So, I'm currently sitting in the lounge room with cousin John Chant, with the Antique Roadshow on the TV watching posh English people talk about the value of various antiques. It's one of John's favourite shows. It's very comfortable here, which makes it hard to leave, but I have so many places to see so I will need to get going soon. Disappointingly I just lost Tony's Wi-Fi network, an unlocked Wi-Fi network which must belong to a neighbour, which is why I'm writing a blog post rather than surfing the net. I hope he turns it back on!
So, the journey since last time: I packed my bike with the four panniers, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and tent and headed off, on a loaded bike again. I rode in to Leicester Square again for some free Wi-Fi to check email and plan the journey to John's place. I only realised at that point that the trip to John's place is 220 km! And I'd told John I was going to be there at lunchtime the next day. And I also wanted to see some of the major attractions of London before I left, since I hadn't really seen any of them while I'd been there. Although I didn't really know what these were. So on the way out I went past Trafalgar Square, which has some pretty amazing statues and ornaments, the four massive lion statues were pretty cool.
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| Trafalgar Square, London |
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| Trafalgar Square, London |
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| Trafalgar Square, London |
I didn't get a close look, just passed by, and got down to the river just as the sun was setting to see the London Eye (which my friend Simon Gomer from Wales says exemplifies how efficiently the British Government can waste tax-payers money) and Big Ben, London's famous clock tower.
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| The London Eye |
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| The London Eye |
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| Me in front of the London Eye with pasta sauce on my lips. |
I finally headed off, using the GPS to navigate out of London and followed one of the major roads (the A3). Some of the roads were bit sketchy to cycle on. After only a few hours I was already pretty knackered, I'd run out of energy.
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| Taking a quick break on the way to Guilford. |
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| Camping in Stoke Park in Guilford |
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| I thought my tent was well hidden from outside view, it's difficult to spot in this photo. |
The ride to Stoke Sub Hamdon was a very long haul. The map said 171 km. I decided to use Google maps for navigating, it has a little blue dot indicating your location using GPS and it's all you need for the country roads I reckon. I went through lots of little towns on the way. First Farnham (the name reminded me of John Farnham).
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| A road on the way to Stoke Sub Hamdon |
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| The picturesque town of Winchester, with a stream flowing through it. |
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| A park in Winchester. The name reminded me of rifle ammunition. |
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| Duck floating on the stream through Winchester. |
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| Back on the road towards Stoke Sub Hamdon |
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| Back on the road towards Stoke Sub Hamdon |
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| Me in front of Salisbury Cathedral. |
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| Some delicate carving and sculpture works on Salisbury Cathredal. |
What do you think about when you're on the road for such long stints, alone with your own thoughts? I got bored of my own thoughts pretty quickly. Someone asked Lance Armstrong this, what he thinks about when he's racing, for example in long road races. And his answer was that he just thinks about racing. Which is the same for me when I'm racing I think. When touring though, you're thinking about all the things that you're seeing along the way which take you off on various tangents, such as road killed birds, pheasants I think John said they were. Instead of kangaroos which you see road killed in Australia everywhere, in England you see these dead pheasants. John reckons they're really stupid birds and will often try to run along in front of a car instead of simply running off to the side to safety, much the same way kangaroos like to jump out in front if you. I think natural selection will see this sort of thing happening less and less in the future. See this might be one random thought that you have along the way. Another might be "ooh, there's a petrol station, they might have a tap so that I can refill my empty bottles and ward off my impending dehydration, wet my parched mouth". I guess this isn't really a random thought, more a persistent one. One thing I've noticed, which I didn't think would be a problem before I came, is that public water taps are really hard to find in England. The only one I've seen in all of my travels was in Leicester Square. Didn't see any bubble taps spotted around London as there are in Melbourne. In the country towns, parks don't seem to have them, I guess because they have enough rain to not need to water the grass, so there's no need for water pipes there. Toilets all seem to have automatic taps which turn on when you put your hands under them, and dispense warm water. Petrol stations have hoses with steel nozzles used for refilling car radiators, which I haven't trusted for drinking yet.
Another visually stimulated thought might be "ooh, there's a pub, man I would love a parma and a beer right now!" And a thought like that can take you many different places.
You think about the trees and shrubs you see, a steam train puffing past, the things you've seen and done in the past few days, the things you plan to do in the upcoming weeks. I would also think about what I would write in my blog and keep an eye out for a good photo. But ultimately you're trying to get to a destination, so, much like you think about racing when you're racing, you think about getting to your destination when you're trying to get to a destination. So you think about the topography, the weather (rain and wind, wind direction can have a huge effect on your average speed), the road surface and conditions (usually how there is no shoulder and the cars and trucks are speeding past pretty close), and especially how far you have left to get there.
I was avoiding calculating the actual distance and telling myself things like "can't be too much further, must be only about 40 km from Salisbury to Yeovil, then passed a sign on the way out of Salisbury which said 40 (miles), and I said out loud "what?!" Then you have to deal with that fact positively: "that's okay, it's the equivalent of riding from Mount Franklin to Bendigo, I can do that" But again it's deceptive the km's take much longer to cover on a loaded touring bike than on a racing bike as I'm used to.
The roads were quite undulating, no really big hills but lots of hills, very few flat sections. The up hills are really tough and I was surprised at how low the gears I required were. For the down hills I'd just roll and save my legs for the next ascent.
