I've kicked my preparations up a notch
and now I am making a mess with bike-related objects, rather than just general household chaos. Progress!
The plan is London to Belfast via Liverpool. Avoiding Birmingham at all costs ('probably mental but I'm doing it anyway', remember?).
and now I am making a mess with bike-related objects, rather than just general household chaos. Progress!
The plan is London to Belfast via Liverpool. Avoiding Birmingham at all costs ('probably mental but I'm doing it anyway', remember?).
I have a pervasive, morbid fear of being lost in Birmingham on my bike. I assume it will be dark and raining, regardless the hour. To give you an idea of how exactly I feel about Birmingham I will tell you this: I adore my grandmother. More than words. She and my aunt lived in Birmingham for a time. On one visit, my grandmother and I, disoriented in a mire of tracksuit pants and ugly brick, wandered not far from 'the Bullring'. Cue a downpour the likes of which Noah never imagined. We found ourselves taking shelter in some Faustian armpit of an underpass, where from darkened corners appeared unforgiving yellowed eyes. I felt like Aladdin meeting Jaffar in the prison cave with my grandmother playing the role of be-scarfed Charming Rescue Monkey. Badly. The rain was endless and yet it did nothing to wash away the unrelenting stench of urine. Welcome to Birmingham. Like I said, I love my grandmother, and at this point I took her hands and told her so. 'Nanny', I said 'I really, really love you, but I am never, ever coming to this hole of a place again. Ever.'
In short: Birmingham, my friends, is not a risk I'm willing to take, and am prepared to go the long way round to avoid it.
So.
19 September (75kms) - Peckham Rye to Alesbury
20 September (86kms) - Aylesbury to Stratford-upon-Avon
21 September (78kms) - Stratford-upon-Avon to Bridgnorth
22 September (83kms) - Bridgnorth to Wrexham
23 September (54kms) - Wrexham to Liverpool
24 September (let's face it, I'm taking the ferry) - Liverpool to Belfast
See? No Birmingham. None. (I'd love to embed this map, but Google says 'no'.)
Please note - all these distances are approximate & kind of made up. They certainly don't take account of getting lost and detours for food and shiny things.
Navigation remains a challenge. At the moment, I am still not entirely sure how I'm going to chizu-chan (it's made up Japanese for 'map reading friend') us there. King of the Badgers says phone all the way. I've got a few OS maps, but we'd need literally loads of those. I'm playing with printing the Google map instructions, but they're a bit crap. I'm confident we'll work it out, but it might mean riding further and having silent arguments at crossroads... All suggestions welcome!
Also, caveat: I'm not saying this ride is even actually possible for me; I am saying I'm going to give it a red hot go. I'm not too proud to take the train when it's pouring rain and my knees hurt and it's all too hard. This is meant to be, on the whole, enjoyable.
The only problem there, really, is that Jai is a demon. Actually. For instance, while I will spend this weekend stuffing my things in bags and probably crying a bit, she's running a hill marathon. Like a demon. Honestly.
I did try to do some training - I spent last week leisurely cycling around Brittany. But let's be honest here, that was really pastry boot camp. Literally. We had a daily pastry challenge. Al won, in the end, for his commitment to the cause, and even I will concede he pulled off some pearlers (for instance, the dark chocolate and pear pastry of day 4 was breathtaking). But, still, his win was pretty contentious: I still think my mystery chocolate boob pastry took the cake.
It's early days, friends, and it's already daunting. Thanks for throwing down the gauntlet, adventure. If you want to throw down a GPS too, that would be super helpful. Thx.
Please note - all these distances are approximate & kind of made up. They certainly don't take account of getting lost and detours for food and shiny things.
Navigation remains a challenge. At the moment, I am still not entirely sure how I'm going to chizu-chan (it's made up Japanese for 'map reading friend') us there. King of the Badgers says phone all the way. I've got a few OS maps, but we'd need literally loads of those. I'm playing with printing the Google map instructions, but they're a bit crap. I'm confident we'll work it out, but it might mean riding further and having silent arguments at crossroads... All suggestions welcome!
Also, caveat: I'm not saying this ride is even actually possible for me; I am saying I'm going to give it a red hot go. I'm not too proud to take the train when it's pouring rain and my knees hurt and it's all too hard. This is meant to be, on the whole, enjoyable.
The only problem there, really, is that Jai is a demon. Actually. For instance, while I will spend this weekend stuffing my things in bags and probably crying a bit, she's running a hill marathon. Like a demon. Honestly.
I did try to do some training - I spent last week leisurely cycling around Brittany. But let's be honest here, that was really pastry boot camp. Literally. We had a daily pastry challenge. Al won, in the end, for his commitment to the cause, and even I will concede he pulled off some pearlers (for instance, the dark chocolate and pear pastry of day 4 was breathtaking). But, still, his win was pretty contentious: I still think my mystery chocolate boob pastry took the cake.
It's early days, friends, and it's already daunting. Thanks for throwing down the gauntlet, adventure. If you want to throw down a GPS too, that would be super helpful. Thx.
Phone GPS is the bomb. Also, do not forget to will want some headphones for times when you simply cannot go on without Whitney Houston singing about going on.
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