the same spot. As if time had stood still. The same empty shed with broken windows, signs still saying you needed to pay for parking but no evidence of tickets in other cars or an attendant.

The site has a car park on the left as you drive in, a secondary car park to the right and a private road leading to a farm. There are some signs but it’s not overtly clear where you have to go. I just looked at the gap in the rock face behind the trees and headed in the general direction of the gorge. It was then that I picked up the signs for the trail.

You steadily walk up what appears to be a dried out river bed and then emerge onto another dusty road which passes a derelict building on your left and also a chalky embankment. A few hundred metres on and the road curves to the left and up to a number of olive groves. I took a well worn shortcut to my right into a copse of trees and followed the trail directly to the gorge entrance. At this point an olive grove will be on your left.

There are signs informing you that it is private land but you may pass if you respect the boundaries of the olive grove. from this point the gorge is in full view and it will take you an hour and a half to go from one end to the other. I say an hour and a half as you may want to stop for photos and take in the atmosphere.

From the outset it is quite clear that this is a dynamic environment. There is a water depth measure at the start of the gorge which is high enough to indicate substantial amounts of water can flow through here in a storm. In addition to this you have a lot of loose rock and boulders descending from above. Some are the size of apples others the size of a large car. Even a small rockfall could prove fatal. It is wise to keep your eyes and ears open despite the place exuding a sense of calm and tranquillity.

Without describing every twist and turn it is easier to break the gorge down into three sections. The beginning is predominately rocky riverbed with an easily navigable path and quite a lot of foliage. There is some scrambling to be done but nothing too taxing for someone who is fit and healthy.

The middle section which starts pretty much after you enter the cave with two entry points narrows considerably and does require all hands and feet in order to clamber over rocks on the way up or shimmy down them on the return leg. While I tackled this in the dry I have seen photos of this section with standing water which could be of a depth from a few centimetres to a metre. There are advisories all over the place suggesting it would be unwise to tackle the gorge in a rainstorm or immediately after a prolonged period of bad weather.

The final section opens up considerably but because of the foliage and tree canopy cover it is easy to forget you are still in a gorge until you catch a glimpse of it above you through the trees. Shortly afterwards you come to a split in the trail. 0.5km away is L’agranier and to the right is Mérindol which is 6.1km away.

I took the fork to the left as I knew I didn’t have much time left before sunset and thus could not complete the full circular route. I walked up hill between the ravines for maybe half a kilometre but saw nothing of note and decided on this occasion to be satisfied with my traverse of the gorge. I returned back the same way I had come and was rewarded with the warm light of the setting sun.

View the rest of the photos at Flickr

A few days after hiking up the Traunstein and with aching muscles there is no better therapy than relaxing in the warm waters of the lake that sits at the foot of the mountain.

Normally the lake can be cold due to the Alpine water flowing into it from the catchment area around but with a week long heatwave with temperatures as high has 38 degrees celsius the water was unusually warm at 24c.

I didn’t take much footage last Sunday on the climb up the Traunstein but I did have a handful of clips that capture the good weather and easy going mood of the whole day.

On Sunday I finally got to climb the Traunstein. It is a significant mountain in Upper Austria because of its location as the last highest mountain before the Danube flood plain. It is also visually prominent from as far away as Linz and because of it’s shape in comparison to its neighbours.

I have no connection to the video below other than it highlights some of the key points along the route and does it in a dramatic style which I naturally approve of

Some friends who are keen sportspeople and used to hiking invited me along. They said we could reach the summit in 3 hours. Now knowing my unfit self and how long it takes to scale Ben Nevis or Snowdon I knew this was overly optimistic. It was also busy. Sunday was going to be a hot (34c) and sunny day. Sure enough we arrived at 7am and the car park was full.

The route we would take would be the Naturfreunsteig which was slated as “Difficult”. That to me means steep with some scrambling involved. So we reach the beginning of the trail and Michael who is the husband of my girfriend’s friend said his goodbyes and took the easier trail. I then posed for a photo beside our trail and was ready for the off. Right from the beginning you climb up metal rungs. Within 5 or 6 steps I’m already at the height of an average house. I look back and think “woah!”. This really focuses the mind. I think this is a deliberate trick to weed out the scared, people with vertigo or poor fitness. You could in theory turn around at this point but I suppressed my urge to just back out and thought I would go with the flow.

A few metres on it turned into regular trail and all was well with the world. The views were continually stunning and just got better as we ascended. Two things about this route you have to be aware of. It is made of limestone. It is of a harder consistency than lets say the white cliffs of Dover, nevertheless it is crumbly and there are stones everywhere. It is also sharp (think coral reef). It was the seabed at one point in time and so this makes it hard on the hands. A pair for fingerless gloves will really save the palms.

So onwards we went making steady progress in the shade. Temperature was probably around the mid 20′s. I was really getting into the ascent and was chilled out now and comfortable with the height. I thought of all the people I know who would be frozen rigid to the spot if they were standing where I was. It is not arrogance on my part I just wondered why it didn’t phase me as much. I still had a healthy respect of where I was at and always had 3 points of contact with Terra Firma.

Then came the interesting middle bit. Bear in mind I had no clue what was in store for me on this route. All I knew is the weather would be good and I had the right equipment. So first up was the long ladder. I have no problem with ladders but this one had an 800m drop beside it. So my strategy was to focus on the rungs and placement of my feet and make sure each move was sure and steady. That said I still posed for the camera. Next up was the “interesting” bit.

