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 I'm a a bit hooked on Swinley at the moment. Well to be specific Jump Gully. Headed there yesterday and did 3 hours solid just in Jump Gully! For those of you that have not been. It is a natural gully 15 minutes from the Look Out at Swinley Forest, Bracknell.

It starts with a small jump that gets steeper to the left landing to a decline. Moves onto another then a steep tabletop which has an easier section to the right and ends in a lovely double and chute throwing you out. The great thing is there are multiple lines so it can feel like a different ride each time. There are loads of drops into the gully and it is always busy with both teenage kids pounding it with ease and never enough body protection and xc riders passing through. Occasionally you get a few old gits clearly lost on their way to IKEA too;)

So my third time here (first with Tom, then back again with Shazi) and this time on my own as I knew I would not want to ride anywhere else and made my plans a bit late in the day as normal. I was on a mission!.

I'm getting much more comfortable with popping up the front at the lip of the jump and then bringing the nose down whilst pushing my arms forward and legs up but am still working on technique as I can easily forget one or the tutther still.

I'm thinking hard about the middle section with the steeper lead in and sense it will be soon;). It is partly mental and partly I want to be confident of mastering the technique first. Doing the jump just to the let is an amazing rush n itself and it ids fun trying to twist a little to control how you land in the decline which is a bit on a berm of the gully.

I had lots of fun at the double at the end of the gully and I love the way the bike flows right up the shoot afterwards. Confidence growing I started moving the bike out more and more to the left where it gets bigger and steeper. Stepped a little two far on the left or just yet and had a nose dive of a landing.

I thought I was a gonner but as the nose hit hard and I felt that ominous belly dropping feeling of I'm about to flip over I decided madly to hang on tight and push my legs out behind the wheel (think the worst superman trick you can imagine and times it by 8). It worked!!! and the back wheel came down. I landed belly on saddle. Ouchh!! serious Ouch!! Another Ouch!!! I have never been so winded in my life. Felt like I had been kicked out a club had the proverbial beaten out of me and had been left for dead in the gutter. Could not breath for ten minutes. I would not recommend this manoeuvre at all as I could easily have broken my ribs and should have just rolled off. But thanks to the extra padding I have been working (my beer belly per se) I am just left with a saddle shaped bruise on me tum.

Anyways the Gulley is like one of those special things you can session again and again ech time it's own unique thrill. It is totally addictive and I find myself riding it then riding up to the start and then riding it again with no break over and over. The endorphin rush is one of the best. After the fall I promised one more to not get a bad experience stuck in my mind but ended up hooked again and did another ten before home.

Lots still to do there and stumpy holds her own but she isn't built for it really and although these teens put me to shame every time on their under a £100 Halfords bikes....still wouldn't a dirt bike be like just so much fun

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