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Sutton
Park, Birmingham
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Sutton Park is on the outskirts
of Birmingham and very close to Sutton Coldfield. Its a
national nature reserve park, so nothing is really
touched & everything pretty much grows naturally
there. It covers 2,400 acres, and consists of woodland,
wetland and heathland. I've
been going there again ever since buying my mountain
bike, so I've seen pretty much every inch of this park. I
have a 15 mile route planned out around the park that is
always a good workout, though sadly no longer near as
challenging as the rides I've done recently as I've
mentioned above. Still, its a good 'training' route, and
one I go over all through the year even through winter
(leaving on a sunday morning around 7.30am!!) - shivering
to the very core as I ride over frosty or frozen ground.
Picture taken about 30 minutes into the ride, just a peek
at the dirt trails and mature holly bushes.
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Turn around from the previous
photo above, and your looking at this picture on the left
here. Again, a general look of the trails around the
park. Its a huge park and everywhere is different. There
are so many paths and trails that you could never get
bored finding and making up a new route to follow. |
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At the end of the path above
you come to this steep looking hill. Like the saying goes
"its bark is worse than its bite" this hill is
really easy to get down quickly, but looks really tricky
with rutted gulleys in the ground and large rocks tree
stumps to catch you out. Pretty quick & exciting
downhill section. The picture probably doesn't do it
justice really, but there you go. |
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Again, opposite from the last
picture, this time looking back up from where once we
came.... can see quite clearly here the tricky rutted
gullies on the path here.... careful not to let the front
tyre down in that one! ;o) |
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After the hill, its out of the
woods and along side Blackroot Pool. Often find fishermen
out around the lake obviously there a long time before we
rode by - I think they stay there fishing all night
long... its not for me! Zzzzzz ;o) |
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One of the small hills that we
added to the route to make it more of an interesting
ride. The picture doesn't really do it justice as you
don't get the perspective of how steep it is. Certainly
gets the breathing going quite quick as you slip it into
the lowest gear and pedal for all your worth to the top. |
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Rob at the side of Bracebridge
Pool. You arrive at this point after traversing several
small wooden bridges. Very peaceful and always worth
stopping for a moment to catch your breath and take a
drink. |
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Rob and myself and the above
mentioned lake. The two 'Brothers' as we have become to
be known, except that were not even slightly related to
each other. The whole 'Brothers' story goes way back to a
time we spent a weekend in the South of France at a place
called Antibes, where the local petrol station attendant
was adamant that we were related to each other. Long
story, but most amusing, believe me. :o) |
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The above pictures were taken
with Rob's digital camera. One advantage that this camera
has is that it also has the capability to record moving
images also. Its not a dedicated movie camera, so don't
expect the quality to be brilliant, but click on the
movie projector to view the movie I've put together in
full. Warning though - Its about 4.75mb, so it will take
a while to download!! |