My YouTube video of this trip can be found here and my run at Gawton Gravity Hub here

It had been around ten days since my Wales camping trip and I was getting cabin fever staying at home. But I needed to find a job, so being at home was important. I’d applied for two jobs, either of which I really wanted, so didn’t want to apply for more until I heard from those companies, so it was fine for me to go away again! That's my reasoning anyway!!

On the Monday I had been on a trip out to the Specialized Concept bike store in Birmingham, with a friend, who bought a new bike whilst there. I so wanted a trail bike myself and was drooling over the new Stumpjumper that’s just come out. The one I want, the Evo, is really expensive and luckily isn’t available until October, which prevented me from loading up my credit card with a stupidly expensive bike.

I spent all Monday evening thinking I really need a trail bike! So, scoured the internet for hours searching for something nice but cheap. Eventually settling for a low specification 2017 Specialized Camber. There was one for sale in Bath, at a small bike shop, I emailed them and asked them to let me know if the price drops at any point.

On getting up Tuesday morning I’d received an email from the bike shop saying they’d reduce it from £1540 to £1470. This started me thinking, Bath is a couple of hours away and is half way to Devon, and I’d really wanted to visit a couple of bike parks in Devon and Cornwall, so phoned the bike shop asking if I could pick it up that afternoon, to which they agreed they could get it prepared that day.

Luckily I have a routine on returning from a camping trip, which goes thus;

· A cup of tea and some food

· A nap

· Unload the car

· Wash the car

· Wash my bikes

· Wash my camping gear and biking gear

· Shop for more camping gas

· Shop for camping food

· Re-pack my camping gear and biking gear

The above routine makes it possible to 'just go' at any time and I made the snap decision at around midday to go for it. I researched the bike parks and decided upon my campsites. Hurriedly having to pay for and print a pass for the first bike park, online. Which meant I’d have to ride the day I booked, which was Thursday, Wednesday was forecast rain.

I hurriedly gathered up all my camping gear and loaded it into the car, along with Desmond my Downhill bike, and set off for Bath at lunchtime, arriving at the little bike shop, Total Fitness, at around 4pm. Even though a low speci