Back to Basics, Back to Blighty

The National Cycling Arena - Impressive!

We have been back to the UK - a week now and could best be described as an odd mixture of drab and hectic; the weather has been very un-June-like, cool grey and breezy and we have been really, really busy - the contrast to out 'normal' life is quite extreme.
I have managed just a single day out on the Grit so far - with the usual suspects and we have also squeezed in several walks in attempt to keep fit, locally or a little further afield - including a brisk evening round of the Burbage Valley.

A Burbage Round - a classic leg stretcher

I spent a day at the National Cycling Arena, attending a symposium by the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild on "the Future of Outdoor Publishing" and there was an element of 'doom and gloom' about the whole thing, though at Rockfax we seem to be bucking the trend of falling sales and shrinking markets for print editions of many of the outdoor titles  - long may it continue.
We have booked a month in northern Sweden and Norway for August - that should be a bit different from the hot and sunny south. When we checked the prices, flying into Sweden and hiring a car there was about 1/4 of the cost of the same deal in Norway - that's a no-brainer then - Lofoten here we come!