An official apology to the Horticultural Societies of Europe!
I would like to formally apologise to the Horticultural Societies of Europe for the reduced crop of flowering plants this year! This seems to be mainly due to the fact that all the bees of Europe seem to be constantly trying to pollenate me, with great enthusiasm and at serious speed. I am not trying to steal their pollen and I would like to appeal as not guilty to and legal issues that may arise! I certainly don't look like any flower that I know off, and after a week or so on the bike without any proper bathing facilities, I challenge you to find anyone who would say that I smell like one!
If you could have a good sit down with all the Apis' within your region and explain that there is a weird English guy on a bike, with a tiny green dinosaur, who won't offer sweet sweet necture and won't burst into flower next year dispite their best efforts!
This would be a huge weight off of my mind and would allow me to continue with my journey without fear of serious reprocusions!
Yours sincerely
Rupert Gregory (cycling bum)
Tuesday 12 March 2013
Friday 27 July 2012
Typical Bavarian Summer!
I always remembered German weather being on the extremes, blisteringly hot summers, snow and freezing temperatures in the winter. Maybe this was because I was much younger and you never really notice the rubbish rainy days in between (they never stick in the memory).
This preconception was confirmed on the first day, Germany greeted me with sun and beautiful scenery. The Black Forest is a very underrated part of the world, like the lower parts of the alps, just without or the ugly industrial buildings that are always nestling in the valley bottoms. The whole area seems completely unspoilt. But it was steep!!!!! Someone should warn people about that, is the German government even aware of this fact? The first half of the day went really well, I flew up the first 'mountain', getting a little competitive with the lycra clad warriors that were on the road, staying with them, to make myself feel better and to irritate them! The second climb was a very different proposition, I started it late (about 4pm) I pulled into a tiny road, that immediately ramped up to a 10% gradient!!! 'This can't be the way" I was thinking to myself, but the guys fixing the road confirmed that it was the only real way over the mountain, so on I pushed. 10% on a road bike is very do-able, with 4 paniers strapped on it becomes a lot harder, when the road pitches up to between 13-15% there's no option but to push, especially when your pedal decides that this would be the perfect time to fall off (2 legs=hard, 1 leg=impossible). So i pushed the last 4km of the day, over logging tracks, slipping and sliding and swearing!
Thank god it was sunny that day because for the next 10 days I didn't see the sun! My first proper day in the rain was trekking up from Furtwangen to find the source of the Berg (official head-stream of the Danube) walking for 3hours up the side of the mountains, in the rain, makes life hard.
İt's all ok though İ can't expect to be in the sun for the entire trip and İ'm sure that there will be times when İ look back at the rain and miss it. Also İ'm English, rain is what we do, what else would we talk about!
The rest of my journey through Germany was a lıttle dryer, the Eurovelo 6 (Danube bike path) means that İ didn't have to plan the route in quite the same way as before, İ could just follow the signs, and it lead to some interestimg places. The first night İ wandered into a circus at 11.30pm which was in the process of packing up and moving on but they were doing one final show as more of a practise for free! Haven't been to the circus in years, there were lion tamers, jugglers, and dancing seals, all good stuff.
One of the weird parts about following the 'bıke path' is how many Germans have all the kit but then when you actually ask them how far it is that they are going, they say maybe 2 days longest a week, they love to have all the kit. There was an Austrian couple that İ met just as İ neared the boarder who said the same thing, they had cycled to Vietnam from their home in Vienna and (having flown back to London) were on the final leg (check out their site at www.slowbike.at) but they noticed that İ was on a long trip and said that it had been so weird to not know who was doing what. Once you get out into places lıke the 'Stans' or China, anyone on a bike is doing a big journey and so will be willing to stop and swap stories, here if you're just doing a short trip, you don't need the company of others as much. This will be my life for the next couple of years needing other people, who İ randomly meet on the road, to keep me sane!!
I always remembered German weather being on the extremes, blisteringly hot summers, snow and freezing temperatures in the winter. Maybe this was because I was much younger and you never really notice the rubbish rainy days in between (they never stick in the memory).
This preconception was confirmed on the first day, Germany greeted me with sun and beautiful scenery. The Black Forest is a very underrated part of the world, like the lower parts of the alps, just without or the ugly industrial buildings that are always nestling in the valley bottoms. The whole area seems completely unspoilt. But it was steep!!!!! Someone should warn people about that, is the German government even aware of this fact? The first half of the day went really well, I flew up the first 'mountain', getting a little competitive with the lycra clad warriors that were on the road, staying with them, to make myself feel better and to irritate them! The second climb was a very different proposition, I started it late (about 4pm) I pulled into a tiny road, that immediately ramped up to a 10% gradient!!! 'This can't be the way" I was thinking to myself, but the guys fixing the road confirmed that it was the only real way over the mountain, so on I pushed. 10% on a road bike is very do-able, with 4 paniers strapped on it becomes a lot harder, when the road pitches up to between 13-15% there's no option but to push, especially when your pedal decides that this would be the perfect time to fall off (2 legs=hard, 1 leg=impossible). So i pushed the last 4km of the day, over logging tracks, slipping and sliding and swearing!
