So much for an interesting August bivvy. I'd various plans for a weeks holiday, including a Highland Trail ITT. That said, I was needing to get down to Mum and Dad's for a few days so this plan was pretty much canned in favour of an east coast ride down there. Then a couple of weeks before my holiday, I failed to complete a log hop and bashed in a rib (third time in under 12 months) and then the week before, I bashed my back in - working on one of the motorbikes squatted down, over-balanced and fell backwards onto another motorbike whose foot rest dug right into the muscle that goes up by your spine. Ouch. Worse, a few days later (no sign of it healing) it let go big style and I could barely walk.
So the Friday before my week off saw me in A&E (no big deal just take it easy and take paracetamol) and any plans for a bike trip out of the window. Fortunately, I could still ride a motorbike so took my smallest one on a fun route south and spent some QT with the folks.
A couple of day rides have been done, including one that turned into yet another high temperature epic. But my back is still sore! So a bog standard local bivvy was on the cards, and I chose nearby Devilla forest.
Preston Island (not an island) on the Forth estuary. It is an artificial piece of land made up of the burnt ash from nearby Longannet Power station, now defunct. It's also a nature reserve, the big fenced off area being ideal for various birdies to live, undisturbed. Grangemouth across the water has always lit up the night sky hereabouts. Ineos man is saying he's going to shut it all down and do recycling instead. We'll see....
Bivvy spot near to where I was in March. It was pretty still and quite warm, so the down jacket was redundant. Annoyingly there were a few mozzies about so I retreated to the bivvy bag for my usual evening of reading and drinking beer. A sound and long sleep followed. Today I did a usual loop via the Stevens Bakers in Dollar. Then it started raining, which was completely unforecasted. Hey, ho...
Got a week off in September so hopefully something a bit more interesting then.
