Rob on the Bocksberg Bob

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Rob Mannion writes: This recording was made on Thursday April 3rd 2014. Bocksberg Mountain, Hahnenklee, near Goslar (about 1.5 hours east of Hanover by road) in Germany. With a group of 34 other people I was enjoying a really great holiday to the Hartz mountains with Treyn Holidays. We were visiting the narrow gauge (schmalspurbahn) railways in the area on a week long, travelling there from London by train and connecting road coach. The railways were wonderful...and the 'extra' attraction I'm going to describe was a much anticipated treat!

This was my first trip with my camera on the 'Bocksberg Bob' (Sommerrodellbahn or 'summer toboggan'). It's 1.25km long and is the longest such ride in northern Europe. I'm a big chap but could just fit in the 'bob' itself and was firmly safety-strapped in. As those people who know me realise I don't walk very well due to my disabilities, this machine provides me with the chance of going much faster! At first I held the camera with my left hand, controlling the brake with my artificial arm. I soon stopped (within a few yards) and changed the camera over to my artificial arm. Then the run really started! It feels like 75 to 80mph but in reality the brakes come on automatically at 41kph. It's a wonderful trip!

I loved the ride so much I had 12 rides on the Thursday and finalised the fun on Sunday April 6th -- enjoying 21 rides in total. I can thoroughly recommend the ride to anyone. Incidentally, I meant to record the complete ride - with the cable hauled section that takes you back to the top. However, in my excitement I accidentally stopped the recording and the 'return' is shown as a separate video.

Enjoy the ride with me and see how the slipstream flipped my sunglasses up! I'll be putting more videos on as soon as I can. including the stream trains and ending up with the Schwebebahn Monorail in Wuppertal, which IO filmed on the way home. Rob.