Thank god it was sunny that day because for the next 10 days I didn't see the sun! My first proper day in the rain was trekking up from Furtwangen to find the source of the Berg (official head-stream of the Danube) walking for 3hours up the side of the mountains, in the rain, makes life hard.
İt's all ok though İ can't expect to be in the sun for the entire trip and İ'm sure that there will be times when İ look back at the rain and miss it. Also İ'm English, rain is what we do, what else would we talk about!
The rest of my journey through Germany was a lıttle dryer, the Eurovelo 6 (Danube bike path) means that İ didn't have to plan the route in quite the same way as before, İ could just follow the signs, and it lead to some interestimg places. The first night İ wandered into a circus at 11.30pm which was in the process of packing up and moving on but they were doing one final show as more of a practise for free! Haven't been to the circus in years, there were lion tamers, jugglers, and dancing seals, all good stuff.
One of the weird parts about following the 'bıke path' is how many Germans have all the kit but then when you actually ask them how far it is that they are going, they say maybe 2 days longest a week, they love to have all the kit. There was an Austrian couple that İ met just as İ neared the boarder who said the same thing, they had cycled to Vietnam from their home in Vienna and (having flown back to London) were on the final leg (check out their site at www.slowbike.at) but they noticed that İ was on a long trip and said that it had been so weird to not know who was doing what. Once you get out into places lıke the 'Stans' or China, anyone on a bike is doing a big journey and so will be willing to stop and swap stories, here if you're just doing a short trip, you don't need the company of others as much. This will be my life for the next couple of years needing other people, who İ randomly meet on the road, to keep me sane!!
Saturday 23 June 2012
Fear and loathing in le France
The start of a long tour is always filled with apprehension and worry! Cycling from Spain to France a couple of summers ago, I remember finding the first day very tough. This probably wasn't helped by the hang over in the extreme heat that greeted me in the Basque port of Bilbao but all the same, it's difficult to stay motivated. A way home is right next to you sitting in the port, you're all alone and many many kilometers away is the end! You're not in the flow of the tour yet, haven't got into the routine of; wake up, pack (probably with a motivational coffee), cycling (fast), lunch, cycling, afternoon stop (usually under tree), cycling (much slower), camp, cook and sleep. On the first day this routine is non existent, you wake up earlier than you'd like due to the ship docking, get pushed off and spend the first 2 hours trying to navigate your way out of the port. The routine isn't there yet and this makes it all a little scary. That coupled with how slowly your speedo has ticked over that first 1km and the idea that you are now by yourself for however long it is, makes everything seem a very long way away.
Le Harve proved no different, I tried to calm my nerves by taking it easy and going down to the sea, before I realised that this would be the last time I'd see it until china, and who really knows when that will be! It didn't help the nerves!
The start of a long tour is always filled with apprehension and worry! Cycling from Spain to France a couple of summers ago, I remember finding the first day very tough. This probably wasn't helped by the hang over in the extreme heat that greeted me in the Basque port of Bilbao but all the same, it's difficult to stay motivated. A way home is right next to you sitting in the port, you're all alone and many many kilometers away is the end! You're not in the flow of the tour yet, haven't got into the routine of; wake up, pack (probably with a motivational coffee), cycling (fast), lunch, cycling, afternoon stop (usually under tree), cycling (much slower), camp, cook and sleep. On the first day this routine is non existent, you wake up earlier than you'd like due to the ship docking, get pushed off and spend the first 2 hours trying to navigate your way out of the port. The routine isn't there yet and this makes it all a little scary. That coupled with how slowly your speedo has ticked over that first 1km and the idea that you are now by yourself for however long it is, makes everything seem a very long way away.
Le Harve proved no different, I tried to calm my nerves by taking it easy and going down to the sea, before I realised that this would be the last time I'd see it until china, and who really knows when that will be! It didn't help the nerves!
The first days were big, I wanted to get miles under my belt, while I still had alot of energy and was carrying good food from home, but after some time I started to slow and settle into the pace. This was slightly caused as well by a serious headwind that I battled into for two days before Reims! On the final day into the city, in uttered the words 'what am I doing here? I really don't want to be doing this anymore' that was quite a low point in the whole trip and required an entire day off and a couple of call back to the homeland to get me motivated enough to continue. This along with some people watching they haven't half got some odd ones there; an 8ft woman in thigh-high boots, a pink boob-tube, white hot-pants and a cowboy hat! And the man in full sports kit (short shorts, green vest top and whistle) who was the darkest shade of mahogany I've ever seen, cruising around on a segway, making huge dramatic sweeping turns for no apparent reason, he kept this up all day.
