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Welcome to my website

Hi, my name is Ray Mathers and I live in Birmingham UK. I work for a leading manufacture of weighing equipment as a Senior Project engineer specialising in providing professional software solutions to the Retail industry.

My slogan "Powering forward" was inspired by two things: On a personal note my passion for cycling, especially climbing hills, and on a professional note my work ethic including skills, abilities, knowledge and attitude. In both cases I push myself to new achievements and goals.

The website contains some photos and GPS tracks using Google Maps with flash based interactive elevation profiles. Having recently bought a Garmin heart monitor in July 2011 I intend to integrate the plot of heart rates into the GPS plots as well.

Ascent of Mount Toubkal Morocco

old gps I've just complete a one week treking adventure in Morocco, We climbed several major mountain passes with the final ascent up Mount Toubkal at 4167m/13672 ft. It was tough with 4:00am wake up and hiking starting in darkness most mornings. We treked through original Berber villages and spectacular mountain scenery. We had mules, muleteers and a cook who all set up the camps and cooked fantastic energy building meals. A night we were all so exhausted we were in our tents and asleep by 9:00pm. It was an unique experience that I will never forget.

GPS takes a battering - again !

old gps My Garmin GPS is about 8 years old, click on the thumbnail, you can see is fairly battered, It is held together with Duct tape at the top and band-aids for the back!!

It has fallen down a few mountain sides and come off my bike several times. In August 2011 it came off the bike again and went hurtling down the road, luckily missed being run over by cars. This time the front screen cracked, the LCD leaked and some of the display has disappeared, but to my surprise it kept working.

It is a good testament to Garmin that they have a device that can withstand this type of treatment over the years, and keep working.