Snowflake Challenge Day 5

Day 5

In your own space, share something non-fannish you are passionate about with your fannish friends. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I think that most people on my friends list know that my big passion these days is offshore sailing, but before that it was caving (or spelunking, for those of you across the Pond).

I started caving in my late teens, and it pretty much consumed my life right up until I got pregnant with my first child. It gave me everything I was looking for - a close-knit 'tribe' to belong to, the excitement of risk and of pushing myself, and the kick of doing something that most people found slightly (or very) odd and didn't understand. I caved mostly in the Yorkshire Dales, and spent a lot of summers on expedition exploring new cave in the Austrian Alps (that's me in my icon, abseiling into the entrance of 164, a cave we were exploring in the Austrian Totes Gebirge mountains). I love sporting wet caves and big shaft systems best. I've seen some strange and beautiful things, and I've stood where no-one on this planet has ever stood before. I've also faced some dangerous situations and handled them; that's a good thing to know about yourself.

These days my passion is offshore sailing. The sailing I love isn't gentle sailing from one marina to another, sipping G&Ts while moored each evening. The sailing I love is the more serious stuff, the long passages, the night watches (I *love* night sailing). I get the same things from my sailing as I got from caving - the tribe, the excitement, the pushing my limits, physical and mental. My idea of heaven is beating to windward in a Force 6 with waves crashing over the deck. At that point you really know you're alive :)

Snowflake Challenge Day 5

Cycling

So, part of the plan for 2012 is to cycle to work sometimes (note that I am not committing myself to any set number of days per week just yet!).

Some background: I've done a lot of cycling on and off over the years. I have a good bike, a hand-built tourer bought to cycle from London to Paris the year after DD was born (I did the ride when DD was 11 months old). Recently they've converted the disused railway line that runs from my village to the town where I work into a guided busway, and next to it runs a cycle path. They've just finished tarmacking the cycle path along its whole length, and so that excuse for *not* cycling has now disappeared.

It's 10 miles to work along the cycle path, and so long as I choose days when the wind isn't too strong from the direction of work (I don't mind struggling home into the wind, but I really don't want to get to work too tired!) it's do-able.

The only thing that's been stopping me (well, apart from an unhealthy dose of sloth...) is that it's dark when I leave work. However, D bought me a set of very bright cycle lights for my birthday, and tonight we went out along the cycle path to try them out - very successful.

7.7 km (4.7 miles) this evening. It's a start :)