The Orme for biking and geology

It was a bank holiday! So we had the Monday off. You might have guessed it: I decided to spend it with Neil. And we decided to focus on two activities we both like but have a completely different approach to: biking and staring at rocks.

I love my bike commute, but I very rarely use my bicycle for exercise. Road biking is his main sport. I thought we might see if we are vaguely compatible, so I brought my bike in when I visited. And after some coffee and cake we got on our bikes. We would do just a simple loop around the Orme. It's not really far! But it would be far enough to get an idea of whether we might want to do this at longer distances in the future.

Neil lives a bit more than halfway up the Orme, and we decided to go up first. That first bit is quite steep! I couldn't keep up with Neil. And on the downhill, past St Tudno’s church, I obviously couldn't either because whether I'm on a bike or on my feet; downhill I'm not very fast. But the difference wasn't painful. And I was on a relatively heavy commuter bike, while he was on a featherlight carbon bike, and clipped in. 

It was nice to bike this road for a change! I had once driven around, and run around several times. And we had a little break for a sip of water at a point with very good views. 

We biked up by the church as well, as that is less steep than going the way I had driven. It was fine! But we didn’t take any pictures. 

Neil thinks he’s only faster because of his superior kit. I don’t know if that’s true. But we both enjoyed it so we will go and find out. I’d say this won’t have been the last time we do this.

There was still time so we did a little geology trip too. Neil wanted to know more about the Orme, and I love swotting up on things like that, so I had done a little search, and found a field guide. We could fit in one or two locations! And we did. We mostly looked at a sandy freshwater member, but also looked for Brachiopods in a limestone formation. 

We finished it all off with a beer with his neighbour. A good day! I think all of it will be followed up…

The sandy member with a sheep on top

On the way back