On a lovely August bank holiday weekend in Llanwrtyd Wells, mid Wales.
A great Sunday out preceded by some wild camping in a woods not far away.
Category: Phys
Magna Kayak
An unintentional epic. Bought some inflatable kayaks recently, and planned to use them this Saturday just gone for a leisurely trip along the Thames. Leaving a bit after 1pm, Bourne End to to Runnymede. Expected maybe a 3 hour jaunt. All good until we got to the bit where they closed the river to fix a bridge over the M4. Headed inland to work around the issue then couldn’t find where to get back on so we find ourselves walking cross country with these kayaks on our shoulders. Ended up joining the Jubilee River instead with a view to then join back up with the Thames further downstream. Then with a whole series of weirs and locks taking us off the river again, we ended up walking through Eton to rejoin the river via one of the college boat houses. Now time was getting on a bit but didn’t get back to the car (which we’d preparked up at the destination) until dark o’clock – and the car park was locked up. Uberred back to the other car at the start (where the house keys were in) and got home about 11pm something. Sheesh.
[The 5 hours that Strava states below is 5 hours paddling. this doesn’t count the c.4hours overland].
Brecon Beacons, January 2020
Bombed down the Wales Friday night just gone, stayed in Merthyr. Wow, now that is a very special place. Really friendly people though, bloke in a bar (we took the weekend off Dry Jan) called VNU insisted he bought us a drink. Then he got ejected for fighting. And everyone hates the English, all good bants, mainly about the rugby but what with the area being the heartlands of their old mining industry, even Thatcher got a mention.
Drove up the road to the Storey Arms at the foot of the hills and made out ascent. About a 2.5hr round trip taking in Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan (we were later corrected that it’s pronounced Penivan). Excellent to get amongst it once again.
Then over to Aberdare for a Bowie tribute band that evening where we were well looked after by the locals there too.
Love love love that part of the world. Love Wales. Love the Welsh. Boyo.
UK to Africa Cycle Trip Lessons Learnt
I already find myself saying that this trip was one of the best things I’ve done in my life. I didn’t want to stop. If the girls were with me and getting back to reality to earn money wasn’t necessary, I would have just kept on going. I don’t say that lightly, I would have.
Right now I’m sat in a bar in Briviesca and I have that feeling that every evening brings. You feel hotter than normal, slightly puffy eyed/face, exhausted but not wanting to sleep but knowing I should.
The whole experience has been brilliant. Something else. I’ve hurt and I’ve questioned what I think I’m playing at but then you do, don’t you, in things like this.
Again, I’m sat on my bed in a hostal in Plasencia and feel that hot, puffiness. Knowing I need to sleep but not wanting to.
Lessons Learnt
- Choose the correct frame size. Mine was a 56cm frame. I’m 6′ and ideally should have gone for a 54cm frame. Not a biggie but if I were a pedant of a peddler.
- Disc brakes are good. Had a had normal ones, getting through some of the mud would have been even worse.
- Waterproofs are good. Don’t buy Sealskinz gloves though.
- The French are more welcoming and interested than the Spaniards. Sorry Spain that’s just the way I saw it (had actually expected the reverse).
- Dependency on phones. Not a great deal one can do but it’s still as if we’re in the dark ages for data roaming. Add a roaming premium if you can, so as not to blow loads on data charges.
- Phone batteries are crap and there’s not a lot we can do about that at the mo. Switch off the radios you’re not using as you go. And get a back up charger.
Preparation for a Bicycle Ride
From the evening of the Tues 23rd October through until the 10th of December, I’d been making notes, researching, and buying up kit. Now, what with this trip meaning me not working fora little while, I’m relatively budget. But I don’t want to skimp and then regret purchases or lack thereof when I’m halfway up a hill, cold, wet and lacking in morale. Planning and preparation as a preventative, right?
I’ve had a ScottUSA road bike that’s taken a load of pounding over the time I lived in London. I bought it from new in 2000, it’s good but I don’t trust it. I’ve recently replaced a wheel, there’s a small crack in the frame, so to make up for me blowing a bit on other kit, it’s currently on eBay. I just didn’t have confidence in it. So I needed a touring bike – did a bit of research and it seems to me that a touring bike is really just a road bike with panniers. There are a few that are renowned for the job, but the bargain I saw was a grand’s worth of a bike, which had had zero use as the guy I bought it off had recently come off his other bike twice in London so lost his confidence in cycling the city. One man´s loss is another man´s gain.£530 for a £1000 bike. Happy with that.
I came across what seems to be the site for cycle tourers: Crazy Guy On A Bike, looking for a similar example as to what I was planning. There I found Julian who´d done a very similar route last summer. Couldn´t have been more helpful, we spoke on the phone for a few pointers and I even have his number in case I get into difficulties. Top guy. I love the kindness of strangers that the Internet can hold.
So Julian in turn told me about Warm Showers, a cycling social network. You open your place up to other cyclists, and they´ll do the same for you. Works for me. Would be happy to have randoms come stay some day at my place, so signed up for that too.
Then once the majority of my kit was in place, I needed to give it a dry run, so on a Monday at the end of November I headed down to Brighton fully laden. 74 miles I think. Getting used to the weight of the bike, the pressure on your knees and relentless work on the quads was an eye opener. Have I bitten off more than I could chew? I revised my daily estimates and therefore timescales. 100 miles a day just wasn´t going to happen. I needed to knock some kgs off too, so out went the bladder (2 bottles should be fine) and out went the SLR and sundries. I wouldn´t have time to fanny about with that along the way anyway. So I reduced 25kg to about 20kg. But that 70 odd mile figure was still heavy going and to do that every day for up to 1300 miles: I have my work cut out.
Moshi Moshi