Imagine a sheer rock face with a 900m drop below. Then imagine little metal steps sticking out of it and a steel rope to hang onto. I didn’t give it too much thought. I just looked at the steps and rope and made steady upward progress. This was not the time for too many photos. This was serious business right here and I had 100% attention on the task in hand.

A guy in his 60′s or 70′s was coming the other way and as is the tradition in Austria nobody waits for anything. He just carried on past me. With both of us hanging onto the same steel cable he traversed around me with his feet flat against the rock face as you would whilst absailing.

As we pressed on the sun was moving around to our side of the mountain and what was a pleasant 25c rose to the low 30′s. This made it a bit harder. As you climb the air is also getting ever so slightly thinner. The trees thinned out to nothing and there was nothing but bare rock and scree. We now had a clear line of sight to the next objective which was affectionately known as the “bad corner”. I’d done the bad steps and the bad ladder, how bad could a corner be? We climbed through a rock arch which made for great photos. From here on we climbed up a few more vertical faces and over some ridges before arriving at the corner.

Some German hikers were sitting on a scree slope as some small rocks tumbled down from above. An Austrian said to them in English (don’t know why) that it probably wasn’t the safest place to sit. We started the ascent into the corner and it soon became steep, in fact vertical is the word. By this point I was loving the whole experience. I was well hydrated, there were amazing views and the top was not far away. Once we got past this point we it was just a formality of walking through the pine scrub, peaty grass and nettles to the top.

Michi’s husband was waiting at the Naturfruendsteig Hutte with a beer. It is amazing how good food and drink tastes after a hike like this.

We stayed up there for an hour before making our way down the “easier” Mairalmsteig. I say easier in that there were no sheer rock faces or ladders but it was hard for me. My legs were objecting at this point and in the blazing sunshine it was energy sapping.

Michi and her Husband were the perfect hosts but I would have been annoyed at my slow pace. Baby steps would be an understatement. My thighs were fluctuating between “jelly legs” & lactic acid freeze. A skinny girl zipped passed me which only reinforced my state of unfitness. She did slip on the next log step and nearly went for a burton down the slope. She took it all in her stride though and jetted off down the trail and out of sight.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity the end was nigh. The trail leading back to the car park was now visible even if by some quirk of perspective it appeared to take an eternity to reach it. One nice surprise that cropped up was the sighting of two Chamois (Goat-Antelope). They were moderately curious of us but at the same time not that interested that they wanted to interrupt dinner time. We spotted another that was creating it’s own personal rock fall.

from this point on we had an hour to walk. My legs were dead now and I had adopted this funny walk that alleviated the discomfort I had in my thighs. Sort of power walker cum stroppy teenager gait. The river bed beside us was bone dry and we were thirsty. Then in the far off distance I could hear running water. A few minutes later we spotted a waterfall and Michi generously scrambled down a rocky embankment to go and fill the water bottles up. Now that really was Alpine water bottled at source. Divine!

Finally we made it back to the car and we all took a swim in the lake to cool off. That was indeed something quite magical.

This blog started out ostensibly as a bike blog. It has morphed and evolved into an occasional travel blog. Why is that? Well due to the lack of work and recession I had to give up my bikes and put it all on hold for a while. Then I started thinking this week. If you don’t have a dream, how can you make a dream come true.

What I was motivated by two years ago does not motivate me now. I wanted adventure and the right bike and all the gear and see far off places on the bike and then I realised that maybe I didn’t. Maybe I latched onto that crowd and was living their dream by proxy. I really have no urge to ride through some uncharted bit of wilderness. Dragging my bike across rivers and through bog. That is not enjoyable to me.

What does fire my synapses is the act of riding a bike, discovering new but accessible places in so much there is at least a fire trail and meeting new people and old friends. I also enjoy riding with my girlfriend onboard. What I have discovered in previous years is faired bikes are not much fun in the hot weather. There is very little airflow around the handlebars. Similarly riding a naked bike in the winter is bone chilling. That said I reckon I have more use these days for a bike in the spring, summer and autumn than the real depths of winter.

So anyway this week I started reading up on naked bikes, but naked bikes with torque. I do love a bike that pulls away in all gears and does so despite having two passengers and luggage. I started looking at a few contenders. Namely the Yamaha XRJ1200, the Honda CB1300 and the Suzuki GSX1400. Yes that is 1400cc’s as in a 1.4 litre engine . That might seem like overkill for a bike but this is not about speed. This is about pulling power.

I’ve been looking for various photos on the internet to feed my imagination and help me decide if this is the next bike for me. Having the CB500 last year was always a gap fill but it opened my mind to other possibilities. It was a better ride in the twisties than the F800GS and it was also better in the hotter weather because it was naked. It did transport myself and my lady to Salzburg from Linz but we felt exposed and vulnerbale on such a small bike. That is why I believe this GSX1400 muscle bike will be the right choice. It is comfortable and beefy enough for two people to travel in comfort.

The only thing left to do now is save up and buy it.

Just before I move on to other blog posts I just want to post another video of Place Stanislas in Nancy.

I will be returning from Austria when this light and sound show starts so I hope to catch it. It will run every night from 22h from August 15th to September 18th 2011.

www.rendez-vous.nancy.fr/web/