Oooo my big ring....

....more of my ring in a moment.

Up sharp for our trip to Glentress MTB trails, Owen was super excited and to send him over the edge we paid a rare visit to MickyDs for Egg McMuffins (nae meat). The journey south via Lamancha to pay our debts was an excited one with chat about cycling body armour, route severity and likely injuries. A tinge of sadness because Uncle Jim and cousin Jacob couldn't join us this week.

On arrival, we drove Kasper up to the high car park, having collected a hire bike for me and Owen set off on a blue trail himself as I drove down to collect a helmet, left on the hire shop counter.

A couple of runs down Blue Velvet and Berm Baby Berm warmed us for an assault on Spooky Woods. This was when the ring issue came to the fore as the hire bike kept chucking its chain in the wee ring (the gear selection chaps of my age and weight ride when climbing hills). If you would like to have your heart and thighs louping from their Lycra coverings, cycle up Spooky Wood in the big ring. It was brutal and I quietly blubbed to myself as Owen skipped up the hill-side oblivious to my plight. On the descent, I gently chuckled as himself jumped a drop- off at speed and landed nose first in bushes several metres from the track. Impressive crash and the absence of a broken bone, blood or concussion was a bonus.

Later, we agreed to meet-up with Rufus and his family at Tibbie Shiel's Inn for food and a camper stay over. A lovely night, hardly any midges and a most impressive camp fire built by Uncle Craig. Owen's solo attempt at supervising young Fin by the loch side resulted in a complete change of clothes for the young fun meister; a partial success.

Later, later Craig, Owen and I sat by the dying embers and recited scenes from Monty Python films....as you do when drunk or 13.