In the shade of plane trees

Continuing on my travels I am grateful of any shade or shelter from either the intense heat or driving rain, railway arches, drive through garages, shop doorways and the ever-present Plane trees all provide shelter and mental encouragement – and to quote my fellow traveller Glen Heggstad “I am not always sure where I am heading, but I am always exactly where I want to be”.In the shade of plane trees

Road to the sky

Rode the infamous Grossglockner today. Well when I say I rode it, I entered the park just after 9 and then for the next eight hours I rode a bit, hopped off the bike to take some photographs then rode on a bit more only to stop and repeat the process all over again and when I reached the end I just turned round and did it all again. It was breathtaking, possibly the best mountain pass I have ridden to-date – not to crowded but cold (2.4 degrees at 2548 meters high). Met some great folks including a team riding some very old machines at a sedately pace to the summit and the ‘rally for heroes‘ teams who were driving the pass having come from Kehlsteinhaus – the erosion of the Pasterze Glacier is startling what ever the cause.Knarley Dudess Pasterze Glacier

WWII on my doorstep

Disregarding the driving rain, I could not help but notice on my way into work this week that the felling of some mature larch trees had exposed hidden WWII bunkers, pill boxes, trench complexes and anti tank defences near Brecon. Despite the damp and resident amphibious inhabitants they are well worth a visit. Seemingly date stamped 26/8/1940 by the engineers they were built for the Home Guard who manned them round the clock and the combination of anti tank defences and pill boxes were designed to prevent northward movement of any invasion forces – though the Home Guard Officers were issued with weapons they had no communication equipment, so if they spotted an invading force it would have been a long march to the nearest Army Camp to call for reinforcements!

Date StampWWII Bunkers

 

Artic Mode

Its funny how a single image or smell can provoke such a strong memory response, I have been spending time organising, uploading and editing my images, poems and text ready for printing and binding and came across a few images I forgotten about from the 2013 trip – funny how easy I can be jogged back into artic mode…Scandinavia 65