Been an interesting day today. I went out last night for dinner and drinks with my boss and another guy from work (and their respective other halves), which ended up with Mark, Naomi and I still in the "Smugglers Inn" in Stanley at 3:00am!!? After finding a cab and managing to survive the 30 minute taxi ride home (with the window down for the fresh air as the driver took great delight in throwing his vehicle around the windy roads) I managed to roll in to bed. Needless to say, when the alarm went off at 8:15am, I really didn't feel overly rested!!?

Alex turned up pretty much on time, at 8:30am, which gave me just enough time for a shower and to realise that I was still feeling pretty green. We headed up to Staunton St to find breakfast, and managed much better than the McD's from last week, with bacon and eggs, etc. I decided muesli was my best option, but switched to fried eggs after half a bowl ... to be honest, neither of them felt very good but both were better options than the two Mexican guys next to us who were drinking pints of Stella, having not actually made it home yet!

After breakfast, we headed down to the Ferry piers and got the 10:10am ferry to Lamma Island. Just for future reference, a ferry with no opening windows is not the best choice after living through what I described above! However, we made it to Lamma and found Rob outside his place with his mountain bikes ... Christine having already been out for a ride and made it back again. Alex and I borrowed helmets and a bag for our water and we headed off with Rob to explore the tracks he rides every week. Alex tearing off ahead, and me staving off the urge to puke rather than pedal!

We rode up the road to the solitary wind power generator at the top of one of the hills on Lamma and, after reading a little about the generator and realising that HK probably needed more than just one if it was going to get serious about green energy, we headed off the road and along a less beaten track to start the ride proper. It was a great track but the combination of a long time since I'd been on a bike, let alone a mountain bike trail, coupled with the very green edges I'm sure both Alex and Rob could see surrounding me, probably should have warned me that this wasn't a good idea!

Now, all of the above is obviously being told for a reason. I could probably kid myself and say that I've written every single word above this paragraph to inform you of what I've been doing here in HK, but the honest (and no doubt obvious) truth is that it's all an excuse. Nothing more really, and nothing less ... just an old fashioned excuse for the fact that, at the first real downhill we got to, I managed to stand up on the bike without really leaning back and vaulted head first over the handle bars, landing with the bike on top of me!?

As if I wasn't feeling ill enough already!!?

To cut a long story to a manageable length, I decided at that point that mountain biking in my state (and with a flight home to Sydney coming up soon) probably wasn't the best idea? The laceration on my elbow was enough to convince me that I was probably going to come off again, and so I sat and admired the view for a while as the other 2 guys headed off for some more action. A couple of other riders came along (2 guys from Israel), and they had some stuff in their kit to dress my elbow, so I got patched up on the top of the mountain and actually considered heading off after Rob and Alex, but good sense prevailed and I made my way back down the mountain to the Village and to find Rob's family and some lunch.

Rob and Alex made it back a couple of hours later, having had a good ride. Alex actually managed to come off as well toward the end of their journey, with less blood than I had, but a badly stretched calf that meant he found it hard to walk. So, we got some ice and he sat to have some lunch with his leg up in the air (and providing Rob's kids with endless entertainment as they stole pieces of ice and "hid" them in everybody's clothes!!?)

After lunch, we thanked our hosts and started the slow journey back to the ferry, with every passer by taking a sneaky glance at Alex (and some not so sneaky gawks) to try and work out why this guy was walking so strangely. One local guy riding a little bike and carrying a mountain bike frame realised what the issue was and insisted that Alex get on his bike and ride it to the ferry! He did (apparently riding was much easier than walking) and we left the bike at the ferry pier, from where the owner came and picked it up a few minutes later. Lamma is a great community!