After Reims life was easy, hot but easy and the next week cruised by until I got down towards Strasbourg which I always thought was in Germany but no apparently not. After a short stop for lunch, sending postcards and that, before trying to get near to where the ferry crossed the Rhine. Now usually my way for getting out of cities is to follow a compass for much of it, I tried applying this to this city thinking if I head south east then at some point I'd hit the river and could just follow that south. Theory good, practice not quite as sound. I ended up in the worst part of town, somewhere I wouldn't have stopped to help an old lady for fear of it being a scam! As I passed through I noticed that there were a lot of women on the side of the road, looking very dressed up for that time of day. Being English and slightly naive I had a good stare at two of them in a lay-by. they were an odd couple, one way skinny and all sort of leathery, while the other was fat and chavy looking. As I passed the skinny, one seeing me looking, waved and as I was passing on the other side of the road road, felt safe enough to give a little wave back. I'm not sure what the fat one read into this but she read something, walked forwards and lifted her dress to point out that she had nothing else on and was nice and clean below! I nearly hit a tree, we just don't get that sort of display in Britain and it was a nice pleasant way to say goodbye to France
Monday 18 June 2012
Getting prepared(ish)
Many people have told me that I should be packing and unpacking my bags 100 times before I set off so that I know where everything will be in an emergengy and to make packing on the road easier and more efficient. I am not entirely sure about this, I will be packing and unpacking my bags for the next 2 years and the prospect of doing it over and over again within my own home does not exactly get me buzzing!
The way I like to go about it is to think up situations, when for example will I actually need my malaria tablets (not this November?) ok they can go right at the bottom. Things that are needed in the afternoon (cooking, sleeping spare clothes) once in a campsite go in the middle and stuff thats likely to needed while on the road (waterproofs, repair kit) goes at the top. Thats how the panniers got organised and thats how they have remained, so either the system works or I am to lazy to come up with a new one.
Deciding what I actually needed did take a little more planning, I like to lay everything out, this always makes it look like you have more that you actually do. Having looked at my equipment you start to take stuff away that you just do not need, a spare t-shirt here, extra innertube there (that one sounds important but if you have the right tires you will be suprised by how little you need innertubes) so after stripping away the fat, you pack the bags and find that you have still got way to much and have to go through the process again! But have no fear, I have never felt that I have been short at any point.
Equipment
Bike-Dawes Super Galaxy (Spartacus)
Panniers-Ortalieb Classic
Racks-Tubus
Tires-Schwalbe Marathon
Stove-MSR Wisperlite Universal
Pots-God Knows (something from the 1970s provided by my Grandparents, actually very good)
Tent-Vango Banshee 200
Everything else is a missmatch of random stuff I could reach from the middle of my room, when in a blind panic I thought I should probably be setting off soon
Moral Support-Carlos The Tiny Dinosaur (also second in comand)
Many people have told me that I should be packing and unpacking my bags 100 times before I set off so that I know where everything will be in an emergengy and to make packing on the road easier and more efficient. I am not entirely sure about this, I will be packing and unpacking my bags for the next 2 years and the prospect of doing it over and over again within my own home does not exactly get me buzzing!
The way I like to go about it is to think up situations, when for example will I actually need my malaria tablets (not this November?) ok they can go right at the bottom. Things that are needed in the afternoon (cooking, sleeping spare clothes) once in a campsite go in the middle and stuff thats likely to needed while on the road (waterproofs, repair kit) goes at the top. Thats how the panniers got organised and thats how they have remained, so either the system works or I am to lazy to come up with a new one.
Deciding what I actually needed did take a little more planning, I like to lay everything out, this always makes it look like you have more that you actually do. Having looked at my equipment you start to take stuff away that you just do not need, a spare t-shirt here, extra innertube there (that one sounds important but if you have the right tires you will be suprised by how little you need innertubes) so after stripping away the fat, you pack the bags and find that you have still got way to much and have to go through the process again! But have no fear, I have never felt that I have been short at any point.
Equipment
Bike-Dawes Super Galaxy (Spartacus)
Panniers-Ortalieb Classic
Racks-Tubus
Tires-Schwalbe Marathon
Stove-MSR Wisperlite Universal
Pots-God Knows (something from the 1970s provided by my Grandparents, actually very good)
Tent-Vango Banshee 200
Everything else is a missmatch of random stuff I could reach from the middle of my room, when in a blind panic I thought I should probably be setting off soon
Moral Support-Carlos The Tiny Dinosaur (also second in comand)
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