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| This is the sign you really want to see after 140 km in the saddle (note that I'm being sarcastic). |
Going up one of the hills my front light (powered by the dynamo) started flickering on and off, then went off to the dull stand light, powered by temporarily stored charge in a capacitor; I couldn't see anything. I played with the connection to the hub and it worked again, but it made me realise I didn't have a back-up, what would I do if it didn't start working again? I was relying on it, I guess I would have had to set up the tent on the side of the road nearby and finish the journey the next day.
Speaking of all the equipment I got for the bike, I tended to get the expensive good quality products, 'the best you can get' sort of attitude. All subject to opinion, but I got the best touring bike (Surly Long Haul Trucker), the best racks (Tubus), the best touring saddle (Brooks), a good pump (Topeak mini road morph), the best panniers (Ortileb Classics), a quality Vaude handlebar bag (which happens to be the same brand as my tent), a quality Shimano LX hub dynamo with the wheel built up with a new rim and double butted spokes by Commuter Cycles in Brunswick (and I must say they did a very good job), the best rear dynamo light (B & M Topline), probably the best front light for touring (the Schmidt Edelux) and the best dynamo charging device (the E-Werk, made in Germany, as are the lights). These products came at a premium price but well worth it for the quality I think. And I'm glad I got what I did, the dynamo, lights and E-Werk set-up has been working perfectly, as have the panniers and racks, and the Brooks leather saddle would have to be about the most comfortable saddle I've used, no complaints from my bottom. Supposedly they take 1000 km or so to wear in before they become really comfortable, and they mould to the shape of your bottom. The leather also helps transfer the excess heat away from your bottom effectively. So they are much better than a synthetic saddle.
Hmm, I've digressed again... I eventually got to Yeovil and Stoke Sub Hamdon was a little further on. The main road out started with what looked like a big hill, so I checked the map and sure enough there was another road heading out of town in the right direction so I took that one instead. By this stage I was just powering along with my head down because I knew I was almost there. Psychological things like this can really affect you. The road certainly appeared to be going steadily up hill and I was surprised at the speed I was keeping up considering how many km's I'd already done. But maybe I was too tired to be able to judge the road gradient accurately?
I finally got to Stoke Sub Hamdon at around 11:30 pm, knocked on the door but John couldn't hear me so I headed to find a phone box to call him and let him know I was there. I found the phone box and was surprised it didn't take coins! What kind of a phone box is that?! You had to use a credit card instead. So I tried to use my travel card but must have taken too long because I was passed on to an operator. The bloke seemed not to be able to understand me though and asked if I spoke English. I thought that was very strange because I was speaking clear English! I managed to communicate my card number and the number I was trying to call to him but after several tries he couldn't seem to understand the name of the place I was trying to call (Stoke Sub Hamdon), and he suggested I try another operator before hanging up on me. I'm not sure what was wrong with him.
So next I tried my Australian debit card, which worked, but in retrospect I realised they probably charged me a big fee, and I later checked my account, the balance was $30 less. $30 for a 2 minute phone call, isn't that crazy?! I should have just invested in prepaid phone credit, which I haven't gotten around to doing yet.
Anyway, got into Johns place at about 11:30 pm, just on time to meet cousin Graham and his old man, cousin Gordon, who is 87 years old, both seemed really good genuine friendly blokes. I can't remember exactly where they fit into the family tree, possibly the line of Alfred (which is the line I come from), otherwise one of Alfred's brothers. Graham lives with his wife in Bendigo and works for a defense company called Thales. The company employ 60,000 people world wide. He knows lots of interesting defense related information, his company produced some renowned armoured vehicles (can't remember the name) which they've used in Afghanistan and Iraq. Apparently, because they designed the vehicle properly, from the ground up and didn't just retrofit an existing vehicle with armour as the Americans apparently did and found problems such as the centre of mass being too high so it tipped over when going around corners. This vehicle that they designed at Thales protects its occupants so well that there have been no deaths of soldiers in them. They are subject to things like roadside bomb blasts but because it's designed and shaped properly, the soldiers inside survive. Injured, sure, but not dead.
Graham also knew about such things as military communications satellites. But anyway, I've digressed slightly. Got into Johns place, said hi and bye to Graham and Gordon, and met cousin John Chant for the first time too. He offered me food and a cup of tea straight away, he took a packaged, frozen lasagne out of the freezer. It tasted surprisingly good, but I suppose anything does after a 191 km ride which is what it ended up being (9 hours 20 minutes on the bike).
Also, I had a whole bedroom to myself! First class, double bed all made up, towel, a basin... I can't remember ever looking forward to sleeping as much as I was then. I went to sleep faster than you could say "hey Ned, are you still awake?", not that there was anyone else there to say that to me. Graham and Gordon had headed back to the Bed & Breakfast they were staying at just down the road in Stoke Sub Hamdon, and John had gone to bed too. I slept so well, like a log.
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| My bed at John Chant's place, particularly comfortable after a long ride and the previous night in the tent. |
Ride Stats:
Thursday September 9
Distance: 94.82 km
Average: 17.9 km/h
Time: 5:16:25
Friday September 10
Distance: 191.27 km
Average: 18.8 km/h
Maximum: 58.5 km/h
Time: 9:20:00
Sounds like fun except the tedious miles signs......
ReplyDeleteLoving the blog Ned. Keep it up!
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