PICTURES BY BRIAN VERNOR & CHIPPS
Absolute silence.
Absolute, deafening silence. Ahead of me I can see nothing but jagged hills, several thousand feet high. I’ve just topped out on a climb that took me over an hour of bottom sprocket spinning, but this is my reward. The view, the tranquillity, the silence. Nothing stirs apart from the low hum of birds and insects and the scrubby bushes and grasses blowing in the wind.